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WATTS, Isaac. b. Southampton, 17 July 1674; d. Stoke Newington, London, 25 November 1748.
His Life and Ministry
He was the eldest of nine children in a prosperous dissenting family. His father, who has been variously described as teacher, clothier and gentleman, was a deacon of the Above Bar Congregational Church. His mother's family, the Tauntons, were of Huguenot descent. Tradition has it that during the year of his birth he was breast-fed by his mother on the steps of the Old Town Gaol,...
Ride On, King Jesus. African American spiritual*.
Jesus was the Savior and a friend, human-and-yet-divine and yet the Son of God. Because of their often brutal treatment, the slaves easily identified with his suffering in a very personal way. 'Were you there when they crucified MY Lord?' they sang. As Howard Thurman (1899-1981) said, 'He suffered, He died, but not alone—they were there with Him. They knew what He suffered; it was a cry of the heart that found a response and an echo in their...
Jesus, King of glory. W. Hope Davison* (1827-1894).
This has the same first line, and is written in the same metre as a hymn by Edward Harland*, published in his Church Psalter and Hymnal (1855). According to JJ, Davison's hymn was first published in one of two 'Services of Song for Passiontide', but this has not been found: the hymn exists in papers held in Bolton Archives and Local Studies Collections, entitled 'Sermons & Lectures. W.H. Davison Senr.'
Harland's hymn began:
Jesus! King of...
The Rule of Benedict (RB), composed in the first third of the 6th century by an abbot active in central Italy about whom little is known, provides a comprehensive guide to the organization and discipline of a monastery. It prescribes a firm yet flexible pattern of monastic deportment and defines the role of the abbot as the kindly but strict father of the monks under his care.
Chapters 8-20 concern the regulation of the monks' prayer in common, the 'opus dei,' over which nothing in the life of...
SMITH, Isaac. b. 1733/4; d. Newington, Surrey, 20 December 1805. He may have come from East Anglia, judging by the names of many of his tunes. By trade a linen draper, he became clerk of the Alie Street Baptist meeting house, Whitechapel, London. Musically gifted, he led the unaccompanied singing there, while collecting, adapting and composing tunes for his choir and congregation. He is believed to have been the first dissenting precentor to have received a salary (£20 per annum). From 1755...
ISAAC [Ysaak, Ysac, Yzac], Henricus [Heinrich, Arrigo]. b. Flanders or Brabant, ca. 1450-55; d. Florence, 26 Mar 1517. He was born in Flanders or Brabant, but nothing else is known of his life before 1484, when a payment for his services as a composer appears in the Tyrolean court records, at Innsbruck. From 1485 to 1493 he was a singer at the baptistery of S. Giovanni in Florence. In 1496 he became court composer to Emperor Maximilian I. As one of the first internationally renowned musicians...
WILLIAMS, Isaac. b. Cwmcynfelin, near Aberystwyth, 12 December 1802; d. Stinchcombe, Gloucestershire, 1 May 1865. The son of a barrister-at-law, he was educated at Harrow School (1817-21) and Trinity College, Oxford (after periods of ill-health, he took a Pass rather than an Honours degree: BA 1826, MA 1831). As an undergraduate he was befriended and encouraged by John Keble*. He became a Fellow of Trinity College (1831) and took Holy Orders, becoming Newman*'s curate at the University Church...
WOODBURY, Isaac Baker. b. Beverly, Massachusetts, 23 October 1819; d. Columbia, South Carolina 26 December 1858. Woodbury was a blacksmith turned musician who contributed nearly 700 hymn tunes and secular songs to the American musical landscape. At eight years of age, he lost his father; at 13, he moved to Boston to study music and learn the violin, acquiring a school teaching position with the help of Lowell Mason* with whom he studied; and at 19, he travelled to Europe to study in London and...
Lord, be thy word my rule. Christopher Wordsworth* (1807-1885).
This is a short confirmation hymn of two stanzas, first published in the Sixth Edition of The Holy Year (1872):
Lord, be Thy word my rule, In it may I rejoice;Thy glory be my aim, Thy holy will my choice;
Thy promises my hope; Thy providence my guard;Thine arm my strong support; Thyself my great reward.
I. H. S. Stratton, writing in the Bulletin of the Hymn Society 113 (1968), pp. 230-1, points out that the hymn derives from a...
Thou who dost rule on high. Robert Wesley Littlewood* (1908-1976).
This hymn was printed in the School Hymn Book of the Methodist Church (1950), and thereafter in BHB, CH3, HP, and other books, normally set to ST JOHN (ADORATION), from The Parish Choir or Church Music Book, volume III (1851), edited by William Henry Monk*. It is unusual in that it is a prayer for airmen: it was written in 1939, at the beginning of the Second World War, for a Methodist Church at Portstewart, Northern Ireland....
What shall I render to my God (Watts). Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
From The Psalms of David imitated in the Language of the New Testament (1719), where it is a metrical version of the second part of Psalm 116, beginning at verse 12. It was headed 'Vows made in Trouble paid in the Church; or, Publick Thanks for Private Deliverance'. It was later imitated by Charles Wesley* in a hymn with the same first line. Watts's text was as follows in 1719:
What shall I render to my God For all his Kindness...
King of glory, King of peace. George Herbert* (1593-1633).
Published after Herbert's death as a poem in the collection The Temple (Cambridge, 1633) under the title 'Praise (II)', it was first used as a hymn by Robert Bridges* in the Yattendon Hymnal*. It derives inspiration from the psalms of praise, especially Psalm 116. It was originally in four-line stanzas.
One of the seven stanzas of the original poem has been omitted and the remaining six conflated to form three stanzas in modern...
Hail Redeemer, King divine. Patrick Brennan* (1877-1952).
This hymn was written for the Feast of Christ the King, a Liturgical Feast established by Pope Pius XI in 1925 (Milgate, 1982, p. 91). It was first published in the Daily Hymnal (1932). It appeared in four stanzas, with refrain (beginning 'Angels, saints and nations sing'), in the Second Edition of the Westminster Hymnal (WH, 1940), set to a tune by Johann Schop*, WERDE MUNTER (originally composed for the hymn by Johann Rist*):
Hail,...
Come, Thou Almighty King. British 18th century, author unknown.
According to JJ this appeared without an author's name in a four-page tract bound in with George Whitefield*'s Collection of Hymns for Social Worship in the edition of 1757, British Library copy. It is no longer in this copy, if it ever was (although the book is in a poor state, there is no sign that pages at the back have been forcibly removed; either they have somehow disappeared, or JJ made an error). It is bound in, as JJ...
The King of love my shepherd is. Sir Henry Williams Baker* (1821-1877).
This much-loved version of Psalm 23 was written by Baker sometime before 1868, when it appeared in the Appendix to the First Edition of A&M. It is notable for its skilful metre, and its well-managed rhyme scheme of single and double rhymes, which control and shape the emotion very beautifully.
It was bold of Baker to undertake a metrical version of a psalm that was so well known and frequently paraphrased: he had...
Jesus shall reign where'er the sun. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This paraphrase of the second part of Psalm 72 (verses 8-19) appeared in The Psalms of David (1719), with the title 'Christ's Kingdom among the Gentiles'. It had eight stanzas. Psalm 72 is one of the 'royal psalms' and is a prayer to God for King Solomon.
In both parts of the paraphrase Watts makes the psalm refer to Christ (his usual procedure) and in the second part he begins by naming him: 'Jesus shall reign…'. He then uses the...
PHILLIPS, Thomas King Ekundayo, b. Ondo State, Nigeria, 8 March 1884; d. Lagos, Nigeria, 10 July 1969. Born into the family of Bishop Charles Samuel Phillips of the Anglican Communion, he was the father of five children. Phillips graduated from Trinity College of Music, London (1914), majoring in organ and violin. He was the second Nigerian to receive a bachelor's degree in music from this institution. Phillips was appointed in 1914 to the position of Organist and Master of the Music at the...
KING, Elisha James. b. (probably) Wilkinson County, Georgia, ca. 1821; d. Talbot County, Georgia, 31 August 1844. King was co-compiler, along with B. F. White* of the First Edition of The Sacred Harp (Philadelphia, 1844).
According to records found by a descendant of the King family, Elisha King was one of thirteen children born to John King (c.1785-1844) and Elizabeth DuBose King (1793-1861), and he was a grandson of Revolutionary army soldier Joel King (1750-c.1825). It appears that the...
Children of the heavenly King. John Cennick* (1718-55).
First published in Cennick's Sacred Hymns for the Children of God, in the Days of their Pilgrimage, Part III (1742). It had twelve stanzas, and was described in JJ as an 'Encouragement to Praise'. The text was shortened to six stanzas (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8) by George Whitefield* in A Collection of Hymns for Social Worship (1753), and this was followed by Martin Madan* in his Collection of Psalms and Hymns (1760). In this six-stanza form it was...
King of the universe, Lord of the ages. Michael Saward* (1932-2015).
Published in its original form as the opening hymn in Songs of Worship (1980), this text was written at Beckenham more than ten years earlier (27 April 1970). The author was then the Church of England's Radio and Television Officer, and the hymn was sung on 19 June that year at Dalton House, the women's Bible and Missionary training college in Bristol, now part of Trinity College. It was then sung, as intended and usually...
The Advent of our King. Charles Coffin* (1676-1749), translated by John Chandler* (1806-1876).
This Latin hymn, 'Instantis adventum Dei', was set for the Nocturn in Advent. It was translated by Chandler in The Hymns of the Primitive Church (1837), and altered by the compilers of the First Edition of A&M (1861), as follows:
Chandler A&M
The Advent of our God The...
O King enthroned on high. Greek, 8th century, translated by John Brownlie* (1857-1925).
The Greek hymn, 'Basileu ouranie, Parakleite', is from the Pentecostarion, the office book of the Greek church, where it was used on the eve of Pentecost. It is an 8-line hymn (printed in Frost, 1962, p. 374), from which Brownlie made a four-stanza hymn for Pentecost, published in his Hymns of the Greek Church (1900). It was included in EH with a tune, TEMPLE, by Walford Davies*, and later in CP with a tune,...
The glory of our King was seen. Margaret Cropper* (1886-1980).
Companions give the first publication of this hymn as 1961, in Songs for Joy and then in Infant Praise (1964), but we have been unable to verify this. A third stanza was added when the hymn was first published in a hymnbook, in The Hymn Book of the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada (1971). It was subsequently included in the British URC book, New Church Praise (1975), and then in HP, RS, and other books. It...
They all were looking for a king. George MacDonald* (1824-1905).
First published in A Threefold Cord: Poems by Three Friends (1883), a volume edited by MacDonald 'not to be had of any bookseller, but by application to Mr W. Hughes, 34 Beaufort Street, Chelsea, London'. It had three stanzas. It was republished, with a revised stanza 3, in The Poetical Works of George MacDonald (1893), where it was entitled 'That Holy Thing'. Percy Dearmer* came across it, and included it in SofP and SofPE....
They say it is a King. Michael Field* (Katharine Harris Bradley (1846-1914) and Edith Emma Cooper (1862-1913).
This hymn was published in Mystic Trees (1913), published in the name of Michael Field, though containing poems by Bradley alone. Cooper, her niece and lover, had become a Roman Catholic in 1907, followed by Bradley not long after: her imaginative hymn on the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (Luke 2: 22-35) was included in the revised Westminster Hymnal (1940). It had five...
The eternal gifts of Christ the King. Latin, possibly St Ambrose* (339/340-397), translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866).
The Latin text, 'Aeterna Christi munera'*, is found in two forms, one continuing 'Et martyrum victorias', the other 'Et apostolorum victorias' (see JJ, p.24). It is referred to by Bede*, and is possibly by St Ambrose. Neale's translation of the 'form for Apostles' was first printed in The Hymnal Noted Part I (1851), and is much more widely used than the 'form for...
Lead on, O King eternal. Ernest Warburton Shurtleff* (1862-1917).
Written for Shurtleff's Andover Theological College graduation in 1888, and printed for that occasion; then in the American Presbyterian Hymnal (Philadelphia, 1895). It became very popular: it is found in American Methodist books from 1901 onwards, and is in UMH. It was taken into the American Episcopal Hymnal (1916), and remained in H40 and H82, sung (as in UMH) to LANCASHIRE by Henry Smart* (written for 'From Greenland's icy...
O King of mercy, from Thy throne on high. Thomas Rawson Birks* (1810-1883).
This paraphrase of Psalm 80 is from Birks's The Companion Psalter: or, Four hundred and fifty versions of the psalms, selected and original, for public or private worship (1874). In the Book of Common Prayer the Psalm begins 'Hear, O thou Shepherd of Israel', which gives Birks his stanza 2; but the translation is very free, omitting a number of awkward verses ('Thou hast made us a very strife unto our neighbours; and...
The flaming banners of our King. Venantius Fortunatus* (ca. 540- early 6th century), translated by John Webster Grant* (1919-2006).
In The Hymnal 1982 Companion (Vol 3A, pp. 327-30), Grant traced alterations to the Latin text, 'Vexilla Regis prodeunt'* up to modern Roman missals used as sources for 37 English translations published by 1907, as noted by JJ (pp. 1219ff), and described the circumstances of its composition. He described its effect through the ages: 'Its strains…confirmed to the...
Rejoice, the Lord is king. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns for our Lord's Resurrection (1746), in six 6-line stanzas, not in A Collection of Moral and Sacred Poems (1744) as stated in JJ, p. 955. It was not included in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), but it appeared in the 1876 edition ('Wesley's Hymns') and has been included in most major hymnbooks throughout the English-speaking world. The original stanza 5 is now generally...
My God, my King, thy various praise. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
Watts made two versions of Psalm 145 for The Psalms of David (1719). This is the first, in Long Metre, entitled 'The Greatness of God' (the second is in three parts, in Common Metre). This version paraphrases only part of the psalm: a note says: 'The verses are paraphrased thus: 1, 2, 7, 8, 5, 6, 4, 3.' It appeared, with editorial changes, in the Baptist Psalms and Hymns (1858) and the New Congregational Hymn Book (1859), which gave...
Sweet is the work, my God, my King. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
From The Psalms of David (1719), with the title 'A Psalm for the Lord's Day', in seven stanzas. It is based on the first part of Psalm 92, verses 1-11. Some parts of the text are close to the Authorised Version of the Psalm, but taken as a whole it is also a remarkably free rendering, whilst at the same time keeping close to the original in sense and spirit. Stanza 2 introduces the Lord's Day (the day of sacred rest), and lines 3 and...
Jesus invites his saints. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
From Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), Book III, 'Prepared for the holy Ordinance of the Lord's Supper.' It has the title, 'Communion with Christ, and with Saints; 1 Cor.10.16,17.' The text is not a direct paraphrase, although stanza 5 lines 1-2 come close to 'For we being many are one bread, and one body…' (verse 17a).
Bernard Manning* described Watts as setting out in stanza 3 'the high Sacramental doctrine of the Savoy Confession' in which...
Earth, rejoice, our Lord is King. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Hymns and Sacred Poems (1740), Part II, where it was entitled 'To be sung in a Tumult'. It had fourteen 4-line stanzas. To read the whole him is to be subjected to a dramatic and violent clash between good and evil, depending to some extent on Paradise Lost (see below).
It was not included in the 1780 Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists, but a shorter version, stanzas 1-2 and 9-12, was added in the...
O Jesu! King most wonderful. Latin, probably 12th century, translated by Edward Caswall* (1814-78).
In Caswall's Lyra Catholica (1849) this hymn follows 'Jesu! the very thought of Thee'*, preceded by the words '(The same continued)'. 'The same' refers to the Latin text beginning 'Iesu dulcis memoria'* (see under 'Jesu! the very thought of Thee'). It is set for Matins on the Second Sunday after Epiphany, the 'Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus'.
It is a translation of five Latin stanzas...
All for Jesus, all for Jesus. William John Sparrow-Simpson* (1859-1952).
This was written as the closing chorus, entitled 'For the love of Jesus', in John Stainer*'s cantata The Crucifixion, first performed in Marylebone Parish Church, London, on Ash Wednesday, 24 February 1887. The hymn should not be confused with a piece by the American writer Mary Dagworthy James* (1810-1883), which begins 'All for Jesus, all for Jesus! All my being's ransomed powers'*, and which may have been known to...
Let us sing the King Messiah. John Ryland* (1753-1825). Dated by Ryland's son 31 July 1790, this is a vigorous paraphrase of Psalm 45, printed in Hymns Included for the Use of the United Congregations of Bristol at their Monthly Prayer Meetings for the Success of the Gospel at Home and Abroad, begun in 1797 (Bristol, 1798). It had seven 6-line stanzas, of which five are found in BHB., beginning:
Let us sing the King Messiah, King of Righteousness and Peace:Hail Him, all His happy subjects, ...
Our king went forth to Normandy. English, 15th-century, author unknown.
This is known as the 'Agincourt hymn'. It was written to celebrate the campaign of Henry V in France, culminating in the victory at Agincourt on St Crispin's Day (25 October) 1415. It had stanzas in English, beginning as above, and 'Burdens' or refrains in Latin, beginning 'Deo gracias, Anglia, redde pro victoria'. Burden I begins, and Burden II ends each stanza, as follows:
Deo gracias, Anglia, redde pro Victoria
Our king...
Lyra Britannica (1867)
Among the many published works of Charles Rogers* was Lyra Britannica (1867), described as being 'by the Rev Charles Rogers. LL.D.' (the degree had been conferred by Columbia College, New York, in 1853). It was a large anthology of hymns and sacred songs, arranged alphabetically by author, from Sarah Flower Adams* to Andrew Young*. There was an Appendix of 18 hymns, including hymns by Jane Crewdson* ('Mrs. Crewdson'), Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon* ('The...
My Maker and my King. Anne Steele* (1717-1778).
From Poems on Subjects chiefly Devotional (1760), where it was entitled 'God my Creator and Benefactor'. It had six stanzas in Short Metre:
My Maker and my King, To thee my all I owe; Thy sovereign bounty is the spring, From whence my blessings flow.
Thou ever good, and kind, A thousand reasons move, A thousand obligations bind, My heart to grateful love.
The creature of thy hand, On thee alone I live: My God, thy benefits demand...
The King of glory comes, the nation rejoices. Willard F. Jabusch* (1930- ). This hymn was written in 1966 and published in The Johannine Hymnal (Oak Park, Illinois, 1967). It was written for the tune GILU HAGALILIM, a tune of Eastern European origin brought to Israel by settlers after the First World War (Milgate, 1982, p. 99). It was arranged and used for these words by Betty Pulkingham* in Sound of Living Waters (1974). It has become very popular, especially in Australia, where it was printed...
Standing on the promises of Christ my King. Russell Kelso Carter* (1849-1928).
First published in Songs of Perfect Love (1886), a book that Carter edited with John R. Sweney*. The hymn is still going strong, with the mesmerising repetitions of the chorus:
Standing, standing,Standing on the promises of God my Saviour;Standing, standing,I'm standing on the promises of God.
It is found in Ira D. Sankey*'s Sacred Songs and Solos, in five stanzas. These include the stanza (3) which has been...
Christ is the King! O friends rejoice. George Kennedy Allen Bell* (1883-1958).
This hymn was written for SofPE (1931) to fit the Welsh tune LLANGOEDMOR, a tune that had appeared in RCH (1927). This is a 6-line tune, and Bell's hymn was originally written as four 6-line stanzas. The first was as follows:
Christ is the King! O friends rejoice;
Brothers and sisters, with one voice
Make all men know he is your choice.
Ring out ye bells, give tongue, give tongue!
Let your most merry peal be...
Eternal Monarch, King most high. Latin, author unknown, translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866).
The Latin text, 'Aeterne Rex altissime'* appears in many forms in different breviaries, sometimes associated with Vespers at the Feast of the Ascension. Neale's translation in six 4-line stanzas was made for The Hymnal Noted Part I (1851). It was much altered by the compilers of the First Edition of A&M, where it appears as 'O Lord most High, Eternal King'. It continued in this form until it...
Lord of Life and King of Glory. Christian Burke* (1859-1944).
According to James Mearns*, this was written in December 1903 and printed in The Treasury (February 1904). It was entitled 'Prize Hymn for a Mothers' Union Service' (JJ, p. 1617). It was instantly picked up by the compilers of EH (1906), and was in the Fellowship Hymn Book soon after (1909, retained in 1933). It continued to be used in Congregational Hymnary (1916), MHB (1933), and A&MR (1950). In Ireland it was in ICH3 (1915,...
Ye servants of our glorious King. Hymns Ancient and Modern*, from various sources.
This is a translation of a stanzas from a hymn in the Roman Breviary of 1632, 'Christo profusum sanguinem', a 17th-century version of the martyrs' form of 'Aeterna Christi munera'*. It was used in the First Edition of A&M (1861) and subsequently. According to Frost (1962, p. 516) it consisted of the following stanzas:
stanza 1 by the compilers;
stanzas 2 and 3 by Robert Campbell*, from Hymns and Anthems...
Praise, my soul, the King of heaven. Henry Francis Lyte* (1793-1847).
First published in Lyte's The Spirit of the Psalms (1834), as a free paraphrase of Psalm 103. It had five stanzas, with stanza 4 (corresponding to verses 15-17 of the Psalm) bracketed for omission. Many hymn books (though not RS) have accordingly left out this stanza:
Frail as summer's flower we flourish;
Blows the wind and it is gone;
But, while mortals rise and perish,
God endures unchanging on:
Praise him!...
Good King Wenceslas looked out. John Mason Neale* (1818-1866).
First printed in Neale's Deeds of Faith (1849), a children's book, and then in his Carols for Christmastide (1853). The words were written to fit the tune of the carol, 'Tempus adest floridum'* ('Spring has now unwrapped the flowers') from Piae Cantiones (Greifswald, 1582). The cheerful verses retold a Bohemian legend, a simple story that was very appropriate for the Victorian era, of the need to be charitable to the poor. The verse...
God save our gracious King (British National Anthem).
The first recorded performance of this hymn was at Drury Lane theatre, 28 September 1745, during the reign of George II, in response to the threat posed by the Jacobite rebellion in Scotland. It began 'God bless our noble King;/ God save great George our King;/ God save the King', with music arranged by Thomas Arne (1710-1778), the director of music at the theatre. It had been published one year earlier, in Thesaurus Musicus (1744). There...
Ye sons and daughters of the King (Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!). Jean Tisserand* (d. 1494), translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866).
This translation of the Latin hymn, 'O Filii et Filiae'*, was first published in Neale's Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences (1851), in twelve stanzas. The Latin hymn has been attributed to Jean Tisserand, a Franciscan: it appeared in an untitled book, published in France between 1518 and 1536, with the heading 'L'aleluya du jour des Pasques'. It was used to...
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation. Joachim Neander* (1650-1680), translated by Catherine Winkworth* (1827-1878).
Neander's hymn, beginning 'Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren'*, was published in his A und Ω. Joachimi Neandri Glaub- und Liebesübung: auffgemuntert durch einfältige Bundes Lieder und Danck-Psalmen (Bremen, 1680). It has five stanzas. Catherine Winkworth's translation, in the metre of the original, was first published in The Chorale Book for...
At the name of Jesus. Caroline Maria Noel* (1817-1877).
First published in Noel's The Name of Jesus, and other Verses for the Sick and Lonely (Enlarged Edition, 1870). It was entitled 'Ascension Day' (it was not the poem that gave the title to the volume, which was a poem called 'The Name of Jesus'). It had eight stanzas. The Second Edition of A&M (1875) printed seven stanzas, and that has remained a customary text, although some books shorten to five stanzas (MHB, HP) or to four (RS). The...
O heavenly King, look down from above. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1742), entitled 'Another' [i.e. 'A Thanksgiving']. It followed 'O what shall I do my Saviour to praise'*, which was thus titled, and, like that hymn, this one was printed in 10-syllable lines with a space and a capital letter: 'O Heavenly King, Look down from above'.
It was the second of three thanksgiving hymns in the same metre. This one is distinguished from the other two by its...
Come, Thou long-expected Jesus. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns for the Nativity of our Lord (1744) in two 8-line stanzas. The Primitive Methodist Hymnal (1887, 1889) divided it into four 4-line stanzas, in which form it has since then almost invariably been printed. In stanza 1, line 3, the original verb, 'relieve', was replaced by 'release' in the 1777 edition, and is now in general use:
Come, Thou long-expected Jesus, Born to set Thy people free,From our fears and sins...
The King shall come when morning dawns. Greek, translated by John Brownlie* (1857-1925).
The author of the Greek text of this hymn is unknown (Stulken 1981, p. 133). The English text was from Brownlie's Hymns from the East, Being Centos and Suggestions from the Service Books of the Holy Eastern Church (Paisley, 1907). It is possible that it was by Brownlie himself, using a 'suggestion': The Companion to LSB (2019) describes it as 'an original text by Brownlie' (Volume 1, p. 46, note to Hymn...
Crown of Jesus (1862) was a major publication during the years of the expansion of the Roman Catholic church in Britain following Catholic Emancipation, the passing of the Roman Catholic Relief Bill in 1829, and the growth in numbers following immigration from Ireland and the converts from the Oxford Movement*. Library catalogues give the names of the editors as R.R. Suffield and C.F.R. Palmer. Its full title was Crown of Jesus: a complete Catholic manual of devotion, doctrine, and instruction....
Glory be to Jesus. Italian, possibly 18th-century, translated by Edward Caswall* (1814-1878).
This is a translation of an Italian text beginning 'Viva! Viva! Gesu! Che per mio bene', found in an undated Raccolta di Orazioni e Pie Opere colle Indulgenze. An Italian priest named Galli, who died in 1845, was given as the author in a translation published in 1880. The hymn was at one time said to be by St Alphonsus Liguori*, but there is no evidence for this.
Caswall translated the seven Italian...
All praise to thee, for thou, O King divine. F. Bland Tucker* (1895-1984).
Written in 1938 on Philippians 2: 5-11. It was written for the tune SINE NOMINE, by Ralph Vaughan Williams*, although set in H40 (for copyright reasons) to ENGELBERG, by Charles Villiers Stanford*. It has been frequently used in subsequent books: it is very popular in Britain, and is found in 100HfT and thus in A&MNS, NEH and A&MCP. A modernized version, to avoid 'thee' (but not wanting 'All praise to you...') is...
The Lord is King! Lift up thy voice. Josiah Conder* (1789-1855).
First published in Conder's The Star in the East; with Other Poems (1824), with the heading '“Hallelujah! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.” – Rev.xix.6.' It was then included in The Congregational Hymn Book (1836), edited by Conder. It had eight stanzas, which have usually been shortened to six or five. The stanza most frequently omitted is the original verse 6:
O when his wisdom can mistake,
His might decay, his love...
King of my life, I crown thee now. Jennie E. Hussey* (1874-1958).
First published in New Songs of Praise and Power, No 3 (1921), with a tune by William J. Kirkpatrick* entitled DUNCANNON or LEST WE FORGET. The second title refers to Hussey's well-known refrain:
Lest I forget Gethsemane,
Lest I forget thine agony,
Lest I forget thy love to me,
Lead me to Calvary.
The hymn has appeared in many evangelical books on both sides of the Atlantic: in Britain it is found in Praise! (2000) in the...
We have a king who rides a donkey. Frederik Herman Kaan* (1929-2009).
Written in 1968 for a Family Service at the Pilgrim Church, Plymouth, where the author was minister, and published in Pilgrim Praise (1968). It is a children's hymn, written (in the author's word) 'unashamedly' to the sea-shanty tune of 'What shall we do with a drunken sailor' (repeated 3 times)/ 'Early in the morning?' The 'drunken sailor' motif, and the setting in the early morning, led the author to make a whimsical...
God, my King, thy might confessing. Richard Mant* (1776-1848).
This is a metrical version of Psalm 145, 'I will extol thee, my God, O king'. It was first published in Mant's The Book of Psalms, in an English Metrical Version (1824), and in the USA in Psalms, in Metre Selected from the Psalms of David; suited to the Feasts and Fasts of the Church (New York, 1832). It has been very well regarded in the USA: it was used by the Protestant Episcopal Church as early as 1832 in a 'Selection of Psalms'...
O Christ the Lord, O Christ the King. Reginald Thomas Brooks* (1918-1985).
Brooks was a student at Mansfield College at the same time as George Bradford Caird*. The two men were born in the same place (Wandsworth, south London) within a year of each other (Caird, July 1917; Brooks, June 1918). This hymn was written at Mansfield College in 1941 as an entry for the Scott Psalmody Prize. The prize went to Caird for 'Almighty Father, who for us thy Son didst give'*; but Brooks's hymn was printed in...
Teach me, my God and King. George Herbert* (1593-1633).
From Herbert's collection The Temple (Cambridge, 1633), published after his death. It was included in EH, set to a West Country tune SANDYS, from William Sandys*'s Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern (1833), with which it has since been almost always associated. Perhaps by virtue of its modern sensibilities about finding the divine in the everyday and the accessibility of God to all, it has remained very popular as a hymn in spite of its...
O Lord most high, eternal King. Latin, 9th century or earlier, translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866), altered by the Compilers of A&M .
This is a version of Neale's translation of 'Aeterne Rex altissime'*, the anonymous Latin hymn for Ascensiontide, much altered by the Compilers. It was printed in the First Edition of A&M in six stanzas:
Neale A&M (1861)
Eternal Monarch, King most high, ...
O worship the King, All-glorious above. Sir Robert Grant* (1780-1838).
First published in Psalms, Partly Original and Partly Extracted from Various Authors, and Adapted to Public Worship, 2nd Edition, Revised (Clapham: H.N. Batten, 1824), edited by John Venn. It was also in A Collection of Psalms and Hymns, for the Use of St. Mary's, St. Giles's, and Trinity Churches, Reading (Reading, 1830). It was included in Edward Bickersteth*'s Christian Psalmody (1833), and then in Henry Venn Elliott's...
O King of kings, Whose reign of old. William Walsham How* (1823-1897)
This hymnological curiosity was commissioned for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897. It was included in a pamphlet published for the occasion, 'to be used in all Churches and Chapels in England and Wales, and in the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, upon Sunday the Twentieth day of June, 1897' (Berwick, on the border between England and Scotland, was technically in neither country at that time). It skilfully contrasted...
O God of love, O King of peace. Henry Williams Baker* (1821-1877). Written for the First Edition of A&M (1861), where it appeared in the section 'In times of Trouble'. It was preceded by ''The Lord shall give His people the blessing of peace' (Psalm 29: 10 in the Book of Common Prayer). It was entitled 'War', and was evidently intended to be sung in time of war: the last line of each verse is 'Give peace, O God, give peace again'. Although the nation was not at war in 1861, the Crimean War...
Sing we the King who is coming to reign. Charles Sylvester Horne* (1865-1914). First published in The Fellowship Hymn Book (1909) with the title 'The New “Glory Song”'. This refers to a hymn by Charles Hutchinson Gabriel* beginning
When all my labours and trials are o'er,
And I am safe on that beautiful shore,
This hymn had the refrain 'Oh, that will be…glory for me…glory for me…glory for me…'.
Horne wrote his hymn to supplant Gabriel's words, although it is usually sung to Gabriel's tune THE...
The Lord is King! I own his power. Darley Terry* (1847-1933).
The Methodist history of this hymn is strange. It was not selected for MHB, although Terry represented the United Methodist Church on the committee ; but it was sung at the Royal Albert Hall during the service to celebrate Methodist Union in 1932. It is not known to Methodists today except in The School Hymn Book of the Methodist Church (1950). It was first published in The Methodist School Hymnal (1911), to which it was submitted...
All creatures of our God and King. William Henry Draper* (1855-1933).
This is a free versification of the 'Cantico di frate sole'* of St Francis. It was written for a children's Whitsuntide Festival at Adel, Leeds, when Draper was the incumbent at Adel, between 1899 and 1919. Draper could not remember the exact year in which he wrote the translation, but it was published in the Public School Hymn Book (1919), so it was known before that book was compiled. It was written to be sung to the tune...
Praise, O praise our God and King. Sir Henry Williams Baker* (1821-1877).
Written for the First Edition of A&M (1861) and printed there in the 'Harvest' section, with the first two lines of the tune as 'Semi-Chorus' and the second two as 'Chorus', and the instruction 'The first and last verses to be sung in Chorus, the others as above'. It appeared beneath the text: 'Who giveth food to all flesh; for His mercy endureth for ever' (from Psalm 136: 25). It has remained in the A&M tradition...
Thee will I love, my God and King. Robert Bridges* (1844-1930).
From Part IV of the Yattendon Hymnal (1899). It was designed to accompany the tune by Claude Goudimel* for the 138th Psalm in the Genevan Psalter* (1551). In YH it was 'set by M.M.B.' (Mary Monica, Bridges's wife, née Waterhouse, 1863-1949). It was carefully written by Bridges to fit the unusual but magnificent tune: Percy Dearmer*, who called Bridges 'a past master of the craft', noted when annotating this hymn that 'the musical...
God the all-terrible! King, who ordainest. Henry Fothergill Chorley* (1808-1872).
Chorley's career as a musical journalist put him in touch with John Pyke Hullah*, for whom this hymn was written in order to find words for RUSSIAN HYMN or RUSSIAN ANTHEM), the recently composed (1833) National Anthem of Russia. It was published in Hullah's Part Music (1842), entitled 'In Time of War', and later in Edward Henry Bickersteth*'s Psalms and Hymns (n.d., but ca. 1858).
Chorley's hymn begins with a most...
Hark! the herald angels sing (Jesus the light of the world). Arranged by George D. Elderkin (1845–1928).
Gospel musical traditions in the United States have enlivened the 18th-century hymns for over 150 years. Those by Isaac Watts*, Charles Wesley*, and John Newton* were among those heard by those influenced by the Second Great Awakening (c. 1795–1835), during which rural whites and enslaved Africans reinvented and reinterpreted hymns from England for their own situation. The enlivening of...
Jesus only is my motto. Charles Price Jones* (1865-1949).
Regarded as Jones's signature hymn, 'Jesus Only' was written in 1899, two years after Jones's first Holiness Convention. It appeared initially as No. 1 in the author's Jesus Only, Songs and Hymns (Jackson, Mississippi, 1901) and remains the first hymn in the most recent Church of Christ (Holiness) USA hymnal, His Fullness Songs (Jackson, 1977). At the time of its composition, Jones had firmly been rejected by many Baptists in Jackson...
Jesus, Jesus, Oh, what a wonderful Child ('Glory to the Newborn King'). Margaret Wells Allison* (1921-2008).
Philadelphia musician Margaret Wells Allison started her gospel career at a young age by accompanying a group called the Spiritual Echoes, but just a few years later, she had a vision for a group of her own. In 1945, she recruited her sister Josephine Wells McDowell, plus Ella Mae Norris and Lucille Shird, and formally launched the new quartet as the Angelic Gospel Singers. Initially,...
Jesus, I live to Thee. Henry Harbaugh* (1817-1867).
This simple but profound hymn of consecration is the best known of Harbaugh's works, and one of the best known hymns of the German Reformed Church tradition. It is not known if Harbaugh wrote it when he was pastor of First Reformed Church, Lancaster, Pennsylvania (1850-60) or when he was at St John's, Lebanon, Pennsylvania (1860-64) (see Haeussler, 1952, pp. 286-7). Its first appearance in print seems to have been in Hymns and Chants: with...
Jesus is coming to earth again. Lelia Morris* (1862-1929).
First published in a book of gospel songs, The King's Praises, no 3 (Philadelphia, 1912), edited by Henry J. Gilmour, George W. Sanville, William J. Kirkpatrick* and Melvin J. Hill. Its date is normally given as 1912, but whether this refers to composition or publication is not clear. It is found in many evangelical books of the 20th century in the USA, including the Billy Graham Campaign Songs of 1950, successive editions of the...
Jesus, and didst Thou condescend. Mary Wakeford* (1724-1772).
This was published in John Ash* and Caleb Evans*'s Collection of Hymns Adapted to Public Worship (Bristol, 1769) (see 'Ash and Evans's A Collection of Hymns'*). It was entitled 'Imploring Mercy'. It had five 4-line stanzas:
Jesus, and didst Thou condescend When veil'd in human Clay, To heal the Sick, the Lame, the Blind, And drive Disease away?
And didst Thou pity wretched Worms, And make the Leper whole? O let Thy Power and...
Take the name of Jesus with you. Lydia Odell Baxter* (1809-1874).
Written ca. 1870, this hymn was published in Pure Gold for the Sunday School (1871), compiled by Robert Lowry* and William Howard Doane*. It was included in Ira D. Sankey*'s Sacred Songs and Solos, and it remained in use in 20th-century books. It is sometimes known as 'Precious name', from the refrain: 'Precious name, O how sweet!/ Hope of earth and joy of heaven'. In view of the journey metaphor implied in 'Take…with you', it is...
We would see Jesus. John Edgar Park* (1879-1956).
Beginning 'We would see Jesus, lo! his star is shining', this hymn was published in Worship and Song (1913) with a tune by Herbert B. Turner called CUSHMAN. The first line is sometimes said to be taken from the hymn by Anna Bartlett Warner*, 'We would see Jesus, for the shadows lengthen'*, but both hymns originate with John 12: 20-21. The first stanza suggests that it will be a Christmas or Epiphany hymn:
We would see Jesus, lo! his star is...
Missions and mission hymnody, Britain and Ireland
The idea of 'Mission' is as old as the church itself. One of the last commands of our Lord was to the disciples: 'Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature' (Mark 16: 15), and the events of the first Pentecost (Acts 2) were those of inspiration followed by preaching and healing. Since that time, it has always been a priority of the church to spread the gospel to places where it has not been heard. St Patrick became the...
Jesus, the Conqueror, reigns. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788)
First published in the two-volume Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), the title-page bearing Charles Wesley's name alone, in an extended section entitled 'Hymns for Believers'. It had sixteen stanzas, and was clearly too long for congregational use. In A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780) John Wesley* shortened it to six stanzas, divided into three parts, using stanzas 1-6. It was included in the section...
Jesus Christ is risen today. Author unknown, from Lyra Davidica (1708). Entitled 'The Resurrection', this was in three stanzas in 1708:
Jesus Christ is Risen to day, Halle-Hallelujah
Our triumphant Holyday
Who so lately on the Cross
Suffer'd to redeem our loss.
Hast ye Females from your Fright,
Take to Galilee your Flight:
To his sad Disciples say,
Jesus Christ is Risen to Day.
In our Paschal Joy and Feast,
Let the Lord of Life be blest,
Let the Holy Trine be prais'd,
And thankful Hearts to...
Lord Jesus, think on me. Allen William Chatfield* (1808-1896), based on a hymn probably by Synesius of Cyrene* (ca. 370- ca. 414).
This text was printed in Anthologia Graeca Carminum Christianorum, edited by W. von Christ and M. Paranakis (Leipzig, 1871). Synesius is believed to have written ten hymns, of which this is the last, although some authorities attribute them to a scribe. Chatfield's translation appeared in his Songs and Hymns of Earliest Greek Christian Poets, Bishops and Others...
Jesus is a rock in a weary land. African American spiritual*.
This song of African American origin is characterized by a memorable refrain that has remained constant for over a century; the stanzas, however, vary from publication to publication. The repetition of words in the refrain's first three lines indicates that its origins may lie in oral rather than written tradition. The two primary elements of the refrain text— 'rock in a weary land' and 'shelter in the time of storm'—echo several...
Jesus, high in glory. Harriet Burn McKeever* (1807-1886 or 1887).
In JJ, p. 1574, this hymn is noted as from the Methodist Episcopal Church's Sunday School Harmonist (1847), without an author's name. McKeever was identified as the author when it appeared in her Twilight Musings: and Other Poems (Philadelphia, 1857) (JJ, p. 1667). It became very popular in the USA and Canada, appearing in many hymnals, mainly those for Sunday schools and young people. It crossed the Atlantic to appear in the...
All for Jesus, all for Jesus!/All my being's ransomed powers. Mary Dagworthy James* (1810-1883).
This hymn was written at the opening of the year 1871 (James, 1886, p. 199). It was almost certainly published in one of the books that came out of the Wesleyan Holiness movement, of which James was an ardent member, but the exact source of first publication has not been located. It was given a tune by Asa Hull, ALL FOR JESUS. It became more widely known after its inclusion in Redemption Songs...
I saw the cross of Jesus. Frederick Whitfield* (1829-1904).
Published in Whitfield's Sacred Poems and Prose (Dublin, 1859) in four 8-line stanzas. It was entitled 'The Cross'. It is an interesting precursor of gospel hymnody in its concentration on sin and redemption through the blood:
I saw the cross of Jesus,
When burdened with my sin;
I sought the cross of Jesus,
To give me peace within;
I brought my soul to Jesus,
He cleansed it in His blood;
And in the cross of Jesus
I...
There is no love like the love of Jesus. William E. Littlewood* (1831-1886).
From Littlewood's A Garland from the Parables (1858), written when Littlewood was either just beginning a curacy at Wakefield, or earlier. It was prefaced by the quotation: 'I am the Good Shepherd; the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. – John x. 11.' It had six stanzas in 1858:
There is no love like the love of Jesus, Never to fade or fall 'Till into the fold of the peace of God He has gathered us...
Who'll be the next to follow Jesus. Annie Sherwood Hawks* (1835-1918).
According to Taylor, pp. 222-3, this was published by Bethany Sabbath School, Philadelphia, in Precious Hymns (ca. 1870), and later in The Christian Mission Magazine (August 1876). It appeared in many American books in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, usually those associated with revival or holiness meetings, such as Revival Hymns (1889), Pentecostal Hymns No. 3: a winnowed collection for evangelical services, young...
Sleep, my little Jesus. William Channing Gannett* (1840-1923).
Written in 1882 for the Sunday school when Gannett was minister at St Paul, Minnesota, between 1877 and 1883. It was entitled 'Mary's Manger Song'. It was published in The Thought of God in hymns and poems, Second Series (Boston, 1894) which Gannett edited with Frederick Lucian Hosmer*. It has three verses, beginning:
Sleep, my little Jesus,/ On Thy bed of hay
Sleep, my little Jesus /While Thou art my own
Sleep my little Jesus/...
Through all the world let every nation sing to God the King. Bryan Jeffery Leech (1931-2015).
Written in 1967 for a Missionary Conference at Calvary Baptist Church, New York City, and published in the July 1970 issue of The Hymn by the Hymn Society of America, New York, with a tune by Paul Liljestrand (1931-2011) named CONRAD (after the composer's father). It has subsequently appeared in several books, including two compiled by Donald P. Hustad*, Hymns for the Living Church (1974) and The...
Since Jesus freely did appear. John Berridge* (1716-1793).
This is by far the best known of Berridge's hymns. According to JJ (p. 1059), it appeared in the Gospel Magazine (August 1775), entitled 'A Wedding Hymn', and signed with Berridge's pseudonym, 'Old Everton'. It was included in Berridge's Sion's Songs or Hymns: Composed for the Use of Them that Love and Follow Jesus Christ in Sincerity (1785), prefaced with '“There was a marriage in Cana, and Jesus was invited to the Marriage,” John ii....
O King of kings, O Lord of hosts, whose throne is lifted high. Henry Burton* (1840-1930).
This hymn has a complicated history. It is dated 1897 in some books. Burton's Songs of the Highway (1924), however, refers to a similar hymn with the identical first line dated ten years earlier, in 1887, with the title 'A Jubilee Ode' and a note: ' (Written for the Queen's Jubilee in 1887, and sung – the music by Sir John Stainer – at the Royal Albert Hall, London.)' The Jubilee of 1887 marked Queen...
When Jesus wept. William Billings* (1746-1800)
When Jesus wept, the falling tear In mercy flowed beyond all bound. When Jesus groaned, a trembling fear Seized all the guilty world around.
Perhaps the most frequently republished work of William Billings (Edwards, p. 7), 'When Jesus Wept' was first published in his 1770 collection titled The New-England Psalm-Singer. This volume of music, the first book of music entirely composed by an American born in America, consisted of more than 120...
Fairest Lord Jesus. German, 17th century, translated by several hands.
Three stanzas of this German hymn, 'Schönster Herr Jesu'*, are taken from the version published by Richard Storrs Willis (1819-1900), in his Church Chorals and Choir Studies (New York, 1850), which printed the English and German texts:
Fairest Lord Jesus! Ruler of all nature! O Thou of God and Man the Son! Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor, Thou! my soul's glory, joy, and crown.
Fair are the...
Jesus! What a friend for sinners. John W. Chapman* (1859-1918).
Written in 1910, when Chapman's campaign success (with Charles M. Alexander*) was at its height. It had five stanzas, with a refrain. It was given the title 'Our Great Savior':
Jesus! What a Friend for sinners!Jesus! Lover of my soul!Friends may fail me, foes assail me,He, my Savior, makes me whole.
Refrain:...
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Hallelujah! What a Friend!
Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
He'll be with me to the...
Living for Jesus, a life that is true. Thomas O. Chisholm* (1866-1960).
Written in 1917 at the request of the composer, organist, and editor (Carl) Harold Lowden (1883-1963). In 1915 Lowden composed a song for Children's Day titled 'Sunshine song'. According to William J. Reynolds* (who was the first to piece together the story of this hymn) Lowden 'early in 1917, while preparing a collection of hymns for publication came across this song and was impressed that the tune needed a stronger text...
Cast thy care on Jesus. Frederick George Scott* (1861-1944).
Written during Scott's time as rector of St George's, Drummondville, Quebec (1887-96), after hearing that a close friend was suffering from a terminal illness and had few months left to live. It was included in the Canadian Book of Common Praise (Toronto, 1908) of which Scott was one of the editors. It was retained in a number of hymnals in the 20th century. It is Scott's best known hymn:
Cast thy care on Jesus, Make Him now thy...
Follow the paths of Jesus. Christopher Rubey Blackall* (1830-1924).
According to JJ, p. 144, this hymn was included in the Baptist Hymn and Tune Book for Public Worship (Philadelphia, 1871). It was also found in the 1903 edition. It is one of the few hymns by Blackall not addressed explicitly to children or young people. Nevertheless, it is full of the kind of imperatives that might be expected of a Sunday-school superintendent:
Follow the path of Jesus, Walk where His footsteps lead, Keep in...
Jesus is all the world to me. Will L. Thompson* (1847-1909).
First published in The New Century Hymnal (East Liverpool, Ohio: The Will L. Thompson Co., 1904). Thompson edited and published this collection, intended as a hymnal for the 20th century. The hymn had four stanzas in parlor-song mode, reiterating the description of Jesus as friend:
Jesus is all the world to me, my life, my joy, my all;He is my strength from day to day, without him I would fall.When I am sad, to him I go,No other one...
Jesus, stand among us. William Pennefather* (1816-1873).
Written for one of the Mildmay Conferences on home and foreign missions, and therefore probably first published in leaflet form. It then appeared in Pennefather's Original Hymns and Thoughts in Verse (1875), with the heading '“Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent Me, even so send I you” — John xx. 21.'
It is also based on Luke 24: 36 (John 20: 26): 'Jesus himself stood in the midst of them…'. The usual...
Jesus of Nazareth passeth by. Various authors. There are three texts with this title:
1. A poem beginning 'Watcher, who watchest by the bed of pain' by Lydia Huntley Sigourney*. The contents suggest that it was written during, or shortly after, the illness of her son, Alexander Maximilian, who died aged 19 in 1850 (three of her five children had earlier died in infancy). It describes vividly the nurse of a sufferer, 'Holding thy breath, lest his sleep should break', followed by three stanzas...
Deeper, deeper in the love of Jesus. Charles Price Jones* (1865-1949).
According to some sources, this hymn was written in 1900 and appeared in the author's Jesus Only, Songs and Hymns (Jackson, Mississippi, 1901) and later in His Fullness Songs (Nashville, Tennessee, 1906). The hymn has been included in approximately 70 hymnals since that time, most recently in the African American Heritage Hymnal (Chicago, 2001). Though Philippians 1: 9 is given as a source in the hymnal, Jones cited his...
Jesus, I will trust Thee. Mary Jane Walker* (1816-1878).
First published in the 1864 Appendix of her husband Edward Walker's Psalms and Hymns for Public and Social Worship, originally dated 1855, with an Appendix in 1864. It became widely known after Ira D. Sankey* wrote a tune for it and used it in his evangelistic campaigns before printing it in Sacred Songs and Solos. It became a feature of evangelistic meetings: Sankey (1906, p. 130) recounts an episode at a Belfast meeting led by Daniel...
Let us look to Jesus. F.M. Hamilton* (1858-1912).
From Songs of Love and Mercy:Adapted to the Use of Sunday Schools, Epworth Leagues, Revivals, Prayer Meetings, and Special Occasions (Jackson, Tennessee, 1904). It is a good example of Hamilton's sensitivity to the world around him as well as to his own 'world full of sorrow'. In this hymn, which includes an allusion to the African American Spiritual 'There is a Balm in Gilead'*, he calls believers to 'look to Jesus' to bear their burdens, to...
Jesus, Saviour, pilot me. Edward Hopper* (1816-1888).
This text was written at the request of George S. Webster, secretary of the Seaman's Friend Society, and first published in The Sailor's Magazine and Seamen's Friend, the magazine of the Society, and dated 3 March 1871. It was not anonymous, as is sometimes stated: 'By Rev Edward Hopper, D.D., Pastor of the Church of the Sea and Land' is clearly indicated. It was given a tune, PILOT, by John Edgar Gould (1822-1875) for The Baptist Praise...
There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus. Johnson Oatman, Jr.* (1856-1922).
Written ca. 1895, and published in Heaven's Echo (Philadelphia, 1895), edited by George C. Hugg (1848-1907). The refrain and every stanza end 'No, not one! No, not one!', by which the hymn is sometimes known. The refrain was:
Jesus knows all about our struggles;He will guide till the day is done:There's not a Friend like the lowly Jesus;No, not one! No, not one!
The five stanzas were:
There's not a Friend like the...
Tell me the stories of Jesus. William Henry Parker* (1845-1929).
According to JJ (p. 1686) this was written ca. 1885, and it is sometimes stated that it was first published in leaflet form for a Sunday School Anniversary at Chelsea Street Baptist Church, Basford, Nottingham (Companion to Hymns & Psalms, 1988, p. 118). However, when it was printed in the Sunday School Hymnary (1905), it was signed 'W.H. Parker, 1904' (see Gordon Taylor, Companion to the Song Book of the Salvation Army, 1989,...
Hark! the voice of Jesus calling. Albert Midlane* (1825-1909).
This hymn was written in August 1860 and first published in The Ambassadors' Hymn Book (1861). This was a book of one hundred hymns, published by the Gospel Tract Depot, of which 49 are stated to be by Midlane in manuscript notes in the British Library copy. It was then published in Midlane's Gospel Echoes, or, Help to the heralds of salvation (1865). Although beginning with the text from Matthew 11: 28 ('Come unto me, all ye that...
Sing the wondrous love of Jesus. Eliza E. Hewitt* (1851-1920).
First published in Pentecostal Praises (1898). It is frequently known by the first line of the refrain, 'When we all get to heaven' (See Companion to UMH, 1993, p. 699):
When we all get to heaven, What a day of rejoicing that will be!When we all see Jesus, We'll sing and shout the victory!
It should be remembered that the hymn came out of the post-Civil War camp meeting tradition which the author and tune-writer experienced at...
All to Jesus I surrender. Judson W. Van De Venter* (1855-1939).
Van De Venter was torn between his ambition to be a great artist, and the call to be an evangelist. While supporting himself by teaching art in Pennsylvania, he resisted the encouragement of those who thought he should be an evangelist. The hymn was written 'in memory of the time, when, after a long struggle, I had surrendered and dedicated my life to active Christian service' (Reynolds, 1964, p. 13). The word 'in memory of a time'...
Jesus Christ the Apple Tree. Richard Hutton, or Richard Hutchins, 18th Century, dates unknown.
The first line of this carol is 'The tree of life my soul hath seen'. It is found in Volume 1 of Divine, Moral, and Historical Miscellanies, in Prose and Verse. Containing many Valuable Originals, Communicated by Various Correspondents, and other Pieces extracted from different Authors, and antient Manuscripts. The Whole being such a Collection of Miscellaneous Thoughts, as will tend not only to...
Jesus wants me for a sunbeam. Nellie Talbot* (1861-1950).
Information about this text has been hard to find until a recent article in The Hymn 76/3 (Summer 2025). It was set to music by Edwin O. Excell*: words and music were published in Make His Praise Glorious (Chicago, 1900), edited by Excell. They re-appeared in Excell's Praises (1905), in Winona Hymns (Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, 1906), edited by John W. Chapman* and Excell, and in Famous Gospel Hymns, edited by Daniel B....
Jesus, we love to meet. Elizabeth Parson* (1812-1873)
This hymn exists in several forms. It was written in the 'Thou' and 'Thee' form: 'Jesus, we love to meet/ On this, Thy holy day'. It has been modernized in some books to the 'you' form, 'On this, your holy day', as in the Psalter Hymnal (1987). It had three stanzas, and appeared in many books in the USA.
A version is found in Methodist US hymnals (MH66, UMH). This is by the Nigerian musician and writer Olajida Olude*, translated by Biodun...
There's no greater name than Jesus. Michael Baughen* (1930). Written ca. 1959, when Baughen was a curate at Reigate, evidently with a view to providing an accessible and attractive hymn for young people. It was included in a 'home-made' book for the parish, 'Zing-Sing', and then in Youth Praise 1 (1966). It is found in HFTC and Complete Mission Praise (1999), and in Praise! (2000), set to Baughen's tune written for it, NO GREATER NAME.
JRW
Jesus in the olive grove. Fred Pratt Green* (1903-2000). Written in 1965 as a short poem on the Passion. In 1967 the author added seven preceding stanzas and a one-stanza conclusion, providing a hymn which spans the events of Holy Week. The full text, entitled 'A Hymn for Holy Week', beginning 'All is ready for the Feast!', is in The Hymns and Ballads of Fred Pratt Green (1982), pp. 8-9. The shorter version, entitled 'Passiontide Hymn' and beginning 'Jesus in the olive grove' is in 26 Hymns...
Jesus, humble was your birth. Patrick Appleford* (1925-2018).
Published in Twenty-seven 20th Century Hymns (1965), one of the productions of the 20th Century Church Light Music Group, of which Appleford was a co-founder and prominent member. It became widely known through its inclusion in 100HfT (1969), and from there into A&MNS. It also appeared in NCP (1975) and in RS. Verse 3 was originally
Jesus, when you were betrayed,
Even on the Cross you prayed:
Trusting in your Father's...
Listen to the voice of Jesus. George Bett Blanchard* (1856-1927).
This is one of many hymns written by Blanchard for Sunday-School Anniversaries in his Wesleyan Methodist Church in Hull, Yorkshire. Based on Mark 10: 13-16, it is written in the unusual metre of 8.3.8.3.D:
Listen to the voice of Jesus, O so sweet!As the little children gather Round his feet;Young ones to his knees are climbing, There to rest;Older ones stand round him waiting To be blest.
The hymn received wider recognition...
Sinners Jesus will receive. Erdmann Neumeister* (1671-1756), translated by Emma Frances Bevan* (1827-1909).
This hymn by Neumeister, 'Jesus nimmt die Sünder an'*, was first published in his Evangelischer Nachklang (Hamburg, 1718), and became well known. It attracted several translations, of which this is the best known. It was first published in Bevan's Songs of Eternal Life, translated from the German (1858) with the title 'Song of Welcome'. It had eight 6-line verses, each ending with the...
Vem, Jesus, nossa esperança. Jaci C. Maraschin* (1929–2009).
This Advent text first appeared in a Brazilian collection edited by the author, O Novo Canto de Terra (São Paulo, 1987), in four 8.7.8.7 stanzas. The musical setting, CRISTO É MAIS (1980), is by Baptist music professor Marcílio de Oliveira Filho (1947–2005). It was originally paired with the text 'Cristo é nossa esperança' (1981) by Guilherme Kerr Neto (1953– ) in the Brazilian Baptist hymnal Hinário para o Culto Cristão (Rio di...
'Come to me,' says Jesus. Alan Gaunt* (1935-2023).
This hymn comes from Alan Gaunt's second book of hymns, Always from Joy (1997). A note (p. 71) gives the date of composition as 17 February 1996. It has five short stanzas in the metre 6.5.6.5. It begins with a general invitation based on Matthew 11: 28-30: 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your...
Wise men, seeking Jesus. James Thomas East* (1860-1937).
This appeared in the Wesleyan Methodist School Hymnal (1911), and in many subsequent Methodist publications, including MHB and HP. It had seven stanzas. Its charm lies in its simplicity, with a vocabulary well suited to children, and to the metre of 6.5.6.5:
Wise men, seeking Jesus, Travelled from afar,Guided on their journey By a beauteous star.
But if we desire Him, He is close at hand;For our native country Is our Holy...
Jesus, Lord, we pray. Basil Ernest Bridge* (1927-2021).
Written at the request of the author's younger daughter, and sung at her wedding at Stamford United Reformed Church in 1978. Verse 1 refers to John 2: 1-11. Verse 3 lines 3-5 were originally 'help them now as they are taking/ solemn vows, your Spirit making/ love more strong than death'. They were revised at the suggestion of the compilers of MHfT (1980), through which the hymn became widely known. It is found in HP, HFTC, and A&MCP....
Jesus, most generous Lord. Christopher Martin Idle* (1938- ). Written at Poplar, east London, in 1975, for two 'hymn searches' on the theme of 'Christian lifestyle'. After revisions suggested by Michael Perry*, it appeared in a collection for the Hambledon Valley group of parishes in Oxfordshire (1983). In the USA it was published in The Hymn (The Hymn Society of the United States and Canada, 1996). It is found in Come Celebrate (Norwich, 2009), edited by Michael Saward*.
It was written on 1...
Jesus, to Thee we fly. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
This was the final hymn in Hymns for Ascension-Day, a small book of eleven pages first published in 1746, with a Second Edition in the same year. It had six stanzas:
Jesus, to Thee we fly, On Thee for Help rely: Thou our only Refuge art, Thou dost all our Fears control, Rest of every troubled Heart, Life of every dying Soul.
We lift our joyful Eyes, And see the dazling Prize, See the Purchase of thy Blood, Freely now...
Wonderful grace of Jesus. Haldor Lillenas* (1885-1959).
Words and music were written when Lillenas was pastor of the Church of the Nazarene, Auburn, Illinois (1916-1919). It was first sung at a Bible Conference at Northfield, Massachusetts, in 1918, and published in Tabernacle Choir (Chicago. Tabernacle Publishing Co., 1922), edited by Richard J. Oliver and Lance B. Latham. It has appeared in many books, such as Alexander's Hymns No 4 (Philadelphia, 1908), the Baptist Hymnal (1991, 2008), The...
Hark, the voice of Jesus crying. Daniel March* (1816-1909).
This hymn dates from an occasion in 1868. Commentators, beginning with Nutter (1884, p. 214) quote March himself as saying that this hymn was written 'in great haste' to follow a sermon he was to preach in Clinton Street Church to the Philadelphian Christian Association on the text Isaiah 6: 8: 'And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.' It was printed in...
Jesus comes with power to gladden. Carrie Breck* (1855-1934).
This was published with the author's name given as 'Mrs Frank A. Breck' in Songs of Praise and Salvation (The Christian Witness Co., 1902). It is often known as 'When love shines in', from the refrain:
When love shines in, When love shines in,How the heart is tuned to singing, When love shines in; When love shines in.
The four stanzas were:
Jesus comes with pow'r to gladden, When love shines in;Ev'ry life that woe can...
Jesus, our mighty Lord. F. Bland Tucker* (1895-1984).
This was printed in H40 with a first stanza beginning:
Master of eager youth,
Controlling, guiding,
Lifting our hearts to truth,
New power providing;
Shepherd of innocence,
Thou art our Confidence;
To thee, our sure Defence,
We bring our praises.
This first stanza was omitted and stanza 2 changed from 'Thou art' to 'Jesus' in H82. The reason given was that the imagery seemed 'more congenial to modern thought' than the original stanza 1 had...
The love of Jesus calls us. T. Herbert O'Driscoll* (1928-2004).
In his notes on this hymn O'Driscoll commented, with a wry twinge: 'So often when we ask sermonically for folk to answer our Lord's call, we offer the call with such lack of precision and focus that it is rather miraculous that some actually respond! I have tried to bring some focus to what our Lord might be calling his people to today' (Praise, My Soul, Notes on the Hymns, p. 80).
The love of Jesus calls us in swiftly changing...
Jesus is our Shepherd. Hugh Stowell* (1799-1865).
Many of Hugh Stowell's hymns were written for children. This one is dated 1849 by JJ, p. 1097. It was published in the 12th Edition of his Selection of Psalms & Hymns Suited to the Services of the Church of England (Manchester, 1764). It had four stanzas:
Jesus is our Shepherd, Wiping every tear; Folded in his bosom, What have we to fear? Only let us follow Whither He doth lead, To the thirsty desert Or the dewy mead.
Jesus is our...
Jesus walked this lonesome valley. American Folk Hymn; African American spiritual*
The origins of this folk hymn, appropriate for Holy Week, are shrouded in obscurity. It first appeared in USA hymnals during the second half of the 20th century. Its frequency of inclusion increased by the end of the last century and continues into the current one. Although listed as an American Folk Hymn in most hymnals, its origins may be found in a conflation of the Appalachian folk song tradition and the...
Steal away to Jesus. African American spiritual*.
In common with many African American spirituals, 'the first strain is of the nature of a chorus or refrain, which is to be sung after each verse' (Marsh/Loudin, 1898, p. 159). The pentatonic melody, harmonizations, and text exist in different versions (an account of the origin of this spiritual is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Willis). One version is exemplified by the Fisk Jubilee Singers*' text consisting of the refrain, 'Steal...
Jesus, thou divine companion. Henry van Dyke* (1852-1933).
The first version of this hymn comes from Van Dyke's celebrated poem, The Toiling of Felix, printed in The Toiling of Felix, and Other Poems (New York, 1898). The sub-title of this was 'A Legend on a new saying of Jesus'. The 'new saying' was 'Raise the stone, and thou shalt find me; cleave the wood, and there am I' (from the Coptic Gospel of Thomas). It had four sections, entitled 'The Vision','The Student', 'The Hermit', 'The Worker'....
Jesus, still lead on. Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf* (1700-1760), translated by Jane Laurie Borthwick* (1813-1897).
This is a translation of a composite text, 'Jesu, geh voran', made (probably by Christian Gregor*) from two hymns by Zinzendorf for the Moravian Bruder Gesang-Buch of 1778. The hymns were 'Seelenbräutigam, O Du Gottes Lamm' (translated by John Wesley* as 'O Thou to whose all-searching sight'), and 'Glanz der Ewigkeit' ('Brightness of eternity'). The 1778 text was in four stanzas:...
Jesu(s), we thus obey. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns on the Lord's Supper (1745) in four 8-line stanzas, in the section entitled 'As it [the Sacrament] is a Sign and a Means of Grace' (based on Part IV of Daniel Brevint's The Christian Sacrament and Sacrifice, Oxford, 1673, 'Concerning the Sacrament, as it is a Means of Grace'). It was not included in John Wesley's A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), nor in the 1831 and 1876...
When Jesus came to Jordan. Fred Pratt Green* (1903-2000).
This was written in 1973 at the request of an Australian theology student, Dirk van Dissel, who was at Trinity College, Melbourne at the time. According to Braley, van Dissel was concerned at the lack of a good hymn on the Baptism of Jesus for the forthcoming Australian Hymn Book (WOV, 1977). This three-stanza hymn was the result of correspondence between van Dissel and Pratt Green which 'discussed several drafts with immense care for...
Afflicted souls, to Jesus dear. John Fawcett* (1740-1817).
Published in Fawcett's Hymns adapted to the circumstances of Public Worship and Private Devotion (Leeds, 1782). It was headed 'As thy days, so shall thy strength be. Deut. xxxiii 25.'. It had seven stanzas, each ending with graceful variations on the same line:
Afflicted souls, to Jesus dear,Thy Saviour's gracious promise hear, His faithful word declares to thee, That as thy days, thy strength shall be.
Let not thy heart despond and...
In loving-kindness Jesus came. Charles Hutchinson Gabriel* (1856-1932).
This hymn is perhaps better known by the first line of its refrain:
From sinking sand He lifted me,With tender hand He lifted me;From shades of night to plains of light,Oh, praise His Name, He lifted me!
It is characteristic of the author who was in the full flow of his revivalist oratory in the early years of the 20th century, associated with many vigorous and successful evangelistic campaigns of the time. This text...
Jesus, cast a look on me. John Berridge* (1716-1793).
This is Berridge's re-writing of a hymn by Charles Wesley*, 'Lord, that I may learn of thee'*, in Wesley's Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures (Bristol, 1762), from Isaiah 28:9. Berridge altered three stanzas of Wesley's hymn (1, 3, 4), and added his own (2, 5, 6):
Wesley Berridge
Lord, that I may learn of thee, ...
Jesus, friend of little children. Walter John Mathams* (1853-1931).
According to Percy Dearmer* (Songs of Praise Discussed, 1933, p. 201) this hymn was written at 24 Chalmers Street, Edinburgh in May 1882 at the request of the committee editing the Baptist Union's Psalms and Hymns for School and Home (1882). In that book it was headed '“I have called you friends”. John xv.15'. It became very popular as a hymn in the children's section of many books. Dearmer noted that it was 'a great favourite...
Jesus, the word bestow. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
This hymn was not published in Charles Wesley's lifetime, so that it was not included by John Wesley* in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780). It was added in a later Supplement before 1831. In 'Wesley's Hymns' (1876) it was printed in two 8-line stanzas:
Jesus, the word bestow, The true immortal seed;. The gospel then shall greatly grow And all our land o'erspread; Through earth extended wide ...
Jesus, to Thy table led. Robert Hall Baynes* (1831-1895).
This hymn for Holy Communion was first published in Baynes' The Canterbury Hymnal. A Book of Common Praise adapted to the Services in the Book of Common Prayer (1863), where it was entitled 'To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge' (Ephesians 3: 19). It was in seven 3-line stanzas, beginning with an affecting simplicity:
Jesus, to Thy table led,Now let every heart be fedWith the true and living Bread.
It was found in RCH,...
Beneath the cross of Jesus. Elizabeth Cecilia Douglas Clephane* (1830-1869).
First published anonymously in The Family Treasury, a Scottish religious magazine, in 1872. It appeared after Clephane's death, with other hymns by her, presumably sent to the magazine by a relative or friend. It appeared under the heading 'Breathings on the Border' (referring to the fact that Clephane had lived at Melrose, Roxburghshire, in the Scottish Border country). An editorial note said that these lines 'express...
It is finished! Blessed Jesus. William Dalrymple Maclagan* (1826-1910).
Written for the Second Edition of A&M (1875), where it had ten stanzas, and was in the section entitled 'Hymns on the Passion'. It was shortened to eight stanzas in EH, omitting stanzas 4 and 6:
4. See! He comes, a willing Victim,
Unresisting hither led;
Passing from the Cross of sorrow
To the mansions of the dead.
6. For Himself proclaims the story
Of His own Incarnate life,
And the death He...
Safe in the arms of Jesus. Fanny Crosby* (1820-1915).
Like 'To God be the glory, great things He hath done'*, this was first published in Songs of Devotion for Christian Associations (New York, 1870), edited by William Howard Doane*. It was written on 30 April 1868 in response to a request from Doane for words to fit his tune: according to Crosby, Doane came to her house on that day with the tune, and said that he had forty minutes before his train left for Cincinnati. She wrote the words in...
Happy the souls to Jesus joined. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Hymns on the Lord's Supper (Bristol, 1745), where it was found in Section III, 'The Sacrament a Pledge of Heaven'. This section corresponds to Section V of John Wesley*'s abridgement of Daniel Brevint's The Christian Sacrament and Sacrifice (Oxford, 1673) which precedes the hymns, 'Concerning the Sacrament, as it is a Pledge of Future Glory.' In 1745 it was Hymn XCVI, in four stanzas:
Happy the Souls to Jesus join'd, And...
Lord Jesus, in the days of old. James Ashcroft Noble* (1844-1896).
This was published in Noble's Verses of a Prose Writer (1887), where it was called 'A Hymn for Evening, written for the girls at Wintersdorf' (Noble had lectured on English literature to the girls of Wintersdorf School, Birkdale, Southport). It appeared in the Appendix to the Revised Edition of the school's Wintersdorf Hymnal compiled by Mary S. Simon (1912). It was subsequently included the Wesleyan Methodist School Hymnal...
O Jesus my hope. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), the book that Charles published with his brother's approval to smooth the way to his marriage with Sarah Gwynne. It was in Volume I, the sixth in a series of nine 'Penitential Hymns' ('Stay, thou insulted Spirit, stay'* was the last of the series). It had six stanzas, as follows:
O Jesus my Hope, For me offer'd up,Who with Clamour pursued Thee to Calvary's Top, The Blood I have shed For me let...
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Fanny Crosby (1820-1915).
Written in 1873 to a tune by Phoebe Palmer Knapp*, who played the tune to Crosby and asked 'What does the melody say to you?'. Crosby said that the tune 'said' 'blessed assurance'. It was published in 1873 in the monthly magazine edited by Joseph Fairchild Knapp and Phoebe Palmer Knapp, Guide to Holiness; in the same year it was published in Gems of Praise (Philadelphia, 1873), edited by John R. Sweney*, and in Knapp and Vincent's...
Alleluia! sing to Jesus. William Chatterton Dix* (1837-1898).
Written in 1866 and first published in the author's Altar Songs, Verses on the Holy Eucharist (1867), with the title 'Redemption by the Precious Blood'. It was included in the Appendix (1868) to the First Edition of A&M, with the tune ALLELUIA, specifically written for it by Samuel Sebastian Wesley*. It has also been closely associated with HYFRYDOL since being set to that tune in EH (1906); several other tunes are also used....
Jesus, at thy command. Richard De Courcy* (1743-1803) or Augustus Montague Toplady* (1740-1778), or another, unknown.
JJ noted that this hymn was published in an undated edition of the Countess of Huntingdon*'s Collection of Hymns published in Bath ca. 1774 (p. 596). He gave other early examples, including Toplady's Psalms and Hymns* (1776) and the Second Edition of De Courcy's Collection of Psalms and Hymns (Shrewsbury, 1782). It was included in six stanzas in John Rippon*'s Selection of...
Jesus, Sun of Righteousness. Christian Knorr von Rosenroth* (1636-1689), translated by Jane Laurie Borthwick* (1813-1897).
This translation of 'Morgenglanz der Ewigkeit'*, was published in Hymns from the Land of Luther. Translated from the German (Edinburgh, 1853). It was entitled 'Morning Hymn'. It was preceded by 'My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord'. PSALM v.3.'. It had five stanzas:
Jesus, Sun of Righteousness Brightest beam of Love Divine,With the early morning rays Do...
Jesus es mi Rey soberano. Vicente Mendoza* (1875-1955).
This is the most widely used original hymn by Mendoza. Fernández comments as follows:
The best known hymn to Hispanics is one written by Dr. Vicente Mendoza. It is said that while he was waiting for a bus on a street corner in Los Angeles on a foggy night the words for 'Jesus es mi Rey Soberano' came to his mind. Even today this hymn is sung in all Hispanic churches throughout the world (Fernández, p. 67).
Translated by Esther Frances...
Jesus, good above all other. Percy Dearmer* (1867-1936).
Written for EH to fit the tune QUEM PASTORES LAUDAVERE, this has become one of Dearmer's most popular hymns. It was written for children, and it neatly turns the Nativity opening into a general hymn of perseverance, thus making it eminently suitable for a school hymn.
It was written in imitation of part of a hymn sometimes attributed to Adam of St Victor* (d. 1146) and translated by John Mason Neale* beginning 'Missa Gabriel de caelis'....
Come let us sing of Jesus. George Washington Bethune* (1805-1862).
F.M. Bird notes that this hymn was published in 1850, and that it was 'suited to Sunday schools' (JJ, p. 139). The earliest printing in the USA recorded in Hymnary.org was in William Batchelder Bradbury*'s Sabbath School Melodies, and Family Choir: a complete collection of hymns and music for all Sabbath school occasions (New York, 1850), which confirms Bird's entry and is more specific. It had four stanzas:
Come, let us...
One more day's work for Jesus. Anna Bartlett Warner* (1827-1915).
This appeared in Warner's Wayfaring Hymns, Original and Translated (1869). It was the last hymn in the book, entitled 'The Song of a Tired Servant':
'One more day's work for Jesus,' - One less of life for me! But heaven is nearer, And Christ is dearer, Than yesterday, to me.His love and lightFill all my soul to-night.
One more day's work for Jesus: How glorious is my King! 'Tis joy, not duty, To speak His...
'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus. Louisa M.R. Stead* (1846–1917).
Though the circumstances cannot be verified, a general consensus is that this hymn was composed in response to the drowning of the author's first husband in 1876, off the coast of Long Island, New York, when he attempted to rescue a floundering boy. The hymn appeared in four stanzas in Songs of Triumph (Philadelphia, 1882), No. 46, compiled by Rev. John S. Inskip (1816–1884), where it was paired with a tune by William J....
Stand up, stand up for Jesus. George Duffield (1818-1888).
This was written in 1858, inspired by the last words of Duffield's friend Dudley A. Tyng (1825-1858). Tyng, a fearless opponent of contemporary evils such as slavery, had preached to a meeting of five thousand people at Philadelphia on 30 March 1858. He then went to help on the family farm, and became entangled with a piece of machinery; his arm had to be amputated, and he died a few days later. On his deathbed he said 'Tell them to...
I have decided to follow Jesus. Simon Kara Marak* (1877–1975). Formerly attributed to Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929).
Very few hymnals ascribe an author or composer to this widely sung piece, usually indicating 'Source unknown' or 'Anonymous'. Several hymnals produced during the decade of the 1950s include it, the earliest catalogued in Hymnary.org being Choice Light and Life Songs (Winona Lake, IN, 1950). It has appeared in over fifty collections in North America published since 1950.
Baptist...
Jesus comes with all his grace. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), the volume published with Charles's name only, with his brother's approval and to raise money for Charles's marriage to Sarah Gwynne. It was Hymn XXXIII of 'Hymns for those that wait for Full Redemption'. It had 11 stanzas:
Jesus comes with all his Grace, Comes to save a Fallen Race: Object of our Glorious Hope, Jesus comes to lift us up.
Let the Living Stones cry out, Let the Sons...
Jesus, my all, to Heaven is gone. John Cennick* (1718-1755).
This hymn was printed in Cennick's Sacred Hymns for the Use of Religious Societies,Part II (Bristol, 1743). It was entitled 'Following Christ, the Sinners Way to God'. It had nine stanzas:
Jesus, my All, to Heav'n is gone;He that I plac'd my Hopes upon;His Track I see – and I'll pursueThe narrow Way, 'till Him I view.
The Way the Holy Prophets went,The Road that leads from Banishment,The King's High-Way of HolinessI'll go; for...
Jesus soll die Losung sein. Benjamin Schmolck* (1672-1737).
First published in Schmolck's Mara und Manna, oder: Neue Sammlung von Creutz- Trost- Klag- und Freuden-Liedern (Breslau and Liegnitz, 1726). It had nine 6-line stanzas, and was entitled 'Jesus Name zum neuen Jahre' ('Jesu's Name for the New Year, 1725'). It is in EG in the 'Jahreswende' ('turn of the year') section, in five verses (EG 62). The omitted verses were 5 ('Unsers Kaysers Majestät'), 6 ('Jesus Name, Jesus Kraft'), 7 ('Jesus...
Gentle Jesus, meek and mild. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1742) in fourteen 4-line stanzas. The full original text is printed in Frank Baker's Representative Verse of Charles Wesley (1962), pp. 41-2. Various abridgements of the hymn have been published, with a variety of opening lines. In addition to the original first line, Wesley's stanza 8, 'Lamb of God, I look to thee', and his stanza 13, 'Loving Jesu(s), gentle Lamb', have been chosen as the start...
Jesus lives! thy terrors now. Christian Fürchtegott Gellert* (1715-1769), translated by Frances Elizabeth Cox* (1812-1897).
Gellert's hymn, beginning 'Jesus lebt, mit ihm auch ich'* was published in his Geistliche Oden und Lieder (Leipzig, 1757). Cox's translation appeared in her Sacred Hymns from the German (1841) in six 6-line verses opposite the German text, thus:
Jesus lebt, mit ihm auch ich: Tod, wo sind nun deine Schrecken? Er, er lebt und wird auch mich Von den Toden auferwecken: Er...
Jesus loves me! this I know. Anna Bartlett Warner* (1827-1915).
Anna Warner's sister, Susan Bogert Warner*, was a very successful novelist. This famous hymn occurs in one of her books, Say and Seal (1859), to which Anna (also a novelist, though a less successful one) contributed. A motherless boy, Johnny Fax, is ill, and is comforted by his Sunday school teacher as he is dying. The teacher, John Linden, sings this hymn, entitled 'The Love of Jesus'. It was published in The Golden Shower of S.S....
Jesus nimmt die Sünder an. Erdmann Neumeister* (1671-1756).
First published in Neumeister's Evangelischer Nachklang (Hamburg, 1718) on the acceptance of sinners (Luke 15: 2) in eight 6-line stanzas. This has been widely used in Germany, and is still in EG in all eight verses (EG 353). There have been several translations into English: the best known is that by Emma Frances Bevan*, 'Sinners Jesus will receive'*. The original text repeats the first line at the end of each stanza, and at the...
Jesus calls the children dear (Jesus loves the little children). C. Herbert Woolston* (1856–1927).
C. Herbert Woolston's extensive ministry to children as a magician and author led to the composition of this text. Most children connected to Christian churches in the United States between 1930 and 2000 most likely learned the refrain of the original hymn either in Sunday (Church) School, a children's choir, or a domestic setting:
Refrain:
Jesus loves the little children,All the children of the...
Jesus, thine all-victorious love. See 'My God, I know, I feel thee mine'*.
Jesus, and shall it ever be. Joseph Grigg* (ca. 1720-1768), altered by Benjamin Francis* (1734-1799).
First published in Grigg's Four Hymns on Divine Subjects, wherein the Patience and Love of our Divine Saviour is displayed (1765). Ira D. Sankey* stated, improbably, that this had been written by Grigg when a child, and that when it was first published it was headed 'Shame of Jesus conquered by love, by a youth of ten years' (Sankey, 1906, p. 129).
According to Taylor (1989), the first verse...
O the deep, deep love of Jesus. Samuel Trevor Francis* (1834-1925).
Written before 1898, when it was published in Francis's Whence-Whither, and Other Poems. It had eight stanzas (accessible at https://www.hymnologyarchive.com/o-the-deep-deep-love-of-jesus). It was shortened to three stanzas in Hymns of Consecration and Faith 2 (1902), and in The Song Companion to the Scriptures (1911), and this has become the customary version in hymnals (the full hymn is in the posthumously-published...
I need Thee, precious Jesus. Frederick Whitfield* (1829-1904).
Published in Whitfield's Sacred Poems and Prose (Dublin, 1859), where it was entitled 'The Need of Jesus'. It was prefaced with '“Unto you who believe He is precious.” 1. Pet. ii. 7'. It may have been one of those hymns that were mentioned in the Preface as having appeared earlier.
It had six 8-line stanzaas, each beginning 'I need Thee, precious Jesus', and continuing with (1) 'For I am full of sin', (2) 'For I am very poor', (3)...
I lay my sins on Jesus. Horatius Bonar* (1808-1889).
This was first published in Bonar's Songs for the Wilderness, First Series (Kelso, 1843) (not 'in the Wilderness' as in JJ, p. 556). It was entitled 'The Fulness of Jesus', and preceded by a quotation from Isaiah: 'He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed - Isaiah, liii. 5.' It had four 8-line stanzas.It was later printed in his...
I want Jesus to walk with me. American Folk Hymn; African American spiritual*.
Traditionally attributed to the African-American spiritual tradition, there is no record of this spiritual in early collections. This results in an undetermined first publication date and has led to some divergent scholarship on its origin. Hymnologist Donald P. Hustad* notes: 'Though the source of this American folk hymn is unknown, it is probably one of the “white spirituals” which thrived for more than two...
O Jesus Christus, wachs' in mir. Johann Kaspar Lavater* (1741-1801).
From Lavater's Christliche Lieder…Zweytes Hundert (1780), with the date 'Am Neujahrstage 1780'. It was prefaced with the words 'Christus muß wachsen; ich aber muß abnehmen' ('Christ must increase; but I must decrease'), from John 3: 30. It is found in Part II of Lavater's Zweihundert Christliche Lieder (Zürich, 1844), at no. 86 (the book is not indexed). It had ten 4-line stanzas. It is well known in British and American books...
When Jesus' friend had ceased to be. Elizabeth Barrett Browning* (1806-1861).
This was 'Hymn III' in the sequence of four hymns printed in Elizabeth Barrett's The Seraphim, and other poems (1838). It was entitled 'The Weeping Saviour'. It is a meditation on human failure and sin, prompted by the story of the raising of Lazarus, and exploring as a preacher might do, the very moving implications of a verse (John 11: 35) that is usually noted only as being the shortest in the Bible: 'Jesus wept.'...
Hear thy children, gentle Jesus. Francis Stanfield* (1835-1914).
Stanfield wrote two very similar hymns for children. The first, 'Hear thy children, gentlest Mother'*, addressed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, was published in his Catholic Hymns (1858, 1860). The second, with the first line as above, was in his Holy Family Hymns (1860). Each had four stanzas, in the same metre.
Both were published in the Westminster Hymnal (WH, 1912). The present one addressed to Jesus survived into the Revised...
I heard the voice of Jesus say. Horatius Bonar* (1808-1889).
Written during the author's ministry in Kelso in the Scottish Borders, this hymn was first published in his Hymns, Original and Selected (1846) and subsequently appeared in the first series of his Hymns of Faith and Hope (1857), where it was given the title 'The Voice from Galilee'. It has become easily the most popular of Bonar's many hymns and is found in numerous hymnals of all denominations, and in all English-speaking...
Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling. Will L. Thompson* (1847-1909).
First published in one of the publications of the Will L. Thompson Co. in Chicago, Sparkling Gems Nos 1 and 2 Combined (1880), edited by J. Calvin Bushey. It is a powerful and emotional hymn of invitation, with its refrain, 'Come home, come home,/ You who are weary, come home.' Young has described it as 'a typical lullaby in the gospel hymn tradition' in which Jesus is 'waiting, caring, and forgiving in intimate – and for many...
I can picture Jesus toiling. Dorothy Helen Stone* (dates not known, possibly 1890-1954).
This was one of four hymns contributed by Stone to Hosanna: A Book of Praise for Young Children, ed. T. Grigg-Smith, Charles Wood* and H. Middleton (1930). It is the only one that has been widely used: it is found in CP, CH3, in Sunday School Praise (1958), and in WOV. The last-named alters the text to avoid non-inclusive language, such as 'men', and even 'worker' and 'Lord'. Apart from this single...
Jesus, keep me near the cross. Fanny Crosby* (1820-1915).
Written in 1869 to fit a tune by William Howard Doane*, now called NEAR THE CROSS. It has a characteristic Crosby refrain, linking the repetition of 'in the cross' with the promise of a life in heaven:
In the cross, in the cross,
Be my glory ever;
Till my raptured soul shall find
Rest beyond the river.
The four stanzas were:
Jesus, keep me near the Cross: There a precious fountain,Free to all - a healing stream - Flows from...
Hail, thou once despised Jesus. (?) John Bakewell* (1721-1819). This hymn appeared without an author's name in A Collection of Hymns addressed to the Holy, Holy, Holy, triune God, in the Person of Christ Jesus, our Mediator and Advocate (1757). It had two 8-line stanzas. In 1760 it was enlarged to twice the original length, with the addition of an 8-line stanza beginning 'Paschal Lamb by God appointed' and two further quatrains, one beginning
There for Sinners thou art pleading
'Spare them...
How sweet the name of Jesus sounds. John Newton* (1725-1807).
First published in Olney Hymns (1779) Book I, 'On select Passages of Scripture', with the title 'The name of Jesus' and a reference to the Song of Solomon 1:3, 'Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee'. The text gives a New Testament reading of the Old Testament imagery, in which the 'sweetness' pervading the poem has rich associations. It is both the...
Jesus, come, for we invite you. Christopher Martin Idle* (1938- ).
Written at the season of Epiphany, 1979, when the author was rector of Limehouse. Based on the account of the first miracle, the changing of water into wine (John 2: 1-11), it can be used for weddings (it appeared in The Wedding Book, 1989) although it is primarily about transforming power. It first appeared in Hymns with the New Lectionary (Nottingham, 1980) and then in HfTC and Praise! (2000). In HFTC it is set to a tune by...
O Jesus, crowned with all renown. Edward White Benson* (1829-1896).
This hymn for Rogation Day was first published in Heroum Filii: Hymn-Book for the use of Wellington College (1860), with the first line as 'O Thron'd, O Crown'd with all renown'. The hymn is normally dated 1860, though it may have been written earlier, when Benson was teaching at Rugby (he became Headmaster of Wellington in 1858, and the Hymn-Book, with its inspiring title, 'sons of heroes', was one of his first ventures). It...
The cross upon which Jesus died. Ira Forest Stanphill* (1914-1993).
Written by Stanphill and his wife Zelma in 1945 for a revival meeting in Kansas City, Missouri and published in Hymntime Harmonies (Fort Worth, Texas, 1946), one of the publications from Stanphill's Hymntime imprint. It was written after Stanphill had asked the congregation of the morning worship service for a song subject, and a member called out 'Room at the cross'. This provided the refrain, by which the hymn is sometimes...
Give me Jesus (In the morning when I rise). African American spiritual*.
The origins of this spiritual appear to be a confluence of the white hymn tradition and the creativity and experiences of enslaved Africans. Numerous first stanzas appear over the decades with the refrain 'Give me Jesus', though the most commonly used initial stanza now begins 'In the morning when I rise'.
The earliest post-Civil War collection, Slave Songs of the United States* (New York, 1867), edited by William...
O Jesus, I have promised. John Ernest Bode* (1816-74).
Written in 1866 for the Confirmation of Bode's three children, a daughter and two sons. It is said to have originally begun 'O Jesus, we have promised', but this has not been confirmed. It was published in leaflet form by SPCK in 1868, entitled 'Hymn for the newly Confirmed', in the New Appendix to the New and Enlarged Edition of Hymns for Public Worship (1870), and in their Church Hymns (1871). Oddly, it was placed by Church Hymns in the...
Father of Jesus Christ, my Lord. Charles Wesley (1707-1788).
From Hymns and Sacred Poems (1742), where it was entitled 'Romans iv.16, &c.'. In the 1780 Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists it was included by John Wesley* in the section 'For Believers Groaning for Full Redemption', with the omission of stanzas 4, 6, 10-12, and 16-19, to make a hymn of eleven 4-line stanzas.
The original hymn of twenty 4-line stanzas is a most interesting exposition of the...
Blessed Jesus, here we stand. Benjamin Schmolck* (1672-1737), translated by Catherine Winkworth* (1827-1878).
Schmolck's hymn, 'Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier, deinem Worte nachzuleben'*, was published in his Heilige Flammen der Himmlisch-gesinnten Seele (Third Edition, 1706) in seven 6-line stanzas, entitled 'Seasonable Reflections of the sponsors on their way with the child to Baptism'. Winkworth translated six stanzas for Lyra Germanica II (1858), where it appeared as the first hymn in the...
Give me the faith that Jesus had. William Pearson* (1832-1892).
Pearson, who began life as a Methodist before joining William Booth*'s Christian Mission, (renamed the Salvation Army), must have been familiar with Charles Wesley*'s 'Give me the faith which can remove'*. This close imitation of Wesley's hymn was published in The War Cry on 19 April 1884, with the title 'THE FAITH. BY MAJOR PEARSON. TUNE—“Sovereignty,” or any 6 lines, 8's'. It had five stanzas:
Give me the faith that Jesus...
Jesus, the gift divine I know. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
This is a composite hymn in five stanzas created by John Wesley* in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists from two texts in Charles Wesley's Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures (Bristol, 1762). The first two stanzas (Volume II, p. 244) were on John 4: 10, 14: 'If thou knowest the gift of God - thou would'st have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water, &c.:
Jesus,...
Jesus, united by thy grace. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1742), where it was Part IV of a hymn that began 'Try us, O God, and search the Ground'. It was entitled 'A Prayer for Persons join'd in Fellowship'. Stanzas from Part I and Part IV of this hymn were used to make 'Help us to help each other, Lord'*.
It began 'Jesu, united by Thy Grace', but the modern 'Jesus' avoids the uncomfortable repetition of 'u', and has been adopted by most books.
The...
What a friend we have in Jesus. Joseph Medlicott Scriven* (1819-1886).
Written in Canada West during the mid-1850s by an Irish immigrant teacher, hymn writer, and Plymouth Brethren leader, Joseph Medlicott Scriven, allegedly for his mother who lived in present-day Northern Ireland. While the hymn circulated in at least three manuscripts, Scriven himself did not choose to include it in his own collections of hymns published during his lifetime. It was published in J.B. Packard's Spirit Minstrel:...
Come kindred, upstand in the valour of Jesus. Philip T.B. ('Tubby') Clayton* (1885-1972).
Clayton wrote this text for the December 1923 Birthday Thanksgiving Service at All Hallows by the Tower of Toc H, a post-World War I organization founded to extend the sense of community and service experienced by many British soldiers during the Great War at Talbot House ('Toc' was the signallers' sign for 'T'). It was published in SofPE (1931):
Come kindred, upstand in the valour of Jesus,And praise...
Come with us, O blessed Jesus. John Henry Hopkins, Jr.* (1820-1891).
First published in the Second Edition, enlarged, of Hopkins's Carols, Hymns, and Songs (New York, 1872). It was entitled 'Retrocessional for Christmas Day'; it provides a fine conclusion to a service on that day.
After having been neglected for many years, the first stanza of this hymn was printed in H40, with a tune by Johann Schop*, sometimes called WERDE MUNTER, after the hymn by Johann Rist*, 'Werde munter, mein Gemüte'*,...
Jesus, my Saviour, full of grace. Benjamin Ingham* (1712-1772).
This hymn appeared in the Inghamite hymnal, A Collection of Hymns for the Use of Those that seek, and Those that have Redemption in the Blood of Christ (Kendal, 1757), known as the 'Kendal Hymn Book'. It had six stanzas:
Jesus, the Saviour of my soul, Be Thou my heart's delight;Remain the same to me always, My joy by day and night.
Hungry and thirsty after Thee, May I be found each hour; Humble in heart, and happy kept By...
Jesus, tender Shepherd, hear me. Mary Duncan* (1814-40).
This attractively simple three-stanza hymn was one of those written by Mary Duncan for her own children during the last year of her tragically short life. It was published in Memoir of Mrs W.W. Duncan (Edinburgh, 1841), written by her mother, Mary Lundie, and also in Rhymes for my Children (Edinburgh, 1842), containing Duncan's hymns reprinted from the Memoir. It is filled with the care of a dying mother for her little children:
Jesus,...
Jesus, these eyes have never seen. Ray Palmer* (1808-1887). Written at Albany, New York, in 1858, and first published in The Sabbath Hymn Book: for the Service of Song in the House of the Lord (1858), edited by Lowell Mason*, Edwards Amasa Park and Austin Phelps. In The Poetical Works of Ray Palmer. Complete Edition it is headed 'Unseen, not Unknown. “Whom having not seen, ye love” – 1 Peter 1:8'. According to the Companion to CP (1953) Palmer 'was preparing a sermon which had Christ as its...
Jesus, Savior Lord, lo to you I fly ('Saranam, saranam'). Traditional Pakistani, translated by Daniel Thambyrajah Niles* (1908-1970).
Asian hymns are perhaps the most neglected repertoire in Western hymnals. Hymns that are available in Asian musical idioms are rarer. The normative practice in Asian churches is to sing Western classic hymns in translation or use contemporary Christian music. Because of their experience with many Western missionaries who did not encourage composition in Asian...
Jesus Christus herrscht als König. Philipp Friedrich Hiller* (1699-1769).
First published in Hiller's Die Reyhe der Vorbilder Jesu Christi (Stuttgart, 1757). Unlike the hymns in Hiller's Geistliches Liederkästlein, this was a long hymn of 26 stanzas, shortened to 11 (1, 2, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 18, 20, 25, 26) in EG, where it is found in the 'Himmelfahrt' ('Ascension') section (EG 123). Its original title was 'Lied von dem grossen Erlöser den 28. Aug. 1755. über Ephes. 1, 21, 22.' It is a hymn of...
Jesus! the name high over all. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), the volume that was published by Charles with his brother's approval to help towards Charles's marriage. The title was 'After preaching (in a Church)', in twenty-two 4-line stanzas. The first stanza was
Jesu, accept the grateful Song My Wisdom and my Might,'Tis Thou hast loos'd the stammering Tongue, And taught my Hands to fight.
The hymn as it is always known begins at stanza 9....
My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine. Unattributed composite compilation by several authors.
My Jesus, I love thee, I know thou art mine; For thee all the follies of sin I resign. My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art thou; If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.
Hymnologists and hymnal editors have often credited this well-known hymn among Evangelicals to Canadian William Ralph Featherston (1849-1873), a member of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Montreal. Though many sources indicate...
Jesus, my Saviour, look on me. Charlotte Elliott* (1789-1871).
JJ, p. 328, gives this hymn as coming from Elliott's Thoughts in Verse on Sacred Subjects (1869), but it is certainly earlier than this. In the Orthodox Presbyterian Church's Trinity Hymnal (Philadelphia, 1961) it is dated 1848, and the page scans of Hymnary.org print it from A Collection of Hymns dated 1859. It had seven stanzas:
Jesus, my Saviour, look on me, For I am weary and oppressed; I come to cast myself on Thee ;...
Jesus, thy Church with longing eyes. William Hiley Bathurst* (1796-1877).
This was first published in Psalms and Hymns for Public and Private Use (1831, 'By W.H. Bathurst, M.A., Rector of Barwick in Elmet'), with the title 'Second Coming of Christ'. It had six 4-line stanzas:
Jesus, Thy Church, with longing eyes, For Thy expected coming waits; When will the promised light arise, And glory beam from Zion's gates?
Even now, when tempests round us fall, And wintry clouds o'ercast the sky;...
Jesus, where'er thy people meet. William Cowper* (1731-1800).
Written in 1769 to celebrate the opening of a room at the Great House, Olney, as a meeting room for the local prayer group, and printed as Hymn XLIV in Book II of Olney Hymns (1779). The opening of a place of worship is paradoxically used to make the point that God transcends all boundaries and therefore every place is sacred to the Christian. Transcendence and intimacy are combined in the idea that God who defies all limitation is...
Jesus calls us! O'er the tumult. Cecil Frances Alexander* (1818-1895).
Written for St Andrew's Day (30 November) and included in a book published by the SPCK, Hymns for Public Worship (1852), edited by Thomas Vincent Fosbery*. It was published with an inferior and amended text in its successor, the SPCK Church Hymns (1871; Church Hymns with Tunes, 1874) and in the Second Edition of A&M (1875). EH returned to Alexander's version, and many 20th-century books followed, although successive...
O Heart of Jesus, Heart of God. Georgiana Fullerton* (1812-1895).
Published in Fullerton's The Gold-Digger and other verses (1872), and then in The Parochial Hymn Book (1880). It was included by Albert Edmonds Tozer* in his Catholic Hymns: Original and Translated (1898).
It had nine verses. It was in the section entitled 'The Sacred Heart' in the Westminster Hymnal (1912). It is a passionate expression of trust in the mercy of Christ, with a powerful use of adjectives:
The poorest, saddest...
Ye who own the faith of Jesus. Vincent Stuckey Stratton Coles* (1845-1929).
From the English Hymnal (1906), in the section 'Saints' Days: St Mary the Virgin', under the initials 'V. S. S. C.'. It had seven stanzas, two of which were asterisked for possible omission. This was probably because of their content, inviting intercessions through the Blessed Virgin Mary, suggesting prayers for the dead. Each stanza of the hymn ended with an 'Ave Maria', 'Hail Mary, full of grace'. This was one of...
Must Jesus bear the cross alone. USA, 19th-century.
This hymn, a product of early 19th-century American Adventism, has appeared in 1083 USA collections. Some texts have the first line as 'Must (or 'Shall') Simon bear his cross alone'.
It is found in two text versions and distinct musical settings. It is almost unknown in Britain, apart from a printing in the Song Book of the Salvation Army (1953 edition).
Version 1
The first commentary on a version of the hymn, its musical setting, author...
Jesus my strength, my hope. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Hymns and Sacred Poems (1742), where it had seven 8-line stanzas, each of which was divided into two. It was entitled 'A Poor Sinner'. The word 'want' is used throughout in the sense of 'need':
1. Jesu, my Strength, my Hope, On Thee I cast my Care, With humble Confidence look up, And know Thou hearst my Prayer.
Give me on Thee to wait Till I can all Things do, On Thee Almighty to create, Almighty to...
While my Jesus I'm possessing. James Allen* (1734-1804).
It is noted in JJ, p. 1274, that this hymn appeared in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of Those that Seek, and Those that have Redemption in the Blood of Christ (Kendal, 1757, Second Edition, with appendix, 1761), known as the 'Kendal Hymn Book', but that it was rewritten by Walter Shirley* for the Countess of Huntington's Collection of Hymns (1770 edition) as 'Sweet the moments, rich in blessing'*. For the full text, JJ refers the...
Come, said Jesus' sacred voice. Anna Letitia Barbauld* (1742-1825).
From Barbauld's Poems (1792). It was headed 'Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' (from part of Matthew 11: 28). It had five stanzas:
Come, said Jesus' sacred voice, Come and make my paths your choice: I will guide you to your home; Weary pilgrim, hither come!
Thou who houseless, sole, forlorn, Long hast borne the proud world's scorn, Long hast roamed the barren waste, Weary pilgrim,...
Jesus, Lord, we look to thee. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), volume I, in the section 'Hymns for Believers', entitled 'For a Family'. It had six stanzas, originally beginning 'Jesu, Lord…' (amended here because the hymn is widely known as above). It was included in the 1780 Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists in the section 'For the Society, Praying'. It has remained in Methodist use, with slight alterations, apart from an...
When the Church of Jesus/ Shuts its outer door. Fred Pratt Green* (1903-2000).
Apart from a school hymn written for Humanby Hall School, Yorkshire, when Pratt Green was chaplain there from 1928 to 1931, this was his first hymn: it can be seen as the beginning of his later career as a hymn writer. It is No 1 in The Hymns and Ballads of Fred Pratt Green, edited by Bernard Braley (1982).
He first two lines, as above, are an indication of the three-stanza hymn that follows. It dates from 1968, when...
My Jesus, my saviour (Shout to the Lord). Darlene Zschech* (1965- ).
Written in 1993 during a time of familial struggle, the lyrics of this song are an encouragement to believers to persevere in faith through periods of hardship and doubt. The verse, written in the first person, speaks of Jesus as 'comfort', 'shelter', and 'tower of refuge and strength', and concludes with a petition that the singers might devote themselves wholly to his worship, of which the succeeding refrain becomes a...
All, yes, all I give to Jesus. Jonathan Burtch Atchinson* (1840-1882).
First published in Triumphant Songs No. 2 (Chicago: the Edwin O. Excell Co., 1889), with a tune by Edwin O. Excell* named ESCONDIDO. It was headed 'Dedicated to the “Deaconesses” of America' (Deaconesses were active in several churches and hospitals in the 1880s and 1890s). It had four stanzas:
All, yes, all I give to Jesus, It belongs to Him; All my heart I give to Jesus It belongs to Him; Evermore to be His dwelling,...
Jesus, sun and shield art thou. Horatius Bonar* (1808-1889).
First published in Bonar's Hymns of Faith and Hope, Second Series (1861). It was entitled 'Jesus the First and Last'. It had five stanzas, beginning
Jesus, sun and shield art thou
Jesus, bread and wine art thou
Jesus, Love and Life art thou
Jesus, peace and joy art thou
Jesus, song and strength art thou
This structure is characteristic of Bonar's technique, which sets up a pattern in stanza 1 and makes variations on it in subsequent...
Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go. Jessie Brown Pounds* (1861-1921).
One of Pounds' early hymns, written when she was still Jessie Brown, this was published in Hymns Old and New No 1, edited by Daniel B. Towner* (Chicago/New York, 1887). It had three stanzas:
Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go;Anywhere He leads me in this world below;Anywhere without Him dearest joys would fade;Anywhere with Jesus I am not afraid.
Anywhere with Jesus I am not alone;Other friends may fail me, He is still my...
More about Jesus would I know. Eliza E. Hewitt* (1851-1920).
First published in Glad Hallelujahs (1887) in four stanzas with a refrain:
More about Jesus would I know,More of His grace to others show;More of His saving fullness see,More of His love who died for me.
Refrain:
More, more about Jesus, More, more about Jesus; More of His saving fullness see, More of His love who died for me.
More about Jesus let me learn,More of His holy will discern;Spirit of God, my teacher be,Showing the...
Jesus lebt, mit ihm auch ich. Christian Fürchtegott Gellert* (1715-1769).
This is the better known of two Easter hymns, 'Osterlieder', in Gellert's Geistliche Oden und Lieder (Leipzig, 1757) (the other is 'Erinnre dich, mein Geist, erfreut'). This one is in six stanzas, each of which ends with 'Diese ist meine Zuversicht' ('This is my confidence'), with a final verse triumphantly addressing God: 'Herr, Herr, meine Zuversicht'. It rapidly became popular and has remained so: all six stanzas are...
I must tell Jesus of all of my trials. Elisha Hoffman* (1839-1929).
Written in 1893 after visiting a woman in trouble, to whom Hoffman spoke words of comfort, advising her to 'take all of your sorrows to Jesus'. She replied 'I must tell Jesus', which gave Hoffman the germ of the hymn. It had a refrain and four stanzas. The refrain was:
I must tell Jesus!I must tell Jesus!I cannot bear my burdens alone;I must tell Jesus!I must tell Jesus!Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.
The stanzas preach comfort...
Jesus calls us here to meet him. John Lamberton Bell* (1949- ) and Graham Maule* (1958-2019).
From Love from Below (Wild Goose Songs 3) (1989), where the title is 'Jesus calls us'. Its opening line suggests a general call to worship in the manner of William Cowper*'s 'Jesus, where'er thy people meet'*, and the first three stanzas can be used for this purpose. The fourth stanza, beginning 'Jesus calls us to his table', makes its purpose clear. It is a hymn in which the previous three stanzas can...
I'm so glad Jesus lifted me. African American spiritual*.
The earliest printed version appears to be in the African American Episcopal hymnal, Lift Every Voice and Sing (1981), followed by Yes, Lord! Church of God in Christ Hymnal (1982). Suzanne Flandreau, retired head archivist and librarian for the Center for Black Music Research (Chicago), notes that while 'it is not totally unheard of for a traditional spiritual to have survived in oral tradition without being published until fairly...
O Lord Jesus, I adore thee. Jean Mauburn* (ca. 1460-1503), translated by John Macleod Campbell Crum* (1872-1958).
From Mauburn's Rosetum exercitiorum spiritualium (1491), Titulus VI, Alphabetum xxiii, where it began 'Eia, Jesu adorande'. It is a post-Communion hymn in six stanzas, four of which (1, 2, 5, 6) were translated by Crum for A Plainsong Hymnbook (1932). These were subsequently used in A&MR:
O Lord Jesus, I adore Thee
For the bread of worth untold
Freely given in Thy...
Sunday schools were founded in the UK and the USA in the late 18th century to teach reading, and the Bible to children, and others who worked six days a week. The American version of the Sunday school had a significant impact on many aspects of American society, not the least the school's distinctive song, which was an important laboratory for public and church music education, a leading participant in the dynamic growth, visibility and popularity of music during the century of expansion, and...
I've found a friend in Jesus, He's everything to me. Charles William Fry* (1837-1882).
A note found by Fry's widow after his death indicated that this hymn had been written in June 1881 at Lincoln at the house of a friend called Wilkinson. Before Fry's death, however, it had been sung at a holiness convention at the Wesleyan Chapel at City Road, London, on 20 December 1881. It was first published in The War Cry (29 December 1881), and then in Salvation Music Vol 2 (1883). In the USA it was...
We would see Jesus, for the shadows lengthen. Anna Bartlett Warner* (1827-1915).
This hymn appeared in Anna Warner's novel, Dollars and Cents (New York, 1852) (JJ, p. 1725). The novel was republished in Britain as Speculation; or the Glen-Luna family (London: Routledge, 1853), with the author's name as 'Amy Lothrop' (Anna Warner's pseudonym).
A previous entry in JJ, p. 1595, had said that the hymn was 'usually atributed to Ellen Ellis, a contributor to the Golden Grain Series' (a...
Dying with Jesus, by death reckoned mine. Daniel Webster Whittle* (1840-1901).
This hymn is sometimes known by its refrain, 'Moment by moment I'm kept in His love'. It was written in 1893. In that year an English evangelist, Henry Varley (1835-1912), is said to have told Whittle that 'I do not like the hymn “I need thee every hour” very well, because I need the Lord every moment of the day.' Varley's foolish remark (for 'every hour' clearly means 'all the time') led to this hymn. It is...
Uns wird erzählt von Jesus Christ. Kurt Rommel* (1926-2011).
Written in 1967, and first sung at a Family Service at Schwenningen am Neckar (Villingen-Schwenningen), where Rommel was pastor. It was published in 111 Kinderlieder zur Bibel. Neue Lieder für Schule, Kirche und Haus, edited by Gerd Watkinson (Freiburg in Breisgau, 1968) with the title 'Weihnachtslied' ('Christmas Song'). Each stanza begins with the same line repeated, 'Uns wird erzählt von Jesus Christ' ('The story of Jesus will be...
I am trusting Thee, Lord Jesus. Frances Ridley Havergal* (1836-1879).
Written in September 1874 in Switzerland, and printed in leaflet form. It was later published in Havergal's Loyal Responses (1878) with the title 'Trusting Jesus':
I am trusting Thee, Lord Jesus, Trusting only Thee;Trusting Thee for full salvation, Great and free.
I am trusting Thee for pardon; At Thy feet I bow,For Thy grace and tender mercy, Trusting now.
I am trusting Thee for cleansing In the crimson flood;Trusting...
Ye neighbours and friends Of Jesus draw near. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), the book that Charles Wesley published in his own name with his brother's approval. It began:
Ye Neighbours, and Friends of Jesus, draw near; His Love condescends, By Titles so dear To call, and invite you His Triumph to prove, And freely delight you In Jesus his love.
The Shepherd who died His Sheep to redeem, On ev'ry Side are gather'd to Him, The Weary and...
God forgave my sin in Jesus' name. Carol Owens* (1931- ). Written for a musical, Come Together (1972) by Carol Owens, and arranged by her husband Jimmy Owens*. Written at the suggestion of Jack Hayford* for his Church of the Way, Los Angeles, the musical was performed in many parts of America with the gospel singer Pat Boone as the lead singer. It had a very successful tour of Britain in 1973.
This number is sometimes remembered as 'Freely, freely' from its refrain:
Freely, freely you have...
Jesus the Lord said, 'I am the Bread'. Urdu hymn, translated by Dermott Monahan* (1906-1957).
These words were set to an Urdu melody, YISU NE KAHA, recorded by an ethnomusicologist, Kate Greenfield, and arranged by Francis Westbrook*. The hymn was written to fit this beautiful melody; Westbrook's arrangement was made ca. 1940 for a booklet of hymns for Sunday School anniversaries. Words and music were included in the School Hymn-Book of the Methodist Church (1950) and in the EACC Hymnal (1963)....
Come see the place where Jesus lay. James Montgomery* (1771-1854).
In JJ, p. 251, there is precise information about this hymn. It was written for 'The Seventh Anniversary of the Sheffield and Attercliffe Missionary Union in aid of the London Missionary Society', and was first sung in Howard Street Independent Chapel, Sheffield on Easter Sunday, April 2nd, 1820. In leaflet form, it was signed 'J.M.'
It was included in Montgomery's The Christian Psalmist (Glasgow, 1825) and, with minor...
Jesus bids us shine with a pure clear light. Anna Bartlett Warner* (1827-1915).
This children's hymn, with its quaint last line of each stanza, 'You in your small corner, and I in mine', was first published (July 1868) in The Little Corporal, a monthly religious magazine published in Chicago from 1865 to 1875. It also appeared in The American Sacred Songster (1868) edited by Philip Phillips*. It was published anonymously, which has caused problems of authorship.
In JJ, p. 1580, this hymn was...
O when shall I see Jesus. Probably by John Leland* (1754–1841).
The earliest known publication of this hymn was in Eleazar Clay, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, selected from Several Approved Authors, Recommended by the Baptist General Committee of Virginia (Richmond, Virginia: John Dixon, 1793). The 1793 book is very rare. The text shown below has been transcribed from the copy in the New York Public Library:
O WHEN shall I see Jesus, And dwell with him above?To drink the flowing fountains, Of...
Lord / Dear Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole. James L. Nicholson* (ca. 1828–1876).
This hymn is often referred to as 'Whiter than snow'. It first appeared with a tune by Philadelphia piano salesman, choral conductor, and composer William G. Fischer (1835–1912) as one of twelve hymns in a Methodist pamphlet entitled Joyful Songs No. 4 (Philadelphia, 1872). Seven of the selections contained tunes by Fischer (Reynolds, 1976, p. 135). The following year the text only was included in Chapel...
O Jesus Christ, grow thou in me. Johann Kaspar Lavater* (1741-1801) translated by Elizabeth Lee Smith* (1817-1898).
This is a translation of Lavater's 'O Jesus Christus, wachs' in mir'*, published in his Christliche Lieder… Zweytes Hundert (1780) and in the collection of Lavater's works, Zweihundert Christliche Lieder (Zürich, 1844). Smith's translation was published in the British Messenger (November 1860) and then in Christ in Song (1869), edited by Philip Schaff*. In Schaff's book the...
Says Jesus, 'Come and gather round'. Leith Fisher* (1941-2009).
Leith Fisher began writing hymns while minister of the Old Parish Church at Falkirk (1979-90). This continued when he was appointed as minister of Wellington Church, Glasgow (1990-2006). During the latter period, he was writing commentaries on the synoptic gospels, based on his preaching, and this work sometimes emerged in the form of hymns. This hymn derives from the incidents recorded in, for example, Matthew 18: 1–5 (Jesus...
We praise you, Lord, for Jesus Christ. Judith Beatrice O'Neill* (1930- )
This hymn for Baptism was written in 1954 for the College Church, Parkville, Melbourne. It was first printed in Canada in The Hymn Book (1971), and in some American books. It then appeared in WOV, and in MHfT and thus in A&MNS (retained in A&MCP) and other books, including RS and the Irish ICH5 (2000).
JRW
Ye faithful souls who Jesus know. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures (Bristol, 1762), Volume II, as two hymns, one of two 8-line stanzas and the other of one 8-line stanza, based on Colossians 3: 1-2 and 3-4 respectively. The heading of the first hymn was
If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth....
Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power. Elisha Hoffman* (1839-1929).
This gospel hymn is famous for its repeated phrase and its refrain, 'Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?' It was printed in Spiritual Songs, for Gospel Meetings and the Sunday School (Cleveland, Ohio, 1878), compiled by Hoffman and J.H. Tenney. It was included in many editions of Ira D. Sankey*'s Sacred Songs and Solos, and in many other books; in Britain it is found in Redemption Hymnal (1951) and New Redemption...
Jesus is Lord! Creation's voice proclaims it. David Mansell* (1936- ).
First published in Sound of Living Waters (1974), edited by Betty Pulkingham* and Jeanne Harper, with a tune written by Mansell himself. The editors of the Companion to HP (1988) point to echoes of Psalm 8 ('When I consider thy heavens… the moon and the stars') in stanza 1 line 4; to a quotation from Mark 10: 45 or Matthew 20: 28 ('to give his life a ransom for many') in stanza 2 line 4; and a general debt to Philippians 2:...
Lord Jesus Christ, you have come to us. Patrick Appleford* (1925-2018). Written ca. 1958, when Appleford was a curate at Poplar, East London. It was published in Thirty 20th Century Hymn Tunes (1960), published by the 20th Century Church Light Music Group. It was a parody of a successful pop song of the time, 'Living Doll', sung by Cliff Richard. As such it was designed to appeal to a 'pop song' audience, and it probably surprised many worshippers when it was first heard. It has since become a...
Come into my heart, blessed Jesus ('Into my heart'). Harry D. Clarke* (1889–1957).
This hymn began as a short chorus, composed in 1924; Clarke expanded the chorus into a gospel hymn with four stanzas in 1927. The earliest publication is unclear, but the refrain without the stanzas appears in Homer A. Rodeheaver*'s Praise and Worship Hymns (Chicago, 1927), with the subtitle 'My Prayer', an inscription occasionally used in later publications. The entire hymn was included in several...
Christ Jesus lay in death's strong bands. Martin Luther* ( 1483-1546), translated by Richard Massie* (1800-1887).
This translation of Luther's 'Christ lag in Todesbanden'* (itself a translation of 'Victimae Paschali'*) was first published in Massie's Martin Luther's Spiritual Songs (1854). Although not used by British Anglican books, it was widely adopted by nonconformist ones. Originally the hymn had seven stanzas:
Christ lay awhile in Death's strong bands, For our offences given But now at...
Jesus, my Lord, how rich thy grace. Philip Doddridge* (1702-1751). This was no. 188 in Doddridge's Hymns founded on Various texts in the Holy Scriptures (1755), entitled 'Relieving Christ in his poor Saints. Matt.xxv.40.'
This hymn was rewritten in the 19th century by Edward Osler*, an assistant editor to William John Hall* of Psalms and Hymns adapted to the Services of the Church of England (1836), also known as 'The Mitre Hymn Book'*. Osler's text began, 'Fount of all good, to own Thy love',...
Jesus, my Saviour and my Lord. Susanna Harrison* (1752-1784).
This is from the Fourth Edition (1788) of Harrison's Songs of the Night, where it was Hymn IX, entitled 'Opening My New Bible'. It was preceded by a quotation: 'Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wonderous things out of Thy law. --- PS. cxix. 18.':
Jesus, my Saviour and my Lord, To Thee I lift mine eyes;Teach and instruct me by Thy word, And make me truly wise.
Make me to know and understand Thy whole revealed will; Fain...
O how blest the hour, Lord Jesus. Karl Johann Philipp Spitta* (1801-1859), translated by Richard Massie* (1800-1887).
This is Massie's translation of Spitta's 'O wie freun wir uns der Stunde'*. Spitta's hymn was published in his Psalter und Harfe. Zweite Sammlung (Leipzig, 1843), the second series of his hymns. Massie's translation appeared in his Lyra Domestica: Second Series. Christian Songs and Hymns. Translated from the German of C.J.P. Spitta and other favourite Hymn-Writers (1864). It...
When mothers of Salem, their children brought to Jesus. William Medlen Hutchings* (1827-1876).
Written for a Sunday school anniversary at St Paul's Chapel, Wigan, this hymn had six verses. It was revised in a text of five verses and published in The Juvenile Missionary Magazine (June, 1850). Perhaps with the magazine's purpose in mind, the hymn as published was directed to missionary work ('And soon may the heathen/ Of every tribe and nation/ Fulfil Thy blessed word, and cast/ Their idols all...
Jesus, I my cross have taken. Henry Francis Lyte* (1793-1847).
In JJ (p. 599) it is noted that this was first printed in an anthology, Sacred Poetry (Third Edition, Edinburgh, 1824). It was then chosen by James Montgomery* for inclusion in The Christian Psalmist (Glasgow, 1825). In both cases it was ascribed to 'G'. In Montgomery's book it was in the section entitled 'Scripture Subjects', and headed 'Forsaking all to follow Christ. – Mark x. 28.' This is the verse in which Peter says to our...
Who can cheer the heart like Jesus (All that thrills my soul is Jesus). Thoro Harris* (1874–1955).
Two gospel songs by Harris employed the same melody and refrain. 'All that thrills my soul is Jesus' is a five-stanza hymn with refrain bearing a 1917 copyright. The first stanza follows:
All that thrills my soul is Jesus, Ev'ry day and ev'ry hour;Jesus and His free salvation,Jesus and His mighty pow'r.
Refrain:
All that thrills my soul is Jesus;He is more than life to me; And the fairest of...
Teaching hymnody: a survey
Human beings are born with the 'propensity to make and listen to music that was encoded into the human genome during the evolutionary history of our species' (Mithen, 2006, p. 1). Mark J. Tramo's (1956-) studies on the nature of brain functioning show 'all of us are born with the capacity to apprehend emotion and meaning in music' (Tramo 2001, pp. 54-56). Research by Barbara S. Kisilevsky, et al., indicates that by the final trimester of pregnancy, fetuses are able...
Jesus Christus, unser Heiland, der den Tod überwand. Martin Luther* (1483-1546).
This is a simple Leise*, with each of the three 4-line verses ending 'Kyrie eleison', celebrating the Resurrection. It was first published as 'Eyn Lobsang auff dem Osterfest' ('a hymn of praise for Easter') in Eyn Enchiridion oder Handbuchlein (Erfurt, 1524). It is found in EG (EG 102) with a tune by Luther from Geistliche Lieder auffs new gebessert (Wittenberg, Klug, 1529) also found in Geystliche Lieder (Leipzig,...
Praise Him, praise Him! Jesus, our blessed redeemer. Fanny Crosby* (1820-1915). Written as a tribute to William Batchelder Bradbury* (d. 1868), who had encouraged Crosby to write hymns. It was published in Bright Jewels for the Sunday School (1869), edited by Robert Lowry*, William Howard Doane*, and others, including Chester Allen, who wrote the tune. It had three 8-line stanzas. It was printed with a psalm-like refrain in Ira D. Sankey*'s Sacred Songs and Solos:
Praise him, praise him!
Tell...
Jesus' hands were kind hands, doing good to all. Margaret Cropper* (1886-1980).
Written ca. 1926, and published in Margaret Cropper's Hymns and Songs for the Church Kindergarten (National Society, Central Council for Religious Education, 1939), and possibly earlier. It is a short, two verse hymn with a strong rhythm, admirably suited to very small children because of its shortness and its simplicity. It was found in The School Hymn Book of the Methodist Church (1948) and in Sunday School Praise...
Jesus, my Lord, to Thee I cry ('O take me as I am'). Eliza H. Hamilton*, 1807/8-1868).
This hymn was found in the Sixth Edition of Hamilton's Hymns for the Weary. This was published in 1878 in Edinburgh (J. Taylor, 31 Castle St) and in London (S.W. Partridge & Co.). The only copy that appears to be extant of Hymns for the Weary is this Sixth Edition, held in the British Library in London, which raises the question – what happened to the first five editions? If the book was so popular that...
See 'I hear the Savior say'*.
See 'Lord, the light of your love is shining'*
Toplady's Psalms and Hymns (1776). One of the major early collections of the Evangelical Revival (cf. Madan*, Conyers*) was A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Public and Private Worship. Collected (for the most part), and Published, By Augustus Toplady, A.B., Vicar of Broad Hembury. London, 1776. In the preface, Toplady wrote: 'God is the God of Truth, of Holiness, and of Elegance. Whoever, therefore, has the honor to compose, or to compile, any thing that may constitute a part of His...
See 'Dear Angel! ever at my side'*.
See 'O soul, are you weary and troubled'*
Come, sound his praise abroad. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This is Watts's Short Metre paraphrase of Psalm 95 in The Psalms of David imitated in the language of the New Testament, and apply'd to the Christian State and Worship (1719). It was entitled 'Psalm XCV. Short Metre. A Psalm before Sermon.' Watts also wrote a CM and an LM version. The customary text in hymnals is one of three or four stanzas, corresponding to verses 1-7 of the Psalm. In 1719 the stanzas were as follows:
Come sound his...
Peculiar Honours (1998). Peculiar Honours was published in 1998 by Stainer & Bell for the Congregational Federation, marking the 250th anniversary of the death of Isaac Watts*. The title is taken from Watts' hymn, 'Jesus shall reign where'er the sun'* ('Peculiar [i.e. special] honours to our king'). The book was designed as a resource to aid reflection on hymns: 'to reflect and encourage the traditions of hymn writing within Congregationalism' (Michael Durber, Preface, p. v). Hymns were...
HINSDALE, Grace Webster (neé Haddock). b. Hanover, New Hampshire, 17 May 1832; d. Brooklyn, New York, 31 August 1902. She was the daughter of Rev. Charles Brickett Haddock, a professor at Dartmouth College and nephew of the American jurist Daniel Webster, and Susan Saunders Haddock (née Lang). She received a private education in the town of her birth and developed a strong religious orientation that affected her future literary work. Hymnist Charles S. Robinson* noted that “This child of the...
Welcome, sweet day of rest. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
First published in Watts's Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), Book II, 'Composed on Divine Subjects, Conformable to the Word of God'. It was Hymn XIV, entitled 'The Lord's Day; or, Delight in Ordinances':
Welcome sweet Day of Rest, That saw the Lord arise;Welcome to this reviving Brest, And these rejoycing Eyes!
The King himself comes near, And feasts his Saints to Day, Here we may sit, and see him near, And love and praise and...
ARNE, Thomas Augustine. b. London, 12 March 1710; d. London, 5 March 1778. Born into a wealthy family of London upholsterers, Arne was brought up a Roman Catholic owing to his mother's allegiance to that faith. Well educated, Arne nevertheless threw off a career in the law in favour of music and, in particular the theatre. With the family nose for business, he was assisted by his father in setting up a theatre company for performances of opera at the Haymarket with John Frederick Lampe*. After...
First of the week and finest day. David Mowbray* (1938- ).
Noting the dearth of contemporary hymns about Sunday, 'the Lord's Day', and the changing or vanishing perception of its significance, the author wrote this for HFTC (1982) where it appeared for the first time in print (being accidentally switched at the last moment with 'Sweet is the work, my God, my King'*, it was credited to Isaac Watts* in the first words-only edition). The opening lines reflect Genesis 1:1-5; other references...
PARKER, Handel. b. Oxenhope, Yorkshire, 29 January 1854; d. Shipley, Yorkshire, 30 January 1928. He came from a musical family in which the children were named after famous composers. Handel was a versatile and precocious musician, who played the flute in the village band at the age of seven, and who was organist at Oxenhope Baptist Church at the age of ten. He became organist of the parish church in 1868. In addition to the flute and organ, he also played the violin and trombone, and conducted...
Come let us join our cheerful songs. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This appeared in Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), Book I, 'Collected from the Holy Scriptures', with the title, 'Christ Jesus the Lamb of God, Worshipped by all the Creation; Rev. 5.11, 12, 13.' It skilfully, and freely, paraphrases these verses from Revelation, but instead of straightforwardly following John's vision, Watts invites us to join the angelic chorus, as they express their single joy in their thousands of voices.
Many...
WHITEFIELD, George. b. Gloucester, 16 December 1714; d. Newburyport, Massachusetts, 30 September 1770. He was the son of an innkeeper, who died when he was two years old. His mother remarried, unhappily, and the inn was mismanaged by his step-father. Whitefield's childhood cannot have been a settled one, although he was educated at Gloucester Cathedral School and the Crypt School. In 1732 he matriculated at Pembroke College, Oxford, as a 'Servitor', performing menial tasks in order to pay for...
The Lord Jehovah reigns. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
First printed in the Second Edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1709), Book II, 'Compos'd on Divine Subjects', this is the last of four hymns under the heading, 'The Divine Perfections'. It was composed in what Watts called 'Peculiar Metre', a variant of the flowing 6.6.6.6.44.44. metre of the 148th psalm:
The Lord Jehovah reigns,His Throne is built on high;The Garments He assumesAre Light and Majesty; His Glories shine With Beams so...
Now to the Lord a noble song. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This hymn appeared in Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), Book II, 'Composed on Divine Subjects, Conformable to the Word of God', with the title, 'Glory and Grace in the Person of Christ'. It had six stanzas. Watts here takes up what is for him a common theme: that the revelation of God in Christ far exceeds the revelation of God in nature. It begins as a call to the praise and proclamation of God's 'boundless love', which shines at its...
HARLAND, Edward. b. Ashbourne, Derbyshire, 1810; d. Colwich, Staffordshire, 8 June 1890. He was educated at Wadham College, Oxford (BA 1831; MA 1833). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1833, priest 1834), and was curate of Newborough, near Peterborough (1833-36) and Sandon, Essex (1836-51). In 1851 he became vicar of Colwich, and chaplain to the Earl of Harrowby. He was admitted Prebendary of Eccleshall in Lichfield Cathedral, 1873. He was the author of Index Sermonum (1858), and a popular Church...
'Christ the Lord is risen today'. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739), entitled 'Hymn for Easter-Day', in eleven 4-line stanzas. It was not included in John Wesley*'s A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), the scheme of which precluded seasonal hymns, but six stanzas found their way into the 1831 Supplement to the Collection among the additional hymns. Its use has become and remained widespread since then, though in...
God of unexampled grace. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published as Hymn XXI in Hymns on the Lord's Supper (1745) in nine 8-line stanzas, in the section entitled 'As it [the Sacrament] is a Memorial of the Sufferings and Death of Christ'. Though it was not included in John Wesley's A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), it appeared in the 1831 Supplement, divided into two hymns. The first, consisting of stanzas 1-3 of the original, had earlier been...
In thee, great God, with songs of praise. Joel Barlow* (1754-1812).
Barlow 'corrected and enlarged' Isaac Watts*'s The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament and Applied to the Christian State and Worship (1719) at the request of the General Association of Connecticut (Congregational Church), a work published in 1786 as Psalms carefully suited to the Christian Worship in the United States of America, being Dr. Watts's Imitation of the Psalms of David, as improved by Mr....
Behold the amazing gift of love. Scottish Translations and Paraphrases (1781), based on Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
Isaac Watts's Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707) contained a hymn, entitled 'Adoption; 1 John 3.1, &c. Gal. 4.6.' The first four (of six) stanzas were:
Behold what wond'rous Grace
The Father hath bestow'd
On Sinners of a Mortal Race
To call them Sons of God!
'Tis no surprizing thing
That we should be unknown;
The Jewish World knew not their King.
God's everlasting...
AMPS, William. b. Cambridge, 18 December 1824; d. Cambridge, 20 May 1910. He became organist of King's College, Cambridge in 1855, succeeding the elderly John Pratt. Matriculating at Peterhouse, he took the degrees of BA (1858) and MA (1862) and undertook the conducting of the Cambridge University Musical Society for some years. He was also organist at Peterhouse and Christ's College. On resigning his organist's post at King's in 1876 he was succeeded by Arthur Henry Mann*; but nothing seems to...
Dies ist der Tag, den Gott gemacht. Christian Fürchtegott Gellert* (1715-1769). First published in Gellert's Geistliche Oden und Lieder (Leipzig,1757), in 11 stanzas, with the title 'Weihnachtslied' ('Christmas hymn'). It is found in EG in the Christmas section, in nine verses (EG 42), omitting verses 5 and 8 of the original:
5. Dein König, Zion, kömmt zu dir.
“Ich komm, in Buche steht von mir;
Gott, deinen Willen tu ich gern.”
Gelobt sei, der da kömmt im Herrn!
8. Gedanke voller...
SWAIN, Joseph. b. Birmingham, 1761; d. London, 16 April 1796. His parents died when he was very young, and he was apprenticed to an engraver in Birmingham, completing his training in London, where he had gone to live with his brother. In 1782 he 'came under the conviction of sin' (ODNB) and was baptized in 1783 by John Rippon*. In 1792 he became minister of East Street Baptist Chapel, Walworth, South London: in spite of a split in the congregation between Strict and Particular Baptists and...
Churches of Christ in Great Britain and Ireland came into existence from the mid-1830s as congregations were formed, usually breaking away from Scotch Baptist churches. They were influenced by the ideas of Alexander Campbell (1788-1866), son of an Anti-Burgher Seceder Presbyterian minister in Ireland, Thomas, who emigrated to the USA in 1807. The Campbells became two of the four main leaders of the movement in the USA, from which three distinct 20th-century groups derive: Churches of Christ,...
Join all the glorious names. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This is from the Second Edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1709). It was entitled 'The Same; as the 148th Psalm', referring to the preceding hymn, Book I, CXLIX, entitled 'The Offices of Christ from several Scriptures'. The present hymn was the last hymn in Book I, and the last of five hymns at the end of that Book which refer to the titles or offices of Jesus. It is a re-writing in 66.66.44.44. ('as the 148th Psalm') of the preceding...
BARLOW, Joel. b. Reading, Connecticut, 24 March 1754; d. Żarnowiec, Poland, 26 December 1812. Poet, diplomat, newspaper publisher, lawyer, French politician, and American revolutionary patriot, Barlow graduated from Yale College (now University) (1778) and continued there for additional study. During this time he published his first work, The Prospect for Peace (1778), an anti-slavery poem. Following service during the Revolutionary War as a chaplain, he established a weekly newspaper in...
I'm not ashamed to own my Lord. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
From Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1709), Book I, 'Collected from the Holy Scriptures', with the title, 'Not Ashamed of the Gospel, 2 Tim. 1,12'. The first three stanzas are a free paraphrase, and stanza 4 may loosely paraphrase 2 Timothy 4. 8: 'Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day.'
There are two distinct versions of this hymn in current use. The first is...
Awake, my soul, to sound his praise. Joel Barlow* (1754-1812).
Barlow 'corrected and enlarged' Isaac Watts*'s The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament and Applied to the Christian State and Worship (1719) at the request of the General Association of Connecticut (Congregational Church). His work was published in 1786 as Psalms carefully suited to the Christian Worship in the United States of America, being Dr. Watts's Imitation of the Psalms of David, as improved by...
My heart is full of Christ, and longs. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in A Collection of Psalms and Hymns, Second Edition, Enlarged (1743), Part the Second, these stanzas were the first four of twenty-one 6-line stanzas, forming a paraphrase of Psalm XLV:
My Heart is full of Christ, and longs Its glorious Matter to declare!Of Him I make my loftiest Songs, I cannot from his Praise forbear;My ready Tongue makes hast to singThe Beauties of my Heavenly King.
Fairer than all the...
How wondrous are the works of God. Joseph Hart* (1712-1768).
First published in Hymns, &c. composed on Various Subjects. With a preface, containing a brief and summary account of the author's experience, and the great things that God hath done for his soul. By J. Hart (1759). It was entitled 'The Wonders of redeeming Love'. It had nine stanzas:
How wond'rous are the Works of God, Display'd thro' all the World abroad! Immensely great! Immensely small! Yet one strange Work exceeds them...
How beauteous are their feet. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
From Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), with the heading 'The Blessedness of Gospel-Time: Or, The Revelation of Christ to Jews and Gentiles, Isa. 5. 2,7,8,9,10. Mat. 13. 16,17'. The reference to 'Isa. 5. 2' (in later editions printed as 'v. 2'), was a printer's error: the reference is to Isaiah 52: 7-10.
The text is a paraphrase of Isaiah 52: 7-10. It is a poet's paraphrase, as distinct from the more literal paraphrases about which the...
DUCKWORTH, Francis. b. Rimington, Yorkshire, 25 December 1862; d. Colne, Lancashire, 16 August 1941. He was the son of a grocer; after leaving school at the age of 12 Francis worked as an assistant in a tobacconist's shop, before moving to Colne in 1882 to work for his brother Joshua in a printing business. He later became a successful grocer. He was a chapel organist in the Wesleyan Methodist church for over fifty years, first at Stopper Lane chapel, near Rimington, and then at Albert Road...
Salvation! O the joyful sound. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748) and Walter Shirley* (1725-1786).
This began as 'LXXXVIII. Salvation' in Book II, 'Compos'd on Divine Subjects', of Isaac Watts's Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707). It had three stanzas:
Salvation! O the joyful Sound! 'Tis Music to our Ears; A Sovereign Balm for every Wound, A Cordial for our Fears.
Bury'd in Sorrow and in Sin, At Hell's dark Door we lay, But we arise by Grace Divine To see a heavenly Day.
Salvation! let the Eccho...
TAYLOR, Ann and Jane. Ann, b. Islington, London, 30 January 1782, d. Nottingham, 20 December 1866, married name Ann Taylor Gilbert; Jane, b. Islington, 23 September 1783, d. Ongar, Essex, 13 April 1824.
After Isaac Watts* and Charles Wesley*, Ann and Jane Taylor were the most important of the early hymn writers for children. Their Hymns for Infant Minds was first published in 1810 and was a commercial success in Britain and America (by the 1860s, it had gone into nearly 50 editions in America,...
Alas! and did my Saviour bleed. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
From Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), Book II, 'Composed on Divine Subjects', with the title 'Godly Sorrow arising from the Sufferings of Christ'. It had six stanzas.
The original stanza 2 has usually been omitted:
Alas! and did my Saviour bleed, And did my sov'reign die?Would he devote that sacred Head For such a Worm as I?
Thy Body slain, sweet Jesus, thine,
And bath'd in its own Blood,
While all expos'd to Wrath divine
The...
STENNETT, Joseph. b. Abingdon, Berkshire, 1663; d. Knaphill, Buckinghamshire, 11 July 1713. He was educated at Wallingford Grammar School. He moved to London in 1685, joining the Seventh Day Baptist Congregation at Pinners' Hall, Broad Street in 1686 and becoming pastor there in 1690. As a Seventh Day Baptist, he was free to preach in other chapels in London on Sundays, and he became widely known and respected as an eminent nonconformist. He married Susanna, daughter of George Guill, a Huguenot...
My dear Redeemer and my Lord. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
From Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1709), Book II, 'Composed on Divine Subjects', hymn CXXXIX, with the title, 'The Example of Christ'. It provides what The Companion to RS (1999) calls 'a necessary corrective to the idea that “following Christ” is a simple matter of being nice to people' (p. 258). Nor is it simply a matter of doing our duty. It is Christ's own life that is to be the Christian's pattern, in which 'the law appears', and in...
The race that long in darkness pin'd. John Morison* (1750-1798).
This paraphrase of Isaiah 9: 2-8 was written for the Scottish Translations and Paraphrases (1781). It has a complicated history, and has appeared in many versions.
Morison originally wrote a six-stanza text, reproduced in JJ, p. 1155, containing two blood-curdling stanzas (3 and 4) that do not accord well with the final vision of the coming of the Prince of Peace:
For thou our burden hast remov'd ,
and quell'd th'oppressor's...
Filey Conference and its hymns
The Filey Christian Holiday Conference, sometimes called the 'Filey Convention' in imitation of the Keswick one, began in 1955. It was founded by an evangelist, A. Lindsay Glegg (1882-1975), President of the Movement for Worldwide Evangelization, following the Billy Graham 'Greater London Crusade' of 1954. It was held each September for a week at Butlin's holiday camp at Filey from 1955 until 1983, when Butlins closed its Filey camp. It moved to a similar camp at...
BROWNE, Simon. b. Shepton Mallet, Somerset, 1680; d. Shepton Mallet, 1732. He was educated at Shepton Mallet by the local pastor, John Cumming, and then at a Dissenting Academy at Bridgwater run by John Moore, the pastor there. He entered the Independent ministry and was ordained to a charge at Portsmouth followed by that of the Independent Chapel at Old Jewry, London (1716). He was a voluminous writer, publishing many pamphlets and sermons, including ones that demonstrated the dissenters'...
Creating God, your fingers trace. Jeffery Rowthorn* (1934-2025).
This is a metrical version of Psalm 148, 'Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights above.' It was written in 1974 and submitted in 1979 for a competition set by the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada* to find 'New Psalms for Today'. It was printed in The Hymn (April 1979).
It has four stanzas, beginning 'Creating God...', 'Sustaining God...', 'Redeeming God...' and 'Indwelling God...'. It was printed...
HUDSON, Ralph E. b. Napoleon, Ohio, 9 July 1843; d. Cleveland, Ohio, 14 June 1901. The family moved to Philadelphia when he was a child. During the Civil War he served in the Pennsylvania Volunteers, and was a nurse in Annapolis General Hospital, 1862-63. He was given an honourable discharge in 1864. A good musician, he taught music at Mount Vernon College, Alliance, Ohio, and later became a music publisher there. He was a licensed preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He published...
O the delights, the heavenly joys. Isaac Watts* (1674-1848).
This is Hymn 91 from Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), Book II, 'Composed on Divine Subjects, Conformable to the Word of God'. It was entitled 'The Glory of Christ in Heaven'. The nine stanzas in 1707 were as follows:
O the Delights, the heavenly Joys, The Glorys of the Place, Where Jesus sheds the brightest Beams Of his O'er-flowing Grace!
Sweet Majesty and awful Love Sit smiling on his Brow, And all the glorious Ranks...
Youth Praise 1 and 2
Youth Praise is a two-volume series of hymnals published for the Church Pastoral-Aid Society (CPAS), an Anglican Evangelical mission society in the UK. It was Timothy Dudley-Smith*, then Assistant Secretary of the CPAS, who encouraged the Society to publish and to pay for publication.
Book 1 appeared in 1966, followed by Book 2 in 1969. The contents are numbered sequentially across the volumes: 1-150 in Book 1, and 150-299 in Book 2. The first book was edited by...
HATTON, John. b. perhaps Warrington, Lancashire, date unknown; d. St Helens, Lancashire, December 1793 (buried 13 December). Little is known of his life. He may have been born at Warrington: he was known at St Helens, where he later lived, as 'John of Warrington'. His address in St Helens was Duke Street. His funeral service was preached at St Helens on 13 December.
He is believed to have been the composer of the tune DUKE STREET. Its first recorded appearance is in A Select Collection of Psalm...
SARBIEWSKI, Mathias Casimir (Maciej Kazimierz). b. near Plonsk, Poland, 24 February 1595; d. 2 April 1640. Sarbiewski entered the tutelage of the Jesuit order at the age of seventeen. After a thorough grounding in rhetoric, philosophy, and the humanities, he journeyed to Rome in 1622, where he was ordained as a priest in 1623. It was perhaps during this time that he first encountered Maffeo Barberini, a man educated by and sympathetic to the Jesuits (Barberini was elected Pope Urban VIII in...
Am I a soldier of the Cross. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This was printed in Watts's Sermons on Various Subjects, Volume III (1729), added to a sermon entitled 'Holy Fortitude, or Remedies against Fear'. The sermon was on 1 Corinthians 16: 13: 'Stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong'. The hymn was never included in editions of Watts's Hymns and Spiritual Songs. It came into hymnbooks with John Rippon*'s A Selection of Hymns from the best authors, intended to be an Appendix to Dr...
Plunged in a gulf of deep despair. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
First published in Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), Book II, 'Composed on Divine Subjects, Conformable to the Word of God', where it was entitled 'Praise to the Redeemer'. It had eight 4-line stanzas. It began:
Plung'd in a Gulph of dark Despair We wretched Sinners lay, Without one chearful Beam of Hope, Or Spark of glimmering Day.
With pitying Eyes the Prince of Grace Beheld our helpless Grief, He saw, and (O amazing Love) ...
ARMES, Philip. b. Norwich, 29 March (Grove), 15 August (ODNB) 1836; d. Durham, 10 February 1908. The son of Philip Armes, schoolmaster and bass singer, he was a chorister first under Dr Zechariah Buck at Norwich Cathedral (1846-48) and then (because his father moved to Rochester Cathedral as a lay clerk) under John Larkin Hopkins (1848-50). Armes was articled under Hopkins and gained experience as an organist at Holy Trinity Church, Milton, Gravesend, during the mid 1850s. In 1857 he moved to...
Goode's Psalms
An Entire New Version of the Book of Psalms. William Goode* (1762-1816).
This collection was published in 1811, with a Second Edition in 1813 and a Third in 1816. It was presumably given the 'Entire New' title to distinguish it from the 1696 'New Version' by Nahum Tate* and Nicholas Brady*, and from other predecessors such as Isaac Watts* and James Merrick*: in the Preface, Goode said that Watts' The Psalms of David, 1719, was 'simple and elegant', but that it professed to be...
CONDER, Josiah. b. London, 17 September 1789; d. London, 27 December 1855. He was the son of an engraver and bookseller, and was largely self-educated after leaving school at thirteen. He followed his father into the bookselling business, but also became a writer and man of letters: he was the proprietor and editor of the Eclectic Review in 1814; much later (1832) he became the editor of an evangelical nonconformist newspaper, The Patriot. He was a voluminous and energetic writer: his most...
It was only in the 20th century, and particularly with the reforms of Vatican Council II (1962-65), that congregational hymns in the Maltese language gained a firm footing in Malta's churches. Prior to this, hymns were generally sung in Latin by the clergy as part of the Divine Office.
The earliest-recorded, non-secular musical activity on the Maltese Islands was that taking place in the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Mdina. Documents show that there was singing of plainchant in 1244, that an...
Hush, my dear, lie still and slumber. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This was published in the Eighth Edition of Watts's Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children (1727), with the title 'A Cradle Hymn'. It had 14 stanzas, with the following introduction:
Some Copies of the following Hymn having got abroad already into several Hands, the Author has been perswaded at last to permit it to appear in Publick, at the End of these Divine Songs for Children.
This suggests that...
Before Jehovah's awful throne. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748), altered by John Wesley* (1703-1791).
Isaac Watts's metrical version of Psalm 100 appeared in three versions during his lifetime (see 'Sing to the Lord with joyful voice'*). John Wesley* took the six-stanza text from The Psalms of David (1719), omitting stanzas 1 and 4. Stanza 2 (the present stanza 1) began:
Nations, attend before his throne
With solemn fear, with sacred joy:
Which Wesley altered to
Before Jehovah's awful throne,
Ye...
With joy we meditate the grace. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This paraphrase of Hebrews 4: 15, 16, with Hebrews 5: 7, and Matthew 12: 20, appeared in the Second Edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1709), Book I, 'Collected from the Holy Scriptures'. The text is a very free paraphrase of all the verses: indeed it might almost be thought of as an original hymn, inspired by the biblical texts. It was entitled 'Christ's Compassion to the Weak and Tempted':
With Joy we meditate the Grace Of our...
The Keswick Convention and its hymns
The Keswick Convention, a non-denominational and evangelical annual meeting, was founded in 1875 by an Anglican, Canon T.D. Harford-Battersby, Vicar of St John's, Keswick, in collaboration with a Cumberland Quaker, Robert Wilson. It was a product of the 'Holiness movement' of the period (see 'Holiness hymnody, USA*), inspired in part by a book by William Edwin Boardman (1810-1886) called The Higher Christian Life (1859). After a series of revival meetings,...
Show pity, Lord, O Lord, forgive. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
From The Psalms of David imitated in the language of the New Testament, and apply'd to the Christian State and Worship (1719). It was entitled 'Psalm LI. First Part. Long Metre. A Penitent Pleading for Pardon.' It had six stanzas:
Shew pity, Lord, O Lord forgive, Let a repenting Rebel live: Are not thy Mercies large and free? May not a Sinner trust in Thee?
My Crimes are great, but not surpass The Power and Glory of thy Grace: Great...
There is a land of pure delight. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
From Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), Book II, 'Composed on Divine Subjects, Conformable to the Word of God', with the heading 'A Prospect of Heaven makes Death easy.' It is about Christian hope, although in the final stanza, Watts does not seem to take into account that Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land. One is reminded of Emily Dickinson's stanza:
It always felt to me — a wrong
To that old Moses — done —
To let him...
We sang our glad Hosannas. Mary Nelson Keithahn* (1934- ).
In recent years Palm Sunday observances have been expanded to include the both the Triumphal Entry of Christ into Jerusalem followed by a transition that points toward the events of Christ's Passion. In five stanzas this hymn, published in 1998, spans the events from Palm Sunday through the resurrection, providing a bridge from the excitement of Palm Sunday to the somber events of Holy Week. It may also be sung effectively on Maundy...
GLÄSER, Carl Gotthelf. b. Weissenfels, Saxony (now Saxony-Anhalt, Germany), 4 May 1784; d. Barmen, North Rhine-Westphalia, 16 April 1829. He was educated at St Thomas' School, Leipzig, and was also taught music by his father. He became an accomplished violinist and a composer. He taught piano and violin at Barmen.
When Lowell Mason* visited Europe in 1832 he was on the lookout for new tunes, and found one by Gläser that he named AZMON. According to Reynolds (1976, p.112) it was published in...
We are a garden walled around. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
From Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), Book I, 'Collected from the Scriptures' (Hymn LXXIV). It was entitled 'The Church the Garden of Christ; Sol. Song 4. 12, 14, 15. and 5.1.' It began
We are a Garden wall'd around, Chosen and made peculiar Ground; A little Spot inclos'd by Grace Out of the World's wide Wilderness.
Like Trees of Myrrh and Spice we stand Planted by God the Father's Hand; And all his Springs in Sion flow, To make the...
How bright these glorious spirits shine. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748), altered by the compilers of the Scottish Translations and Paraphrases (1745 and 1781).
The original version of this hymn is from Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), Book I, 'Collected from the Scriptures' with the title 'The Same: or, the Martyrs Glorify'd; Rev. 7. 13, &c.', following no. 40: 'The Business and Blessedness of Glorify'd Saints; Rev. 7. 13, 14, 15 &c.' This text was extensively altered by the compilers of the...
Hymn anthem is a choral form used by composers in setting hymns, metrical psalms, and religious poetry, using the associated hymn tune or composing original music. While English composers were among the first to write hymn anthems, the form is especially popular in the United States, where it has become a principal type of published sacred choral music.
One category of hymn anthem includes works based on both a hymn text and hymn tune. As with concertato hymn settings*, composers of this type...
As we gather at your table. Carl P. Daw, Jr.* (1944- ).
Written by request in 1989 for Eastern Shore Chapel (Episcopal), Virginia Beach, Virginia, which was celebrating the tricentenary of its founding in 1689. The motto for the occasion was 'Repeat the sounding joy' (from Isaac Watts*, 'Joy to the world, the Lord is come'*) which Daw has incorporated in the last line, the climax of this fine hymn of worship and service. The first line is simple and beautiful in its simplicity: it suggests...
Christian Hymns (1977, 2004). Published in 1977 by the Evangelical Movement of Wales, this collection of 901 texts provided a rich selection of hymns by Isaac Watts* (71 hymns) and almost certainly the fullest representation of Charles Wesley* (93 hymns) outside Methodism. It also retained much classic Victorian hymnody, while introducing contemporary writers such as Alan Clifford, Eluned Harrison* and Vernon Higham* to a wider audience. A revision of the book appeared in 1985 and a full new...
Psalmodia Germanica (1722). Psalmodia Germanica; or a Specimen of Divine Hymns, Translated from the High Dutch. Together with their Proper Tunes and Thorough Bass was published in London in 1722. It was dedicated to the Princesses Anne, Amalia and Carolina (the first two were the daughters of the future George II, who became king in 1727; Carolina was his wife), and it consisted of 'a Translation of Psalmody, used in the Native Country of your Royal Highnesses'. A Psalmodia Germanica, Part II...
BROWNSON, Oliver. b. Bolton, Connecticut 13 May 1746; d. Smithfield, New York, 20 October 1815. Brownson was a composer, singing master, and compiler of Select Harmony (Hartford[?], Connecticut, 1783-1791), which includes tunes by several American composers not previously published. He also compiled a less influential work, A New Collection of Sacred Harmony (Simsbury, Connecticut, 1797).
Brownson's surname at birth was spelled B-r-u-n-s-o-n. He was a son of Isaac and Abigail Brunson (nda,...
British Children's Hymnody
It became apparent from the very earliest days of hymnody that children needed their own hymns. This overview will show how educational, musical and cultural changes are reflected in the many collections of hymns written specifically for children. The challenge presented to writers of children's hymns has always been how to engage the young mind with thought-provoking material but present it in an attractive and accessible manner. Some of the earliest hymn texts...
In the Cross of Christ I glory. John Bowring* (1792-1872).
First published in Bowring's Hymns (1825), with the title 'The Cross of Christ', often changed in subsequent books to 'Glorying in the Cross'. It is based, like Watts's* 'When I survey the wondrous cross'*, on Galatians 6: 14, though it differs from Watts's hymn in its emphasis on the sublimity, radiance and peace of the cross. The cross becomes a symbol for the whole process of salvation, which adds joy to human happiness and gives...
Lord, her watch Thy church is keeping. Henry Downton* (1818-1885).
This stirring hymn for mission was written in 1866 during Downton's time in Geneva, and sung at the annual meeting of the Church Missionary Society in that year. It was published in the Seventh Edition of D.T. Barry's Psalms and Hymns for the Church, School, and Home (1867) and subsequently in Downton's Hymns and Verses, Original and Translated (1873). Too late for the First Edition of A&M, and missed by the 1868 Appendix,...
Hymnody and Hymnals of the Reformed Church in America. The Reformed Church in America (RCA) is an offshoot of the Dutch Reformed Church, or Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk. It dates itself from the founding of a congregation in New Amsterdam (now New York City) by Jonas Michaelius (1577-1638) in April of 1628. Now with approximately 1,000 congregations in the United States and Canada, the RCA claims the oldest continuous Protestant ministry in North America, as well as the oldest theological...
Come, ye that know and fear the Lord. George Burder* (1752-1832).
First published in Burder's A Collection of Hymns, from Various Authors. Intended as a Supplement to Dr Watts's Hymns, and Imitation of the Psalms (Coventry, 1784). It was entitled 'God is love', and was signed 'B'. It had nine stanzas, three of which were in square brackets, a practice borrowed from Isaac Watts*. Since many variant texts of this hymn exist, it is useful to have the original form:
Come, ye that know and fear the...
Melodies of Praise (1957, 1985).
This the title of the hymnal of the churches known as Assembly of God churches. The denomination dates from 1914, when a group of evangelical and Pentecostal ministers meeting at Hot Springs, Arkansas, formed the 'Assemblies of God (USA)'. It is now part of a world-wide organisation, the World Assemblies of God Fellowship. Its headquarters are in Springfield, Missouri, although each church has its independent governance. Its non-negotiable 'Statement of...
This is the day the Lord hath made. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This is the fourth part of a paraphrase, in Common Metre, of Psalm 118, from The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament and Applied to the Christian State and Worship (1719). The full title is necessary to draw attention to the intent behind this hymn.
There were two additional texts, both based on verses 22-27 of the Psalm, in Short Metre and Long Metre. This one has the titles, 'Hosanna; the Lord's Day; or,...
From all that dwell below the skies. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This is the second of three paraphrases of the very short Psalm 117, each under the heading, 'Praise to God from all Nations', first printed in The Psalms of David (1719). In each version, Watts slightly developed the theme, to fill out his two stanzas of 4 lines each:
From all that dwell below the SkiesLet the Creator's Praise arise:Let the Redeemer's Name be sungThro' every Land, by every Tongue.
Eternal are thy Mercies,...
We sing the praise of him who died. Thomas Kelly* (1769-1855).
First published in Hymns by Thomas Kelly, not before Published (Dublin, 1815). It was headed 'God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross: Galatians 6: 14'. In this text, stanza 5 lines 3-4 were:
'Tis all that sinners want below;
'Tis all that angels know above.
Kelly changed these lines in the Sixth Edition of his Hymns on Various Passages of Scripture (Dublin, 1826) to the form that is now used in most books:
The sinner's...
KIPPIS, Andrew. b. Nottingham, 28 March 1725; d. London, 8 October 1795. Kippis was educated (1741-46) at the dissenting academy at Northampton run by Philip Doddridge*. He became a minister, holding charges at Boston, Lincolnshire, and Dorking, Surrey, before becoming the minister of Princes Street Chapel, Westminster in 1753. He remained there until his death, and was regarded as 'the leading Presbyterian minister in the metropolis' (JJ, p. 625). He was a voluminous writer, contributing to...
'Twas on that dark, that doleful night. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
From Watts's Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), Book III, 'Prepared for the holy Ordinance of the Lord's Supper' (many authorities give the Second Edition of 1709 as the publication date, but it was printed also in 1707). It was the first hymn in Book III, headed 'The Lord's Supper instituted, I Cor. 11. 23, &c.'. It had seven stanzas:
'Twas on that dark, that doleful Night When Powers of Earth and Hell arose Against the Son...
My soul, repeat his praise. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
Watts published two metrical versions, in Long Metre and Short Metre, of Psalm 103 in The Psalms of David imitated in the language of the New Testament, and apply'd to the Christian State and Worship (1719). The former was in two parts, the latter in three. This is the second part of the SM version. It paraphrases verses 8-18 of the psalm, and was given the heading, 'Abounding Compassion of God; or, Mercy in the Midst of Judgement.' Of the...
Southern Harmony, and Musical Companion is a fasola tunebook compiled by William Walker*.
In the preface to the first edition, dated September, 1835, Walker, then 26 years old, writes, 'The compiler of this work, having been solicited for several years by his brother teachers, pupils, and other friends, to publish a work of this kind, has consented to yield to their solicitations… I have composed the parts to a great many good airs, (which I could not find in any publication, nor in...
BLAKE, William. b. 28 November 1757; d. 12 August 1827. Born in London, the son of a hosier. He did not go to school ('Thank God, I never was sent to school/ To be flogged into following the style of a fool') but attended a drawing school and in 1772 was apprenticed to James Basire, engraver to the Society of Antiquaries. He became a student at the Royal Academy in 1779. With the help of friends he set up a print shop in Broad Street, London, in 1784, and for the remainder of his life he earned...
PATRICK, John. b. Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, 1632 (baptized 19 April); d. London, 19 December 1695. He was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge (BA 1651, MA 1654). After the Restoration he was curate of Battersea, London (1662-71), and Preacher to the Charterhouse (1671-95). He owed both of these posts to the patronage of his elder brother Simon (or Symon, 1626-1707), who later became Dean of Peterborough, briefly Bishop of Chichester (1690-91), and then Bishop of Ely. During the stormy...
And are we yet alive. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), volume II, one of a series of 'Hymns for Christian Friends'. It had four 8-line stanzas:
And are we yet alive, And see Each other's Face?Glory, and Thanks to Jesus give For his Almighty Grace: Preserv'd by Power Divine To full Salvation here,Again in Jesu's Praise we join, And in his Sight appear.
What Troubles have we seen, What mighty Conflicts past,Fightings without, and Fears...
O happy day, that fixed my choice. Philip Doddridge* (1702-1751).
Published posthumously as no. 23 in Hymns Founded on Various Texts in the Holy Scriptures (1755), edited by Job Orton, and no. 29 in Scriptural Hymns (1839), edited by John Doddridge Humphreys. The 1839 edition corrected the 1755 misprint in the biblical reference from 1 Chronicles 15: 15 to the more appropriate 2 Chronicles 15: 15.
The original title, 'Rejoicing in our Covenant Engagements to GOD', adequately summarizes the...
ROSE, Barry Michael. b. Chingford, Essex, 24 May 1934. A choir trainer of quite exceptional gifts, Rose was appointed the first organist of the new and as yet unfinished cathedral at Guildford in March 1960. He built up one of the country's finest cathedral choirs there, and had a similarly beneficial effect on the singing at St Paul's Cathedral (1974-84), where he was initially Sub-Organist and subsequently Master of the Choir. After an interlude as Master of the Choirs at the King's School,...
WESLEY, Charles (II). b. Bristol, 11 December 1757; d. London, 23 May 1834. He was the son of Charles Wesley*, and older brother of Samuel Wesley (III)*. He was a child prodigy, admired by many of the foremost musicians in London, such as Samuel Arnold*, and advised and taught by many of them. His playing was much admired by King George III, and as a young man he played frequently at Court, being named 'Royal organist' to George III and to the Prince Regent after 1810. However, he was...
Lord of our highest love. Gilbert Young Tickle* (1819-1888).
The earliest printing of this hymn recorded in Hymnary.org. is in The Christian Hymnal (Cincinnati, 1882), published for the Churches of Christ. It was published in the same year in New Christian Hymn and Tune Book (Cincinnati: Fillmore Brothers). In Britain it was almost certainly among the 34 hymns by Tickle in A Collection of Hymns for Churches of Christ (Birmingham, 1888), edited by David King (1819-1894), with Tickle as an...
GILL, Thomas Hornblower. b. Birmingham, 10 February 1819; d. Grove Park, Kent, 4 March 1906. He was educated at King Edward's Grammar School, Birmingham. The son of English Presbyterians who had, like many others, become Unitarians, he was unable to sign the Articles of the Church of England (despite having rejected Unitarianism) and so was barred from entry to Oxford University. He educated himself privately and remained throughout his life a student and writer. He greatly admired the hymns of...
PAGURA, Federico José. b. Arroyo Secco, Santa Fe, Argentina, 9 February, 1923; d. Rosario, Santa Fe, 6 June 2016.
Life and Ministry
In the second half of the 20th century Federico Pagura was among the most notable leaders of the church in South America and one of the leading authors and translators of congregational hymnody from this continent. Not only was he a pillar of the Evangelical Methodist Church in Argentina; he was also a resilient and compelling voice for human rights (derechos...
BLAIR, Hugh. b. Edinburgh, 7 April 1718; d. Edinburgh, 27 September 1800. According to James Mearns* (JJ, pp. 144-5), he was educated at the University of Edinburgh from 1730 (when he was twelve years of age), graduating MA in 1739 (Mearns gives his death date as 27 December 1800). He was licensed to preach in October 1741, and became minister of Collessie, Fife, in 1742. He moved as second minister to the Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh, in 1743, and to Lady Yester's Kirk (see William Robertson, d....
KEACH, Benjamin. b. Stoke Hammond, near Leighton Buzzard, Buckinghamshire, 29 February 1640; d. London, 18 July 1704. He was apprenticed to a tailor. His early reading and experience inclined him towards Calvinism and adult baptism, and by 1658 he was preaching and ministering to a Baptist congregation at Winslow, Buckinghamshire. In 1664 he published The Child's Instructor, a book which contained not only the basic educational information (reading, writing, arithmetic) but also material...
How oft, alas, this wretched heart. Anne Steele* (1716-1778).
In Volume I of Steele's Poems on Subjects Chiefly Devotional (1760) this hymn was entitled 'Pardoning Love'. The title was followed by two references, 'Jer.III.22. Hos. XIV.4.':
How oft, alas, this wretched heart Has wandered from the Lord!How oft my roving thoughts depart, Forgetful of his word!
Yet sovereign mercy calls, Return: Dear Lord, and may I come! My vile ingratitude I mourn; Oh take the wanderer home.
And...
Sovereign of worlds! display Thy power. Bourne Hall Draper* (1775-1843).
Samuel Willoughby Duffield has described the origins of this hymn. It was from a poem in seven stanzas beginning 'Ruler of worlds, display Thy power'. This hymn consisted of lines 1-12 and 17-20 of the original poem, slightly altered. The remainder of the poem, lines 13-16 and 21-28, was used for the best known hymn by Draper, 'Ye Christian heralds, go, proclaim'*. Duffield dates its first appearance in a hymnal as being...
Beyond all mortal praise. Timothy Dudley-Smith* (1926-2024).
Written in August 1981. The first line and the metre 66.66.44.44. (the metre of the 148th Psalm in the 'Old Version'*) may seem at first sight to recall 'We give immortal praise'* by Isaac Watts*. But while Watts's hymn is on the Holy Trinity, Dudley-Smith's is based on Daniel 2: 20-23, in which Daniel and his companions desired 'mercies of the God of heaven' that would enable them to interpret Nebuchadnezzar's dream. Daniel's prayer...
The heavens declare thy glory, Lord. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This is one of three paraphrases of Psalm 19 which appeared in The Psalms of David (1719). The first, in two parts, was in Short Metre. That, and the third in 88.88.88 (described as 'P.M.' or 'Peculiar Metre'), are somewhat closer to the text of the psalm itself. This Long Metre version had the title, 'The Books of Nature and of Scripture compared; or, the Glory and Success of the Gospel.' The first two lines closely paraphrase the...
Songs of Fellowship (SoF) is a long-running collection of hymnals published in the UK by Kingsway. Like the Mission Praise* series, it has no particular denominational affiliation, and volumes from it are used across a broad spectrum of British churches as both principal and supplementary hymnals. The collection is firmly in the Evangelical tradition, which affects the choice of content, editorial approach, and the model of publishing. The publication history and numbering of volumes in the...
Baptists in England were divided into two main groupings until the end of the 19th century: the General Baptists, who were Arminian in theology, and the Particular Baptists, who were Calvinist. These groupings reflected different historical origins, and different theologies and practices, including attitudes to congregational singing. Most churches of both groups formed the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland (now the Baptist Union of Great Britain — BUGB) in the 19th century, though a...
Church Hymnal (Cooke and Denton, 1853). This was one of the principal books published in the years before the First Edition of A&M. The full title was The Church Hymnal. A Book of Hymns adapted to the use of The Church of England and Ireland, arranged as they are to be sung in Churches. No editors' names appeared on the title page. No date is given on the title page. The copy in the British Library, presented by John Julian in 1893, bears his inscription 'Known as Cooke & Denton's...
Hymnal 21 (Sambika 21)
The Hymnal 21 (Sambika 21) was published by the United Church of Christ in Japan in February 1997. It was designed to reflect the fresh spirit and diversity of congregational songs for the 21st century.
Predecessors of Sambika 21
The first interdenominational hymnal in the history of Japanese hymnody was published in 1903, marking a new development in Japan. The 1903 edition contained 459 hymns with additional service music, including settings of the Gloria and...
MUSIC, David Wayne. b. Ardmore, Oklahoma, 28 January 1949. Music was educated at California Baptist College (BA in music, 1970), and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (MCM 1973, DMA 1977). From 1977 to 1980 he served as a full-time minister of music in Tennessee. At California Baptist College in Riverside (1980-1990) he directed the Chamber Singers, Concert Choir, and College Singers, and was a member of the faculty Baroque ensemble. He taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological...
Baptist hymnody, USA
17th and 18th Centuries
Baptist beginnings in the American colonies occurred with the establishment of churches at Providence (1639) and Newport (1644), Rhode Island. By the end of the 17th century there were 24 churches, all but one of them located in New England or the middle colonies.
These early congregations were principally formed by British immigrants and their song practices generally reflected those of Baptists in the Mother Country (see Baptist hymnody, British*)....
I sing the almighty power of God. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
With the title 'Praise for Creation and Providence', this was the second text in Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children (1715). It had eight stanzas. Stanza 7 is normally omitted from modern hymnbooks:
In Heaven he shines with Beams of Love,
With Wrath in Hell beneath:
'Tis on his Earth I stand or move,
And 'tis his Air I breath [for 'breathe'].
Other books shorten the hymn further by omitting the...
Believers Hymn Book
The Believers Hymn Book, with supplement, for use at Assemblings of the Lord's People, was published in 1959. It is the most recent edition of The Believers Hymn Book of 1884. The title has no apostrophe. See Brethren hymnody, British*.
From 1 to 326 the hymns are arranged alphabetically. From 327 to 360 they appear in random order. From 361 ('All hail the power of Jesu's name'*) to 464 ('Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim'*) the hymns are again arranged...
There is a fountain filled with blood. William Cowper* (1731-1800).
This hymn was first published in Richard Conyers*'s Collection of Psalms and Hymns (1772); it later achieved world-wide popularity. In Book I of Olney Hymns (1779), 'On select Texts of Scripture' it was Hymn LXXIX. It had seven stanzas and was headed 'Praise for the fountain opened', from Zechariah 13: 1, 'In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for...
Ye wretched, hungry, starving poor. Anne Steele* (1717-1778).
From Steele's Poems on subjects chiefly devotional (1760), where it was entitled 'Longing Souls invited to the Gospel-Feast. Luke xiv. 22'. The reference is to the parable of the Great Supper (Luke 14: 16-24). Verse 22 is 'And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.' The title of the hymn makes it clear that, like the parable, it is not a hymn on the social situation. The first line is so...
In our work and in our play. William Chatterton Dix* (1837-1898); Whitefield Glanville Wills* (1841-1891); William Charter Piggott* (1872-1943).
This hymn exists in several versions. That by Dix was in four stanzas, published in Hymns and Carols for Children (1869), edited by Dix but also containing hymns and carols by Gerard Moultrie* and Richard Frederick Littledale*. It was included in Church Hymns (1871; Church Hymns with Tunes, 1874), and in The Children's Hymn Book (1881), edited by...
Come we that love the Lord. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This appeared, with ten 4-line stanzas, in Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), Book II, 'Composed on Divine Subjects, Conformable to the Word of God', with the title 'Heavenly Joy on Earth.' Watts himself made changes for the Second Edition of 1709, which have been retained in most subsequent hymnbooks. The original stanza 8 was:
The Men of Grace have found
Young glory here below,
Young Glory here on earthly Ground
From Faith and Hope...
RAMBACH, Johann Jakob. b. Halle, 24 February 1693; d. Giessen, 19 April 1735. He was born into a Pietist family; his father was a cabinet-maker. He was at the Latin School in Halle, and studied at the University of Halle, where he was taught by, among others, August Hermann Franke*, Joachim Justus Breithaupt, and Joachim Lange*, after which he went to Jena (1719-23), where his lectures and sermons were well received in spite of a speech impediment which made him sound hoarse. Thanks to his...
Presbyterian hymnody and hymnals, USA
The Calvinist settlers who came from Scotland, and the Scots who came by way of Ireland (Scotch-Irish) in the 17th and early 18th centuries were firstly Puritans who leaned toward either the Presbyterian or the Congregational form of church organization. New England Puritans tended more toward the Congregational model, those in Pennsylvania and New York toward the Presbyterian. Doctrinally, however, the differences were not sufficient to keep Presbyterian...
DE COURCY, Richard. b. Ireland, 1743; d. Shrewsbury, 1803. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and then ordained deacon in 1767, becoming curate at Loughrea to a noted evangelical, Walter Shirley*. He was refused ordination to the priesthood by the Archbishop of Dublin on account of his extreme views, and left for England, where he was taken up by the Countess of Huntingdon*, who made him one of her preachers and who became a close friend. Her pressure on the Bishop of Lichfield...
How pleased and blest was I. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This is the second version of Psalm 122 in Watts's The Psalms of David (1719). This version is headed 'The same', meaning that it has the same title as the first, 'Going to Church', which is appropriate for the psalm that begins 'I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.' Both versions are free renderings, the first in Common Metre. The second, in 668. 668. is far more accomplished: it has remained virtually...
English Hymnody
Before the Reformation
English hymnody is as old as English poetry itself. The first known English poem is the hymn by Caedmon*, the lay helper at Whitby Abbey, dated between ca. 657 and 680. According to Bede* in his Historia Gentis Anglorum Ecclesiastica, Caedmon thought himself unable to sing but was visited by an angel who told him to sing of the Creation, whereupon he composed the hymn in Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse beginning 'Nu sculon hergan | heafonrices Weard' ('Now...
Hymnody on social issues.
The concern of the Church about the problems of living in society has a long history, reflected in its hymnody. In the Magnificat* (Luke 1:46-55) Mary celebrated God her Saviour, who 'hath put down the mighty from their seats, and hath exalted the humble and meek'; and the concern of the Old Testament prophets for the establishing of a just and fair order of society has been the source of much significant later writing on the subject. A hymn such as Albert Bayly*'s...
LAHEE, Henry. b. Chelsea, London, 11 April 1826; d. Croydon, Surrey, 29 April 1912. He was a pupil of Sterndale Bennett*, John Goss*, and Cipriani Potter. In 1847 he became organist of Holy Trinity, Brompton, where the vicar was William Josiah Irons*, the translator of the 'Dies irae, dies illa'*. Irons and Lahee collaborated to produce The Metrical Psalter, for singing at each Sunday service throughout the year (1855), with an Appendix (1861) containing 22 hymns. Irons and Lahee also published...
The Lord of Heaven confess. George Wither* (1588-1667).
This paraphrase of Psalm 148 was published in Wither's The Psalmes of David, translated into lyrick-verse (1632). It was included in SofP in an abbreviated version omitting stanzas 2, 4 and 6, while CH3 gives the full text.
The SofP version prints a variant of the lines beginning 'Even those that be of Israel's race' which makes it clear that 'even' means 'equally' and is not intended to be derogatory of the Jewish people:
Yea, they that...
Mission hymnody, USA
Beginnings
The beginnings of American churches' missions can be traced to the efforts of John Eliot (1604-1690) to gather 'Praying Indians' into towns for worship, preaching, language instruction and Bible study; the churches and day schools established by John Sargent (1710-1749) in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and Eleazar Wheelock (1711-1779) in Connecticut; and the organization of the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge among 'Indians' in North America in...
Why should we start and fear to die. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
From Watts's Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), where it was entitled 'Christ's Presence makes Death easy':
Why should we start and fear to die?
What timorous Worms we Mortals are!
Death is the Gate of endless Joy,
And yet we dread to enter there.
The Pains, the Groans, and dying Strife
Fright our approaching Souls away;
Still we shrink back again to Life,
Fond of our Prison and our Clay.
O, if my Lord would...
Yattendon Hymnal (1895-99).
The Yattendon Hymnal was edited by Robert Bridges* and Harry Ellis Wooldridge*. It was published originally in four separate sections, entitled Hymns in Four Parts [i.e. SATB] with English Words for Singing in Churches: Part I (1895), containing 25 hymns; Part II (1897), hymns 26-50; Part III (1898), 51-75; Part IV (1899), 76-100. It appeared in a complete edition of words and music in 1899 with the YH title. Its name comes from the Berkshire village where Bridges...
Gadsby's Hymns
William Gadsby* (1773-1844) is famous for his Selection of Hymns for Public Worship (Manchester, 1814), which he published in the same year as a collection of his own work, The Nazarene's Songs: being a Composition of Original Hymns by William Gadsby (Manchester, 1814). Edition after edition followed, with enlargements and supplements (1838, 1844, 1850, 1854, and thereafter) and it is still in print. These were words-only books: tune books, Companion Tunes to Gadsby's hymn book,...
REED, Andrew. b. London, 27 November 1787; d. London, 25 February 1862. He was the son of a watchmaker, who was also a lay preacher. He became a watchmaker himself, but sold his tools and entered Hackney College in 1807 to train for the Congregational ministry. He was ordained in 1811 to a chapel at New Road, East London. He built a new chapel called Wycliffe in Commercial Road, Whitechapel, and became minister of the congregation there in 1831; he retired in November 1861, after thirty years...
In praise of God meet duty and delight. Erik Routley* (1917-1982).
Written in 1976, this is one of only three hymns for which Routley wrote both text and tune (SHERIDAN). It was commissioned by the Westminster Presbyterian Church, Lincoln, Nebraska, and first performed at the dedication of a new organ on 14 November 1976. Stanzas 2 and 3 were reversed and line 3 in stanza 3 was altered to 'voice and mind' rather than 'voice and sound', on that occasion only and in the anthem version (in...
Glad was my heart to hear. James Montgomery* (1771-1854).
First published in Montgomery's Songs of Zion (1822) in six 4-line stanzas. It is based on Psalm 122 ('I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord'). It is characteristic of Montgomery in its economy and simplicity, as in stanzas 1-3:
Glad was my heart to hear My old companions say:Come, in the house of God appear, For 'tis a holy day.
Our willing feet shall stand Within the temple door,While young...
Lord of the worlds above. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This version of Psalm 84 appeared in The Psalms of David (1719), with the title 'Longing for the House of God'. It is the third paraphrase of the psalm, headed 'as the 148th Psalm', referring to the 6.6.6.6. 44.44 metre, the traditional one for Psalm 148. It had seven stanzas, with 'Pause' written between stanzas 4 and 5.
In a pre-1831 Supplement to Wesley's 1780 Collection of Hymns the Methodist compilers printed the paraphrase, omitting...
Praise ye the Lord! 'tis good to raise. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This text is from The Psalms of David (1719), paraphrasing Psalm 147: 1-4, 7-11. It was entitled 'The divine Nature, Providence and Grace'. The second part of the psalm began, with a reference to his own country that was common in Watts's work, 'O Britain, praise thy mighty God.' There was also another version, in Common Metre, of verses 7-18. However, of the three texts 'Praise ye the Lord' is the only one which has continued in...
MATHER, Cotton. b. Boston, Massachusetts, 12 February 1663; d. Boston, Massachusetts, 13 February 1728. Mather, one of the leading Puritan ministers of the American colonies, was instrumental in introducing the hymns of Isaac Watts* to North America. He was born into one of the prominent Puritan families of Colonial America. His father, Increase Mather (1639-1723), was minister of the prestigious Old North Church in Boston, and president of Harvard College (now Harvard University) from 1692...
HARRIS, Thoro. b. Washington, DC, 31 March 1874; d. Eureka Springs, Arkansas, 27 March 1955. Harris was one of two children born to Joseph Dennis Harris, an African American physician in Washington, DC, and Elizabeth W. Harris (neé Worthington) from Michigan (ca.1840-ca.1900). The marriage took place in Wayne County, North Carolina, in 1868 (information from Chris Fenner). The 1880 Washington DC census lists the mother as 'white' and 'head of household'. Thoro and his sister Worthy (born South...
Unitarian-Universalist hymnody, USA
American Unitarians and Universalists participated actively in compiling hymnals and writing hymns throughout the 19th and early 20th century, amassing well over fifty collections before embarking on their first joint venture in Hymns of the Spirit (Boston, 1937). This work pre-dated the actual merger of the American Unitarian Association (AUA) and the Universalist Church of America (UCA) in 1961. Subsequent volumes, described later in this article, appeared...
Lord, thou has scourg'd our guilty land. Joel Barlow* (1754-1812).
Barlow 'corrected and enlarged' Isaac Watts*'s The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament and Applied to the Christian State and Worship (1719) at the request of the General Association of Connecticut (Congregational Church), a work published in 1786 as Psalms carefully suited to the Christian Worship in the United States of America, being Dr. Watts's Imitation of the Psalms of David, as improved by Mr....
HANDEL, George Frideric. b. Halle-an-der-Saale, Saxony, 23 February 1685; d. London, 14 April 1759. Handel received his early musical training under Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, the organist of the Marktkirche in Halle, and since many of Zachow's surviving keyboard compositions are based on German chorale melodies we can assume that this area of hymnody was a fundamental part of Handel's early musical experience. The services at the Marktkirche no doubt involved congregational chorales as well as...
Begin, my tongue, some heavenly theme. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
From Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), Book II, 'Composed on Divine Subjects, Conformable to the Word of God', in nine stanzas. It was entitled 'The Faithfulness of God in his Promises.' Watts altered stanza 4 in the Second Edition (1709) from the original
Engrav'd as in Eternal Brass
The mighty Promise lies;
Nor can the Powers of Darkness raise [a printer's error for 'rase' = erase]
The Records of the Skies.to
Engrav'd as...
Village Hymns for Social Worship (1824).
The General Association [Congregational churches] of Connecticut at its June 1820 meeting formed a committee with instructions to 'devise measures for the prosperity of religion within their limits', notably the revivals of The Second Great Awakening (see Great Awakenings, USA*). The committee identified one of the 'measures', as a 'new selection of hymns.' Following two years of committee inaction, committee member Asahel Nettleton*, a noted...
Come, let us anew/ Our journey pursue. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns for New-Year's-Day M.DCC.L (Bristol, 1750), an 11-page pamphlet costing one penny, in three 8-line stanzas. This hymn has remained in use unaltered, save that since the Supplement of 1831 to A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists it was divided into six stanzas and 'may' was substituted for the subjunctive 'might' in stanza 3 line 2. The text in 1750 was as follows:
Come,...
British Methodist Hymnody
During the time of John Wesley
John Wesley* and Charles Wesley* sang hymns in the Holy Club which Charles had founded at Oxford in 1729, of which John became the acknowledged leader on his return there later in the same year. They would have used traditional English psalm tunes (see Leaver, 1996, p. 31). However, their interest in the potential of hymns as important aids to worship and spirituality developed strongly on the ship that took them to America in 1735-36....
Hymns of the Spirit (1864). This was the title of a major anthology edited by the Unitarian ministers Samuel Longfellow* and Samuel Johnson*, published at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1864. It contained 717 hymns, arranged in two principal sections: 1. Worship; 2. God and His Manifestations.
The first was divided into:
Usual Public Worship
Special Occasions.
The second was divided as follows:
God in Himself;
God in Nature;
God in the Soul;
God in the Life;
God in Humanity.
The subdivisions of...
When I survey the wondrous cross. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This hymn first appeared in Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), Book III, 'Prepared for the holy Ordinance of the Lord's Supper', with the title 'Crucifixion to the World by the Cross of Christ; Gal. 6.14.' It began:
When I survey the wondrous Cross
Where the young Prince of Glory dy'd…
This was altered by Watts himself for the Second Edition in 1709. In the 20th century, only Baptist books (BHB, 1962; BPW, 1991) retained Watts's...
Author of faith, eternal Word. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in 1740 in a pamphlet entitled 'The Life of Faith, exemplified in the Eleventh Chapter of St Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews', taking the reader through several verses of the epistle. It was then printed in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1740). The six stanzas, sub-titled 'Verse i', and given the same title as the pamphlet, were the first of twenty-two:
Author of Faith, Eternal Word, Whose Spirit breathes the active Flame,...
BILLINGS, William. b. Boston, Massachusetts, 7 October 1746; d. Boston, 26 September 1800. Billings lived his entire life in Boston except for occasional short trips to nearby towns to teach singing schools. He received only a rudimentary formal education, but an inquiring mind led him to read and study widely on his own. His basic musical education came through singing schools (class lessons in reading music and choral singing) common throughout New England during the latter half of the 18th...
Breviary. This is the title given to a book containing all the material necessary for performing the Divine Office — prayers, chants, and readings. The readings are usually abbreviated, hence the name. Breviaries first appeared in the 11th century, and contained so much material that they were often divided into summer and winter volumes. For a detailed introduction to the contents of Breviaries see Tolhurst (1942).
Breviaries were useful for monks and clerics who were not able to attend the...
RONANDER, Albert Carl. b. Worcester, Massachusetts, 15 December 1914; d. Hyannis, Massachusetts, 16 March 2007. A United Church of Christ pastor and hymnologist, Ronander attended Occidental College, Los Angeles, California, and the University of Southern California, Los Angeles (BA, 1938); he undertook further study at Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago Illinois (BD, 1941), Union Theological Seminary, New York City (STM, 1950), with post-graduate studies at Harvard University, Cambridge,...
Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
From The Psalms of David (1719). It is a paraphrase of Psalm 98, Second Part, verses 4-9, with the title, 'The Messiah's Coming and Kingdom'. It had four stanzas: stanza 3 is often omitted or rewritten:
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make his blessings flow
Far as the curse is found.
This is rewritten in RS as 'No more let thorns infest the ground,/ or sins and sorrows grow;/...
Wherewith, O God, shall I draw near. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1740), in thirteen stanzas, headed 'Micah vi. 6, &c.' It was the hymn that concluded Part I of that book. It was included in a shorter form of ten stanzas by John Wesley* in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), in the section 'For Mourners convinced of Sin'. He conflated stanzas 2 and 3 into one quatrain:
...
RANDALL, John. b. 26 February 1717; d. Cambridge, 18 March 1799. Randall was a chorister at the Chapel Royal, who was appointed organist of King's College, Cambridge, in 1742 or 1743 (the date is uncertain). He was awarded the degrees of MusB (1744) and MusD (1756). Shortly before the latter date he was appointed Professor of Music in the University of Cambridge (1755). Remarkably, he was at times also organist of Trinity, St John's, and Pembroke Colleges, assisted by his pupil, William Crotch....
Laudate (1999, 2012)
This is the title ('Praise') of a British Roman Catholic hymnbook, first published in 1999 by Decani Music. It was edited by Stephen Dean*. It was revised in 2012 in accordance with the 2010 translation of the Roman Missal, with a fifth revised printing in 2014.
It contains a first section, 'The Liturgy of the Hours', with three sections: Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Night Prayer. These contain hymns, psalms, and antiphons by various writers, from John Mason Neale*...
Come, dearest Lord, descend and dwell. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This appeared in the Second Edition of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1709) with the title 'The love of Christ shed abroad in the heart, Ephesians iii. 16 &c.' Although the words of the title are found in Romans 5: 5, the text is a paraphrase of Ephesians 3: 16-21:
Come, dearest Lord, descend and dwellBy Faith and Love in every Breast;Then shall we know, and taste, and feelThe Joys that cannot be exprest.
Come, fill our Hearts...
DWIGHT, Timothy. b. Northampton, Massachusetts, 14 May 1752; d. New Haven, Connecticut, 11 January 1817. Timothy Dwight was the grandson of the preacher Jonathan Edwards. A child prodigy, he began reading the Bible at the age of four, and secretly learned Latin against his father's wishes. He entered Yale College at age thirteen, graduating in 1769. He tutored at Yale until 1777 when he became a chaplain in the Revolutionary Army, and befriended George Washington. After helping his widowed...
'Twas on that night when doomed to know. John Morison* (1750-1798).
This paraphrase of Matthew 26: 26-29 was no 35 in the Scottish Translations and Paraphrases (1781). It is attributed to Morison on the evidence of the daughter of William Cameron*, who thus marked her copy. According to JJ, p. 1180, it is based on a Latin hymn, 'Nocte quâ Christus rabidis Apellis', by Andreas Ellinger (1526-1582), translated by William Archibald, minister of Unst, Shetland (d. 1785).
It has remained as...
Shape-note hymnody
This is a tradition of rural American sacred music using unorthodox notations, associated with community singing schools and singings. Although the shape-note singing tradition of the 19th century flourished particularly in the South and Midwest, it spread to practically every section of the United States in the closing decades of the 20th century. Shape-note tunebooks contain introductory rudiments for reading the notation plus up to several hundred hymn tunes, fuging...
Medieval hymns
Latin hymns in medieval Sweden have been more thoroughly researched than in other Scandinavian countries. An edition of 129 surviving Swedish melodies, with commentary, together with 60 photographs of medieval Swedish hymn sources may be found in Moberg and Nilsson (1991). The texts were edited in Moberg (1947). Sweden came under the influence of north-west European missionaries in the 11th century, and had contacts with central European Christians in later centuries, both of...
INGHAM, Benjamin. b. Ossett, Yorkshire, 11 June 1712; d. Aberford Hall, near Tadcaster, Yorkshire, 2 December 1772. He was educated at Batley Grammar School and Queen's College, Oxford (1730-34), where he became acquainted with Charles Wesley* and was associated with the Oxford Methodists (his diary of these years was edited by Heitzenrater, 1985). He was persuaded by the Wesley brothers to accompany them to Georgia; his letter describing the voyage is printed in Heitzenrater (2003). In Georgia...
COOPER, George. b. London, 7 July 1820; d. London, 2 October 1876. The son of the assistant organist at St Paul's Cathedral, he learned the (pedal) harpsichord and piano and, from time to time, deputised for his father at St Paul's from the age of eleven. Thomas Attwood*, then organist at the cathedral, was most impressed by the boy's gifts and allowed him to extemporise at services. This gift also drew the attention of Mendelssohn*. At the age of thirteen, he became organist at St Benet's,...
Onward, Christian soldiers. Sabine Baring-Gould* (1834-1924).
Written in 1864 and published in the Church Times, 15 October 1864, entitled 'Hymn for Procession with Cross and Banners'. It was included in A Supplement to Psalms and Hymns (1867) compiled by T.B. Morrell and William Walsham How*. It appeared in the Appendix (1868) to the first edition of A&M, set to a tune called ST ALBAN arranged by John Bacchus Dykes* from Haydn (it is called HAYDN in EH # 643, where it is printed as the...
HUNTINGDON, Selina Hastings, Countess of. b. probably Astwell House, Northamptonshire, 13 August 1707; d. Clerkenwell, London, 17 June 1791. She was born Selina Shirley, second daughter of Earl Ferrers: she married Theophilus Hastings, 9th Earl of Huntingdon, in 1728. Dissatisfied with her life as a rich noblewoman, she became involved with the early Methodists from 1739 onwards, entering into correspondence with John Wesley* in 1741, and inviting him to use Donington Park, her Leicestershire...
Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
First published in Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), from Book II, 'Composed on Divine Subjects, Conformable to the Word of God'. It was entitled 'Breathing after the Holy Spirit; or, Fervency of Devotion desir'd'. It had five 4-line stanzas:
Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove, With all thy quickning Powers, Kindle a Flame of sacred Love In these cold Hearts of ours.
Look, how we grovel here below, And hug these trifling Toys; Our...
O God, our help in ages past. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This version of Psalm 90, verses 1-5 is from The Psalms of David (1719), with the title 'Man frail, and God eternal'. It had nine stanzas. It began 'Our God, our help in ages past', an opening line that was altered by John Wesley* in his Collection of Psalms and Hymns (1738) to 'O God…'. This emendation has been accepted by most British hymnbooks apart from those of Congregationalists and Baptists, and some early Presbyterian books (before...
Sing to the Lord with joyful voice. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This text exists in several books. One version is in Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), Book I, 'Collected from the Holy Scriptures', with the title 'Praise to the Lord from all Nations; Psalm 100'. Stanza 1 was:
Sing to the Lord with joyful voice;
Let every land his name adore;
The British Isles shall send the Noise
Across the Ocean to the Shore.
A paraphrase of Psalm 100 had originally appeared in Horae Lyricae (1706), with line 3...
Anglican Hymn Book (1965) was an attempt to replace the Hymnal Companion to the Book of Common Prayer (Third Edition, 1890) and The Church Hymnal for the Christian Year (1920). It was compiled by a committee appointed by the Church Society, chaired by Canon Herbert Taylor, vicar of Orpington, Kent, and Honorary Canon of Rochester Cathedral. The music editor was Robin Sheldon. It contained 663 hymns, printed in a sans-serif type, unusual in a hymnbook at that time. It is notable for the number...
CONYERS's Collection of Psalms and Hymns. One of the first hymn books of the Evangelical Revival (cf. Madan*, Toplady*) was Richard Conyers*'s A Collection of Psalms and Hymns, from Various Authors: for the use of Serious and Devout Christians of all Denominations (London, 1767). It contained 274 hymns plus five doxologies. There was no preface, and no compiler's name. The authors most represented were Isaac Watts* and Charles Wesley*, but it also included a hymn by Thomas Olivers* ('The God of...
How few receive with cordial faith. William Robertson, d. 1745*.
According to James Mearns* in JJ, p. 536, this paraphrase of Isaiah 53 ('Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?') was identified by the daughter of William Cameron* as having been written by William Robertson for the unpublished Translations and Paraphrases of 1745, and amended by John Logan* for the Scottish Translations and Paraphrases in Verse of 1781. Mearns noted that it was 'still in C.U....
I love Thy kingdom, Lord. Timothy Dwight* (1752-1817).
This is Dwight's metrical version of the 'Third Part' of Psalm 137, in his edition of Isaac Watts*'s The Psalms of David (Hartford, Connecticut, 1801). It had eight 4-line stanzas. It was printed in the American Episcopal Church Hymnal in 1826, and has remained in successive editions. It is 'the earliest American hymn text remaining in common use' (Glover, 1990-1994, volume 3B, p. 979).
Most books, including H82, omit stanzas 2-4:
2. I love...
LEACH, James. b. Townhead, near Rochdale, Lancashire, 1761 (baptized 25 December); d. Blackley, near Manchester, 8 February 1798. He was a handloom weaver by trade, and a Wesleyan Methodist. His talent as a singer and composer soon earned him a great reputation in Lancashire, and like many of his class and region, he was passionately committed to the singing of psalmody, and to more ambitious choral performances at local musical festivals. He is said to have sung as an alto in the Handel...
Lobt Gott in allen Landen. Martin Behm* (1557-1622).
From Behm's Kirchen Calender (Wittenberg, 1606), with the title 'Gebeet, Vom Brachmonat' ('Brachmonat' was a word for the month of June, now obsolete). It is a delightful hymn for the coming of summer ('Der Winter ist vergangen'), looking forward to the sunshine and the gentle rain that make for a good harvest; it then asks for a spiritual summertime ('die geistlich Sommerzeit', the present verse 3). It had five stanzas, shortened to four in...
Lord of the boundless curves of space. Albert Frederick Bayly* (1901-1984).
Written in 1949 following a talk on 'Poetry and Science' by J. Isaacs on 'The Third Programme' of the BBC. It was published in Rejoice O People (1950) and in the Rodborough Hymnal (1964). Five of the original seven stanzas appeared in English Praise (EP, 1975) with slight changes. Textual changes ('thy', 'thee' and 'thine' becoming 'your', 'you' and 'yours' respectively) were made for MHfT (1980), and for the author's...
Redemption Songs (ca. 1910). This is the title of a volume published in London by Pickering and Inglis (dated by Gordon Bell as ca. 1910). Its sub-title was 'A choice collection of 1000 hymns and choruses for evangelistic meetings, solo singers, choirs, and the home'. It must have been intended as a British rival to Sankey*'s Sacred Songs and Solos, though it was never so successful. It began with 'All hail the power of Jesu's name'*, set to two tunes, MILES LANE and DIADEM.
The sections of the...
There's a spirit in the air. Brian Arthur Wren* (1936- ).
Written in 1969 for Pentecost when Wren was the minister of Hockley and Hawkwell Congregational Church, and published in the Baptist supplement Praise for Today (1974), without a title; then in Mainly Hymns (Leeds, 1980) with the title 'Praise the Holy Spirit'. It was 'revised 1987-9'. The note in Faith Renewed (1995) describes it as follows: 'at a time when hymnody focused mainly on the Holy Spirit's individual gifts and animating...
CAMERON, William. b. near Ballater, Aberdeenshire, 1751; d. Kirknewton, Midlothian, 17 November 1811. He was educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen, where he was a student and friend of the poet James Beattie. It may have been through Beattie's influence that Cameron became a member of the Committee of the General Assembly charged with producing the Scottish Translations and Paraphrases, which appeared in 1781. In turn, it may have been Cameron who introduced the dubious figure of John Logan*...
English Hymnal (1906; new edition, 1933). The English Hymnal (EH) of 1906 (new edition, 1933) was a remarkable landmark in English hymnody. Its bright green covers, though initially associated with the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church of England, found their way into places of much broader churchmanship and the book influenced congregational hymn-singing and the contents of other hymn books throughout the 20th century.
By the end of the 19th century, the resources for hymn singing in the...
BRIDGE, Sir John Frederick. b. Oldbury, Worcestershire, 5 December 1844; d. London, 18 March 1924. Though born in Worcestershire, his formative years were spent in Rochester where, until 1859, he was a chorister in the cathedral together with his lay-clerk father and his younger brother, Joseph Cox Bridge (who later became organist at Chester Cathedral). Articled to J. L. Hopkins at Rochester, he later accepted the posts of organist at Shorne Parish Church (1861) and Strood Parish Church...
PHILLIMORE, Greville. b. London, 5 February 1821; d. Ewelme, Oxfordshire, 20 January 1884. He was the son of Joseph Phillimore, Regius Professor of Civil Law, of Shiplake House, Henley-on-Thames. He was educated at Westminster School and then, as 'An Exhibitioner on the Foundation' at the Charter House, before studying at Christ Church, Oxford (BA 1842, MA 1844). He took Holy Orders in 1845, and served curacies at Henley-on-Thames (1846), Shiplake (1847-48), Wargrave and Fawley (1848-49), and...
The word 'Alleluia' originates from the Hebrew 'Hallel', or praise, followed by 'Yah' or 'Jah' for YHWH, an ascription of monotheistic praise, as in the opening and closing phrases of Psalm 104. The 'Hallel psalms', sung at Passover and other feasts, were Psalms 113 to 118; the 'Great Hallel' was Psalm 136. The word is found in Greek as 'Allelouia' in several verses of Revelation 19. It was used in the early church, and there are records of its being shouted or sung from the third century...
This entry is in two parts: the first by Marcus Wells, the second by JRW
Principles of Hymn Translation
Hymns have been written for centuries and, through translation, many of them have become known beyond the borders of their country of origin. This has been an increasing trend recently, motivated by ecumenism. It is indeed a great thrill at international gatherings to hear the participants praising God in song, all in their own language: a foretaste of Revelation 7: 9-10.
Hymn translations...
The Oxford Hymn Book was published by the Clarendon Press (the academic part of the Oxford University Press) in 1908. It was the work of two of the delegates of the Clarendon Press, the Dean of Christ Church, Thomas Strong (Dean, 1901-1920), and the Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, William Sanday (Professor, 1895-1919). They co-opted Mary Church, who had edited The Life and Letters of Dean Church (her father, R.W. Church, 1815-1890, Dean of St Paul's, 1871-90) and James Thompson, the Dean...
Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748) and the Compilers of Scottish Translations and Paraphrases (1781).
This hymn exists in several forms, by different hands. The original paraphrase of Isaiah 40: 27-31 appeared in Watts's Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), Book I, 'Collected from the Holy Scriptures', with the title, 'Strength from Heaven.' It began
Whence do our mournful thoughts arise?
And where's our courage fled?
Has restless sin and raging hell
Struck...
WESTBURY, Eliza. b. Hackleton, Northamptonshire, 1808 (Baptized 22 May); d. 11 April 1828. She was a member of Hackleton Baptist Church (among its founders in 1781 had been the local shoemaker, William Carey, who became a famous missionary and was instrumental in establishing the Baptist Missionary Society). Westbury learned to read and write at Sabbath School. She was a lace-maker and a Particular Baptist. Converted to an evangelical faith in 1826, she subsequently wrote about 150 hymns: 71...
The Cluster of Spiritual Songs, Divine Hymns, and Sacred Poems ('Mercer's Cluster'). Compiled by Jesse Mercer* (1769-1841).
Mercer's Cluster, or 'The Cluster', as it is often called, is a collection of text-only verse compiled by Jesse Mercer. The collection was especially important as a source of texts for William Walker*'s Southern Harmony* and other collections in the development of Shape-note hymnody* and Baptist hymnody in America (see Baptist hymnody, USA*).
The first two editions were...
CABRERA, Juan Bautista Ivars. b. Benissa, Alicante, Spain; 23 April 1837; d. Madrid, 18 May 1916.
A hymn writer, translator of hymns, church historian, and the first bishop of the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church (1896–1916), Cabrera is known today by Spanish-speaking congregations for his translations of some of the most widely-used historical hymns. He was born into a pious Catholic family in Spain (Catholicism, though the dominant faith tradition in Spain for centuries, became the official...
BBC Songs of Praise was published in 1997. It traced its origins from two sources: the original Songs of Praise (SofP, 1925, SofPE, 1931), and the popular BBC television programme, 'Songs of Praise', in which congregations from various parts of the British Isles were seen, and individuals were invited to choose hymns. That programme, in the words of the Preface, 'has made churchgoers aware of songs and hymns from beyond their individual traditions, and has been able to popularize newer music on...
WYTON, Alec (Alexander Francis). b. London, 3 August 1921; d. Danbury, Connecticut, 18 March 2007. After his parents separated, he received his early encouragement from an aunt in Northampton who suggested he learned the piano and organ. When war broke out in 1939, he joined the Royal Corps of Signals but was discharged early owing to a duodenal ulcer. He then went on to the Royal Academy of Music and, in 1943, he became organ scholar at Exeter College, Oxford (BA 1945) where he studied history...
Come, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost/ Honour the means... Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
This is No. 182 from Volume II of Charles Wesley's Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), the book published under his own name with John Wesley*'s approval. This hymn was headed 'At the Baptism of Adults'. It had six stanzas:
Come, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost Honour the Means Injoin'd by Thee, Make good our Apostolic Boast And own thy Glorious Ministry.
We now thy Promis'd Presence claim, Sent to disciple All...
God, in the Gospel of his Son. Benjamin Beddome* (1717-1795).
This was published in John Rippon*'s Selection of Hymns* (1787), entitled 'The Gospel of Christ'. It had six stanzas:
God, in the Gospel of his Son, Makes his eternal Councils known; 'Tis here his richest Mercy shines, And Truth is drawn in fairest Lines.
Here Sinners of an humble FrameMay taste his Grace,...
O thou who camest from above. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures (Bristol, 1762), the fourth hymn in a series of twenty-one on Leviticus, mostly of a single stanza each but including also 'A charge to keep I have'*. It was in two 8-line stanzas, prefaced by the text 'The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar, it shall never go out. — vi.13.':
O Thou who camest from above, The pure, celestial fire t' impart,Kindle a flame...
The Plymouth Collection of Hymns and Tunes; for the Use of Christian Congregations (New York, 1855).
The Plymouth Collection was edited by Henry Ward Beecher*, then minister of Plymouth Congregational Church, New York. He delegated responsibility for the tunes to John Zundel* and to his brother, the Revd Charles Beecher (1815-1900). They provided 367 tunes, set to 1374 texts. Each tune was printed with the texts beneath: sometimes, but rarely, with a single text; more often, with several texts...
HARRISON, Ralph. b. Buxton, Derbyshire, 30 August 1748; d. Manchester, 24 November 1810. He spent part of his childhood at Chinley in Derbyshire. He was educated at the Warrington Academy, where he was taught by Joseph Priestley, among others. After a short period as a minister at Shrewsbury (1769-71) he became co-minister of Cross Street Unitarian Chapel, Manchester, from 1771 until 1809. He also founded a grammar school for boys in Manchester in 1774, and was one of the founders of the...
Rejoice in the Lord: A Hymnal Companion to the Scriptures (1985)
The General Synod of the Reformed Church in America (see Reformed hymnody, USA*) appointed a committee in 1980 to prepare a new hymnal for the denomination. The committee secured the services of Erik Routley*as its editor. Routley's career had involved many components: clergyman, teacher, theologian, author, composer, hymn writer, editorial consultant and member of hymnal committees, and long association with the hymn societies...
LOWRY, Robert. b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 12 March 1826; d. Plainfield, New Jersey, 25 November 1899. Educated at the University of Lewisburg (later Bucknell University), Lowry was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1854. He was pastor of a church at West Chester, Pennsylvania (1854-58); of Bloomingdale Baptist Church, New York City (1859-61); and Hanson Place Baptist Church, Brooklyn (1861-69). In 1869 he returned to Lewisburg as pastor of the First Baptist Church and professor of rhetoric...
Rock of Ages, cleft for me. Augustus Montague Toplady* (1740-1778).
A stanza containing lines from this hymn was first published in The Gospel Magazine (October 1775):
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee!
Foul I to the fountain fly:
Wash me, Saviour, or I die.
The hymn was printed in full in The Gospel Magazine (March 1776), where it was entitled 'A living and dying PRAYER for the HOLIEST BELIEVER in the world'. It was preceded by an essay which is remarkable as an...
Again the Lord of life and light. Anna Letitia Barbauld* (1743-1825).
First published in her friend William Enfield*'s Hymns for Public Worship: selected from various authors, and intended as a supplement to Dr Watts's Psalms (Warrington, 1772), where it was entitled 'For Easter-Sunday'. It appeared in Barbauld's Poems (1773), as 'Hymn III', with the same title. It had eleven stanzas.
Many different selections from the eleven stanzas have been made, beginning with William Bengo...
FAWCETT, John. b. Lidget Green, Bradford, West Yorkshire, 6 January 1740; d. 25 July 1817. He was the son of Stephen Fawcett, who died young. Influenced while an apprentice by the preaching of George Whitefield on John 3: 14, he was interested in Methodism but joined the Particular Baptists in Bradford. He entered the ministry, and in May 1764 became minister at the small, damp Wainsgate Baptist Church high in the hills at Old Town above Hebden Bridge, where his remuneration never exceeded £25...
My Shepherd will supply my need.Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
Psalm 23 has always been a great comfort in life, and in the face of death (it is often used in funerals). By the time Watts wrote his version, it had attracted several versifiers, from William Whittingham* ('The Lord is only my support') and George Herbert* ('The God of love my shepherd is'*) to Nahum Tate*/Nicholas Brady* ('The Lord himself, the mighty Lord') and Joseph Addison* ('The Lord my pasture shall prepare'*). Watts provided...
High in the heavens, eternal God. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This close yet free paraphrase of Psalm 36, verses 5- 9, appeared in The Psalms of David (1719), entitled 'The Perfections and Providences of God; or, General Providence and Special Grace'.
In one of the Supplements to A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780) the compilers excluded Watts's stanza 5 (which is found in CP). In 1719 the text was:
High in the Heavens, Eternal God, Thy Goodness in full...
We give immortal praise. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This is the 13th of 20 doxologies in Hymns and Spiritual Songs (Second Edition, 1709), Book III, 'Prepared for the holy Ordinance of the Lord's Supper' with the title, 'A Song of Praise to the Blessed Trinity.' It is written in the metre of the 'Old 148th', the popular metre of 6.6.6.6.44.44 used in the 'Old Version'* of the Psalms. It began 'I give…'. The change to 'We' was made by George Whitefield*, and is found in his Psalms and Hymns...
What shall I render to my God (Wesley). Charles Wesley* (1707-1788)
This hymn has the same first line as the metrical version by Isaac Watts* of Psalm 116, which is probably why it remained unpublished for many years. It was printed in Volume 8 of George Osborn's The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley (1868-72), in which he printed 'Versions and Paraphrases of Select Psalms'. This was headed 'Psalm CXVI'. The lines below were part of a long paraphrase of eleven 8-line stanzas beginning...
When I can read my Title clear. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
From Watts's Hymns and Sacred Poems (1707), Book II, 'Compos'd on Divine Subjects', hymn 65. It was entitled 'The Hope of Heaven our Support under Trials on Earth'. It had four stanzas. The 1707 text was as follows:
When I can read my Title clear To Mansions in the Skies, I bid farewell to every Fear, And wipe my weeping eyes.
Should Earth against my Soul engage, And Hellish Darts be hurl'd,, Then I can smile at Satan's rage, ...
Awake our souls, away our fears. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This appeared in Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1709), Book I, 'Collected from the Holy Scriptures', with the title, 'The Christian Race, Isa. 40. 28, 29, 30, 31.' It is a free paraphrase of the Old Testament passage, and, unusually for Watts, does not make any direct reference to Christ as the source of strength, apart from its title. The text in 1709 was as follows:
Awake our Souls, (away our Fears, Let every trembling Thought be...
Give me the wings of faith to rise. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
From Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 2nd edition (1709), Book II, 'Composed on Divine Subjects', with the title, 'The Examples of Christ and the Saints':
Give me the Wings of Faith to rise Within the Vail, and seeThe Saints above, how great their Joys, How bright their Glories be.
Once they were mourning here below, And wet their Couch with Tears;They wrestled hard, as we do now, With Sins, and Doubts, and Fears.
I ask them whence...
Lord, I have made thy word my choice. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This appeared in The Psalms of David (1719), with the title, 'The Word of God is the Saint's satisfying Portion; or, the Excellency and Variety of Scripture.' It is headed 'Psalm 119. Eighth Part'. Watts paraphrased this psalm in eighteen parts, but by no means in verse order. None of the other parts has been included in any recent hymnbook. This purports to paraphrase verse 111 of the psalm: 'Thy testimonies have I taken as an...
Nature with open volume stands. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This hymn appeared in Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), Book III, 'Prepared for the holy Ordinance of the Lord's Supper', with the title, 'Christ crucify'd; the Wisdom and Power of God.' That title refers, though it is not stated, to 1 Corinthians 1: 24.
Watts uses the argument from the book of nature, the liber naturae, in which all that is made displays God's worthiness. But, as the Companion to Rejoice and Sing (1999) expresses it,...
Greater Doxology
In Luke 2:14, the angels welcomed the birth of Jesus with a hymn, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men'. This was the starting point for one of the oldest Greek hymns, 'Doxa en ipsistis theo'. This morning hymn of praise to the Trinity appears as the last of 14 Odes at the end of the Psalms in the Alexandrine Codex, copied in 5th-century Egypt (London, BL Royal I.D.VII), as well as in various other 5th- and 6th-century sources, mostly...
Summer ended, harvest o'er. Greville Phillimore* (1821-1884)
This harvest hymn was published without an author's name in The Parish Hymn Book (1863, later editions in 1866 and 1875), edited by Phillimore, Hyde Wyndham Beadon*, and James Russell Woodford*. The book was prefaced by a quotation from Isaac Barrow's Sermon on the Duty of Thanksgiving:
For every beam of light that delights our eye, for every breath of air that cheers our spirits, for every drop of pleasant liquor that cools our...
COWPER, William. b. Great Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, 15 November 1731; d. East Dereham, Norfolk, 25 April 1800. His name is pronounced 'Cooper'. He was the eldest surviving son of the Revd John Cowper and Ann, née Donne. His mother, who died a few days before his sixth birthday, came from the landed gentry, and members of his father's family had been distinguished lawyers. Following his mother's death William was sent away to school, where he was bullied. He later boarded for about two years...
Social Hymns
Robert Owen, the great philanthropist, took over the mills at New Lanark in 1800, and turned them into an institution that combined profitability and humane working practices. Published in what is often referred to as the 'sectarian' phase of the Owenite socialist movement, Social Hymns for the Use of Friends of the Rational System Society is a collection of ideological songs for The Association of All Classes of All Nations. The Association, which was established by Robert Owen in...
DOBELL. John. b. 1757; d. May 1840. Dobell was described in JJ as 'a port-gauger [a person who checked cargoes] under the Board of Excise at Poole, Dorset, and a person of some local note' (p. 304). He published A New Selection of Seven Hundred Evangelical Hymns for Private, Family, and Public Worship (1806). This was evidently very successful, for a Third Edition (no date, but before 1825, when it was printed in the USA) was entitled A New Selection of More than Eight Hundred Evangelical...
BOYCE, William. b. London, 1711 (baptized 11 September); d. Kensington, London, 7 February 1779. Encouraged by his father, he entered the choir school of St Paul's Cathedral around 1719 and came under the influence of the cathedral's organist, Maurice Greene, who became a lifelong mentor. After his voice broke, he continued his career as an articled pupil of Greene, and took lessons from Johann Christoph Pepusch. Boyce earned a living as a harpsichord teacher and, in 1734, as organist for the...
Congregational Christian Church and United Church of Christ hymnody, USA
The United Church of Christ (UCC) was formed by a 1957 merger of the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Church, and has a present membership of 1.1 million with 5100 churches in the United States. The diversity of theology among local congregations is great, from liberal to conservative and all points in between, with individual congregations enjoying 'local church autonomy'—a remnant of the...
I was agreeably surprised. I have not heard better singing either at Bristol or Lincoln. Many, both men and women, have admirable voices; and they sing with good judgement. Who would have expected this in the Isle of Man?
So wrote John Wesley*, in tones of some surprise, on 6 June 1781. His diary entry is one of the very first eye-witness accounts of Manx singing and suggests that there was already established on the Island a firm tradition of a congregational style that would have been...
CROOKSHANK, Esther Heidi Rothenbusch. b. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 12 July 1958. Esther Rothenbusch Crookshank, musicologist and hymnologist, has served on the faculty of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) in Louisville, Kentucky, since August 1994, where she followed Hugh T. McElrath* in hymnology instruction. She was installed as Ollie Hale Chiles Professor of Church Music in September 2004. She was born the daughter of Jakob Rothenbusch III and Irene Rothenbusch, German...
I'll praise my maker while I've breath. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This superb metrical version of Psalm 146 appeared in The Psalms of David (1719), with the title 'Praise to God for his Goodness and Truth.' It followed a Long Metre version, with the same title and with some of the same lines. The version beginning as above has been preferred by most books. The original read:
I'll praise my Maker with my Breath;And when my Voice is lost in Death Praise shall employ my nobler Powers:My Days...
HOLYOKE, Samuel. b. Boxford, Massachusetts, 15 October 1762; d. East Concord, New Hampshire, 7 February 1820. Descended from two old, notable New England families, the Holyokes and Peabodys, Samuel Holyoke grew up in an environment of privilege. He attended Harvard College (BA 1789, MA 1792), where he was instrumental in organizing a 'singing society' among the students. His musical training probably came in singing schools (class lessons in musical rudiments and choral singing) common in New...
A Collection of Psalms and Hymns (CPH, 1737) was the first Anglican hymnal published in Colonial America for use in private and public worship (Evans, no. 4207). It was compiled and published in 1737 at Charles-town [now Charleston], South Carolina, by the missionary-priest, John Wesley*, for use in his ministry to English settlers and others who attended his religious societies in Savannah and Frederica, in the Georgia colony.
The Collection is patterned after resources used by Anglican...
STEELE, Anne. b. Broughton, Hampshire, 1716; d. Broughton, 11 November 1778. She was the daughter of a timber merchant and Baptist pastor. She was delicate in health as a child, and as a young woman she suffered a tragic loss in 1737 when her fiancé, James Elcombe, was drowned shortly before they were due to be married. Her quiet and apparently uneventful life thereafter gave rise to the idea that she was a suffering soul who turned her resignation into hymns. This has been shown to be a myth...
Salvation Army Hymns and Songs
In 1899, William Booth*, the founder and first General of the Salvation Army, wrote: 'Surely no man has ever been called upon to make, or direct the making of, so many Song Books as I have' (Preface to Salvation Army Songs, p.iii). While there is no complete list of the song books issued under William Booth's direction, we know that he was involved in compiling at least 25 song and tune books used in Britain, as well as many others for work overseas, and he had a...
Give to our God immortal praise. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This is one of three versions of Psalm 136 in The Psalms of David (1719), one in Common Metre, and the second in the metre of the 'Old 148', the popular metre of 6.6.6.6.44.44. This, in Long Metre, is the only one of the three that has been widely used. It had the title, 'God's Wonders of Creation, Providence, Redemption, and Salvation'.
Stanzas 5 and 6 are normally excluded from modern printings.
The Jews he freed from Pharaoh's...
God is a name my soul adores. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
Published in the first edition of Horae Lyricae (1706), from Book I, 'Sacred to Devotion and Piety'. It had eight stanzas. It was entitled 'The Transcendent Glories of the Deity', a title changed in the Second Edition (1709) to 'The Creator and Creatures':
God is a Name my Soul adores,Th'Almighty Three, th'Eternal One;Nature and Grace with all their Pow'rsConfess the Infinite unknown.
From thy great Self thy Being springs;
Thou art thine...
God is the refuge of his saints. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
From The Psalms of David (1719), Psalm 46, First Part (verses 1-5), with the title, 'The Church's Safety and Triumph among National Desolations'. Though close to the spirit and sense of the psalm, it is a free rendering; though it does not make it obviously Christian, it has the strength and economy of verse achieved by Watts at his best:
God is the Refuge of his Saints,When Storms of sharp Distress invade;E'er we can offer our...
Before the Reformation
The 'Te Deum', or 'Te deum laudamus te dominum confitemur' is one of the most famous of Christian hymns, in use from the 6th century onwards. It was normally sung at matins on Sundays as the hymn before the gospel ('omni Sabbato ad matutinos'). There is a Greek version of the first ten verses (transliterated at JJ, p. 1120).
There are several versions. JJ prints three in Latin, in addition to the Greek texts (pp. 1120-1):
From the Bangor Antiphonary*, 'Ymnum in die...
A Collection of Spiritual Songs and Hymns Selected from Various Authors by Richard Allen, African Minister (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1801). This collection, and its Second Edition published the same year with an additional ten hymns, mark the first known compilation by an African American for use in an African American congregation, the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Richard Allen*, founder and pastor of the church, selected the texts that are included in the volume. No authorial...
SPURGEON, Charles Haddon. b. Kelvedon, Essex, 19 June 1834; d. Menton, France, 31 January 1892. He was the elder son of a clerk to a coal merchant who was also a Baptist lay preacher and who later became an independent minister. Charles went to school in Colchester and later spent a few months at an agricultural college. He joined the Baptist Church on 3 May 1850 and in spite of his extreme youth almost immediately began his preaching ministry. After short period in teaching, he became a...
Great God of wonders! all thy ways. Samuel Davies* (1723-1761).
Davies entitled this hymn 'The Glories of God in pardoning Sinners'. It was first published in Hymns adapted to Divine Worship (1769), edited by Thomas Gibbons (1720-1785), the biographer of Isaac Watts*, entitled 'The Pardoning God'.
It is based on Micah 7: 18: 'Who is a god like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity…'. It is a fine example of the hymnody of the USA after the 'Great Awakening', the revivalist movement started in...
Head of the church, our risen Lord. Josiah Conder* (1789-1855).
First published in The Congregational Hymn Book (1836), edited by Conder for the new Congregational Church as a Supplement to Isaac Watts*'s Psalms and Hymns. It is based on a hymn from the Gelasian Sacramentary, an 8th-century Vatican manuscript in which the Feasts of the Church were arranged according to the ecclesiastical year. The Sacramentary contained the priest's prayers and rubrics for the Eucharist, and the Gelasian...
TWEEDY, Henry Hallam. b. Binghampton, New York State, 5 August 1868; d. Brattleboro, Vermont, 11 April 1953. Educated at Binghampton schools, Phillips Andover Academy, and Yale University, Tweedy undertook further study in preparation for the Congregational ministry at the Union Theological Seminary, New York, and the University of Berlin. He was ordained to the ministry at Utica, New York in 1898, serving there and at Bridgeport, Connecticut before being appointed Professor at Yale Divinity...
MORE, Henry. b. Grantham, Lincolnshire, 12 October 1614; d. 1 September 1687. He was educated at the Grammar School in Grantham, Eton College, and Christ's College, Cambridge. He proceeded MA and took Holy Orders in 1639. Elected a fellow of Christ's in 1641, he lived almost entirely within the college except for visits to his 'heroine pupil', Anne, Viscountess Conway, of Ragley Hall, Warwickshire. In 1660 he advocated the use of a set public liturgy bearing the authority of the whole church....
SOUTHCOTT, Joanna. b. Taleford, near Ottery St Mary, Devon, 25 April 1750; d. London, 27 December 1814. She was brought up at Gittisham, near Exeter. As a young woman she worked as a farm labourer, maidservant, and upholsterer. At the age of 42 she began to have visions and to make prophecies of forthcoming events, many of which turned out to be true, such as the resumption of the war with France, crop failures, and the distress of the poor during a time of war and famine. She published the...
My heart and voice I raise. Benjamin Rhodes* (1743-1815).
From Rhodes's poem, Messiah (1787), where it was one of two hymns written in the 6.6.8.6.6.8 metre, and included in the Supplement (1831) to John Wesley's A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), together with 'Jerusalem divine/ When shall I call thee mine?' In this printing they were separate hymns but consecutive, designated 'P.M.' ('Peculiar Metre'). They were two of four hymns on 'The Kingdom of...
MARTÍNEZ, Nicolás. b. Buenos Aires, Argentina, 7 October 1917; d. 19 August 1972. Born into a Roman Catholic family, he became an evangelical Christian as a young man. He was educated at the Evangelical Faculty of Theology, Buenos Aires, and in Puerto Rico. He was ordained by the Disciples of Christ in 1948, and worked in Argentina and Paraguay. He was one of the editors of Cantico Nuevo, Himnario Evangelico (Buenos Aires, 1962).
Martínez is best known for 'Christo vive, fuera el llanto', set...
No more, my God, I boast no more. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This appeared in Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), with the title 'The Value of Christ and his Righteousness, Phil. iii. 7-9'. The text is a powerful and close interpretation of the passage from the epistle.
In Britain it has not been widely used, perhaps because of its apparently stark and uncompromising quality. The Companion to RS (1999) describes it as 'not a hymn for casual use; it addresses the need of the person who has known...
WAINWRIGHT, Robert. b. Manchester, 1748 (baptized 17 September); d. Liverpool, 15 July 1782. He was the son of John Wainwright* and older brother of Richard*. He succeeded his father as organist of the Collegiate Church, Manchester (1768-75). He graduated from Magdalen College, Oxford (BMus, DMus, 1774), before moving to St Peter's, Liverpool, where he was organist from 1775 until his death (in both posts he was followed by his brother Richard). He is known for two splendid tunes:
MANCHESTER...
DAVIES, Samuel. b. New Castle, Delaware, 3 November 1723; d. Princeton, New Jersey, 4 February 1761. Born at the Welsh tract, Pencader Hundred, he was given money for his education by William Robinson, a Presbyterian minister of New Brunswick, and was educated at Fagg's Manor, Pennsylvania, by one of the best teachers in the USA, Samuel Blair. He was licensed as a probationer by the Presbytery of New Castle in 1746, and became a very successful evangelist in Virginia in 1747, later settling in...
School Praise
Books with this title were published in 1885 and 1907 by the Presbyterian Church of England, founded in 1876. They were evidently designed to supplement the hymnbooks compiled for use by the denomination, Church Praise (1883) and its Revised Edition (1907). The music editors for both the 1885 collection and the 1907 School Praise were F.N. Abernethy and J.E. Borland. It was sub-titled 'A Hymn-Book for the Young'.
The Preface informs the reader that the 1885 book 'for a number of...
The brisk tempo generally used in hymn singing today is a relatively modern phenomenon which can be traced to revival movements of the 18th and 19th centuries. Little is known about the tempo of medieval hymns sung by trained choirs, but the Reformed churches of the16th century brought in a new element: an untutored congregation, often without accompaniment. Although the original model was no doubt secular folk song, there is evidence that in the course of the next century the tempo gradually...
BBC Hymn Book (1951). Plans for this book were first laid in 1937, but work was suspended on the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. A new small committee was later appointed to complete the work, and its members became the compilers, with Cyril Taylor* playing an important role. The book was intended for the BBC's Daily Service, and for what were then called 'studio services': if regular listeners possessed a copy, they would not have to search elsewhere for the texts and tunes used in...
The Lord of Sabbath let us praise. Samuel Wesley (II)* (1691-1739).
Published in Samuel Wesley's Poems on Several Occasions (1736), in four stanzas, entitled 'An Hymn for Sunday':
The Lord of Sabbath let us praise, In Consort with the Blest; Who, joyful in harmonious Lays, Employ an endless Rest.
Thus, Lord, while we remember Thee, We blest and pious grow; By Hymns of Praise we learn to be Triumphant here below.
On this glad Day a brighter Scene Of Glory was display'd, By God...
WALKER, Thomas. b. 1764; d. 5 July 1827. An alto singer, teacher, and composer active in London, he began to play an important part in Baptist hymnody as musical adviser to John Rippon*, minister of the prominent Baptist church at Carter Lane in the City of London. From about 1793 he was Rippon's chief musical adviser, and appears to have been the musical editor of successive editions of Rippon's Selection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes from about 1792 to 1825. According to Manley, this tunebook...
To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love. William Blake* (1757-1827).
First published in Songs of Innocence (1789) as 'The Divine Image', an engraved poem with a flame running from earth to heaven. Its opposite is 'The Human Abstract' in 'Songs of Experience', in which the human brain is chained to the ground. In the present poem the divine qualities are found in human form, as the 'divine image' is found in the human qualities of mercy, pity, peace and love. This has affinities with Swedenborgian...
That doleful night before his death. Joseph Hart* (1712-1768).
This was not in the First Edition of Hart's Hymns, &c., Composed on various Subjects (1759). It comes from the 1762 Edition, in the Supplement 'For the Lord's Supper. 20 Hymns'. It was Hymn XVII:
That doleful Night before his Death, The Lamb for Sinners slain Did almost with his latest Breath This solemn Feast ordain.To keep this Feast, Lord, are we met; And to remember Thee.Help each poor Trembler to repeat, For Me, he...
Historical Background: the Millerite Roots
In the midst of the 19th-century religious revival in the USA known as the Second Great Awakening (see Great Awakenings, USA*), William Miller, a New England farmer whose studies led him to believe that Christ's coming was imminent (1843-1844) began preaching and writing in the 1830s. This preaching, coupled with the organizational skills of Christian Connection minister Joshua V. Himes and other disciples, spurred thousands to study the Bible more...
The Bay Psalm Book (BPB), or—to use its actual title—The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre ([Boston], 1640), is one of the most famous books ever printed in what is now the United States. Its press run was only 1700 copies. The dozen or so that still survive are almost beyond price today. Their value rests chiefly on the BPB's standing as the first book written and printed in English-speaking North America, and as a symbol of the country's beginnings. Much research...
MANNING, Bernard Lord. b. Caistor, Lincolnshire, 31 December 1892; d. Cambridge, 8 December 1941. The 'Lord' in Manning's name was a given name at his Baptism, not a peerage. He was the son of a Wesleyan Methodist, George Manning, who later became a Congregational minister. His son also became a member of the Congregational Church.
Manning was educated at Caistor Grammar School and Jesus College, Cambridge. He became a bye-Fellow at Magdalene College (1916-1918) and was elected a Fellow of...
LITTLEWOOD, Robert Wesley. b. Belfast, Northern Ireland, 28 August 1908; d. Bangor, County Down, 6 December 1976. He was educated at Edgehill College, Belfast. He was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1935, serving in circuits in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland. He retired through ill health in 1967, and lived thereafter in Bangor.
Littlewood is remembered for 'Thou who dost rule on high'*, his only known hymn.
JRW
A New Version of the Psalms of David, Fitted to the Tunes Used in Churches, by Nahum Tate* and Nicholas Brady* (1696) was a response to mounting criticism of Sternhold* and Hopkins*'s psalm paraphrases of 1562. It made slow headway against the Old Version*, but eventually gained an acknowledged place as an alternative psalm book for Anglican use. From about 1770 to 1830 it was probably the most widely used word book in the church, being frequently bound at the back of the Book of Common Prayer....
Praise the Lord who reigns above. Charles Wesley* (1701–1788).
Charles Wesley's psalm paraphrases are a neglected portion of his poetic works. But, as Henry Fish noted in his edition of Wesley's psalms, 'Though Charles Wesley has not always confined himself to the letter of the Psalms which he versified, yet in every case he has embodied the spirit, and in many of them he has kept close to the sense of the original' (Fish, 1854, pp. vii–viii).
'Praise the Lord who reigns above' first...
The group of British churches which collectively came to be known as Unitarian have been characterized by significant and continuous developments in their theological positions, moving from an broadly Arian position at the beginning of the 18th century to a clear Unitarian Christian position by the end of the 19th. Since the beginning of the 20th century some ministers and congregations who have adopted a more Universalist (and not necessarily Theistic) theology have even begun to challenge...
BENSON, Richard Meux. b. London, 6 July 1824; d. Oxford, 14 January 1915. He was educated privately, and at Christ Church, Oxford (BA 1847, MA 1849). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1848, priest 1849), serving his curacy at St Mark's, Surbiton (1848-50). He was vicar of Cowley, Oxford (1850-70), and vicar of St John's, Cowley, Oxford (1870-1886). He was the Founder and First Superior of the Community of St John the Evangelist, Cowley (SSJE, or the 'Cowley Fathers', a community that flourished...
SAILLENS, Ruben. b. 24 June 1855, Saint-Jean-du-Gard Cévennes; d. 5 January 1942, Condé-sur-Noireau, Normandy. He was a French Baptist Pastor, evangelist, journalist, poet and hymnwriter. Born into a Reformed family, his father served a Free Church in Lyon. He started work in a bank. During 1873-1874 he received Bible training at the East London Bible Institute. The Mission Populaire, founded in Paris after the Commune (1870-71) by a Congregationalist minister Robert W. McAll (1821-93),...
Psalmody in the 17th and 18th Centuries
The early settlers of the British North American colonies—including the Anglicans of Jamestown, the Pilgrims and Puritans of Plymouth and the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the French and Dutch of New Amsterdam—generally relied upon Genevan and/or English psalm tunes for the musical settings of their congregational singing. These tunes were mostly sung from memory, aided by the lining-out process (see Scottish Psalter* and Lining out* for a description of...
WESLEY, John. b. Epworth, Lincolnshire, 17 June 1703; d. London, 2 March 1791. He was the son of Samuel Wesley (I)*, rector of Epworth, the younger brother of Samuel Wesley (II)* and the older brother of Charles Wesley*. As a child of five John was saved from a dangerous fire at the rectory, 'a brand plucked from the burning'. He was educated at home under his remarkable mother, Susanna, 'the mother of Methodism', and then at Charterhouse School and Christ Church, Oxford (BA 1724, MA 1727). He...
The Ten Commandments in Metre
The numerous versions of the psalms in metre that were published during the Reformation were frequently accompanied by a few hymns, either at the beginning or the end of the book. This is not surprising: 'The Book of Psalms provided not only models for prayer but also a treasury of moral and religious instruction' (Zim, 1987, p. 30). They included, among others, the Veni creator spiritus*, the Magnificat*, the Te Deum*, the Benedicite*, the Song of the Three...
Scottish hymnody
The hymns written and sung by Scottish Christians have been generally more rugged, strenuous and theologically nuanced than those of their co-religionists south of the Border, reflecting the harsher nature of their physical landscape, the greater seriousness and intensity of their faith, and the intellectual calibre of their ministry. Scottish hymn writers may not have had the smooth elegance or artistic accomplishment of their English counterparts — JJ ended its entry on them...
This entry is in three parts: pre-Reformation Welsh hymnody by Sally Harper; post-Reformation hymnody, and Welsh tunes, by Alan Luff. A final paragraph is by Martin V. Clarke.
Medieval Welsh hymnody
Some form of liturgical hymnody was clearly sung in parts of the early 'Celtic' church in Wales. The 7th-century Latin Vita of St Samson (composed by a Breton monk) claims that St Illtud's death occurred as the community at Llantwit Major in Glamorgan was singing hymns, while St David's biographer...
Hymns Ancient and Modern for use in the Services of the Church (1861); Appendix, 1868; Second Edition, 1875; Supplement, 1889; New and Revised Edition, 1904; Second Supplement, 1916; Standard Edition, 1922; Hymns Ancient and Modern Revised, 1950; Hymns Ancient and Modern New Standard Edition, 1983; Common Praise, 2000; Ancient and Modern: Hymns and Songs for Refreshing Worship, 2013.
[note: Sing Praise is annotated separately].
The 19th Century
During the first half of the 19th century, the...
MUHLENBERG, William Augustus. b. Philadelphia, 16 September 1796; d. New York City, 8 April 1877. William Augustus was the great-grandson of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg* 'the Patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America'. His name is sometimes spelt Mühlenberg, as in JJ, but he used it without an umlaut.
William Augustus became a member of the Episcopal Church in his ninth year. Educated at Philadelphia Academy and the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) (AB 1814), he was ordained deacon in...
MILLER, Edward. b. Norwich, 30 October 1735; d. Doncaster, 12 September 1807. He was apprenticed to his father's trade as a paviour, but left to study music under Charles Burney. By self-education he became a man of considerable learning. He was made organist of Doncaster parish church in 1756 and held the post until his death. He took much interest in local affairs, publishing a history of Doncaster in 1804, but also built up a national network of patronage which enabled him to gather an...
Eternal Power! whose high abode. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
This was the final poem in Book I of Horae Lyricae (1706), 'Sacred to Devotion'. It was headed 'The Conclusion' and given the title, 'The Glories of God exceed all Worship', changed in the Second Edition of 1709 to 'God exalted above all Praise':
Eternal Power! whose high AbodeBecomes the Grandeur of a God;Infinite Lengths beyond the BoundsWhere Stars revolve their little Rounds.
The lowest Step about thy SeatRises too high for...
Methodist Hymnody, USA
Hymns were used within the Methodist movement for teaching of doctrine, for evangelism (of the unsaved and to revive those who faith was lagging), for praise and confession. Important doctrines for the Wesleyan movement are Arminianism, the understanding that Christ died for everyone, not just the elect; the Christian journey as the way of salvation, on a continuum of God's prevenient grace (which comes before one is awakened to God's call), justifying and...
Presbyterian Church of England Hymnody
History
Presbyterianism traces its origins back to the Reformation, when one element in the Protestant tradition was the dislike of human authority in religious matters, and the preference for government by 'presbyters' (from the Greek 'presbuteros', or 'elder') rather than bishops or priests. In Scotland the Reformation was guided by the powerful John Knox (1505-1572), who had studied under Jean Calvin* in Geneva; in both Scotland and England...
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon Church, was established in 1830 with six individuals. Joseph Smith (1805-44) received a series of visions in his teenage years, resulting in a church believed to contain restored doctrines and organizations long lost by disobedient humanity. The Book of Mormon was a document associated with Smith's revelations and the new church, which together influenced mission work and...
This essay examines four ways the Internet has influenced the study, accessibility, proliferation and practice of congregational song: the digitization of materials in the public domain, the born-digital and twinned digital combined with print materials, making digital objects findable and visible, and the emerging pedagogies.
The main focus of this entry is on those resources that offer the full text or image of a hymn. Serious scholars should devote attention to The Hymn Tune Index*. See...
Scottish Psalter (1564).
Words
The metrical psalter was of immense importance in furthering and establishing the Reformation in Scotland. Even before the psalter of 1564, the Gude and Godlie Ballatis* of the Wedderburn brothers (see James Wedderburn* and John Wedderburn*) had brought the spirit of the continental reformers to Scotland in the 22 psalms translated into the rough vernacular. The Protestant exiles, who returned from Frankfurt, Geneva and elsewhere in the years immediately...
NEWTON, John. b. Wapping, London, 24 July 1725; d. City of London, 21 December 1807. John Newton's father was a ship's master engaged in the Mediterranean trade, especially with Spain. His mother was a gentle and devout dissenter. She had a deep influence on her sensitive and highly intelligent son, whose early education she undertook personally. She encouraged him to learn by heart passages from the Bible, together with hymns, poems and the shorter catechisms of Isaac Watts*. During the...
STANLEY, Samuel. b. Birmingham, 1767 (baptized 15 May); d. Birmingham, 29 October 1822. He was a remarkable musician: choir trainer, cellist, and composer. He led the choir at Carr's Lane Chapel, Birmingham, from ca. 1787 to 1818, when he and the congregation moved to the larger Ebenezer Chapel, Steelhouse Lane. In both places the music became celebrated. As a cellist he was in demand as a performer, playing in London at Vauxhall Gardens in 1792 and at the Birmingham Festivals of 1799, 1802 and...
RIPPON, John. b. Tiverton, Devon, 29 April 1751; d. London, 17 December 1836. Born into a devout Baptist family, he studied at the Bristol Baptist Academy (1769-73) and became pastor of the influential Carter Lane Particular Baptist Church in Southwark, London, where he served from 1773 until his death 63 years later. Active in all denominational and many Dissenting activities, Rippon promoted a moderate Calvinism and encouraged many new ventures in Baptist life. He published the Baptist Annual...
The English and American Hymnody Collection of The Pitts Theology Library, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
Introduction
This entry is provides a basic understanding of the development of Emory University's English and American Hymnody Collection and introduces its great potential for research.Two of the three largest institutional hymnal collections in North America are heavily indebted to one or more private collectors (Schneider, 2003; see Hymnal collections, USA*). The third, The...
Congregational Church hymnody in Britain
The term 'Congregational hymnody' is significant for all churches and liturgical traditions where the congregation takes an active and full part in the singing of hymns (contrasted with those places or occasions where the hymns are the province of a specialised choir or the practice of a religious community). This article, however, is limited to an account of hymnody in churches of the Congregational order in England and Wales, during a period beginning...
'West Gallery music' has become the accepted name for a distinctive kind of sacred music that developed in rural England and flourished in Britain and its colonies from ca. 1700 to the late 19th century. Unlike the music of cathedrals and collegiate churches, it was written for, and frequently by, people with no formal training in music, who followed local traditional practice and their own instincts in performance and composition. Because organs were rare (and harmoniums not invented), from...
The Catholic Apostolic Church, founded in 1835, is generally associated with the charismatic Scottish preacher (and friend of Thomas Carlyle*), Edward Irving (1792-1834); members of the denomination were often referred to as 'Irvingites'. Irving did lay some of the theological foundations of the Church, but he died in the very early years of the movement and before its foundation as a church, leaving John Bate Cardale (1802-77) and Henry Drummond (1786-1860), a well-to-do banker and Member of...
Come, all harmonious Tongues. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
From Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), Book II, 'Composed on Divine Subjects, Conformable to the Word of God'. It was Hymn 84, entitled 'The Same' (as the previous hymn, 'The Passion and Exaltation of Christ'). The text in 1707 was in eight Short Metre stanzas:
Come, all harmonious Tongues, Your noblest Music bring;'Tis Christ the Everlasting God, And Christ the Man we sing.
Tell how he took our Flesh To take away our Guilt, Sing...
ROWE, Elizabeth (née Singer). b. Ilchester, Somerset, 11 September 1674; d. Frome, Somerset, 20 February 1737. She was well educated, partly at a boarding school, and partly by Henry Thynne, son of Viscount Weymouth, at Longleat, from whom she learned Italian and French. The family moved to Frome in 1692, by which time Elizabeth had already begun to contribute poems to John Dunton's Athenian Mercury, using the name 'Philomela'. (Dunton married Elizabeth Annesley, sister of Susanna Annesley, who...
Early Psalters, Hymnals, and Tunebooks
During the 17th and 18th centuries American printers tended to be non-specialist, doing whatever type of printing came their way, whether newspapers, broadsides, government documents, educational textbooks, general interest books, or religious items. Authors, compilers, booksellers, or churches contracted with a printer to provide religious materials. The printer was paid by the person or group who contracted for the publication, and the latter received...
MILGROVE, Benjamin. b. Bath, 1731; d. Bath, 1810. Little is known of Milgrove's life, except that he was precentor and organist of the Countess of Huntingdon's Chapel at Bath, and the keeper of a fancy goods shop. Wesley Milgate reports that he was a 'proprietor' or investor in John Wesley*'s New King Street Chapel in Bath to the tune of £100, a considerable sum at that time (Songs of the People of God, 1992, p. 293). He ceased to be a proprietor in 1787, perhaps because of the increasing...
AUBER, Henriette (Harriet). b. Spitalfields, London, 4 August 1773; d. Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, 20 Jan 1862. Many Huguenot refugees settled in Spitalfields, and Henriette (who anglicized her name to Harriet) was descended from such a family. Her father, James Auber, was a Church of England rector. She seems to have lived an uneventful life ('quiet and secluded', according to JJ, p. 90), but she wrote poetry, published in The Spirit of the Psalms: or, a compressed version of select portions of...
Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing/ Fill our hearts with love and peace. John Fawcett* (1740-1817).
First published anonymously in a supplement to the 'Shawbury Hymn Book, Shrewsbury' (A Collection of Psalms and Hymns. Extracted from Dr Watts, and other Authors, 2nd Edition, Shrewsbury, 1773), and attributed to Fawcett in A Selection of Psalms & Hymns (1791) (the evidence for authorship is discussed in detail in JJ, p. 687). It was not included in Fawcett's own Hymns: adapted to the...
Synod of Relief hymns
The 'presbytery of relief' was founded in 1761 by three Scottish ministers, Thomas Gillespie of Dunfermline, Thomas Boston of Jedburgh, and Thomas Collier of Conisburgh, Fife, formerly of Ravenstonedale, Northumberland. Gillespie, who had been educated at the University of Edinburgh and under Philip Doddridge* at Northampton, had been deposed as minister of Carnock, near Dunfermline by the General Assembly in 1752. He had opposed the imposition of ministers by patronage,...
WOODD, Basil. b. Richmond, Surrey, 5 August 1760; d. Paddington Green, London, 12 April 1831. Woodd was educated by a clergyman and then at Trinity College, Oxford (BA 1782, MA 1785). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1783, priest 1784), becoming 'lecturer' (preacher) at St Peter's, Cornhill, London (1784-1808). In 1785 he became preacher at Bentinck Chapel, Marylebone, London, a proprietary chapel that he purchased in 1793. He was also chaplain to the Marquis Townshend, and rector of Drayton...
Blest be the everlasting God. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748).
From Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), Book I, where it had the title, 'Hope of Heaven by the Resurrection of Christ, I Pet. i. 3, 4, 5.' It had five stanzas:
Blest be the Everlasting God,
The Father of our Lord,
Be his abounding Mercy prais'd,
His Majesty ador'd.
When from the Dead he rais'd his Son, And call'd him to the Sky,He gave our Souls a lively Hope That they should never die.
What tho' our inbred Sins require
Our...
Elias Collection, Cambridge, UK
The Elias Library of Hymnology consists of just over 3,500 volumes on hymnology, mostly from the 19th and early 20th centuries, but with some dating back to the 16th century. It is held at Westminster College, Cambridge.
The Library is primarily the collection of Edward Alfred Elias. Born in Liverpool in 1875, he lived in West Kirby in the Wirral throughout his life; and though little more is known about him, he was a lifelong collector of hymnological works and...
English Praise (1975) was sub-titled 'A Supplement to the English Hymnal'. It was the result of two perceived needs: the sense that the revised edition of EH, published in 1933 (with a revision of the music only, so that the texts dated back to 1906) was becoming out-dated; and the requirements of the Church of England at a time when liturgical practice was changing. These are clearly stated on p. v of the introduction, which discusses the hymns, none of which had been in EH:
Some have already...
Ecumenical Praise, Carlton R. Young*, executive editor (Agape: Carol Stream, Illinois, 1977).
The hymn explosion in Britain lit by the Dunblane Music Consultations of the 1960s (see Dunblane Praises*) produced a plethora of hymnal supplements to the new and existing denominational hymnals in Great Britain and the United States. Contemporary hymnal committees were reluctant to include the rapidly expanding number of hymns that did not meet the traditional interpretation of hymnody.
Austin C....
Hymnologia Christiana (1863).
This was the title of a massive anthology of hymns compiled by Benjamin Hall Kennedy*, then Headmaster of Shrewsbury School (he used the title of his office on the title page, presumably to present his credentials). It contained 1500 hymns and 35 doxologies. It was sub-titled 'Psalms and Hymns selected and arranged in the Order of the Christian Seasons'. After Trinity Sunday there was a substantial section of about 360 hymns 'for the weeks after Trinity' (it is...
MASON, John. b. Northamptonshire, possibly at Irchester, ca. 1646; d. Water Stratford, Buckinghamshire, May 1694 (buried 22 May). He was educated at Strixton (Northants), probably by William Farrow, and Clare Hall, Cambridge (BA 1665, MA 1668). He took Holy Orders in 1667. After a curacy at Upper Isham, Northamtonshire (1667-68), he became vicar of Stantonbury, Buckinghamshire (1668-74), and rector of Water Stratford (1675-94). He was the great-great-great-great-grandfather of John Mason...
ADDISON, Joseph. b. Milston, near Aylesbury, Wiltshire, 1 May 1672; d. Kensington, London, 17 June 1719. He was the son of a clergyman who became Dean of Lichfield. He was educated at Charterhouse and (after a period at Queen's College) Magdalen College, Oxford (BA 1691, MA 1693). He became a prominent man of letters: he first made his name with a poem, The Campaign, written in 1704 to celebrate the Duke of Marlborough's victory at Blenheim. He was extremely active politically in Whig circles,...
Never further than thy cross. Elizabeth Rundle Charles* (1828-1896).
Five of the six stanzas of this hymn were included in the New Congregational Hymn Book (1859), and then in a Christian magazine edited by William Arnot, The Family Treasury (February 1860). It was reprinted in Charles's Songs Old and New (1894). The six stanzas were:
Never further than Thy Cross!
Never higher than Thy feet!
Here earth's precious things grow dross;
Here earth's bitter things grow sweet.
Gazing...
O Jesu, source of calm repose. Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen* (1670-1739), translated by John Wesley* (1703-1791).
Freylinghausen's hymn began 'Wer ist wohl, wie du, Jesu süsze Ruh'. It was one of the first hymns to be translated by Wesley. He quoted stanza 6 of his rather free translation (the last of Freylinghausen's hymn, which had 13 stanzas) in a letter to Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf* dated 15 March 1736. He later published the translation (of stanzas 1, 3-5, 8 and 13) in his first...
On Jordan's stormy banks I stand. Samuel Stennett* (1727-1795).
First published in John Rippon, A Selection of Hymns from the best authors (1787), where it was attributed to 'Dr. S. Stennett' and entitled 'The promised Land'. It was obviously based on the beautiful hymn by Isaac Watts*, 'There is a land of pure delight'*, to which it is close at times. It had seven stanzas:
On Jordan's stormy Banks I stand, And cast a wishful Eye;To Canaan's fair and happy Land, Where my possessions lie.
O...
MEDLEY, Samuel. b. Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, 23 June 1738; d. Liverpool, 17 July 1799. His father was a schoolmaster. He joined the Royal Navy, retiring from active service after being severely wounded at a battle off Port Lagos in 1759. He was converted by a sermon of Isaac Watts*, read to him by his grandfather, and by hearing George Whitefield* preach. In 1760 he joined a Baptist Church in Eagle Street, London. He opened a school, and also became a preacher, being 'set aside' to be a minister...
Silas White Leonard. b. Louisville, Kentucky, 1814; d. Centralia, Illinois, 1870. Leonard was a gospel preacher in the Disciples of Christ tradition, a music teacher, and a publisher. Upon the death of his parents at a young age, he was adopted by a Captain White, a Baptist, who raised and educated Silas in Ohio. He began preaching at age twenty and soon moved to southern Indiana. In 1948, he married Anna Jane Goodwin (1926–1900) and had four children. In 1856 he moved from Jeffersonville,...
JARMAN, Thomas. b. Clipston, Northamptonshire, 21 December 1776; d. 19 February 1861. The son of a tailor, he inherited his father's business which 'kept him poor and soured his temper' (Kant, 1931). He was one of the tradesmen of the time, mostly nonconformist, who wrote sacred music. A singing teacher and a multi instrumentalist, he took charge of the music at Clipston Baptist Church where there was no organ. Under his guidance the choir became well known and gave performances in Peterborough...
BARTON, William. b. ca. 1597/8; d. 14 May 1678. Nothing is known of his early life. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1622, MA 1625), and ordained priest in 1623. He may have been the William Barton who was vicar of Mayfield, Staffordshire, in 1643, and who suffered for his Puritan sympathies at the hands of the local Royalists. Under the Commonwealth he flourished: he became minister of St John Zachary, London, in 1646, and vicar of St Martin's, Leicester (now Leicester...
GARDINER, William. b. Leicester, 15 March 1769 (in some accounts of his life the date was falsified to hide the fact that he was born five months after his parents' wedding); d. Leicester, 16 November 1853. His father was a stocking manufacturer. William followed his father into the hosiery trade, but (again like his father) he was an amateur musician of some stature in the local community and beyond. He acquired a copy of Beethoven's String Trio, Op. 3, and played the viola in a performance in...
Westminster Praise. Erik Routley*, editor (1976).
The ecumenism that followed World War II produced a number of supplements to accompany denominational hymnals. The purpose of these supplements was to accommodate the surge of new hymns and canticles that focused on contemporary themes and worship practices. In 1975, Erik Routley*, a force in this development, joined the faculty of Westminster Choir College (Princeton, New Jersey), a leading academic institution for church musicians. He was...
The London Hospitals and their hymns
The mid-18th century saw a remarkable burst of new London hospitals (in the wider sense of charitable homes), some of which played an important part in the development of hymnody.
The reasons for the rapid rise of philanthropy are various. Greater sexual promiscuity resulting from early industrialization, urbanization, and the decline of the Puritan ethic had led to soaring numbers of births outside marriage, and to increases in prostitution and venereal...
The Carmelites began as a group of hermits in the area of Mount Carmel known as the wadi 'ain es-siah at the end of the 12th or the beginning of the 13th century. Singing hymns necessarily played a minimal role in the liturgical life of the original Carmelites, since as hermits they did not chant the Divine Office together. The rule or way of life they received from Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem 1206-1214, made it clear that they were to come together to celebrate Mass daily but that each...
EVANS, Caleb. b. Bristol, 12 November 1737; d. 9 August 1791. Evans lived in Bristol for almost all of his life. His father, Hugh Evans, was pastor at Broadmead Baptist Church and President of the Bristol Baptist Academy run by the church. After training at the Mile End Academy in London, Caleb was baptised at Little Wild Street Baptist Church, and called to ministry in 1757, becoming associate minister with Josiah Thompson at Unicorn Yard Baptist church in London. In 1759 he was called to join...
WYETH, John. b. Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, 31 March 1770; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 23 January 1858. Best known as an American music publisher, Wyeth began as a printer's apprentice at age 17. At 21, he became manager of a printing company in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. In 1791, he returned to America, having narrowly escaped with his life in the Haitian insurrection. First working in Philadelphia, and finally settling in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Wyeth continued in...
What wondrous love is this. Anonymous American folk hymn.
The first joint meeting of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland* (HSGBI), the International Fellowship for Research in Hymnody (Internationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Hymnologie, IAH), and the Hymn Society of America (now The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada*) was held at St Catherine's College, Oxford, 24-29 August 1981. Each of the Presidents, or Chairman in the case of HSGBI, was asked to choose hymns that...
MORRIS, Kenneth. b. Jamaica, New York, 28 August 1917; d. Chicago, Illinois, 1 February 1989. A gospel song composer and publisher, Morris was the son of Ettuila (née White) and John Morris. Though he attended the Manhattan Conservatory of Music where he studied classical music, his first interest was in jazz piano. He formed the Kenneth Morris Jazz Band in New York City. An invitation to perform at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago in 1934 changed the course of his life. He...
God of grace, O let thy light. Edward Churton* (1800-1874).
From Churton's The Book of Psalms in English Verse (1854), sometimes (as in JJ) called 'The Cleveland Psalter'. It was Churton's second paraphrase of Psalm 67, 'God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us… That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.' It was included in Benjamin Hall Kennedy*'s Hymnologia Christiana (1863) as a hymn for Whitsuntide, omitting Churton's final...
BURDER, George. b. London, 5 June 1752; d. 29 May 1832. Burder trained as an engraver, but became a preacher of the Calvinistic Methodist persuasion, and subsequently a pastor in Independent chapels. He served the Independent or Congregational chapels at Lancaster (1777-83), Coventry (1783-1800), and Fetter Lane, London (1800- ). He was a forceful promoter of evangelical activity: he was one of the founders of the Religious Tract Society, the London Missionary Society, and the British and...
Come, gracious Spirit, heavenly dove. Simon Browne* (1680-1732).
First published in Browne's Hymns and Spiritual Songs, in Three Books, designed as a Supplement to Dr Watts (1720), where it was entitled 'The Soul giving itself up to the Conduct and Influence of the Holy Spirit'. It had seven stanzas. It began with a first line, 'Come, Holy Spirit, heav'nly Dove', which was identical to the first line of one of Isaac Watts*'s hymns. Perhaps to distinguish the two, the first line was altered in...
MANSELL, David John. b. South London, 11 March 1936. He was educated at King's College, London, where he read physics. He worked as an engineer and a physicist before becoming a full-time evangelist in London. He is known for his hymn 'Jesus is Lord! Creation's voice proclaims it'*, first published with its tune (also by Mansell) in Sound of Living Waters (1974). It quickly became popular at evangelical gatherings such as Spring Harvest*, and has been included in many recent British books,...
MARCH, Daniel. b. Milbury, Massachusetts, 21 July 1816; d. Woburn, Massachusetts, 2 March 1909. March was educated at Amherst College (1834-36), and Yale University (BA, 1840). After serving as principal of Fairfield Academy in Connecticut, he returned to Yale for his theological studies. He was ordained into the Presbyterian ministry in 1845, but later changed to Congregationalism, and served churches in Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania, and twice in Woburn, Massachusetts (1856-64,...
[Note: The terms most commonly used for North American aboriginal peoples are 'Native Americans' in the USA and 'First Nations' in Canada. Anthropologists and ethnologists tend to prefer language group designations, which often are not necessarily appropriately designated by national borders][1]
In North American hymnody there is no Christian tradition or denominational heritage that embodies the volume of productivity of hymns and hymnbooks that exists in Native American languages. The...
Hymns and Poems by Elizabeth Scott
Among the collections in the Beineke Rare Book & Manuscript Library of Yale University is a manuscript volume by Elizabeth Scott*. Although a label on the spine the shows 'Hymns & Poems by Eliz. Scott', the manuscript itself shows no title. In the 19th century, John Julian*, in JJ, called it 'Yale College MS', and today it is the main constituent of GEN MSS VOL. 635.
This 'Yale College MS' consists of 90 hymns and poems (henceforth, just 'hymns')....
Songs of Praise (1925); Songs of Praise Enlarged (1931). This entry includes Songs of Praise (1925) and Songs of Praise Enlarged (1931). On the cover the latter is entitled Songs of Praise with Music.
Songs of Praise was edited by Percy Dearmer*, Ralph Vaughan Williams*, and Martin Shaw*. Its aim, as stated in the preface, was 'to make a national collection of hymns for use in public worship, and also of such “spiritual songs” as are akin to hymns and suitable for certain kinds of services in...
Church Hymns (1871), Church Hymns with Tunes (1874). The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) had printed hymns since 1837, when it added them to a reprint of Tate* and Brady*'s Metrical Psalms, the New Version*. In subsequent editions, more hymns were added, and then printed separately from the Psalms in 1852. Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship followed in 1855, with an Appendix in 1863, edited by Berdmore Compton, then rector of Barford, Warwickshire. Some churches, such as St...
The word 'environment' can be understood in very many different ways. In its most general sense it can mean all that surrounds us, particularly the natural world with its trees, mountains, plains and seas. Of course the idea of 'environment' can equally be applied to urban surroundings, to our homes and indeed to the universe as a whole. Throughout the history of hymn writing, hymn writers have responded to the many facets of the term. In recent times, human beings have become more conscious...
Our country is Immanuel's ground. Anna Letitia Barbauld* (1742-1825).
This is a selection of stanzas from a hymn published in Barbauld's Poems (1792) beginning 'Lo where a crowd of Pilgrims toil/ Yon craggy steeps among!' The usual selection of stanzas begins as above, which is different from Barbauld's first line ('...Emanuel's land').
She portrays the pilgrims as singing on their way:
“Our country is Emanuel's land, We seek that promised soil; The songs of Zion chear our hearts, While...
There is a God, all nature speaks. Anne Steele* (1716-1778).
Published in Steele's Poems on Subjects Chiefly Devotional (1760), by 'Theodosia'. In the 1780 edition it was entitled 'The Voice of the Creatures'. It had eight stanzas:
There is a God, all nature speaks, Through earth, and air, and seas, and skies;See, from the clouds his glory breaks When the first beams of morning rise:
The rising sun, serenely bright, O'er the wide world's extended frame,Inscribes, in characters of light, ...
MATSIKENYIRI, Patrick. b. Biriri, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), 27 July 1937; d. Mutare, Zimbabwe, 15 January 2021. Patrick Matsikenyiri's career included virtually all aspects of church music—singing, choral directing, composition, hymnal editor, festival leader, professor, and enlivener of global songs in venues worldwide. In the spirit of a Shona proverb—'If you can talk, you can sing. If you can walk, you can dance'—he believed music was for everyone.
After serving as a headmaster for...
HARP (as a title). As early as 1795, hymn collections with Harp or Harfe in the title were published in the USA, without music, and thereafter, a number of tunebooks were published with 'Harp' in the title.
The most widely-known Harp, as a collection of hymns, is The Sacred Harp*, by B. F. White* and Elisha J. King*. This usage of Harp probably started in connection with the Psalms of David, as in Dauids harpe ful of moost delectable armony, newely stringed and set in tune, by Theadore...
He sat to watch o'er customs paid. William Bright* (1824-1901).
This text for St Matthew's Day (21 September) was first printed in the Supplement (1889) to the Second Edition of A&M. It had six stanzas, the first of which is a description of a tax collector:
He sat to watch o'er customs paid,A man of scorn'd and hard'ning trade;Alike the symbol and the toolOf foreign masters' hated rule.
The following stanzas demonstrate the change in St Matthew when he was called by Jesus (Matthew 9: 9);...
Master, speak! Thy servant heareth. Frances Ridley Havergal* (1836-1879).
Written on 19 May 1867 at Weston-super-Mare and published in Havergal's The Ministry of Song (1869) with the title 'Master, say on!'. It is based on 1 Samuel 3: 9. It had nine stanzas. Most books abbreviate to four, using 1, 6, 8 and 9 (as in MHB, BHB, and the Song Book of the Salvation Army (1953 and 1986 editions)). Some of the omitted stanzas have a personal and occasional element which makes them unsuitable for...
The Sandemanian Church was formed in Scotland, ca. 1730, by John Glas (1695-1773), who was dismissed from his charge as minister of Tealing, near Dundee, and who formed an independent church of his followers, opposed to the authority of anything except Holy Scripture, and believing that the death of Jesus Christ was sufficient to present even the worst sinner spotless before God (this antinomian doctrine was the subject of James Hogg's Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner,...
Hymns which have references to the countryside have existed since the days of the early church and continue to be an essential part of worship. The psalms, for example, contain references to the grass which grows and dies (Psalm 90), to the flowers which bloom and fade (Psalm 103), to the beasts of the field (Psalm 8) and to the harvest (Psalm 65). These references, and others to the hills, the sea, the clouds and the sky, suggest that there was a consciousness of the natural world even before...
Routley Collection
As organist, a scholar, editor, and educator, Erik Routley* (1917-1982) is recognized for his oustanding contribution to hymnological study and hymn writing in the 20th century. In 1975, he joined the faculty of Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey (now part of Rider University), serving as Professor of Church Music and Director of Chapel until his death. Routley's library and papers were acquired from his estate in 1992 through his wife, Margaret Routley. The...
MERCER, William. b. Barnard Castle, County Durham, 1811; d. Sheffield, 21 August 1873. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1835, MA 1840). He was appointed Perpetual Curate of St George's, Sheffield, in 1840, and remained there until his death. He is chiefly known as the editor of The Church Psalter and Hymn Book (1854), one of the principal Church of England hymnbooks before A&M. It was enlarged from 400 hymns to 510 in 1856 (although the 1856 preface says that the book...
The origins of the Muggletonians are to be found in the ferment of religious and political ideas that followed the breakdown of established authority at the start of the English Civil War. The two London tailors who founded the sect, John Reeve (1608-1658) and his cousin Lodowick Muggleton (1609-1698), were both from a Puritan background and were for a time attracted to the Ranters, whom they subsequently denounced. It was Reeve who, on 3, 4 and 5 February 1651 received a series of visions,...
Origins and chief tenets of the Christian Science Church
The Christian Science Church or, as it is more formally called, the First Church of Christ (Scientist) was officially incorporated in Boston, Massachusetts in 1879 by Mary Baker Eddy* (1821-1910). Eddy's seminal publication, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, appeared in Boston in 1875 followed by the first official denominational hymnal (Boston, 1892). Reading the Bible alongside Science and Health is fundamental to the...
My Lord, what a morning (mourning). African American spiritual*.
The standard version of the text that appears in hymnals today follows:
My Lord, what a morning;my Lord, what a morning;Oh, my Lord, what a morning,when the stars begin to fall.
1. You'll hear the trumpet sound,to wake the nations underground,looking to my God's right hand,when the stars begin to fall.
2. You'll hear the sinner moan . . .
3. You'll hear the Christian shout . . .
These few words conjure up powerful apocalyptic...
Trinity hymns
The hymn is an ideal vehicle for the rejection of heresy, and Trinitarian teaching has therefore been central to Christian hymnody in both the Eastern and Western churches. The nature of the Trinity is a central doctrine of Christian orthodoxy; its classic formulation is that established in the 4th-century Nicene Creed, which is the basis for subsequent explorations of the characteristics of the three Persons of the Trinity and the relationship between them. It is based on the...
FENNER, Christopher Jon. b. Kalamazoo, Michigan, 28 February 1981. Chris Fenner is a hymnologist, archivist, and church musician. The son of Richard and Gerri (née Emmons) Fenner, he was reared in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He holds degrees from Western Michigan University (BA in Music Education, 2003), The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, School of Church Music* (MA in Worship, 2011), and the University of Kentucky (Master of Library and Information Science, 2017). He has been a K-12 music...
[This article considers congregational song in the Church of England (later, The Anglican Church of Canada) in that part of British North America which became known as Canada. It does not deal with hymnody in Newfoundland, a separate British colony until 1949, when it became a Canadian province.]
Systematic British settlement in Canada began in 1763, after France ceded sovereignty to Britain. During the 18th century, the singing repertoire and practices of the Church of England in Canada...
HULLAH, John Pyke. b. Worcester, 27 June 1812; d. London, 21 February 1884. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music (1833-35). He wrote an opera, The Village Coquettes (1836), to a libretto by Charles Dickens. He studied singing at Paris, and taught many thousands of pupils by the continental 'fixed-doh' method, a system that was superseded by John Curwen*'s moveable 'doh' method, the popular 'Tonic Sol-fa'*. For a time, however, his influence was important. As Nicholas Temperley* has pointed...
DAVISON, W(illiam) Hope. b. Sunderland, 27 November 1827; d. Plymouth, August 1894. He was a Congregational minister (ordained 1832) of Duke's-Alley Chapel, Bolton, in 1857, when he compiled and edited Psalms and Hymns for Public and Social Worship (Bolton, 1857), and afterwards at St George's Road Congregational Church, Bolton. He later served as a minister at Chatham, Pentonville, Tooting, and Plymouth. He also published The Sunday Scholars' Service of Sacred Song, in what appears to have...
Franciscan Hymns and Hymnals
Since the foundation of their order in 1209 or 1210, the contribution of Franciscan writers to western Christianity has been immense, particularly in the areas of theology, preaching, and hymn composition. Since their hymns address both the needs of liturgy and their vocation as preachers, Franciscan writing reflects the ambitions of learned society and the varied tastes of vernacular culture. Their major contributions include a reform in the 13th century of the...
O scorn'd and outcast Lord, beneath. Charles Coffin* (1676-1749), translated by John Chandler* (1806-1876).
Coffin's hymn, beginning 'Opprobiis, Jesu, satur', was from the Paris Breviary of 1836, and Coffin's Hymni Sacri (1836). According to JJ, p. 872, it was the Ferial Hymn at Matins during Passion Week and thereafter until Maundy Thursday.
The translation comes from Chandler's Hymns of the Primitive Church (1837). It was printed in the Supplement (1889) to the Second Edition of...
Singing is a natural activity for children, and one of the most certain ways of passing on doctrine and history of faith is through hymn singing. Because of its ability to draw people into community while teaching doctrine, singing hymns strengthens the fostering of religious values. There is evidence that the teaching of hymnody happened with boys in monasteries as early as the fifth century, and after 1200 there is evidence of girls taking part in monastic liturgical singing. Though we may...
The royal banners forward go. Venantius Fortunatus* (ca. 540-early 7th century), translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866).
This is a translation of the Latin hymn, 'Vexilla Regis prodeunt'*, written to celebrate the reception of the fragment of the true cross at Poitiers. It appeared in Neale's Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences (1851) in five stanzas, followed by two more in square brackets:
[O Cross, our one reliance, hail!
This holy Passiontide, avail
To give fresh merit to the Saint,
And...
Away with gloom, away with doubt. Edward Shillito* (1872-1948).
From Shillito's collection of poems, Jesus of the Scars, and Other Poems (1919). It is an energetic Easter hymn that has become popular in Free Church books, and in Scotland, following its inclusion in MHB:
Away with gloom, away with doubt! With all the morning stars we sing;With all the sons of God we shout The praises of a King, Alleluia! Alleluia! Of our returning King.
Away with death, and welcome life: In Him we died...
Hark! ten thousand harps and voices. Thomas Kelly* (1769-1855).
According to JJ, p. 488, this was first published in Kelly's Hymns on Various Passages of Scripture (Second Edition, Dublin, 1806) in seven 6-line stanzas. It was headed 'Let all the Angels of God worship him. Heb. 1.6.':
Hark ten thousand harps and voices, Sound the note of praise above! Jesus reigns, and heav'n rejoices: Jesus reigns the God of love: See, he sits on yonder throne; Jesus rules the world alone.
Well may...
NETTLETON, Asahel. b. North Killingworth, Connecticut, 21 April 1783; d, East Windsor,Connecticut, 16 May 1844. Nettleton was an itinerant revivalist of the conservative (Calvinistic) wing of the Congregational Church, and compiler of Village Hymns for Social Worship* (Hartford, Connecticut, 1824). He was converted when a teenager. Following the death of his father, he managed the family's farm and finances, and taught school. A local Presbyterian minister prepared him for entering Yale College...
Become for us the living bread. Miriam Drury* (1900-1985).
This hymn, one of several by the author that won awards in competitions sponsored by The Hymn Society in America (now The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada*), was written in 1970. The best known hymn by this author, it first appeared in The Worshipbook—Services and Hymns (Philadelphia, 1972), a joint Presbyterian hymnal for the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), and the United Presbyterian Church in...
There are more than 300 hymnal collections in the United States ranging from personal collections, those held by independent institutions such as museums, historical associations, or public libraries, and collections owned by academic institutions. While nearly every collection includes items from a number of traditions, some have unique holdings.
The largest hymnal collection in the United States is that held by The Pitts Theological Library, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, with...
JONES, Jacque Browning. b. Texas City, Texas, 20 October 1950. A hymnwriter with a varied career in business and government service, she attended Baylor University (1968-1970) and The University of Texas at Austin (1970-1973) (BFA in Theater, with an emphasis in directing and choreography). Raised a Presbyterian, Jones has been a member of Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, New York, since 1987. Her career included working for the government, for an accounting firm, and for a bank in data processing...
TUFTS, John. b. Medford, Massachusetts, 26 February 1689; d. Amesbury, Massachusetts, 17 August 1750. Tufts was a minister, merchant, probably a singing teacher, and possibly a composer. He compiled An Introduction to the Art of Singing Psalm-Tunes (1721?), considered the first American music textbook.
John Tufts was the third son of Captain Peter Tufts (1648-1721) and Mercy Cotton Tufts (1666-1715). He graduated from Harvard College (AB, 1708), and was ordained on 30 June 1714 in connection...
Let's Praise!
The Let's Praise! series of hymnals contains two volumes; the first, published in 1988, was subtitled 'The Worship Songbook for a New Generation' and the second, published in 1994, was simply entitled Let's Praise! 2. They were published by Harper Collins under the Marshall Pickering imprint, and were produced in association with Jubilate Hymns*. The principal editor of both volumes was David Peacock*, assisted in both cases by Michael Perry*. Graham Kendrick* is named as a...
MILLER, Mark Andrew. b. Burlington, Vermont, 7 January 1967. Mark Miller is a pianist, organist, singer, composer, choral conductor, church musician, educator, and active lay person in the United Methodist Church. He is currently an Associate Professor of Church Music, Director of the Chapel, and Composer-In-Residence at Drew Theological School in Madison, New Jersey, and since 2006, a Lecturer in the Practice of Sacred Music in the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University. Miller also...
MADAN, Martin. b. London, 5 October 1725; d. Epsom, Surrey, 2 May 1790. He was the son of Colonel Martin Madan (1700–56), MP for Hertingfordbury, Herts, and equerry to Frederick, prince of Wales; he was a cousin of William Cowper*. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford (BA 1746), and called to the Bar in 1748. He led a dissolute life until he was converted in 1750 on hearing John Wesley* preach on the text 'Prepare to meet thy God'; later he came under the influence of...
BABCOCK, Samuel. b. Milton, Massachusetts, 18 February 1760; d. French Mills (now Fort Covington), New York, 23 November 1813. He was a composer, singing master, and compiler of The Middlesex Harmony, in two editions, consisting entirely of his own compositions. He was the fourth of nine children born to John Badcock (1731- nda) and Rachael Adams Badcock (ca. 1731- nda). The spelling of the surname was changed to Babcock during Samuel's early years (Collected Works, p. xxi).
Samuel married...
TAKANAMI, Shin'ichi. b. Tokyo, Japan, 28 February 1941.
A hymn tune composer, Takanami and his family lived in Nagano Prefecture between 1945 and 1959. He was baptized at Nagano Agata-machi Church (United Church of Christ in Japan) in 1957. After graduating from Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo (MME, 1965), he began his career as a music teacher at Tamagawa Academy and University (Tokyo). In 1983, he returned to his alma mater to teach, remaining there as Associate Professor of Music...
COTTERILL, Thomas. b. Cannock, Staffordshire, 4 December 1779; d. Sheffield, 29 December 1823. He was educated locally, at the Free School, Birmingham, and at St John's College, Cambridge (BA 1801, MA 1805), of which he became a Fellow. He took Holy Orders, becoming curate of Tutbury, Staffordshire (1803), and incumbent of Lane End, Staffordshire (1808-17). He moved to Sheffield in 1817, becoming perpetual curate of St Paul's Church until his death. At Sheffield he met James Montgomery*, who...
COFFIN, Charles. b. Buzancy, 4 October 1676; d. 20 June 1749. Buzancy is a small town in the present-day département of Ardennes, in the diocese of Rheims. Coffin left there in 1693 for Paris to complete his education. He was an outstanding student: as the favoured successor of Charles Rollin, he became a tutor of the Collège de Beauvais and then (1712) its head. In 1718 he was elected rector of the University of Paris and did much to reorganize its finances. He was entrusted with delivering...
A Plainsong Hymnbook (1932). A Plainsong Hymnbook was the work of the Proprietors of A&M, who were anxious to promote a kind of hymnody that had been to some extent neglected in previous editions. They were aware that the Plainsong and Medieval Music Society, founded in 1888, had drawn attention to the riches of liturgical chant and medieval music, and that the rediscovery in the 19th century of early Latin and Greek Christian hymns had significantly increased the resources for worship, and...
Faith of our fathers! living still. Frederick William Faber* (1814-1863).
Published in Jesus and Mary: or, Catholic Hymns for Singing and Reading (1849), and later reissued in Faber's Oratory Hymns (1854). It was conceived as part of a project to provide Roman Catholics with accessible vernacular hymns, at a time when selections from Bishop Richard Challoner's Garden of the Soul (1740) were still the staple of non-liturgical musical expression. In its original form, it spoke to Catholics of...
For all thy gifts we praise thee, Lord. James Freeman Clarke* (1810-1888).
Published in Service Book: for the use of the Church of the Disciples of Christ (1844), and then in The Disciples' Hymn Book (Boston, 1844), where it was entitled 'Feast of the Reformation'. The word 'Feast' in the title suggests that Clarke was attempting to create a new Feast Day, in opposition to the traditional calendar of Saints' Days and other days in the church calendar. It had eight stanzas, and was given as by...
Indelible Grace Music
Indelible Grace Music (IGM) is a musical movement and website founded by Kevin Twit*, Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) minister and musician in Nashville. Their website is www.igracemusic.com, but they also maintain Indelible Grace Hymnbook site (https://ighymns.herokuapp.com/), a compilation of more than 170 retuned hymns and over 50 traditional tune hymns. 'Retuned hymns' are primarily 18th- and 19th-century texts set to new melodies, as Twit says, 'We want to...
MARTINEAU, James. b. Norwich, 21 April 1805; d. London, 11 Jan 1900. He was born into a Unitarian family of Huguenot descent, and educated at Norwich Grammar School and at the school at Bristol run by the distinguished Unitarian Dr Lant Carpenter. He became an engineering apprentice at Derby, but decided to become a Unitarian minister and entered Manchester College, then at York, in 1822. In 1828 he became minister of Eustace Street Presbyterian Meeting House, Dublin, and in 1832 moved to...
BYROM, John. b. Manchester, 29 February 1692; d. Manchester, 26 Sept 1763. Byrom was born into a prosperous family of merchants and landowners, and received his formal education at Chester Free Grammar School, Merchant Taylors' School (then occupying a site in the heart of the City of London) and Trinity College, Cambridge (BA, 1712; MA, 1715), where he was elected to a college fellowship in 1714. This education was intended, in his father's words, 'to fit [him] for sacred orders', but Byrom's...
This is the name given to a movement within the Church of England which endeavoured to resist government interference in the church affairs and reaffirm the authority of the church as a holy and divinely authenticated institution. Its origins were political as well as religious (Nockles, 1994). The early adherents of the movement were concerned at the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832; at the appointment of bishops and Regius Professors of Theology by the government; at what they saw as a...
The Hymnary (1872). The editors of The Hymnary (1872) were William Cooke*, Honorary Canon of Chester, and Benjamin Webb*, vicar of St Andrew's, Wells Street, London. It was published by Novello, Ewer & Co., following the decision of the Proprietors of A&M to transfer the printing of their book from Novello to William Clowes. Thus The Hymnary was born out of commercial rivalry, and its editors must have been instructed to make a more attractive book than A&M (1861) and...
German Reformed
Immigration and Organization
German Reformed immigrants came to America largely from the Palatinate in south-west Germany on the Rhine River. There, in 1562 at Heidelberg University, Caspar Olevianus (1536-1587) and Zacharias Ursinus (1534-1583) prepared the Heidelberg Catechism and the Palatinate Liturgy. This area received the Reformation about the time of Luther's death (1546), became a seedbed of religious rivalry, and especially after the beginning of the Thirty Years' War...
One way to describe the Disciples is as a 19th-century religious experiment planted on North American soil from Scots-Irish and United States Presbyterian roots sprinkled with Baptist and Congregationalist waters. Three of the four acknowledged founders of this religious experiment were first generation immigrants to the United States. Only Barton Warren Stone (1772-1844) was born on US soil, near Port Tobacco, Maryland. Thomas Campbell (1763-1854) and his son Alexander (1788-1866) arrived in...
Swedenborgian hymnody
Swedenborgians are the followers of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), a distinguished Swedish mathematician and scientist, whose life was changed in 1745 by the 'opening of his spiritual sight', after which he taught a series of doctrines drawn from the Word of God coupled with his ability to see heaven and hell and converse with angels and spirits. He rejected the orthodox doctrine of the Atonement, preferring the idea that the end of creation is that human beings can...
Historical background
Community of Christ is an international Christian denomination with approximately 250,000 members in more than 50 countries. Until 2001, the denomination, which has its headquarters in Independence, Missouri, was known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (commonly abbreviated as 'RLDS'). The church shares a common beginning with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ('LDS'), founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr. (1805-1844). After the...
PICTET, Bénédict. b. Geneva, 19 May 1655; d.10 January?/9 June? 1724. Pictet was the son of André Pictet and Barbe Turrettini. He was a Calvinist theologian who revised the Psalter, and who was a pioneer in writing hymns in French-speaking Reformed circles. He was educated by his maternal uncle and godfather, the professor of theology François Turrettini (1623-87), an influential figure in the Reformed Church of Geneva and a defender of the strictest Calvinism. At the age of 14, he entered the...
Disposer supreme, and Judge of the earth. Jean-Baptiste de Santeuil* (1630-1697), translated by Isaac Williams* (1802-1865).
De Santeuil's Latin original began:
Supreme quales, Arbiter
Tibi ministros eligis,
Tues opes qui vilibus
Vasis amas committere.
It appeared in the Cluniac Breviary of 1686, in de Santeuil's Hymni Sacri et Novi (1689), and in later French Breviaries, including the Paris Breviary of 1736. Isaac Williams's translation was published in the British Magazine (June 1836), and in...
Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ. Jakob Ebert* (1549-1614).
This hymn is found in EG in three stanzas in the 'Schöpfung, Frieden, Gerechtigkeit' section (EG 422). As the first line, 'Thou Prince of Peace, Lord Jesus Christ' suggests, it belongs in the 'Frieden' ('peace') part of this section. It is found in Wackernagel, Das Deutsche Kirchenlied III. 413, with the title 'Um Frieden zu bitten' ('To plead for peace'), one of only two hymns by Ebert in DDK. It was printed in Geistliche deutsche...
Hear us, O Lord, from heaven thy dwelling-place. William Henry Gill* (1839-1923).
This is known as 'The Manx Fishermen's Evening Hymn'. It was written by Gill to fit a ballad tune from the Isle of Man, and published in his Manx National Songs (1896). The fishermen from the Isle of Man used to ask for God's blessing before casting their nets, and Gill prefaced the hymn with a quotation from the Manx Book of Common Prayer: '…that it may please thee to give and preserve to our use the kindly...
Lonely the Boat. Helen Kim* (1899-1979).
This was composed in the Korean language in 1921. It is Helen Kim's best known text. It appeared in the Korean language for the first time in ShinJung Chansongka, a revised and expanded ecumenical hymnal (Seoul, 1931). The translation, with the Korean original, appeared first in Hymns from the Four Winds (Nashville, 1983). The versification was prepared for UMH.
The Korean text was translated in 1980 by Hae Jong Kim (b. 1935), the first Korean United...
The anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa captured the attention of the world during the 1980s. News reports from CNN often included singing black South Africans and their supporters singing songs of freedom. These songs were disseminated to the Western world in the mid-1980s largely through the work of Anders Nyberg* (1955- ) under the sponsorship of the Church of Sweden Mission (Lutheran). Nyberg took choirs to South Africa who, in turn, learned songs from South African choirs. Many of...
AMBROSE of Milan. b. Trier, 339 (or 340); d. Milan, 4 April 397. Born into a Roman Christian family, Ambrose pursued the cursus honorum (the ladder of advancement within the Roman public hierarchy) and became governor of the province of Emilia-Liguria in 370, moving to Milan. On the death of the Arian bishop, Auxence, Ambrose was chosen by the people as their bishop, was baptised and, one week later, was consecrated (1 December 373 or 7 December 374). During the 23 years of his episcopate, he...
Benson Collection, Princeton Theological Seminary.The Louis F. Benson Hymnology Collection is one of the premier collections for the study of the history of Christian hymnody in North America. It consists of over 12,000 volumes of hymnals and printed materials related to the study of Christian hymnody. The collection was originally received by Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, in 1931 from the estate of Louis F. Benson*. Benson was the author of a number of works on...
Jesu! the very thought of Thee. Latin, probably 12th century, translated by Edward Caswall* (1814-1878).
This is a translation of the Latin text beginning 'Iesu dulcis memoria'*. The translation was published in Caswall's Lyra Catholica (1849). It is from a selection of verses used in the Roman Breviary (Caswall later translated the whole hymn, publishing it in The Masque of Mary, and Other Poems in 1858).
There have been many other translations of the whole hymn, sometimes known as 'Iubilis...
CROPPER, Margaret Beatrice. b. Kendal, Westmorland (now Cumbria), 29 August 1886; d. Kendal, 27 September 1980. She was educated privately. She became a Sunday-school teacher in 1900, and superintendent of a Sunday kindergarten at Staveley, near Kendal, ca. 1925. She lived in or near Kendal for the whole of her life, apart from two trips to South Africa. She was well known as a playwright and poet. Her plays, some one-act, some full-length, included comedies, and plays on religious topics such...
O David was a shepherd lad. Charles Erskine Clarke* (1871-1926).
Written in 1925 for a competition organized by the compilers of the Church and School Hymnal (1926). This was the winning entry. Its three 8-line stanzas may be compared with 'With a shout of bold derision'* by Clarke's older contemporary, George Bett Blanchard*. Blanchard's hymn is a vivid account of the fight between David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17), whereas Clarke's hymn has another purpose: in all three stanzas Clarke compares...
ADAM of St Victor. d. Paris, 1146. The earliest identification of this figure is probably the signature 'Subdeacon Adam' in a 1098 charter of Notre Dame cathedral, Paris. He was certainly precentor there by 1107, although he became an Augustinian canon* at the Abbey of St Victor in Paris ca. 1133 after being part of a failed attempt to impose the Augustinian rule on the cathedral canons. A vita of Adam was later written by a monk of the Abbey of St Victor, William of St Lô (d. 1349).
In modern...
Lord, I want to be a Christian. African American spiritual*.
'Lord, I want to be a Christian' is among a canon of African American spirituals that appears both in mainline denominational hymnals and in African American hymnals in the United States. It was first published in Folk Songs of the American Negro edited by Frederick Jerome Work* (1878?-1942) (Nashville, 1907) with an introduction by John W. Work, Jr. (John Wesley Work (II)*, 1872?-1925). This publication was the outgrowth of the...
When Easter to the dark world came. William (H) Hamilton* (1886-1958).
First published in Children Praising (1937), a book for younger children edited by Hamilton, with H.E. Wiseman as music editor. It had six stanzas. It has been reprinted in some Sunday school and children's books such as Partners in Praise (1979), and it appeared in HP and RS. In RS, Hamilton's stanza 4 — 'When Thomas' heart with grief was black/ Then Jesus like a king came back' — was altered, and a new stanza added:
When...
Blest are the pure in heart. John Keble* (1792-1866), and William John Hall* (1793-1861)/ Edward Osler* (1798-1863).
The text of this hymn is normally one of four stanzas, beginning as follows:
Blest are the pure in heart
The Lord who left the heavens
Still to the lowly soul
Lord, we thy presence seek
Stanzas 1 and 3 were taken from a poem by Keble dated 10 October 1819. It was entitled 'The Purification of St Mary the Virgin', with the sub-heading '“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they...
O heavenly Jerusalem. Latin, Eighteenth Century, translated by Isaac Williams* (1802-1865).
This is a translation of a Latin hymn, 'Caelestis O Jerusalem', found in a Toulouse Breviary of 1777 and a Paris Breviary of 1822, set for Matins on All Saints' Day. Williams's translation was printed in his Hymns translated from the Paris Breviary (1839). It was included in the First Edition of A&M (1861), after which it became well known. It had six stanzas in 1861:
O heavenly Jerusalem, Of...
The Lord is my shepherd, no want shall I know. James Montgomery* (1771-1854).
This metrical version of Psalm 23 was first published in Montgomery's Songs of Zion: being imitations of psalms (1822, Second Edition, 1824). It was then included in his Christian Psalmist (Glasgow, 1825). It was later printed in his Original Hymns (1853), with a change in the first line to '...nor want', and minor changes in spelling and punctuation. The 1825 text was as follows:
The Lord is my shepherd, no want...
This entry is in two parts, the first by Sally Harper, the second by Alan Luff.
Welsh carols before 1700
There is little evidence to confirm that Wales had its own vernacular counterpart to the regular strophic structure and repeated burden of the English medieval carol (See 'English carols'*), although two carol-like texts recorded retrospectively from oral tradition in the 1950s in rural Cardiganshire may indeed be medieval survivals. Both are couched in rhymed accentual verse with a burden...
Caribbean hymnody
When one examines the hymns or sung liturgical poetry that are current within the various island states geographically located between North and South America, one must conclude that Caribbean hymnody is an eclectic and a dynamic reality. The people of the region are a mixed entity. By virtue of history, they are the descendants of Amerindians (the original inhabitants) and migrants from Europe, Africa and Asia. Consequently, the Caribbean is often described as a melting pot...
PERKINS, Emily Swan. b. Chicago, Illinois, 19 October 1866; d. Riverdale, New York, 27 June 1941. Perkins was a composer of hymn tunes and the founder in New York City of The Hymn Society (later The Hymn Society of America; now The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada*). She was the fourth child and only daughter of George Walbridge Perkins (1831-1886) and Sarah Louise Mills Perkins (1833-1872) and was named for Emily Swan, a friend of her parents. Two years after Sarah Perkins died in...
The Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book (ELHB 1912) was the first, official English-language hymnal of the Missouri Synod branch of American Lutheranism. It was published at a time when the Missouri Synod was slowly, and reluctantly, making the transition from German to English in its worship forms and ecclesial culture. As such, ELHB 1912 assisted in a far-reaching transformation of this immigrant, Lutheran church body by bringing a large portion of its German hymnody into English, while at the...
JACOPONE da Todi (BENEDETTI, Jacopo). b. Todi, Italy, ca. 1236; d. Collazzone, 25 December 1306. The Franciscan poet Jacopo Benedetti was born to a noble family. He signed his name Jacobus Benedicti de Tuderto; chroniclers refer to him as either Jacobus Tudertinus or Jacobus de Benedictis. The name Jacopone (something on the lines of 'Big Jim') may refer to his physical stature, for he was a tall man. More importantly, it was the common and, ironically, belittling name, unbefitting his...
Draw the circle wide. Gordon S. Light* (1944- ).
Inclusive language for humankind and for God was a strong current in the tide of liturgical renewal among mainstream Canadian churches in the 1980s and 1990s. Anglican, Catholic, Presbyterian and United Churches responded to the call for new congregational song with collections that included not only strophic hymns new and revised, but also songs in many genres and languages from writers and composers around the globe. How seriously the hymnal...
A hymn of glory let us sing. Bede* (673/4-735), translated by Elizabeth Rundle Charles* (1828-1896).
Charles's translation of Hymnum canamus gloriae* appeared in her The Voice of Christian Life in Song (1858), where it had six stanzas:
A hymn of glory let us sing,
New hymns throughout the world shall ring;
By a new way none ever trod,
Christ mounteth to the throne of God.
The apostles on the mountain stand –
The mystic mount – in Holy Land;
They, with the Virgin-mother see
Jesus ascend in...
HORNER, Egbert Foster. b. Greenwich, London, 11 February 1864; d. Paddington, London, 8 October 1928. He was a pupil of Frederick Bridge* at the Royal College of Music. He taught harmony and counterpoint at Trinity College, London, where he was Director of Examinations (1917-27). He was also an external examiner for Durham and Birmingham Universities. He was organist of St Alphege's, Southwark (1884-86), of St Barnabas', Tunbridge Wells (1886-90), St John's Westminster (1890-1919), and Holy...
Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old. Edward Hayes Plumptre* (1821-1891).
Plumptre was chaplain of King's College, London, from 1847 to 1868, and the hymn was written in June 1867 for use in the chapel of King's College Hospital. It was first published on a fly-sheet, and appeared in the Appendix (1868) to the First Edition of A&M. It was included in some editions of the author's Lazarus and other poems though not, as sometimes stated, the edition of 1865. Since then, it has become one of the...
BRONTË, Anne. b. Thornton, near Bradford, Yorkshire, 17 January 1820; d. Scarborough, Yorkshire, 28 May 1849. She was the youngest child of the Revd Patrick Brontë, a Church of England clergyman of Irish descent. There were five Brontë sisters (two of whom, Maria and Elizabeth, died at the Clergy Daughters' School, Cowan Bridge) and one brother, Branwell (1817-1848). The other surviving sisters were Charlotte (1816-1855) and Emily (1818-1848) (for Emily, see below). The family moved to Haworth,...
O come and mourn with me awhile. Frederick William Faber* (1814-1863).
First published in Faber's Jesus and Mary; or, Catholic Hymns for Singing and Reading (1849), with the title 'Jesus Crucified', and in his Hymns (1862). It had twelve stanzas. The First Edition of A&M printed a six-stanza text (stanzas 1, 2, 3, 5, 10 and 11). This version avoided the Roman Catholic opening, by changing stanza 1 lines 2 and 3 from 'See, Mary calls us to her side;/ O come, and let us mourn with her;' to 'O...
WOTTON, (Sir) Henry. b. Boughton Malherbe, near Maidstone, Kent, 1568, exact date not known; d. Eton College, December 1639. He was educated at Winchester School and New College, Oxford, before moving to Hart Hall (now Hertford College) and then to Queen's College (BA, 1588). From 1589 to 1594 he travelled widely in Europe, learning German and Italian, and studying in Geneva with a celebrated scholar, Isaac Casaubon (1559-1614). He became secretary to the earl of Essex in 1594, and in that...
With hearts in love abounding. Harriet Auber* (1773-1862).
Published in The Spirit of the Psalms: or, a compressed version of select portions of the Psalms of David, adapted to Christian worship (1829), where it is Auber's version of Psalm 45. It was printed in the SPCK Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship (1852), edited by Thomas Vincent Fosbery*. In that book it was headed 'After Trinity Sunday', and printed in three 8-line stanzas:
With hearts in love abounding, Prepare we now to singA...
WESLEY, Charles. b. Epworth, Lincolnshire, 18 December 1707; d. London, 29 March 1788. He was youngest son and 16th/17th child (though calculations vary) of Samuel Wesley (I)* and the redoubtable Susanna, and younger brother to John*. From Westminster School (1716-26), first as King's Scholar and finally Captain of the school, he gained a scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford (BA 1730, MA 1733). He became leader (in John's absence as their father's curate) of a small group known as the 'Holy...
May the mind of Christ my Saviour. Katie Barclay Wilkinson* (1859-1928).
The date of this hymn is given as ca. 1912 in some hymnbooks, such as AHB (1965). It appeared in Golden Bells (1925), although it may have been printed earlier in leaflet form. Golden Bells was the hymnbook for the Children's Special Service Mission, and this is in keeping with Wilkinson's known interest in children's work. The hymn was published in a major denominational hymn book in BHB, and since then its popularity has...
O what shall I do my Saviour to praise. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1742), entitled 'A Thanksgiving'. It followed 'Wrestling Jacob' ('Come, O thou Traveller unknown'*) and was succeeded by two other hymns of thanksgiving, 'O heavenly King, look down from above'*, and 'My Father, my God, I long for thy love'. The last of these has not been used subsequently in hymnbooks. All three thanksgiving hymns were printed in 10-syllable lines, with a space and...
Behold, where in a mortal form. William Enfield (1741-1797).
This hymn was first published in the Second Edition of Enfield's Selection of Hymns for Social Worship (1797). It was entitled 'The Example of Christ'. It appeared in some British books, such as Edward Bickersteth*'s Christian Psalmody (1833) and Andrew Reed*'s The Hymn Book, prepared from Dr. Watts's Psalms and Hymns, and other Authors (1842). Subsequently rather neglected in Britain, it became very popular in the USA until recent...
See also 'Byzantine hymnody'*, 'Byzantine rite'*, 'Greek hymnody'*, 'Rite of Constantinople'*, 'Rite of Jerusalem'*, 'Greek hymns, archaeology'*.
From conversion to the 18th century
The early years
Serbia converted to Christianity between 867-74. The first contacts were with Latin Church priests in coastal areas dominated by the Byzantine Empire; later contacts were with the Slavic missionaries, the Thessalonian brothers Cyril and Methodius. St. Cyril reputedly created the Slavic script,...
Face to face with Christ my Saviour. Carrie Breck* (1855-1934).
This hymn is dated 1898 in hymnals. It is based on I Corinthians, 13:12. First sung by the Gospel singer and publisher Grant Colfax Tullar* (1869-1950) in front of the pulpit in First Presbyterian Church, Vineland, New Jersey (Conwell, 1916, p. 29). It appeared in Sermons in Song, no. 2 ,'For use in Gospel Meetings and other Religious Services', edited by Tullar and Isaac H. Meredith (Chicago: Tullar-Meredith Music Co., 1899). It...
Brief life is here our portion. Bernard of Cluny* (12th century), translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866).
This is a translation of 'Hic breve vivitur, his breve plangitur, hic breve fletur', from the poem by Bernard of Cluny (or Morlaix), De Contemptu Mundi. That poem began 'Hora novissima, tempora pessima sunt, vigilemus'* (later translated by Neale as 'The world is very evil'*), but Neale first worked from an extract by Richard Chenevix Trench (in Sacred Latin Poetry, 1849) beginning...
SEYMOUR, Aaron Crossley Hobart. b. County Limerick, Ireland, 19 December 1789; d. Bristol, 22 October 1870. He was the son of a vicar of Caherelly in the diocese of Cashel, Co. Tipperary, and the brother of the anti-Catholic polemicist Michael Hobart Seymour (1800-74). He received most of his education at home, and was drawn in early life into the Calvinistic 'Connexion', founded by Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon* (to whom 'When Thou, my righteous judge, shall come' has been...
Baptized in water. Michael Saward* (1932-2015).
This was the second of three hymns for baptism written within four days, and the third of four used in a teaching series on the subject when the author was vicar of Ealing in West London. Like others, he had become concerned at the dearth of convincing and singable hymns for baptism. The date of writing this one was 29 May 1981; the following year all four were published in HFTC of which he was the words editor, together with two by Michael Perry*...
See 'Jesus Christ the Apple Tree'*
Look, ye saints, the sight is glorious. Thomas Kelly* (1769-1855).
First published in the Third Edition of Kelly's Hymns on Various Passages of Scripture (1809), with the title 'The Second Advent'. It refers to the return of Jesus Christ to heaven rather than to the second coming of Christ to earth. It is therefore often used for Ascension-tide. It is based on Revelation 7: 9-15, but was headed with a quotation from Revelation 11:15: 'And he shall reign for ever and ever':
Look, ye saints! the...
CHANDLER, John. b. Witley, Godalming, Surrey, 16 June 1806; d. Putney, 1 July 1876. His father was the vicar of Witley. John was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford (BA 1827, MA 1830). He took Holy Orders, becoming a Fellow of his College and curate of Witley. He succeeded his father as vicar of Witley in 1839, remaining there until his death. He is chiefly known for The Hymns of the Primitive Church: now first collected, translated, and arranged, published in 1837 (a later edition, with...
MANT, Richard. b. Southampton, 12 February 1776; d. Ballymoney, Ireland, 2 November 1848. He was educated at Winchester College and Trinity College, Oxford (BA 1797, MA 1799). He became a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford in 1801, and took Holy Orders (deacon 1802, priest 1803). After curacies, one assisting his father, he became vicar of Coggeshall, Essex (1810-13), chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury (1813-16), rector of St Botolph without Bishopsgate, London (1816-18), and rector of East...
The development of the organ as the primary vehicle for leading congregational song in churches of the USA proceeded initially from established English trajectories, although in subsequent centuries the organ's ecclesiastical role would parallel the development of the USA's musical, social, and liturgical priorities. The Anglican Church had maintained a complex and tenuous relationship with church music, its Calvinist concerns frequently commandeering the journey down the via media. Its noted...
Chinese Christian hymnody
Introduction: the Beginnings
The earliest Christian missionaries to China were Nestorians, who were active during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Their version of Christianity (so-called Jieng Jiao, Luminous Religion) was received warmly by Emperor Taizong (唐太宗,599-649) and flourished throughout China. One hymn from this period, 'Wushang zhu tian shen jing tan' ('All heaven worships in great awe'), was probably composed by Nestorian missionaries and thought to have been...
Mirfield Mission Hymn Book
The Community of the Resurrection (CR) was founded in Oxford in 1892 by six priests, including Charles Gore, subsequently Bishop of Worcester, Birmingham and Oxford. It moved to Mirfield, West Yorkshire, in 1898. From the outset it combined a strong liturgical interest with a concern for the poor and needy, and it provided practical and spiritual help, notably in London. For much of the 20th century it also staffed missions in other countries, most significantly in...
And must I part with all I have. Benjamin Beddome* (1717-1795).
This was published in John Rippon*'s Selection of Hymns* (1787), in a section entitled 'The Graces of the Spirit'. It was headed 'Self-Denial, Mark viii. 34. Luke ix. 23.' These verses contain Jesus' command, 'Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.' A more appropriate reference would have been to Mark 10: 21, reported in the other Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, 19:21, Luke 12:33,...
The Church Army Mission Hymn Book. This was published in Britain ca. 1960 (no date is given, and there is no indication in the very brief preface). It was a successor to Hymns for the Church Army (ca. 1894), edited by Wilson Carlile*, the army's founder, and Hymns and Choruses of the Church Army (n.d., but ca. 1910, and frequently reprinted).
The front cover was embossed with the Church Army shield, a crown and crossed swords, and the words 'Fight the good fight'. The book contained 133 hymns,...
PARTRIDGE, Sybil Farish (Sister Mary Xavier (SMX)). b. London, ca. 1856; d. Birkdale, Southport, Lancashire, 23 February 1917. Sybil Partridge became a teaching nun of the order of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur at Liverpool. Her 'In Hymnis et Canticis': Verses Sacred and Profane (1903) was dedicated 'To the former students of the Liverpool Training College for whom most of these verses were written in memory of many happy years of work amongst them'. This statement, in conjunction with the...
KENDRICK, Graham Andrew. b. Blisworth, Northamptonshire, 2 August 1950. He was the son of a Baptist minister; the family later moved to Essex and London. He started composing songs at 15 years of age, having taught himself to play the piano. In response to the Church's lack of connection with youth culture during the 1960s, he formed an early interest in the use of rock and folk music for outreach and evangelism.
He trained as an English/Ceramics teacher at Avery Hill College, Kent, but...
FRANCIS, Benjamin. b. Wales, 1734; d. Horsley, Gloucestershire, 14 December 1799. Francis was a Welsh speaker, who wrote hymns in Welsh and English, and edited a Welsh hymnbook (Aleluia: neu Hymnau perthynol I addoliad cyhoeddus, Caerfyrddin, 1774). JJ, p. 386, lists five hymns in Welsh that were in use in 1892. He trained at the Baptist College, Bristol, and served as a minister at Sodbury (Old Sodbury and Chipping Sodbury), Gloucestershire, and then, from 1757 to 1799, at Horsley, near...
This entry is by Francisco F. Feliciano, apart from one section by Arnel de Pano
Before the 20th Century
Spain colonized the Philippines in the 16th century, and the Catholic faith with Latin liturgy was introduced to the Filipinos. For the next 400 years, the music of the liturgy was western: Gregorian chants, polyphonic masses and motets, and hymns in Latin. By the 20th century, the Latin liturgy, however, had proved inadequate to express the Catholic faith of the native Filipino. Alongside...
The world looks very beautiful. Anna Bartlett Warner* (1827-1915).
This hymn is dated in JJ (p. 1234) ca. 1860, but it was not included in Warner's Wayfaring Hymns, original and translated (New York, 1869). The first page scan in Hymnary.org is from The Diadem: a collection of tunes and hymns for Sunday school and devotional meetings (New York, 1865), edited by Silas J. Vail (1818-1884).
It is a hymn that was written for children but which also includes the idea of pilgrimage. The idea for...
The Cambridge Carol-Book was published in 1924 by SPCK (reprinted 1951). It was the work of George Ratcliffe Woodward* (words) and Charles Wood* (most of the music; occasional items were harmonized by GRW and one by George Herbert Palmer*). Its full title was The Cambridge Carol-Book, being fifty-two songs for Christmas, Easter, and other seasons. In fact it contained 53 songs, of which 34 were for Christmas-tide, including 'Ding! dong! merrily on high'* and 'Past three a clock, and a cold...
ARCHER, Malcolm David. b. Lytham-St-Annes, Lancashire, 29 April 1952. He was educated at King Edward VII School, Lytham, and Jesus College, Cambridge. He was Assistant Organist of Norwich Cathedral and Organist of Bristol and Wells Cathedrals before his appointment in 2004 as Organist and Director of Music at St Paul's Cathedral, a post he relinquished in 2007 to become Director of Chapel Music at Winchester College. In addition to his reputation as a fine trainer of choirs and as an editor of...
PETERSON, John Willard. b. Lindsborg, Kansas, 1 November 1921; d. Scottsdale, Arizona, 20 September 2006. A major influence in the development of gospel music, John W. Peterson, the youngest of seven children, began his music career by winning the grand prize of Major Bowes' (1874-1946) 'Original Amateur Hour', consisting of voice lessons and singing on a local radio station. After serving in World War II, he attended the Moody Bible Institute and was a member of the radio staff there for a...
JABUSCH, Willard Francis. b. Chicago, Illinois, 12 March 1930; d. Chicago, 9 December 2018. Jabusch received BA, and STB degrees from St Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein, Illinois, his MA from Loyola University, and a doctorate in speech from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois (1968). He studied music at the Chicago Conservatory and the University of London, and did additional studies in Germany, Israel, and Texas. A parish priest at St James' Roman Catholic Church in Chicago...
Lead, Holy Shepherd, lead us. Hamilton Montgomerie MacGill* (1807-1880).
This translation was included in the hymnbook of the United Presbyterian Church, The Presbyterian Hymnal (1877). The Church had been formed in 1847 through a union between the United Secession Church and the Synod of Relief (see 'Synod of Relief hymns'*). MacGill was one of the compilers of the 1877 hymnbook.
It was a translation of a hymn by Clement of Alexandria* (Titus Flavius Clemens, ca. 150- ca. 215), entitled 'Hymn...
Shepherds, in the fields abiding. George Ratcliffe Woodward* (1848-1934).
From Songs of Syon, Third Edition, revised and enlarged (1908), and reprinted in the Cowley Carol Book*, Second Series (1919). It is based on a text from the Sarum Antiphoner, 'Quem vidistis, pastores'. It had four stanzas, presenting the story of the Incarnation through question, answer, and thanks: it has an affinity with other carols that feature the shepherds, notably 'Angels we have heard on high'*, from the French...
When Christ was born in Bethlehem. Laurence Housman* (1865-1959).
This hymn for Holy Innocents' Day (28 December) was written for EH, and placed in that book under the heading 'At Catechism':
When Christ was born in Bethlehem, Fair peace on earth to bring,In lowly state of love he came To be the children's King.
A mother's heart was there his throne, His orb a maiden's breast,Whereby he made through love alone His kingdom manifest.
And round him, then, a holy band Of children blest was...
See 'Sinners Jesus will receive'*.
MacMILLAN, Alexander. b. Edinburgh, 19 October 1864; d. Toronto, 5 May 1961. Born and educated in Edinburgh, Alexander MacMillan moved to Canada following his graduation from the University of Edinburgh, licensed by the United Presbyterian Presbytery of Edinburgh in June, 1887. He described what happened when he was a student:
While a student in the faculty of Arts in Edinburgh University, and in the Divinity Hall, Edinburgh, I felt a gradual and growing desire to make Canada the sphere of my...
Many in the late 20th- and early 21st-century church music community have been guided by Erik Routley*'s summary of what constitutes a good hymn, i.e., one which is 'well written, well chosen and well sung (1959, p. 299). As compelling and compact as this definition is, when it is quoted outside of Routley's expansive view of the purpose and nature of hymnody, it can become a convenient way to canonize the personal aesthetic of the one employing the quotation. What is 'good' can be easily...
Indian Christian hymnody
The beginning of Christianity in India is ascribed to the arrival of St Thomas—one of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ—in the Southern part of India during the first century of the Common Era. Even though such an ascription is contested in some scholarly circles, it is certain that the Eastern Orthodox tradition of Christian faith was in existence in India quite early in the Common Era. The Indian Orthodox Church, Orthodox Syrian Church of the East, Armenian...
KINGO, Thomas Hansen. b. 15 December 1634; d. 14 October 1703. He was born at Slangerup, North Zealand, Denmark, the son of a weaver. He attended the newly founded grammar-school at Frederiksborg from 1650 to 1654, and after four years at the University of Copenhagen he graduated in 1658 as Master of Theology. After some years as private tutor in West Zealand, he became chaplain in 1661 at Kirke Helsinge, also in West Zealand. In 1668 Kingo was appointed as priest in his native town of...
HESSE, Johannes. b. Nürnberg, September 1490; d. Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland), 6 January 1547. He was educated at the Universities of Leipzig and Wittenberg (MA 1511), and then in Italy (Bologna and Ferrara, DD Ferrara, 1519). In 1520 he was ordained as a priest, and was Provost of the Church of St Mary and St George at Oels; he became a Protestant in 1523, and was appointed pastor of the Church of St Mary Magdalene at Breslau (Wroclaw). He is thought to be the author of 'O Welt, ich muss dich...
The term 'Augustinian canon regular' is used to refer to the clergy of a wide range of religious establishments in the Middle Ages. From the late 11th century onwards the Rule of St Augustine of Hippo* was adopted widely by congregations of clergy who wished to live communally in the manner of the Apostles. Houses of canons subscribing to St Augustine's Rule were founded across the whole of Europe, covering the continent from Poland to Spain and from Scandinavia to Italy (Dickinson, 1950, p....
This is the name given to the liturgy used by Christians in the Iberian peninsula living under the rule of the moors before the reconquest of Spain. Because it was in use before the coming of the Arabs, the designation 'Mozarabic' tends to be avoided by modern scholars; 'Old Hispanic' is usually preferred. This liturgical rite was superseded, not without resistance, when the Roman liturgy was imposed on Spain by order of the Council of Burgos in 1080. It remained in use in some Toledan parish...
VINCENT, Charles John. b. Houghton-le-Spring, County Durham, 19 September 1852; d. Monte Carlo, 23 February 1934. He was the son of an organist, organ builder, and music seller; he was educated at Durham, as a chorister of the Cathedral. He studied under the Cathedral organist, Philip Armes*, and became organist of Monkwearmouth Parish Church at a young age (sixteen or seventeen, 1869). He undertook further study in Leipzig before becoming (1877) organist of Tavistock Parish Church, Devon, and...
BENSON, Edward White. b. Birmingham, 14 July 1829; d. Hawarden, Cheshire, 11 October 1896. He was from an old Yorkshire family, which had moved to Birmingham because his father was a chemical engineer. He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham (where he was a school friend of Joseph Barber Lightfoot, later Bishop of Durham) and Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1852, MA 1853, ). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1854, priest 1857) and became a Fellow of the College. He taught at Rugby School...
I greet Thee, who my sure Redeemer art. French, possibly by Jean Calvin* (1509-1564), translated by Elizabeth Lee Smith* (1817-1898).
This translation was published in Philip Schaff*'s Christ in Song (New York, 1869). It is a translation of the French text, 'Je Te salue, mon certain Rédempteur'*.
Smith's translation follows the original metre. It is in eight stanzas, beginning, after stanza 1:
Thou art the King of mercy and of grace
Thou art the Life by which alone we live
Thou art the true...
ALLEN, James. b. Gayle, Wensleydale, Yorkshire, 24 June 1734; d. Gayle, 31 October 1804. He was educated privately, and then briefly at St John's College, Cambridge, with a view to taking Holy Orders; but he left Cambridge in 1752 to become a follower of Benjamin Ingham*, the Yorkshire evangelist. He is known to hymnody as the co-editor with Christopher Batty (1715-1797, JJ, p. 118) of the Inghamite Collection of Hymns for the Use of Those that Seek, and Those that have Redemption in the Blood...
Shepherds came, their praises bringing. Latin, translated by George Bradford Caird* (1917-1984).
This is a translation of the Latin carol 'Quem pastores laudavere'*. It was made by Caird in 1944, when he was minister of Highgate Congregational Church, London, and published in CP (1951). It was revised in 1981, and published in its new form in HFTC (1982). In stanza 3 the later text follows the Latin in its reference to Mary ('Per Mariam nobis dato'), which Caird had left out in...
To us a child of royal birth. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
This hymn, entitled 'The Incarnation of Christ', was not published in Charles Wesley's lifetime. It was found in a manuscript entitled 'Hymns on the Four Gospels', and was first printed in the 1830 Supplement to John Wesley*'s A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780). It remained in subsequent British Methodist books until it was inexplicably dropped by HP in 1983. It had four stanzas:
To us a child of...
Now that the Day-star doth arise. Latin, perhaps 5th century, translated by John Cosin* (1595-1672).
This is Cosin's translation of 'Iam lucis orto sidere'*, the traditional hymn for Prime in Monastic Uses. According to The Hymnal 1940 Companion, p. 117, it took the place of the corresponding hymn in the Benedictine tradition (see 'Rule of Benedict*). It was printed in Cosin's A Collection of Private Devotions in the Practice of the Ancient Church (1627), as a hymn for Morning Prayer:
Now that...
Te decet laus. A short prose hymn, called a '[canticle]'* in some early sources, and having the form of a doxology*: 'Te decet laus, te decet hymnus, tibi gloria Deo Patri et Filio, cum Sancto Spiritu, in saecula saeculorum. Amen' ('Honour is yours, praise is yours, to you be glory, God the Father and Son, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen').
It appears in the 4th-century Apostolic Constitutions; the Latin version was in existence by the 6th century, when it was prescribed for use...
Latin hymns
The entry on 'Latin Hymnody' in JJ notes at the outset that 'a complete history of Latin Hymnody has never been written. It would occupy a considerable volume' (p. 640). Since that time much work has been done on the subject, beginning with James Mearns*'s Early Latin Hymnaries (Cambridge, 1913). Mearns deserves more than a passing note, for he was John Julian's ever-reliable and extremely learned assistant, responsible for many of the Latin entries in the Dictionary of Hymnology,...
Captain of Israel's host, and guide. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures (Bristol, 1762), in two 6-line stanzas, on Exodus 13: 21: 'The LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light: to go by day and night.' The text in 1762 was as follows:
Captain of Israel's host, and Guide Of all who seek that land above,Beneath thy shadow we abide, The cloud of thy...
HARRIS, William Wadé. b. 1860 (?); d. April 1929. Born in Liberia, Harris joined the Methodist Church at the age of twelve, although he subsequently worked as a teacher for the Protestant Episcopal Church. He was an early advocate of independence from the Americo-Liberian colonial rule, and was arrested for treason and twice imprisoned by the administration in Liberia over a two-year period, 1909-1910. During his second imprisonment he had a vision of the Archangel Gabriel, who declared him a...
A Hymnal, for use in the English Church (1852). This is the title of the hymnbook edited by Francis H. Murray* which was one of the notable fore-runners of A&M. It was published in 1852. By 1869 it had reached its thirteenth edition. Although it is always attributed to Murray, the preface speaks of 'the compilers', because Murray was assisted by his curate, Christopher Harrison.
The preface states that it was 'first undertaken with a view to supply the wants of a particular Parish' (p....
Post-Colonial Era
Both the body of hymnody from and the publication of hymnals for the Roman Catholic Church in the United States at its founding and in the decades immediately following are quite small. The cause of this is two-fold: the inherited status of Roman Catholics under British governance and the role of the congregation at the Catholic Mass.
Until the Catholic Relief Act of 1778, Catholics in the colonies lived under the same rules of suppression as they did in England. Public...
There's a sweet and blessèd story. Julia H. Johnston* (1849-1919).
Apart from 'Marvelous grace of our loving Lord'*, this is Julia Johnston' best known hymn. Entitled 'He Ransomed Me', and dated 1916, it still bears the marks of her earlier engagement with the Torrey-Alexander evangelistic campaigns, with their concentration on individual salvation ('to rescue me'). The refrain breaks the mould with its unexpected reference to the 'miry clay', from Psalm 40: 2 ('He brought me up…out of the miry...
HEGINBOTHOM, Ottiwell. b. 1744; d. 1768. JJ notes that he was for a short time pastor of a nonconformist congregation at Sudbury, Suffolk, where some of the congregation left and built another chapel. This 'so preyed upon his mind, and affected his health, that his pastorate terminated with his death within three years of his appointment' (p. 506). Samuel Willoughby Duffield, writing before JJ, suggests that he may have been the son of another Ottiwell Heginbothom mentioned in The Life and...
African hymnody. In this article, African hymnody will be considered under the headings 'Western Africa', 'Eastern Africa' and 'Southern Africa', preceded by a general introduction. Articles on individual countries and authors/composers will be found as separate entries.
Introduction
'Music might be considered as one of the best ways to educate Christian people. A beautiful hymn, well understood and lived, has the value of a good sermon' (Ntahokaja, 75). In this quotation, Father Ntahokaja...
Olney Hymns
Olney is a small town in Buckinghamshire, England. In the 18th century the principal occupation of the inhabitants was lace-making (see, for example, Eliza Westbury*). To Olney came John Newton* as curate-in-charge in 1764. In the same year he had published An Authentic Narrative of some Remarkable and Interesting Particulars in the Life of --------, a book which detailed his remarkable early life and his religious conversion. He rapidly became well known among evangelicals, and in...
Mennonite hymnody is defined here as hymns that Mennonites sing and the manner in which they sing them, and confined to hymns in English. It should be noted, however, that this does not give a complete picture of Mennonite hymnody worldwide, given the fact that at the beginning of the 20th century 98% of Mennonites lived in Europe or North America; whereas at the beginning of the 21st century 60% live in Asia, Africa and Latin America (see Janecek, 2005). Of the remaining 40%, a small minority...
Marian hymns
Hymns in honour of the Virgin Mary are chiefly associated with the Eastern Orthodox churches and the Roman Catholic church; Marian devotion is accepted less in the protestant traditions, although some Anglican books are rich in hymns for Marian feasts. The earliest Marian feast is the Assumption (August 15), which commemorates her death. This dates back to the mid-5th century, around the time of the Council of Ephesus (431) at which it was decreed that Mary was the mother of God...
OSLER, Edward. b. Falmouth, Cornwall, 30 January 1798; d. Falmouth, 7 March 1863. He was destined for a medical career, and was apprenticed to a Dr Carvosso at Falmouth, followed by training at Guy's Hospital, London (MRCS, 1818). He became a house surgeon at Swansea Infirmary, and surgeon to the House of Industry at Swansea (ca. 1819-25). During this period he developed an earlier interest in marine biology, published papers on the subject, and was elected a member of the Linnean Society. He...
CENNICK, John. b. Reading, Berkshire, 12 December 1718; d. London, 4 July 1755. On one side of the family his grandparents had been Quakers, persecuted for their beliefs, but his parents were members of the Church of England. He was educated at Reading, and brought up strictly, 'kept constant to daily Prayers'. As a young man he subsequently went through a period of depression. He was trained as a shoemaker.
He had an experience of salvation in 7 September 1737, and sought out the Methodists in...
Although this account focuses on five 20th-century Australian hymnals, Australia's history of hymn publication extends back to 1821 and has involved the Roman Catholic and major protestant traditions, and others including the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Salvation Army, Churches of Christ, Reformed Church and various Pentecostal groups (see 'Australian hymnody'*). Of the hymnals discussed here, two in particular represent the force of ecumenism in Australian since the 1960s; the others reflect...
Camp Meeting Hymns and Songs, USA
Since the publication of George Pullen Jackson*'s groundbreaking and provocative White Spirituals from the Southern Uplands (Chapel Hill, 1933), a considerable body of hymnological and musicological literature has accumulated on the folk hymnody of early America. In much of that secondary literature it is presupposed that a key component of this hymnic corpus is the camp-meeting 'chorus'. This sub-genre is typically constructed from wandering rhyme pairs or the...
GAUNT, Howard Charles Adie. b. Birmingham, 13 November 1902; d. Winchester, 1 February 1983. He was educated at King's College, Cambridge (BA, 1925, MA, 1927). He worked as a schoolmaster for much of his life, teaching at Rugby School, Malvern College, and Winchester College. He took Holy Orders (deacon 1954, priest 1955) and served in the Winchester diocese, continuing to teach at Winchester College until 1963, when he became, successively, Sacristan (1963-66) and Precentor (1966-73) of...
The sands of time are sinking. Anne Ross Cousin* (1824-1906).
Written at Irvine, Ayrshire, in 1854, and first published in The Christian Treasury (1857). It was headed 'The Last Words of Samuel Rutherford'. These words were 'Glory — glory dwelleth in Immanuel's land', referring to the dying words of the Scottish Covenanter, Samuel Rutherford (1600-61). Rutherford's words gave Cousin the last two lines of each stanza. It also gave her the title for her book of poems, by 'A.R.C.', Immanuel's Land...
Too early for the blackbird. Caryl Micklem* (1925-2003).
Written sometime before 1991 for RS, to provide a hymn for Eastertide suitable for all-age worship. It tells the story with an attractive simplicity in the verses, counterpointed by a fine complexity in the refrain:
Chase, chase your gloom and grief away and welcome hope instead,for Jesus Christ is ris'n today and death itself is dead.
The Companion to RS (1999), p. 320, notes debts in the refrain to Philip Doddridge*, 'Ye humble souls...
Christian popular music, USA
Introduction and antecedents
Christian popular music (hereafter CPM) is an umbrella category for a sonically diverse repertoire of late 20th- and early 21st-century evangelical Protestant commercial popular music. It encompasses several distinct subcategories based on musical genre, industrial context, or function, including, but not limited to, Jesus Music, Contemporary Christian Music (CCM), Praise & Worship music, and Christian rock. CPM is characterized by...
ALLISON, Margaret Wells. b. McCormick, South Caroline, 25 September 1921; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 30 July 2008. Allison is primarily recognized as the founder and leader of the Angelic Gospel Singers, a gospel ensemble she directed for over fifty years. Known as 'Babe', 'she was the eldest living female gospel artist still traveling and performing' at the time of her death at 86 years of age (Manovich, 2008, n.p.).
From South Carolina she moved to Philadelphia when she was four. It was...
Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns for Times of Trouble and Persecution (1744) in six 4-line stanzas, the first of four hymns 'to be sung in a Tumult'. It was not included in John Wesley's A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780) but it appeared in the 1831 edition with Supplement with stanzas 2 and 3 omitted and a stanza from another hymn added. Several different selections of stanzas appeared in...
And let our bodies part. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Volume II of Charles Wesley's Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), where it was hymn CCXXXIII, entitled 'At Parting'. It was XLIII in the section entitled 'Hymns for Christian Friends'. It was in two parts: Part I had six 8-line stanzas, Part II four stanzas. Part I was printed, with slight alterations, by John Wesley* in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780) in 12 four-line stanzas, in the section 'For the...
MAXIM, Abraham. b. Carver, Maine, 3 January 1773; d. Palmyra, Maine, 28 March 1829. He was a composer and singing master, best known for his collection, The Northern Harmony.
Abraham Maxim was the son of John Maxim (1745-1827) and Martha Norris Maxim (1750-1813). He married Anna Merrill (1780-1876) on 11 September 1801 in Turner, Maine, and the couple had seven children.
In a biographical sketch of Abraham Maxim, S. P. Cheney wrote in 1878 that he had received two sources of information. One...
Aeterne rerum conditor. Ambrose of Milan* (339/340-397).
This hymn is accepted as the work of St Ambrose. It is mentioned as one of Ambrose's hymns by Augustine of Hippo* and Bede* (see JJ, p. 26). Its use was widespread. It is found as the matins/nocturns hymn in the Old Hymnal and Frankish Hymnal (rarely), and as the hymn for Sunday Lauds in winter in the New Hymnal (see Medieval hymns and hymnals*). It continued in use throughout the Middle Ages in the various regional practices of the...
GABRIEL, Charles Hutchinson. b. Wilton, Iowa, 18 August 1856; d. Hollywood, California, 14 September 1932. Following in his father's footsteps, Charles Gabriel became a singing school teacher at the age of 16, and after 1887 served as music director in the Grace Methodist Church in San Francisco. His first great success was 'There's a call comes ringing o'er the restless wave'*, after which he settled in Chicago, the center for evangelical and revivalist publishing, in 1892. He devoted the...
Nearer, still nearer, close to Thy heart. Lelia Morris* (1862-1929).
The text and tune were both written by Morris. According to Donald P. Hustad* (1978), the hymn was published in Pentecostal Praises (1898), edited by William J. Kirkpatrick* and H.L. Gilmour. It had four stanzas:
Nearer, still nearer, close to Thy heart, Draw me, my Saviour, so precious Thou art; Fold me, O fold me, close to Thy breast, Shelter me safe in that 'Haven of Rest,' Shelter me safe in that 'Haven of Rest.'
Nearer,...
Would you be free from your burden of sin (Power in the blood). Lewis Edgar Jones* (1865-1936).
First published in Songs of Praise and Victory (Philadelphia, 1899), compiled by William J. Kirkpatrick* and Henry L. Gilmour (1836-1920), after Gilmour purchased the manuscript from the author. It appeared the same year in Gospel Praises (Philadelphia, 1899), compiled by Kirkpatrick, Gilmour, and J. L. Hall. According to correspondence provided by the author/composer near the end of his life, Jones...
They come from the east and west. Thoro Harris* (1874–1955).
This gospel hymn, 'They Come', first appeared in Harris' convention collection Revival Praise: Erikson Campaign Special (Chicago, 1917), where he is listed as the translator of a German text. The first musical score available in Hymnary.org is in Soul Inspiring Songs (1929), edited by R.E. Winsett (1876–1952), with the tune by Russell DeKoven, Harris's pseudonym. This collection indicates that the text is Harris' translation of 'Sie...
See 'Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power'*.
See 'Jesus of Nazareth passeth by'*
See 'Dying with Jesus, by death reckoned mine'*.
See 'O Jesus, crowned with all renown'*.
Plainchant, also known as plainsong. The term is taken from the Latin cantus planus, and is usually associated with the Latin chant of the Western Church. It has a wide stylistic remit, from simple psalm recitation sung by the whole monastic community to virtuosic solo and choral chants such as offertories. All plainchant is monophonic — that is, it consists of an unharmonized line of melody. 'Plainchant' also encompasses a wide chronological range, from the core repertory of Office and Mass...
MANN, Arthur Henry. b. Norwich, 16 May 1850; d. Cambridge, 19 November 1929. He was a chorister at Norwich Cathedral and then an articled pupil of Zechariah Buck. He held the positions of organist at St Peter's Church, Wolverhampton (1870), Tettenhall Parish Church (1871) and Beverley Minster (1875) before he was appointed organist of King's College, Cambridge in 1876. He remained in this post for the rest of his life.
Mann did much for Cambridge music. He oversaw the change of regime in which...
Angels we have heard on high. French traditional carol, translated by James Chadwick* (1813-1882).
The French carol, in eight stanzas, is printed in the New Oxford Book of Carols (1992), to which this entry is greatly indebted. The original text seems to have been in dialogue form, and the editors of NOBC have arranged it for singing by the Shepherds ('Bergers', stanzas 1, 3, 6) and the Women ('Femmes de Bethlehem', stanzas 2, 4 and 7). Stanzas 5 and 8 were sung by all ('Tous'):
'Les anges...
The Lord is my shepherd ('We Will Walk Through the Valley'). Lucie Eddie Campbell-Williams* (1885-1963).
This is one of four songs composed by Campbell in 1919 at the very beginning of her song-writing career. Two songs were secular compositions; the other was a sacred composition, that became well-known, 'Preachers and teachers would make their appeal*. It is not clear when 'The Lord is my shepherd' was first sung, but it may have been at the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc. annual...
Iesu dulcis memoria. Latin, 12th century, author unknown.
This hymn is given in Daniel, Thesaurus Hymnologicus I. 227-9, as the work of St Bernard of Clairvaux*, but more recent research has noted that the earliest manuscripts containing it are of English origin, and it has been tentatively ascribed to an English monk of the 12th century (see F. J. E. Raby, 'The Poem “Dulcis Iesu Memoria”', Bulletin of the Hymn Society, 33 (October 1945), pp. 1-6, and Maurice Frost, Historical Companion to...
CLEVELAND, James. b. Chicago, Illinois, 5 December 1931; d. Los Angeles, California, 9 February 1991. Singer, composer, pianist, choir director, recording artist, James Cleveland is regarded as the single most important figure in African-American gospel music in the 20th century. As a young boy, Cleveland sang in the choir of Chicago's Pilgrim Baptist Church, where the ministers of music were Thomas A. Dorsey* (who in 1930 had introduced the church to his 'gospel blues'), and Roberta Martin...
Ye that in his Courts are found. Rowland Hill* (1744-1833).
This hymn comes from Hill's A Collection of Hymns, chiefly intended for the Use of the Poor (1776), where it was entitled 'Enjoyment of Christ in Worship':
Ye that in his Courts are found,List'ning to the joyful Sound,Lost and helpless as ye are,Sons of Sorrow, Sin, and Care,Glorify the King of Kings,Take the Peace the Gospel brings.
Turn to Christ your longing Eyes,View his bloody Sacrifice;See in Him your Sins forgiv'n,Pardon,...
The liturgical rite of Jerusalem, as the name indicates, developed and was practised primarily in the Holy City itself. The physical and organising centre of this rite was the Cathedral of Jerusalem, a complex of churches built around the cross and the tomb of Christ. Festal offices were celebrated in the Martyrium basilica (or other churches of the city) and daily offices in the Anastasis rotonda (the Church of the Resurrection, also called the Church of the Holy Sepulchre). In addition,...
Vespers was traditionally celebrated at dusk. As with all of the medieval offices, it included a hymn; unlike those of other offices, Vespers hymns began to be sung polyphonically on important feast days in major liturgical centres in the fifteenth century (see Polyphonic hymns to 1600*). The Divine Office was a focus for musical creativity throughout the middle ages (see Saints' Offices*), and the other Offices (Matins, Lauds, Compline, Prime, Terce, Sext and None) followed broadly similar...
WATSON, John Richard. b. Ipswich, Suffolk, 15 June 1934. Richard Watson was educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford and (after National Service in the Royal Artillery, 1953-55) at Magdalen College, Oxford (BA 1958, MA 1964; Matthew Arnold Memorial Prize, 1962). After two years as a teacher of English at Loretto School near Edinburgh, he became a post-graduate student at the University of Glasgow, gaining his PhD (1966) with a study of William Wordsworth, and being awarded the Ewing Prize...
Hymns before hymnals
Although archaeological evidence suggests that some form of Christanity may have existed earlier, the Christian Church was brought to Finland in 1155 by the English-born Henry, Bishop of Uppsala, Sweden, together with King (Saint) Erik of Sweden. Henry, the 'apostle to Finland', met an untimely end when he was murdered by a peasant, Lalli, on an icy lake. Amazing tales began to circulate about Henry and he was later canonized. Antiphons, hymns and sequences* were written...
This is the first word of the phrase 'Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini', used in the Mass in the Sanctus* (from Mark 11:9 and Luke 13: 35). It is also the opening of the song of Zachariah (or Zacharias), Luke 1: 68-79: 'Benedictus Deus Israhel quia visitavit et fecit redemptionem plebi suae'. Zachariah has been struck dumb by the encounter with the angel Gabriel, who tells him that his elderly wife Elisabeth will conceive and bear a son, John the Baptist. Zachariah is punished for being...
Again the Lord's own day is here. Attributed to Thomas à Kempis* (ca. 1380-1471), translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866) and the Compilers of A&M (1861).
This hymn was used in the 'Evening' section for 'Sunday' in the First Edition of A&M. It was based on a translation by Neale in The Hymnal Noted, Part II (1854). The Latin text began 'En dies est dominica'. Frost (1962, p. 149) notes that the translation is of a selection of stanzas (1, 4, 5, 6, 29) of a poem of 29 stanzas...
ACKLEY, Bentley D. b. Bradford, Pennsylvania, 27 September 1872; d. Winona Lake, Indiana, 3 September 1958. Rising to prominence as pianist for the Billy Sunday and Homer A. Rodeheaver* revival meetings, B. D. Ackley became a prolific composer of gospel songs and editor of gospel hymnals. He was born into a family of musicians in Bradford, Pennsylvania, including his younger brother Alfred Ackley*, who also became a gospel song composer. Their father, Stanley Ackley, served as a Methodist...
On Zion's glorious summit stood. John Kent* (1766-1843)*.
This is not one of the hymns by Kent listed in JJ p. 623, but it was one of his best known in the USA. It must have been published (this has not been verified) in his Collection of Original Gospel Hymns (Dock [Plymouth Dock], 1803), because it was included by John Dobell* in A New Selection of Seven Hundred Evangelical Hymns for Private, Family, and Public Worship (1806). In the Sixth Edition (1826) it was entitled 'The Lamb, and His...
O for a(n) heart to praise my God. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
As 'O for an Heart', this was first published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1742) in eight 4-line stanzas, based on Psalm 51:10, 'Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.' John Wesley* sensibly removed the 'n' in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), and the hymn has thus appeared in all subsequent Methodist hymn-books; though since the Wesleyan Methodist Hymn Book...
Baylor University Sacred Music Collection
Baylor University was chartered in 1844 by the Congress of the Republic of Texas and officially established in 1845 in Independence, Texas. In 1886 Baylor and Waco Universities consolidated to form Baylor University at Waco, Texas, in the center of the state.
Most of Baylor University's sacred music collection is in the Arts and Special Collections Research Center. The Center is an integrated unit that supports Baylor University's research and...
Indian Melodies, 1845, by Thomas Commuck*.
Surely one of the most distinctive prefaces ever written for a collection of hymn tunes is the one Thomas Commuck wrote for his book, Indian Melodies (New York: G. Lane & C. B. Tippet, for the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1845). Excerpts follow:
The work now offered to the public, small as it is, has occupied the attention of the author for the space of seven years; and it may not be amiss to state, that it was not until the year 1836 that he...
SPALDING, Joshua. b. Killingly, Connecticut, 14 December 1760; d. Newburgh, New York State, 26 September 1825. According to the Douglas Family Records (see below) Spalding, whose name is sometimes spelt 'Spaulding', studied theology with the Rev Mr Bradford, of Rowley, Massachusetts. In 1785 he was ordained 'over the church and society' of the Tabernacle church, Salem, Massachusetts, where he was remembered as 'an energetic pastor', so that 'the drooping interests of the church and society...
TUCKER, Francis Bland. b. Norfolk, Virginia, 6 January 1895; d. Savannah, Georgia, 1 January 1984. The son of an Episcopalian Church bishop, he was educated at school in Lynchburg, Virginia, and the University of Virginia, Charlottesville (BA 1914). After service with the Medical Corps in World War I, he trained for the priesthood at Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria (BD, 1920, h. c. DD, 1942). He was ordained (deacon 1918, priest 1920), serving parishes at Brunswick County, Virginia...
History of the Syrian Church
Syriac Christianity has grown out of the Aramaic speaking population of Mesopotamia and its environs which, around the beginning of the Christian Era, was divided into two empires: the Roman-Byzantine Empire in the West and the Parthian-Persian Empire in the East. It had its early centre in Edessa in the West, a relatively independent kingdom, where the majority of the population spoke Aramaic. Edessa was christianised from Antioch as early as the 2nd century. The...
COLENSO, John William. b. St Austell, Cornwall, UK, 24 January 1814; d. Durban, Colony of Natal, 20 June 1883. He was the first Bishop of Natal (1853–1883), biblical critic, missionary linguist and controversial figure within Victorian Anglicanism. Colenso's contribution to South African hymnody lies in two principal areas: his Zulu hymn translations and his distinctively edited English-language collection Psalms and Hymns for Use in the Cathedral Church of St Peter's, Maritzburg and in the...
PECHAM, John (Johannes de Pescham, Peccanus, Pischano, Pisano, Pithyano). b. Patcham, Sussex, ca. 1230; d. Mortlake, Surrey, 8 December 1292. After receiving his early education at the Cluniac Priory at Lewes, John Pecham joined the Order of Friars Minor in Oxford ca. 1250. Pecham studied the liberal arts at Oxford and then, some time between 1257 and 1259, travelled to Paris, where he completed his studies in theology. He served as Franciscan lector and regent master of theology there from...
This is the English rendering of the Greek ώσαννα, which in turn comes from the Aramaic hôš '-nā, from the Hebrew for 'Save us!' (Psalm 118: 25). In the Christian tradition it is particularly associated with Christ's Entry into Jerusalem (Mark 11: 10, Matthew 21: 9, 15, John 12: 13), and in the liturgical tradition it is linked to the 'Benedictus qui venit in nomine Deus', 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord'. In hymn writing it was particularly associated with the voices of...
Sunday School Hymnary, The
This was the title of a very successful hymnal, published in 1905 by the Sunday School Union. It was sub-titled 'A Twentieth Century Hymnal for Young People'. Words and music were edited by Carey Bonner*. His 'Prefatory Notes' stated his aims clearly:
This book is sent forth in the earnest hope that it may minister to a reverential, sincere, yet glad worship in the Sunday School. The Graded Arrangement of the Hymns for the Junior, Middle, and Senior Sections of the...
There is no name so sweet on earth. George Washington Bethune* (1805-1862).
This hymn is normally dated 1858. The earliest page scan in Hymnary.org is from an 1859 hymnal of the Dutch Reformed Church (of which Bethune was a minister), Young Singer's Friend: or, the Lee Avenue Collection of hymns and songs, sacred and secular, suitable for Sabbath schools, social circles, children's meetings, concerts, anniversaries, etc., edited by Jeremiah Johnson (New York, 1859). The 'Lee Avenue' in the...
Shackled by a heavy burden (He touched me). Bill Gaither* (1936- ) and Gloria Gaither* (1942- ).
Known primarily by its refrain, 'He touched me' was composed in 1963 soon after the couple's wedding in 1962. While not their first song, 'He touched me' was the first of several early songs that defined their career, including 'Because he lives'* (1971), 'Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, there's just something about that name' (1970), and 'The King is coming' (1970). Though the songs were recorded by many...
Be thou my guardian and my guide. Isaac Williams* (1802-1865).
First published in Williams's Hymns on the Catechism (1842), based on the petition in the Lord's Prayer, 'And lead us not into temptation'. The first line was 'Be Thou our Guardian and our Guide', and the hymn was in the first person plural throughout. It was changed to 'Be Thou my Guardian' in the Appendix (1868) to the First Edition of A&M, where it was also given a doxology, thus making a hymn of five stanzas. The four before...
ROBERTSON, Alison Margaret (née Malloch). b. Glasgow, 22 February 1940. She was the younger twin of the Revd. Jack and Nancy Malloch. In 1948 the family moved to the Gold Coast (now Ghana), when her father became a Church of Scotland missionary principal of the Teacher Training College at Akropong. Her mother ran a baby clinic once a week and Alison, at the age of 10, was made responsible for the small wounds part of the clinic, cleaning and dressing fresh and infected wounds sustained by the...
O brothers, lift your voices. Edward Henry Bickersteth* (1825-1906).
The Church Missionary Society was founded in 1799. This hymn was written in 1848, the year in which Bickersteth was ordained as a deacon, to celebrate the Jubilee of the Society in 1849. It was published in the Church Missionary Society Jubilee Tracts (1848). In the following year Bickersteth published Poems, by Edward Henry Bickersteth, curate of Banningham, Norfolk (Cambridge: Macmillan, Barclay, and Macmillan; London:...
Sound of Living Waters
Sound of Living Waters was published in 1974 in London by Hodder & Stoughton and in the USA by Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1974), edited by Betty Pulkingham* and Jeanne Harper. It had a bright cover, and was ring-bound, making it one of the earliest books to break free from the traditional style and format. Sub-titled Songs of Renewal, it contained 133 items, arranged in sections, as follows:
Hallelujah!... Songs of praise and thanksgiving
Kneel and Adore…...
To Thy temple I repair. James Montgomery* (1771-1854).
First published in William Bengo Collyer*'s Hymns partly collected and partly original, intended as a Supplement to Dr Watts's Psalms and Hymns (1812), with the title 'A Sabbath Hymn'. It was published again in Thomas Cotterill*'s Selection of Psalms and Hymns (Eighth Edition, 1819), and in Montgomery's own The Christian Psalmist (Glasgow, 1825), where it was headed 'A day in the courts of the Lord' (the reference is to Psalm 84: 10: 'For a...
ENFIELD, William. b. Sudbury, Suffolk, 29 March 1741; d. Norwich, 3 November 1797. Enfield came from a poor family, but was encouraged and taught by the local minister, William Hextal (or Hextall), who secured his entry to a Dissenting Academy at Daventry. He became pastor of a Presbyterian chapel at Liverpool (1763-70), and then at Warrington (1770-85), where he taught belles-lettres at the celebrated Warrington Academy. He was minister of the Octagon Chapel, Norwich (then still Presbyterian,...
Unison hymn tune in Britain, 1861-1939.
1. Victorian hymn tunes in the late 19th Century.
One of the principal features that a student of 19th-century and early 20th-century music has learned about the hymnody of this period in Britain is its transformation from a legacy of the Old Version* and the New Version*. John Stainer* noted that the OV and NV tunes that were still in use at St Paul's Cathedral in the late 1840s were 'groaned through' with commensurate reluctance by choir and...
BENOIT, Claire-Lise de. b. Calcutta 28 August 1917; d. Geneva (?) 15 November 2008. She was the eldest of seven children born to Pierre and Renée de Benoit. Her father was a Missionary Doctor in India. She became a Scripture Union pioneer worker in French-speaking Switzerland, and a well known Evangelical hymnwriter.
From 1939, remaining single, she developed children's work over forty years through holiday camps and publishing. She represented the Scripture Union at an international level....
XAVIER, Francis. b. Xavier, Navarre, Spain, 7 April 1506; d. Shang Chuan, near China, 3 December 1552. He was born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta in a new castle ('Xavier' in the Basque language) belonging to his aristocratic family in the kingdom of Navarre: the kingdom was invaded and divided during his youth, and the castle was reduced in size by the order of Cardinal Cisneros (see 'Spanish hymnody'*). He was educated at the Collège Sainte Barbe in Paris (1525- ), where he met Ignatius...
'It is finished!' Christ hath known. George Gabriel Scott Gillett* (1873-1948).
Based on St John's record of the last words of Jesus on the cross — 'tetelestai' ('it is finished') — this hymn was written for EH (1906). These dying words of Christ have inspired and challenged many hymn writers. Gillett's solution was in an ABBA form, that of Tennyson*'s In Memoriam, followed by four lines rhyming ABAB:
It is finished! Christ hath knownAll the life of men wayfaring;Human joys and sorrows...
Majesty, worship his majesty. Jack Hayford* (1934-2023). This 10-line song is said to be the result of an experience while travelling in Great Britain in 1977. Hayford was struck by the architecture of some of the great buildings, and also fascinated by their associations with the Royal Family. He is said to have begun this eight-line song after visiting Blenheim Palace, Woodstock: he was intending to relate the earthly splendour that he had found with the kingly magnificence of God, 'king of...
Who is he, in yonder stall. Benjamin R. Hanby* (1833-1867).
Written in 1866, not long before Hanby's death in the following year. It was first published in The Dove, a Collection of Music for Day and Sunday Schools, Juvenile Singing Classes, and the Social Circle (Chicago, 1866), where it had eight two-phrase stanzas. It was then included in The Amaranth (1872), the first authorized Sunday-school book of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Two stanzas were added when it was published in Ira...
In all my Lord's appointed ways. John Ryland* (1753-1825).
This hymn is part of a one of nine stanzas, beginning 'When Abraham's servant to procure' [a wife for Isaac], first published in the Gospel Magazine, May 1773, with the heading 'Hinder me not – Gen. xxiv. 56.' (JJ, p. 984). It was included in Rippon's Selection of Hymns* (1787), in a section entitled 'Baptism', with a note, 'This Hymn may begin at the 6th verse.' The customary text is taken from the end of the hymn, stanzas 6-9:
In...
RUSSELL, Arthur Tozer. b. Northampton, 20 March 1806; d. Southwick, Sussex, 18 November 1874. He was the son of a Congregationalist minister named Clout who changed his name to Russell. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, London, Manchester College, York (a Dissenting Academy, in York from 1803 to 1840), and St John's College, Cambridge. He became a member of the Church of England and took Holy Orders (deacon 1827, priest 1830). He was successively vicar of Caxton, Huntingdonshire...
I danced in the morning when the world was begun. Sydney Carter* (1915-2004).
This is frequently known as 'Lord of the dance'. In the notes on his hymns the author emphasizes that they grow and coalesce over time into a version that can be published. There seems to be no evidence of when Carter started to sing this song. It was, however, sufficiently well known for the first four stanzas to appear in Student Christian Congress Hymns (Bristol, 1963). In his collection 9 Carols or Ballads...
JONES, Lewis Edgar. b. Yates City, Illinois, 8 February 1865; d. Santa Barbara, California, 1 September 1936. Born in Illinois, Jones moved with his parents to Iowa, where he lived on a farm until he was 21. After working in business for a time, he sought training at Moody Bible Institute (Chicago) where he graduated in the same class as evangelist Billy Sunday (1862-1935). Jones was active in the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) for 36 years, serving as physical director of the YMCA at...
HORROBIN, Peter. b. Bolton, Lancashire, November 1943. Educated at King's College School, Wimbledon, and Christ Church, Oxford, where he studied Chemistry, he worked in higher education and the publishing industry before moving into Christian ministry in 1986. In November of that year, he founded Ellel Ministries, focused on healing and the training of Christian leaders, inspired by Luke 9: 11, 'He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed...
CARMICHAEL, Ralph. b. Quincy, Illinois, 28 May 1927; d. Carmillo, California, 18 October 2021. A pioneer in the Contemporary Christian Music industry, Carmichael was a prolific composer of Christian songs, whose experiments in popular musical styles garnered him recognition by some as the 'Father of Contemporary Christian Music'. Carmichael, fostered by musician parents, early on took violin, trumpet, and piano lessons. He attended Southern California Bible College (now Vanguard University,...
MENDOZA, Vicente Polanco. b. Guadalajara, Mexico, 24 December 1875; d. Mexico City, 14 June 1955. Methodist evangelist, hymn writer, and translator, he was acclaimed by many as the leading evangelist in Mexican Methodism of his generation, and the author of some of the most beloved hymns from this era in the Spanish language. Vicente P. Mendoza should not be confused with two others of his generation with a similar name: Vicente T. Mendoza (1894-1964), a Mexican Methodist musicologist,...
YearDenomination and EditorsTitleComments
1801
African Methodist Episcopal ChurchRichard Allen*
A Collection of Spiritual Songs and Hymns Selected From Various Authors, by Richard Allen, African Minister
54 Texts only (no music like other hymnals of this period; the authors of text were not included).
1801
African Methodist Episcopal ChurchRichard Allen
A Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs from Various Authors, by Richard Allen, Minister of the African Methodist Episcopal...
Glory be to God on high. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns for the Nativity of Our Lord (possibly1744, certainly 1745), in four 8-line stanzas. It was not included in John Wesley*'s A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), but appeared in the 1831 Supplement to that book and in subsequent Methodist hymnbooks. Its use outside Methodism has not been extensive in Britain, though it found a place in A&MCP. In the first extant edition of 1745...
COFFIN, Henry Sloane, b. New York City, 5 January 1877; d. Lakeville, Connecticut, 25 November 1954. Coffin was educated at Yale University (BA, 1897; MA, 1900) and Union Theological Seminary, New York City (BD 1900). He also studied Theology at New College, Edinburgh, immediately after his undergraduate education, followed by a brief period at the University of Marburg, Germany. He was ordained a Presbyterian pastor in 1900 and served churches in New York City, notably serving as the pastor of...
HOPPS, John Page. b. London, 6 November 1834; d. Shepperton, Middlesex, 6 April 1911. He was educated at Leicester General Baptist College, where he trained for the Baptist ministry. After serving as minister at Hugglescote and Ibstock (1856) and at Birmingham (1857-), he became a Unitarian in 1860 and went on to serve as a Unitarian minister in Sheffield, Dukinfield, Glasgow, Leicester and London. Hopps published many books, pamphlets and sermons, many of which proved controversial: he...
BECON, Thomas. b. Norfolk, 1512/1513; d. Canterbury, 30 June 1567. An East Anglian, he was educated at Cambridge (1527 onwards). He was ordained priest in 1533. At Cambridge he was much influenced by reformers such as Hugh Latimer, and he developed into an outspoken Protestant, often in trouble: he was made to recant his writings twice (1541, 1543), the second time publicly at Paul's Cross with his friend Robert Wisdom*. He flourished under the reign of Edward VI (1547-1553), particularly...
He's gone! See where his body lay. Thomas Kelly* (1769-1854).
First published in Kelly's Hymns on Various Passages of Scripture (Dublin, 1804), and in subsequent editions. It had six stanzas in the metre of 6.6.6.D. It began with a dramatic exclamation, as if the angel at the empty tomb were speaking to the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Mary Magdalene. JJ, p. 517, references Matthew 28: 6: 'He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.'
The text that...
When the storms of life are raging ('Stand by Me'). Charles Albert Tindley* (1851–1933).
'Stand by Me', as it is commonly known, is among Tindley's most beloved and often sung hymns. Horace Clarence Boyer* called it 'the first gospel blues composition' (Boyer, 1995, p. 70). Similarly, Judge Jefferson Cleveland* thought that 'Stand by Me' was 'Tindley's greatest hymn [combining] the emotion of Isaac Watts . . . with that of a Black spiritual. . . an explicit example of the use of blues...
This entry is in two parts. The first, on the early and medieval period, is by Carmen Julia Gutiérrez; the second, from 1502 onwards, is by Elena Gallego Moya/ Jose Fco. Ortega Castejón.
Part 1: Early and Medieval
The hymns of the Hispanic Liturgy
The Hispanic rite was used in the Iberian Peninsula until the 11th century, except for Marca Hispánica and the Bracarense province, where the Romano-Frankish rite was followed from the 8th century. The texts of the Hispanic rite were compiled by...
Immortal, invisible, God only wise. Walter Chalmers Smith* (1824-1908).
First published in Smith's Hymns of Christ and the Christian Life (1867), in the third section, 'Hymns of the Holy Trinity'. It had six stanzas. This text differs considerably from the one found in most modern hymnbooks, apart from the resounding first stanza.
The hymn was published in a revised form in William Garrett Horder*'s Congregational Hymns (1884) and in his Worship-Song (1905), and thereafter in EH, after which...
PEARSON, William. b. Derby, 1832 d. Hackney, London, 17 October 1892. Pearson's parents belonged to the Primitive Methodist Chapel in Traffic Street, Derby, where he was converted at the age of fourteen, and where he later became a local preacher. In 1874 he went to London to join William Booth's Christian Mission as an evangelist, and became superintendent of the Mission's Shoreditch Circuit. Subsequently he served as a Mission evangelist in Hastings, Whitechapel, Wellingborough, Manchester...
Hark! the herald angels sing. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739) as one of five hymns in the same metre (77.77) for the great festivals of the Christian year, entitled 'Hymn for Christmas Day'. It had ten 4-line stanzas, beginning 'Hark, how all the welkin rings/ 'Glory to the King of kings' [with a misprint, 'Kings of kings' in line 2; see Example 1].
Example 1: Hymns and sacred poems. Published by John Wesley, M. A. Fellow of Lincoln College,...
Introduction: Hebrew hymns and the problem of English nomenclature
In discussions of Hebrew liturgy, the designation hymn poses a linguistic challenge. Neither the English term—especially in its modern Western connotations—nor its classical root has a precise or exclusive equivalent in Hebrew. Struggling to provide translations, modern Hebrew dictionaries give a series of generically loose Hebrew counterparts, none of which adequately captures the nature of the specific Hebrew liturgical forms...
CASWALL, Edward. b. Yateley, Hampshire, 15 July 1814; d. Birmingham, 2 January 1878. The son of a clergyman, he was educated at Chigwell, Essex and King Edward's Grammar School, Marlborough, Wiltshire. He entered Brasenose College, Oxford (BA 1836, MA 1838) and took Holy Orders (deacon, 1838, priest, 1839). He became Perpetual Curate of Stratford-sub-Castle, near Salisbury, where his uncle, Thomas Burgess, was bishop. He married in 1841, and in 1845 he and his wife went on a tour of the...
Hymnal Companion to the Book of Common Prayer (1870). The Hymnal Companion to the Book of Common Prayer (not a 'Companion' in the usual sense of the word) was edited by Edward Henry Bickersteth* during his time as vicar of Christ Church, Hampstead, and published in 1870. It was successful enough to warrant a revised and enlarged edition in 1877, and a Third and Revised Edition with tunes in 1890.
The edition of 1870 was a words-only book, of considerable interest because of its Preface and the...
Hymnody and Hymnals of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. The Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRC) is an offshoot of the Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerk in the Netherlands, and the Reformed Church in America (RCA), which was established in North America about two centuries before the arrival of the Dutch who would form the core of the CRC. Whereas the RCA grew out of a 17th-century emigration at a time when the Dutch were engaged with the world, prosperous, and...
Christ is alive! Let Christians sing. Brian Arthur Wren* (1936- ).
Written in April 1968, to be sung on Easter Day, ten days after the assassination of Martin Luther King: 'The hymn tried to express an Easter hope out of that terrible event, in words which could hopefully be more widely applied' (Faith Renewed, 1995, note to hymn 1).
It was revised three times (1978, 1988-89, 1993). The first revision removed the 'he/man' images ('His cross stands empty to the sky') and the original imagery of...
Lord, that I may learn of Thee. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures (Bristol, 1762), on Isaiah 28.9:
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
It had four 4-line stanzas, in Charles Wesley's favourite 77.77 metre, which well suits the theme of simplicity. That simplicity, however, is part of the debate between reason and faith that was...
My hope is built on nothing less. Edward Mote* (1797-1874).
First published anonymously in the Spiritual Magazine (before 1826) and then in An Appendix to the Second Edition of a Collection of Psalms and Hymns (1826), edited by John Rees. Mote's account of its composition was that the refrain came first, and that he sang four stanzas to a friend ('brother King') and his dying wife. She liked them so much that he wrote two further stanzas, gave them to her, and printed off one thousand copies...
Now may He who from the dead. John Newton* (1725-1807).
From Olney Hymns (1779), Book III, Hymn 100. It is found among the 'Short Hymns' at the end, in the section entitled 'After Sermon'. It had three stanzas:
Now may He who from the deadBrought the Shepherd of the sheep,Jesus Christ, our King and Head,All our souls in safety keep!
May he teach us to fulfill,What is pleasing in his sight;Perfect us in all his will,And preserve us day and night!
To that dear Redeemer's praise,Who the...
Lully, lulla, thou little tiny child ('Coventry Carol'). The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors, 1534, 1591.
This carol is from the mystery play entitled The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors [Taylors], is known as the 'Coventry Carol' because it was first performed in Coventry, England. It was the property of the two guilds, the Shearmen and the Tailors, and is known as a 'mystery play' because each craft jealously preserved the secrets, or mysteries, of its trade. The original incipit is...
Bohemian Brethren hymnody
The early history of the Bohemian brethren is closely connected with the Moravian Church (see 'Moravian hymnody'*). In both Bohemia and Moravia, the memory of Jan Hus* and his martyrdom at the Council of Constance in 1415 were influential in the creation of small independent churches in the region, dedicated to the reform of abuses and the preaching of the gospel in the vernacular. The first leaders were Peter Chelčický, who gathered his followers into a congregation...
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord. Rippon's Selection of Hymns* (1787), author uncertain.
This hymn appeared in the important Baptist collection by John Rippon*, A Selection of Hymns from the best authors, intended as an appendix to Dr Watts's Psalms and Hymns (1787), in seven stanzas, headed 'Exceeding great and precious Promises. 2 Pet. 3: 4.' In the 1790 edition this is amended to '2 Pet. i. 4', which is the correct reference.
It was initialled 'K.' ('K------' in 1790). This has...
SIGOURNEY, Lydia Huntley (née Huntley). b. Norwich, Connecticut, 1 September 1791; d. Hartford, Connecticut, 10 June 1865. The only child of the union of Ezekiel (b.1750) and Zerviah Wentworth Huntley (nda). Known by many as 'the sweet singer of Hartford,' Sigourney published anonymously until the mid-1830s when family finances dwindled and she took a more business-like approach to her writing.
Her father, who served as the handyman on the estate of Jerusha Talcott Lathrop (1717-1805) in...
Adam lay y-bounden. English, ca. 1400, author unknown.
This carol is found in the British Library Sloane MS 2593. It is thought to date from ca. 1400. It was printed in The Oxford Book of Carols (1928), with a tune by Peter Warlock (1894-1930). It has since become widely known through its inclusion in the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols* at King's College, Cambridge on Christmas Eve, when it normally follows the First Lesson, telling of the judgement of God on Adam and Eve and the serpent....
BERNARD of Clairvaux. b. Fontaines-lez-Dijon, Côte-d'Or, ca. 1090 ; d. 1153. He was born, probably in 1090, at the castle of the son of Tescelin le Saur, lord of Fontaine, vassal of the duke of Burgundy, and of Aleth de Montbard. He studied with the canons of Saint-Vorles at Châtillon-sur-Seine. In 1112, Bernard, accompanied by thirty followers, entered Cîteaux Abbey (founded in 1098 by Robert de Molesme); he took vows one year later. In 1115, at the request of Abbot Stephen Harding, Bernard...
VAUGHAN, Henry, b. Newton-by-Usk, Llansanffraid, Breconshire, April 1622; d. Llansanffraid, 23 April 1695. Born into an old, though impoverished, Welsh family, he was educated by a clergyman-schoolmaster, Matthew Herbert of Llangattock, and then at Jesus College, Oxford, from 1638. Leaving in 1640 before taking his degree, Vaughan then studied law in London at the wish of his father. Attempting to escape the consequences of the Civil War (he fought on the Royalist side), he returned to South...
Light of the lonely pilgrim's heart. Edward Denny* (1796-1889).
First published in the Plymouth Brethren collection edited by James George Deck*, Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1847), and then in Denny's Hymns and Poems (1848), where it was entitled 'The heart watching for the morning', and preceded by a quotation from Cowper*'s The Task (Book VI, lines 861-3):
Thy saints proclaim thee King: and in their hearts
Thy title is engraven with a pen
Dipp'd in the fountain of eternal love.
It...
Meet and right it is to sing. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), Volume II, in four 8-line stanzas, among nineteen 'Hymns for the Watch-Night':
Meet and right it is to sing At every Time and Place,Glory to our Heavenly King, The God of Truth and Grace:Join we then with sweet accord, All in one Thanksgiving join,Holy, holy, holy Lord, Eternal Ptaise be Thine!
Thee the first-born Sons of Light In choral SymphoniesPraise by Day, Day without...
O God, thy soldiers' Crown and Guard. Latin, 6th century, translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866).
This is a translation of the anonymous Ambrosian hymn for a martyr, 'Deus tuorum militum'*. Neale translated it for The Hymnal Noted Part I (1851), and his version was used by EH, with minor alterations. Before that, however, it was taken over by the compilers of the First Edition of A&M (1861), who produced their own text, beginning 'O God, thy soldiers' great reward'. The two texts are...
When Christmas morn is dawning. Abel Burckhardt (1805–1882); formerly attributed to Betty Ehrenborg-Posse (1818–1880); translated by. Joel L. Lundeen (1918–1990).
This Swedish Christmas children's hymn captures the moment of Jesus' birth when the shepherds followed the directions of the angel, heard the angel hosts singing, 'Glory to God', and 'found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger' (Luke 2: 16, NIV).
Nothing is known of the author of the hymn text. The hymn first...
BOOTH, William. b. Sneinton, Nottingham, 10 April 1829; d. Hadley Wood, Middlesex, 20 August 1912. The son of a speculative builder, William Booth had what he later called 'a blighted childhood', including work in a pawnbroker's shop in a poor part of Nottingham. He was converted in 1844, and greatly influenced by an American evangelist, the Methodist James Caughey, who visited Nottingham in 1846. He moved to London in 1849, where he became a Methodist preacher, and where he met Catherine...
Medieval Hymns and Hymnals.
This entry is by various authors. See below.
Hymns have been a part of Christian worship since the earliest times, but the use of Latin in worship appears to postdate the acceptance by Emperor Constantine of Christianity as the official Roman faith in 313. On the patristic Latin hymn repertory, see Latin hymns*.
Medieval hymns vary in their poetic structure, some being metrical, some accentual, and others are organized according to syllable count together with final...
God named Love, whose fount Thou art. Elizabeth Barrett Browning* (1806-1861).
From The Seraphim, and other poems (1838). This book, besides containing 'The Sleep' (see 'Of all the thoughts of God, that are'* and 'What would we give to our beloved'*), has a sequence of four hymns. The present text is 'Hymn I', entitled 'A Supplication for Love'. It had nine 4-line stanzas, with an unusual accent in line 1 ('namèd') to make up the eight syllables:
God, namèd Love, whose fount Thou art, Thy...
FOSTER, Frederick William. b. Bradford, Yorkshire, 1 August 1760; d.Ockbrook, near Derby, 12 April 1835. Foster was a Moravian, educated at Fulneck, near Leeds at the Settlement there, and then at the Moravian Settlement at Barby, Germany. He became a minister in the Moravian Church, and was made a Bishop in 1818. He compiled a Supplement (1808) to A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the Protestant Church of the United Brethren (1801), edited by John Swertner*, re-titled Liturgy and Hymns for...
KIRKPATRICK, William James. b. Duncannon, Perry County, Pennsylvania, 27 February 1838; d. Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 20 September 1921. Kirkpatrick was a gospel and Sunday-school hymn composer and compiler whose career was closely associated with the Methodist Episcopal Church and its music. Occasionally writing under the pseudonym Annie F. Bourne, Kirkpatrick is remembered for his many hymn tunes, including, REDEEMED (1882) for 'Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it' by Fanny...
Hymni Sacri et Novi (1689). This is the title of a collection by Jean-Baptiste de Santeuil*, published in Paris and dedicated to Cardinal Bulloni, abbot-elect of Cluny. The author was 'Santolio Victorino' (de Santeuil's religious name, Santolius Victorinus). It contained 53 hymns for saints' days and the Great Festivals of the church's year, and 12 for collective and general use for martyrs, doctors, evangelists, confessors, and others. There followed a prayer and three poems, succeeded by 12...
WORDSWORTH, Christopher. b. Lambeth, London, 30 October 1807; d. Harewood, Yorkshire, 21 March 1885. He was brought up at Bocking, Essex, where his father was then rector, and from 1816 at Sundridge, Kent. He was a nephew of the poet William Wordsworth*, and became one of his literary executors and his first biographer. He was educated at Winchester, where he was outstanding both as a scholar and an athlete, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he gained many academic distinctions, becoming...
Alleluia! Alleluia! Hearts to heaven and voices raise. Christopher Wordsworth* (1807-1885).
The opening also appears as 'Hallelujah! Hallelujah!' and 'Alleluya! Alleluya!'. It was first published in The Holy Year (1862) as the first of two hymns for Easter Day. Several different tunes are used, HYMN TO JOY being particularly popular in the United States. The hymn proclaims the Resurrection, looks forward to the harvest of the Second Coming, asks God's blessing on the worshippers, and concludes...
Beautiful Savior. German hymn, 17th century, translated by Joseph A. Seiss* (1823-1904).
In The Lutheran Hymnal (1941) this is the opening line of the translation of 'Schönster Herr Jesu'* from a Roman Catholic Münster Gesangbuch of 1677. Seiss, the translator, was a prominent Lutheran minister and prolific author. His translation was published in The Sunday School Book for the Use of Evangelical Lutheran Congregations (Philadelphia, 1873). It had four stanzas, the last of which returns to...
By all your saints still striving. F. Bland Tucker* (1895-1984) and Jerry D. Godwin (1944-).
This is a modern version of Horatio Bolton Nelson*'s 'From all Thy saints in warfare'*, written by Tucker and revised by Godwin for H82. In addition to using the 'you' form, it has been described as 'an edited version of the Tucker revision that reflected concern for language that was both nonmilitaristic and inclusive, yet remained faithful to the lives of the saints as the Church has received them'...
Come, ye faithful, raise the strain. Greek, attributed to St John Damascene* (ca. 655- ca. 745), translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866).
This translation of the Greek 'άσωμεν πάντες λαοί' ('Asomen pantes laoi') is from the 'Second Epoch' of Greek hymnody (726-820) in Neale's Hymns of the Eastern Church (1862). Neale first made it public in the Christian Remembrancer (April, 1859). It was 'Ode I' for St Thomas's Sunday (Neale's explanatory note in the Preface explained that 'A Canon...
ESPINOSA, Eddie. b. Los Angeles, California, 10 September 1953.
Eddie Espinosa is an educator, counselor, administrator, worship leader, composer, and producer. His family moved to Phoenix when he was in first grade. Though raised a Catholic and served as an altar boy, he made a profession of faith on August 24, 1969. Soon afterward, he attended a Dave Wilkerson Youth Rally and experienced Andraé Crouch* 'taking people into the presence of God'. At that point, he understood his calling...
I cannot tell why He, whom angels worship. William Young Fullerton* (1857-1932).
This four-stanza hymn was written to be sung to LONDONDERRY AIR, the plangent tune from Fullerton's native Northern Ireland. Probably the first use of the tune with a hymn was in SofP (1925), when it was set to Frank Fletcher*'s 'O Son of Man, our hero strong and tender'*.
The date of composition of the words is uncertain, but must be before 1930, when they were printed in a Baptist supplement for young...
BAXTER, Jesse Randall, Jr. b. Lebanon, DeKalb County, Alabama, 8 December 1887; d. Dallas, Texas, USA, 21 January 1960. Prominent in the development of southern gospel music, Baxter, affectionately called 'Pap' or 'Pa', was best-known for his association with the Stamps-Baxter Music & Printing Company (see Stamps-Baxter Publications*). That company flourished in great part because of Baxter's business acumen, but he was respected too for his skills as an editor, lyricist, and...
Je Te salue, mon certain Rédempteur. French Psalter, Strasbourg, 1545, possibly by Jean Calvin*.
Found in an edition of the French Psalter published in Strasbourg in 1545, this was printed in Corpus Reformatorum volume 34, Calvini opera vol. 6 (Braunschweig, 1867). It was placed at the end of a set of nine French metrical psalms by Calvin, but regarded by the editors as of doubtful authorship.
In the year following the publication of Corpus Reformatorum the text was translated by Elizabeth Lee...
O for the robes of whiteness. Charitie Lees De Cheney* (1841-1923).
According to JJ, p. 109, this was published in Within the Veil, by C.L.S. [Charitie Lees Smith, her maiden name] (1867), but this has not been verified. It has also been stated that it was published in leaflet form in 1860. It was certainly printed in Lyra Britannica (1867), edited by Charles Rogers, where it was entitled 'Heavenly Anticipations'. Philip Schaff*, who printed it in Christ in Song (New York, 1869), described it...
Precious Lord, take my hand. Thomas A. Dorsey* (1899-1993).
Written in Chicago in August 1932, under distressing circumstances: Dorsey's wife Nettie died in childbirth, and her child died soon afterwards. Dorsey, who was at a revival meeting when he heard the news of his wife's death, was distraught. He was consoled by a friend, Theodore Frye, who took Dorsey to a local music college where Dorsey idly began playing on the piano what he remembered of an old tune. This was a pentatonic...
ELLWOOD, Thomas. b. Crowell, near Chinnor, Oxfordshire, 1639 (baptized 15 October); d. Amersham, Buckinghamshire, 1 May 1713. He was born into a Puritan family which moved to London during the Civil War to support the Parliamentary cause. In 1659 Ellwood heard two Quakers preach at Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, and was so impressed that he became one of the early Friends. Thereafter his life was dominated by the joys of being a Quaker (friendships, such as that with the Pennington family,...
Thou art coming, O my Saviour. Frances Ridley Havergal* (1836-1879).
This Advent hymn was written in 1873, probably at about the time that Havergal had her experience of 'the blessedness of true consecration'. It was published in a religious newspaper, The Rock, in 1873, and in Under the Surface (1874) with the title 'Advent Song'. It had seven enthusiastic stanzas, whose rhythms, repetitions and punctuation (with an abundance of exclamation marks) indicate Havergal's ardent response to the...
We rest on Thee, our Shield and our Defender. Edith Gilling Cherry* (1872-1897).
This remarkable hymn was published in The Master's Touch: and other Poems (n.d., but probably not long after Edith's death), edited by Edith Cherry's mother, Matilda S. Cherry. It was entitled 'We rest on Thee', with a reference to 2 Chronicles 14: 11:
And Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O Lord our God;...
When God would prove his love. John Murray* (ca. 1740-1815).
This was the second of five hymns first published in the 1782 edition of Christian Hymns, Poems and Sacred Songs, Sacred to the Praise of God, Our Saviour, compiled by English Universalist James Relly* and his brother John Relly. The book was first published in London in 1754, and the 1782 edition was published in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for Noah Parker (1734-1787), a convert of Murray's and preacher in Portsmouth (Brewster, pp....
BARBAULD, Anna Letitia (née Aikin). b. Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire, 20 June 1743; d. Stoke Newington, London, 9 March 1825. At Kibworth her father was a Presbyterian minister teaching at the dissenting academy (her maternal grandfather, John Jennings, had taught Philip Doddridge* there). In 1753 her father moved to the celebrated Warrington Academy, where she thrived in the cultural and intellectual freedom and began to write, publishing (with her brother John) Poems (1773) and...
CHRYSAPHES the Younger b. 1620/25?; d. ca. 1682?. Little is known for certain about the life of Chrysaphes the Younger, who helped Byzantine music to flourish under Ottoman rule. Born in Constantinople, he is mentioned as protopsaltes of the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia in April 1655 and he seems to have worked there until at least 1665: in manuscript Patriarchal Library Hierosol. 4 (dated 1655) Chrysaphes is mentioned by name and described as protopsaltes; in the manuscript Patmos 930 (dated...
HARDY, Henry Ernest. b. Kasauli, India, 7 January 1869; d. Bushey Heath, Watford, Hertfordshire, 31 March 1946. The son of an Indian Army Officer, Edmund Armitage Hardy, and his wife Grace Maxwell, he was educated at Clifton College, Bristol, an art school in Bristol, and Keble College, Oxford (BA 1891). He had intended to become a painter, but in October 1891 he went to Oxford House, Bethnal Green, East London, as a volunteer helping underprivileged people, and found himself called to become a...
FRANCISCO, Manuel ('Manoling'). b. Quezon City, Philippines, 26 October 1965. Educated at the Ateneo de Manila High School, he grew up playing keyboard, and trained for a career in classical piano. After his uncle, his mother's first cousin, Benigno Aquino, was killed in 1983, Francisco became a student activist. At the age of 20, while in his second year in college, he entered the Jesuit Novitiate in Novaliches. Ordained in 1997, his first assignment was as a priest and school director of an...
Our earliest sources of information about medieval hymns are the 6th-century monastic rules of St Benedict*, Caesarius of Arles, and Aurelian of Arles. These mention, in more or less detail, hymns sung within the Divine Office. Indirect references to hymns continue to be an important source of information throughout the middle ages. Examples include the Ordines romani (descriptions of Roman liturgical practice), and grammatical treatises, from Augustine*'s De musica through Bede*'s De arte...
Customary
Customaries are texts that describe or prescribe liturgical uses in a monastery, along with information on the daily life of the community as well as the duties of the monastic officers. They supplement the regulations set forth in the Rule of Benedict*. Whereas the Rule is a set of guidelines to be applied in principle to any Benedictine community, customaries offer much more detail on the liturgy and reflect the way of life in a particular house; moreover, they were written not...
As far as we can judge from the few remaining pieces of evidence (such as the famous 'Phos hilaron'*) and from some late testimonies (Saint Augustine*, Egeria's pilgrimage, comments by abbot Pembo, the Life of Auxentios), the earliest forms of Christian hymnody in Greek were written in rhythmic prose, were based on patterns of parallelism and antithesis (like the biblical psalms and canticles) and were sung responsorially. It is generally assumed that the earliest hymns, such as troparia and...
This is the name given to hymns used in the recitation of the Divine Office, or the modern Liturgy of the Hours observed by cloistered communities. Prior to the Second Vatican Council, Office hymns were typically collected either in a separate volume — a combined hymnary and psalter, which would contain all of the hymns and psalms used in the Office — or in the breviary itself, in a special section either at the rear of the volume or in a dividing section between the Temporale and Sanctorale....
EXCELL, Edwin Othello. b. Uniontown, Stark County, Ohio, 13 December 1851; d. Chicago, Illinois, 10 June 1921. Publisher, singer, and gospel song composer best known for his Sunday-school songs, including the standard arrangement of the shape-note melody, AMAZING GRACE, and his tune, BLESSINGS (see following), Excell was born to Rev. Joshua James Excell (1825-1911), a singer and minister in the German Reformed Church, and Emily (née Hess, d. 1888). Before his musical career became successful,...
Pretty Little Hymns for Good Little Children (1850). This is the title of a hymn book by a certain Louisa Watts, whose preface is dated from St John's Wood Terrace, April 1850. It contained 130 hymns. Its title suggests that it was one of the many books intended to indoctrinate children with impossible ideas of goodness, although the preface makes it clear that it was a sequel to Louisa Watts's Pretty Little Poems for Pretty Little People (Halifax, 1847), which had had 'a sale so large as to...
ELGAR, (Sir) Edward William. b. Broadheath, Worcestershire, 2 June 1857; d. Worcester, 23 February 1934. His father, William Henry Elgar, ran a music retailing business and was organist of St George's Roman Catholic Church in Worcester. Educated at Littleton House School and self-taught as a composer, Elgar was later to receive honorary degrees from several major universities. He was knighted in 1904, received the O.M. in 1911, and was appointed Master of the King's Music in 1924.
Elgar was...
CARBERY, Lady Victoria Cecil Evans-Freke (née Cecil). b. 6 November 1843; d. 22 February 1932. She was the daughter of Brownlow Cecil, second Marquess of Exeter, who christened her after the young Queen. In 1866 she married (his second marriage) William Charles Evans-Freke (d. 1894), eighth Baron Carbery. She was designated Baroness Carbery in 1889. Before that date, as 'V. Evans-Freke', she had (probably through the Earl of Harrowby) become friendly with Edward Harland*. She produced The Song...
Advent tells us Christ is near. (Arabella) Katherine Hankey* (1834-1911).
According to JJ, p. 483, this was written in 1888 for Sunday School children at St Peter's, Eaton Square, London, then as now a prosperous part of the city (although Hankey organised classes for shop girls). It was printed on a card, with a tune composed by Hankey herself, before being included in many English-speaking hymnbooks on both sides of the Atlantic. It is not a hymn for Advent, in spite of the first line: it is...
SOMERVELL, (Sir) Arthur. b. Windermere, Cumbria, 5 June 1863; d. London, 2 May 1937. Somervell was a composer and educationist, the youngest of six sons and nine children of Robert Miller Somervell, leather merchant and founder of Somervell Brothers (manufacturers of K (for 'Kendal') Shoes), and Anne Wilson. He was educated for one year at Uppingham School (1878-79) and then at King's College, Cambridge (BA 1884), where he also studied composition under Charles Villiers Stanford*. At Stanford's...
Daily, daily sing to Mary. Henry Bittleston* (1818-1886), from the 'Hymn of Saint Casimir' probably by Bernard of Cluny* (12th century).
The Latin hymn from which this translation is taken is part 7 of a cycle of hymns, the Mariale, beginning 'Ut jucundas cervus undas, aestuans desiderat'. In the course of a careful discussion of possible authorship, James Mearns* comes down on the side of Bernard of Cluny as the most likely author (JJ, pp. 1200-1202). Section vii of the Mariale begins 'Omni...
HURD, David J., Jr. b. Brooklyn, New York, 27 January 1950. Hurd studied at the High School of Music and Art and the Juilliard School before going on to Oberlin College (MusB, 1971). Upon graduating from Oberlin, he was appointed Assistant Organist of Trinity Church, Wall Street in lower Manhattan where he served under the direction of Larry King. He was appointed to the faculty of Duke University in 1972 concurrent with graduate studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. In 1973...
GAUNTLETT, Henry John. b. Wellington, Shropshire, 9 July 1805; d. 21 February 1876. His father, Henry Gauntlett, an Evangelical minister, became curate (1811) then vicar (1815) of Olney, Buckinghamshire, where he appointed his musically precocious boy as organist at the age of ten. But in 1826 he articled his son to a solicitor: he qualified as a solicitor in 1831. He was also organist of St. Olave, Southwark, from 1827 to 1847. He was an expert on organ construction and a pioneering advocate...
Lord, whose Love through humble service. Albert Bayly* (1901-1984).
Bayly composed this four-stanza hymn in response to an invitation for hymns on social concerns extended by the Hymn Society of America (HSUSC) and the Department of Social Welfare of the National Council of Churches in Christ in the United States. It was published, set to HYFRYDOL, in the society's Seven New Social Welfare Hymns (19610, described in the Preface as hymns to express 'the interrelationship of worship and service...
Craft of Composing hymn tunes
Hymn tunes are little things that are not regarded as having much value. [Yet] they symbolize and relate deeply, however, to big things, well beyond the obvious musical ones . . . .(Paul Westermeyer, 2005)
Congregational song has the power to forge community identity, enliven the congregation, and provide an experiential encounter with the intangible character of God. It fulfills this task by its ability to transcend the cerebral to embody the emotive. To this...
Free at last. African American spiritual*.
The concept of freedom is integral the theology of the spirituals according to liberation theologian James H. Cone (1936-2018):
The divine liberation of the oppressed from slavery is the central theological concept in the black spirituals. These songs show that black slaves did not believe that human servitude was reconcilable with their African past and their knowledge of the Christian gospel. They did not believe that God created Africans to be...
SANKEY, Ira David. b. Edinburgh, near New Castle, Pennsylvania, 28 August 1840; d. Brooklyn, New York 14 August 1908. He was one of eleven children born of the marriage of devout Methodists David and Mary (née Leeper) Sankey. The family settled a few miles east in Western Reserve Harbour and attended the nearby Methodist Church in King's Chapel where Sankey at age 16 was 'converted'. Sankey learned to sing hymns in Sunday school and in the family hymn sings. 'By the time he was eight . . . he...
There's a star in the east (Rise up, shepherd, and follow). African American spiritual*.
The first stanza as printed in current hymnals is as follows:
There's a star in the east on Christmas morn; Rise up, shepherd and follow; It will lead to the place where the Christ was born; Rise up, shepherd, and follow. Follow, follow, rise up, shepherd, and follow, Follow the star of Bethlehem. Rise up, shepherd, and follow.
The noted African American author James Weldon Johnson*...
[This entry is in two parts. The first, by Joseph Dyer, discusses Roman hymnody from its beginnings to the 15th century. The second, by Daniel Zager, details 16th-century developments.]
Early and Medieval hymnody
Rome proved very reluctant to introduce the singing of hymns in the Divine Office. They were accepted by the papal court and the major basilicas only towards the end of the 12th century. In this they probably differed from the urban monasteries that followed the Rule of Benedict*, but...
Gaither, Bill (William James). b. Alexandria, Indiana, 28 March 1936. Gaither was one of four children of the marriage of George W. (1913-2005) and Lela (née Hartwell) (1914-2001). The farming family attended the Church of God in Alexandria, a restoration group with Wesleyan holiness roots headquartered in Anderson, Indiana, (not related to Pentecostal denominations with the same name). Early on Gaither studied piano and organ, 'performing wherever he could in recitals and as an accompanist'...
LUARD SELBY, Bertram. b. Ightham, Kent, 12 February 1853; d. Winterton, Brigg, Lincolnshire, 26 December 1918 (usually known as 'Luard Selby' with or without hyphen; he introduced the hyphen, ca. 1905). He studied under Reinecke and Jadassohn at the Leipzig Conservatorium (where Stanford* was a fellow pupil) before returning to England in 1876, when he became organist at St Barnabas', Marylebone, and Highgate School. He was organist of Salisbury Cathedral (1881-83), before he decided to move,...
LYTE, Henry Francis. b. Ednam, near Kelso, Roxburghshire, 1 June 1793; d. Nice, France, 20 November 1847. He was the son of an army officer, whose military career necessitated frequent moves, through Scotland, England, and, finally, to Ireland. He was educated at Portora Royal School, Enniskillen (where he began to compose poetry), then, from 1811, at Trinity College, Dublin, where he won a university scholarship, and the Chancellor's prize for English verse in three successive years. He...
NILES, John Jacob. b. Portland (now a neighborhood of Louisville), Kentucky, 28 April 1892; d. Boot Hill Farm, near Lexington, Kentucky, 1 March 1980. Niles was a singer, composer, and collector of traditional music. His Christmas carol, 'I wonder as I wander'*, is found in several hymnals.
As a youngster living near a river city in Kentucky, Niles became familiar with folk music and various other forms of musical entertainment. He was especially fond of vaudeville. Before leaving his work on...
MONK, William Henry. b. London, 16 March 1823; d. Stoke Newington, London, 1 March 1889. Monk studied with Thomas Adams, J.A. Hamilton and G.A. Griesbach and held appointments as organist of various London churches: St Peter's, Eaton Square (1841-43); St George's Chapel, Albermarle Street (1843-45); St Paul's, Portman Square (1845-47); and St Matthias, Stoke Newington (1852-89). In addition he was appointed choirmaster (1847), organist (1849) and Professor of Vocal Music (1874) at King's...
PARKER, Alice. b. Boston, 16 December 1925; d. Hawley, Massachusetts, 24 December 2023. Distinguished, widely celebrated composer, conductor, author and teacher, Parker began composing at the age of eight, and completed her first orchestral score in high school. She studied at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, majoring in music performance and composition (BA 1947), and the Juilliard School of Music, New York City (MS 1949), where her teachers included Robert Shaw (1916-1999), Julius...
Come, Holy Spirit, Dove divine. Adoniram Judson* (1788-1850).
'Come, Holy Spirit, Dove divine' is the most widely sung of three hymns written by Adoniram Judson. This four-stanza hymn is extracted from Judson's seven-stanza baptism hymn 'Our Savior bowed beneath the wave'*. The original hymn, written ca. 1829 and first printed in Thomas Ripley's A Selection of Hymns, for Conference & Prayer Meetings, and Other Occasions, Second Edition (1831), appeared under the title 'Hymn written by Mr....
Come, let us with our Lord arise. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns for Children (1763), entitled 'For the Lord's Day', in four 6-line stanzas. The hymn was not included in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), but it appeared in the later edition known as 'Wesley's Hymns' (1876), in MHB and in HP. It has also been used in a number of Anglican and Free Church hymnbooks, including CP and A&MCP. The full original text, which has rarely...
Jesu, Lover of my soul. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1740) in five 8-line stanzas, with the title 'In Temptation'. The Preface to that collection suggested that the hymns it contained were concerned with salvation as the gift of grace, and with 'the gradual process of the work of God in the soul or… the chief hindrances in the way.' Thus two other hymns in the volume were headed 'In Temptation' and others 'Written in the Stress of Temptation' or 'At...
Oft in danger, oft in woe. Henry Kirke White* (1785-1806), Frances Sara Fuller-Maitland* (1809-1877), and others.
First published in William Bengo Collyer*'s Hymns partly collected and partly original, designed as a Supplement to Dr Watts's Psalms and Hymns (1812). Collyer said that he had found ten lines of the hymn written on the back of an old mathematics paper belonging to White, who had died while still a Cambridge undergraduate:
Much in sorrow, oft in woe,Onward Christians, onward...
Tomorrow shall be my dancing day. English Traditional.
The cosmic dance between Christ and humanity is the basis of this carol. Its unusual first-person-singular perspective and dance metaphor echoes the Apocryphal Acts of John (Second Century) in which Christ says:
I would be saved, and I would save. Amen. . .
I would be born, and I would bear. Amen. . .
Grace danceth. I would pipe; dance ye all. Amen. . .
Whoso danceth not, knoweth not what cometh to pass. Amen. (ver. 95).
The eleven...
Before the Second Vatican Council
English Catholic hymnody falls into two distinct phases: the era between the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 and the Second Vatican Council (1962-3) and the years between that time and the present day. In the first period Catholic hymnody had a distinctly different character from its Protestant counterparts, partly because of the history of the English Catholic community; but also because it served very different functions.
Between 1559 and the First...
Christian charismatic communities and churches are extremely diverse in their theology and ecclesiology. This analysis will be mainly focused on material emanating from John Wimber*'s Vineyard Churches, the 'Toronto Blessing' movement, and the like. They have been chosen because of their pre-eminent status in contemporary Charismatic Renewal: their songs have affected styles and concepts in worship that have touched virtually every denomination in every corner of the globe. Wimber, indeed,...
When the saints go marching in. African American spiritual*, author unknown.
This is a spiritual that has been sung in worship, at funerals, and at American Civil Rights meetings. It has been recorded by jazz musicians and other artists, and appropriated by popular culture for use at sporting events.
Origins
Originating in the oral tradition of the African American community, its precise authorship is unknown, although it is believed to have been first sung in the early 1900s (regrettably...
Senfl, Ludwig. b. ca. 1489/91; d. 1542/3. Of Swiss origin, Senfl became a choirboy in the Imperial court chapel of Maximilian I in 1496. He was a pupil of Henricus Isaac*, and remained attached to the Imperial court choir, both as an alto and as a composer, until its dissolution on Maximilian's death in 1519. By 1523 he was in Munich, serving Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria. Although Senfl was sympathetic to the reformation whilst his employer remained a committed Catholic, he kept this post until...
HUSSEY, Jennie Evelyn. b. Henniker, New Hampshire, 8 February 1874; d. Concord, New Hampshire, 5 September 1958. For most of her life she lived on a New Hampshire farm belonging to her fourth-generation Quaker family, where for most of her adult life she cared for her invalid sister. During this time-devouring and strength-testing task, she wrote many poems, including 150 hymns, of which the best known is 'King of my life, I crown thee now'*, with its plangent refrain:
Lest I forget...
THWAITES, Honor Mary (née Scott Good). b. Young, New South Wales, Australia, 21 September 1914; d. Canberra, 24 November 1993. Born into a Presbyterian family (her father, a family doctor, was an elder of the Presbyterian Church), she became a member of that church as well as working as a Sunday-school teacher. She was educated at the Geelong Church of England Grammar School, and went on to study French and German at the University of Melbourne, graduating with a BA Hons degree. It was while...
Land of our Birth, we pledge to thee. Rudyard Kipling* (1865-1936).
This is the concluding poem in Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill (1906), a series of stories and poems for young people constructed on episodes of English history. It was entitled 'The Children's Song'. It had eight stanzas, all of which are found in SofP:
Land of our Birth, we pledge to theeOur love and toil in the years to be;When we are grown and take our place,As men and women of our race.
Father in heaven, who lovest all,O...
PETER the Venerable (Peter of St. Maurice). b. 1092 or 1094; d. 25 December 1156. Petrus (Mauricius) Venerabilis, born at Montboissier, Auvergne, abbot of Cluny* 1122-1156, was one of the greatest of Cluny's abbots in its heyday in the 10th-12th centuries. He came of a noble family, became an oblate of Sauxillanges and entered Cluny under Abbot Hugh. He was prior of Vézelay (ca.1115-1120) and of Domène near Grenoble (1120-1122), in which year he was elected Abbot of Cluny. He led the monastery...
Rise, glorious Conqueror, rise. Matthew Bridges* (1800-1894).
From Bridges's Hymns of the Heart, for the use of Catholics (1848). It was entitled 'Ascension'. It had seven stanzas, often shortened and altered in hymnbooks. The original text was as follows:
Rise - glorious Conqueror, rise, Into Thy native skies, - Assume Thy right; And where in many a fold The clouds are backward roll'd - Pass through those gates of gold, And reign in light!
Victor o'er death and hell! Cherubic legions...
Saviour, teach me day by day. Jane Eliza Leeson* (1807/8- 1881).
First published in Leeson's Hymns and Scenes of Childhood (1842). It had four 8-line stanzas, based on 1 John 4: 19: 'We love him, because he first loved us.' In modern British books the hymn has normally been shortened to four 4-line stanzas, as in SofP, using 1a, 2a, 3b and 4a:
Saviour, teach me, day by day,Love's sweet lesson to obey;Sweeter lesson cannot be,Loving him who first loved me.
With a child's glad heart of loveAt thy...
Thy kingdom come, O God. Lewis Hensley* (1824-1905).
This advent hymn was first published in Hensley's Hymns for the Minor Sundays from Advent to Whitsuntide (1867) and was included in the Appendix (1868) to the First Edition of A&M, the Church Hymnary (1898), and EH (1906). It was only after 1933 that it became well known in Methodist, Congregational and Baptist churches in Britain.
The hymn is a call for peace and justice in the world and for freedom from 'the tyrannies of sin' both...
KENNEDY, Benjamin Hall. b. Summer Hill, Tipton, near Birmingham, 6 November 1804; d. Torquay, Devon, 6 April 1889. He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham (1814-18) and then at Shrewsbury School (1819-23), followed by St John's College, Cambridge (BA 1827). At Cambridge he was an outstanding figure, winning many of the University Prizes, becoming President of the Union, and being a member of the 'Apostles' (the intellectual society that included such figures as Arthur Hallam and...
PHILLIPS, Charles Stanley. b. Boston, Lincolnshire, 1883; d. Lingfield, Surrey, 28 November 1949. He is usually referred to by his initials only, as was the custom in his day. He was educated at King's College, Cambridge (BA 1904, MA 1911) and the University of Durham (BD 1913, DD 1920). He took Holy Orders, serving as a curate at Stoke on Trent (1906-09), Woolwich (1909-12), and Bury (1912-14). He returned to Cambridge as Lecturer and Chaplain at Selwyn College (1914-16). He was vicar of...
Faith is a precious grace. Anne Dutton* (1692–1765).
First published in A Narration of the Wonders of Grace, In Verse. Divided into Six Parts. I. Of Christ the Mediator, as set up from Everlasting in all the Glory of Headship. II. Of God's Election and Covenant-Transactions concerning a Remnant in his Son. III. Of Christ's Incarnation and Redemption. IV. Of the Work of the Spirit, respecting the Church in general, throughout the New Testament Dispensation, from Christ's Ascension to his second...
LOCKWOOD, George Frank. b. Tacoma, Washington, 3 April 1946. George Lockwood is the son of George F. Lockwood, a Methodist minister, and Mable Lockwood (née Perkins), an accomplished musician. At four years of age, the family moved to the Chicago area where his father had been raised; his mother, who had received her bachelor's degree in organ from Boston University, encouraged George and his brothers to study piano at an early age. He sang in choirs, including some under his mother's...
Surrexit Christus hodie. Latin, 14th century.
This is found in Daniel, Thesaurus Hymnologicus I. 341 in the section 'Carmina Sacra, quae in Breviarum Ordinarium non redacta, private consilio ad sacra obeunda adhibita sunt'.
Daniel's text, entitled 'De Resurrectione Domine', was as follows:
Surrexit Christus hodie Humano pro solamine. Alleluia
Mortem qui passus pridie Miserrimo pro homine. All.
Mulieres ad tumulum Dona ferunt aromatum. All.
Quaerentes Iesum dominum Qui est salvator hominum....
MOODY, Mary ('May') Jennette Whittle. b. Chicago, Illinois, 20 March 1870; d. East Northfield, Massachusetts, 20 August 1963. A daughter of hymn writer Daniel Webster Whittle* and Abigail (nèe Hanson) Whittle (1839-1906), and daughter-in-law of Dwight L. Moody*, Mary Moody was a singer, composer, and hymnal editor.
From the ages of fifteen to eighteen, Mary Whittle attended the Northfield School, founded by D. W. Moody in the Massachusetts town of his birth. Oberlin College records show...
ROUTLEY, Erik Reginald. b. Brighton, Sussex, 31 October 1917; d. Nashville, Tennessee, USA, 8 October 1982. He was the only child of John, a businessman and town councillor who was Mayor of Brighton in 1936-37, and Eleanor, a homemaker and musician. He attended Fonthill Preparatory School, 1925-31 and Lancing College, 1931-36. He read Literae Humaniores (nicknamed 'Mods' and 'Greats': classics/ ancient history and philosophy) at Magdalen College, Oxford (BA 1940, MA 1943). He became an...
KYNASTON, Herbert. b. Warwick, 23 November 1809; d. London, 26 October 1878. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he had a distinguished career, graduating in 1831with first class honours in Literae Humaniores (Greek and Latin, Ancient History and Philosophy). He became a tutor at Christ Church (1836), and took Holy Orders (deacon and priest 1834), serving as curate at Culham, near Oxford. In 1838, at the age of 28, he was appointed High Master (Head) of St...
Introduction
Vernacular-language Christian hymnody in central Europe is characterised by a rich history of spiritual singing in church communities, especially since the 16th century, during which period the church hymn emerged as a fundamental characteristic of reformed Christianity. But the beginnings of this history go back to the Middle Ages. From then onwards, and not only as a reaction to reformed practice, the vernacular church hymn formed an important part of church musical and...
Head of Thy Church triumphant. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Hymns for Times of Trouble (1745), a revision of Hymns for Times of Trouble and Persecution (1744). In 1745 the rebellion of Prince Charles Edward Stuart threatened to overthrow the Hanoverian settlement. The Methodists were anxious to proclaim their loyalty to the crown (the success of the rebellion might have ended religious toleration, and paved the way for the restoration of Catholicism), and the little book of fifteen hymns...
Ho! ye that rest beneath the rock. Edmund Hamilton Sears* (1810-1876).
This hymn was published in Hymns of the Spirit (Boston, 1864), an important Unitarian collection edited by Samuel Johnson* and Samuel Longfellow* (JJ, p. 1036), and this is sometimes taken as its first appearance. However, Hymnary,org has identified at least two earlier printings, in Children's Praise: a book of prayers and hymns for the children of the church (Boston, 1858) and the Second Edition of A Book of Hymns and...
VAJDA, Jaroslav Jan. b. Lorain, Ohio, 28 April 1919; d. St Louis, Missouri, 10 May 2008. From a Slovak immigrant family, he was educated at Concordia Junior College, and Concordia Theological Seminary, Clayton, St Louis, Missouri, the conservative evangelical seminary of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. He served as a pastor of Slovak-English Lutheran congregations at Cranesville, Pennsylvania (1945-49); Alexandria, Indiana (1949-53); and Brackenridge, Pennsylvania (1953-63); and St Lucas...
Lift up your hearts to things above. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), volume II: it was no. 55 of a series of 'Hymns for Christian Friends'. It had twelve 4-line stanzas. In the 1780 Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists it was printed in five 8-line stanzas, switching the order of 9 and 10, and omitting the original stanzas 3 and 8:
3. Our Bosom-Friend, and Brother too,
Our Husband, and our Head,
Who all He bids delight...
O Saviour, Who for man hast trod. Charles Coffin* (1676-1749), translated by John Chandler* (1806-1876), altered by Robert Campbell* (1814-1868).
The Latin hymn, 'Opus peregisti tuum', was printed in the Paris Breviary of 1736 and in Hymni Sacri Auctore Carolo Coffin (also 1736), for Ascension-tide. The translation was made by Chandler for his Hymns of the Primitive Church (1837), which also printed the Latin text as 'Hymnus 72', beginning
Opus peregisti tuum, Te, Christe victorem necis,...
Open now thy gates of beauty. Benjamin Schmolck* (1672-1737), translated by Catherine Winkworth* (1827-1878).
In the course of a majestic entry on Schmolck in JJ, pp. 1011-1014, James Mearns* refers to this hymn, a translation of 'T(h)ut mir auf die schöne Pforte'* as 'a good translation, omitting st. iii.,vii.' Schmolck's hymn appeared in his Der geistliche Kirchen-Gefährte (Schweidnitz, 1732) in seven stanzas. The ones left untranslated by Winkworth began 'Laß in Furcht mich vor dich treten'...
The God of Abraham praise. Thomas Olivers* (1725-1799).
Written probably in 1770 at the house of Olivers' friend John Bakewell* in London, and published in leaflet form as A Hymn to the God of Abraham. In Three Parts: Adapted to a celebrated Air, sung by the Priest, Signior Leoni, etc., at the Jews' Synagogue, in London. It had twelve stanzas.
'Signior Leoni' was the name given by Olivers to Meyer Lyon (1751-97), cantor at the Great Synagogue in Duke's Place, London. He must have heard Lyon...
Hail, gladdening Light, of his pure glory poured. Greek, probably 3rd century, translated by John Keble* (1792-1866).
The Greek text, of unknown authorship, dates from the early years of the Christian church (see 'Phos hilaron'*). Keble's translation of this simple but profound hymn succeeds in celebrating the glory of God, and Christ as the light of the world, and the lights of evening are symbols of the divine, the 'giver of life, alone'. It was published in the British Magazine, edited by...
Lyra Apostolica (1836). This collection of hymns contained 179 poems and hymns, which had been previously printed in the British Magazine, a high-church periodical founded in 1832 to counter liberal forces arguing for the reform of the church. It was an ostentatiously Tractarian publication, with an epigraph chosen by John Henry Newman* taken from Homer, 'You shall know the difference now that I am back again'. This suggested that Newman saw the time as one of battle: the quotation is from...
GRANT, Amy. b. Augusta, Georgia, 25 November 1960. A prominent Christian song-writer and pop singer, Grant attended Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina (1978-80) and Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee (1980-81). She grew up in a conservative Church of Christ congregation that did not believe musical instruments were appropriate for worship. Influenced by charismatic theology and practice via Don Finto (1930-) and Nashville's independent Belmont Church, she began writing...
Before the throne of God above. Charitie Lees De Cheney* (1841-1923).
According to JJ, p. 109, this was written in 1863 and published in Within the Veil, by C.L.S. (1867); 'C.L.S.' stands for Charitie Lees Smith, her maiden name (in some books she appears as Charitie Lees Bancroft, for a time her married name). It was entitled 'The Advocate'. Before that it had been included by Charles Haddon Spurgeon* in Our Own Hymn Book (1866), so it must have been published elsewhere, probably in leaflet...
SPITTA, Friedrich Adolf Wilhelm. b. Wittingen, near Lüneburg, 10 January 1852; d. Göttingen, 7 June 1924. He was the son of Karl Johann Philipp Spitta*, born at Wittingen when his father was pastor there, and educated at Hildesheim when the family moved to Peine nearby. He followed his father and two elder brothers to the University of Göttingen, with a period at Erlangen, followed by a post at a seminary in Halle (1877), as an assistant pastor at Bonn (1879) and as pastor at Oberkassel (1881)....
STUDDERT-KENNEDY, Geoffrey Anketell. b. Leeds, 27 September 1883; d. Liverpool, 8 March 1929. Of Irish extraction, he was the seventh son of the Vicar of St Mary's, Leeds, a poor industrial parish where he grew up and formed a lifelong sympathy with the underprivileged (an aisle is dedicated to his memory in Leeds Parish Church, now Leeds Minster).
He was educated at home, at Leeds Grammar School and at Trinity College, Dublin. After two years as a schoolmaster, he was ordained (deacon 1908,...
THRING, Godfrey. b. Alford, Somerset, 25 March 1823; d. Shamley Green, near Guildford, Surrey, 13 September 1903. He was the third son of the rector and squire (sometimes called the 'squarson') of the village. His elder brother Edward was an outstanding headmaster of Uppingham, a leading independent school, and joint compiler of the Hymn Book for the use of Uppingham and Sherborne Schools (1874). Godfrey was educated at Shrewsbury School and in 1841 entered Balliol College, Oxford, graduating...
SADOH, Godwin. b. Lagos State, Nigeria, 28 March 1965. An Anglican organist, composer, hymn writer, church musician, and professor of music, Godwin Sadoh received certificates in piano, theory, and general musicianship from the Royal School of Music, London (1982-1986), and degrees in piano and composition from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria (BA, 1988); in African ethnomusicology from University of Pittsburgh (MA, 1998), in organ performance and church music from University of...
Hail, Thou Source of every blessing. Basil Woodd* (1760-1831).
This hymn for the Epiphany was first published in Woodd's A New Metrical Version of the Psalms of David; with an Appendix of Select Psalms and Hymns, adapted to The Service of the United Church of England and Ireland (1821), where it opens the Epiphany section, and is preceded by the title 'Psalm XCVI, LXXII. Eph. iii. 1.6.' It had three 8-line stanzas:
Hail, Thou Source of every blessing, Sov'reign Father of Mankind! Gentiles now...
Hosanna, loud hosanna. Jennette Threlfall* (1821-1880).
This delightful Palm Sunday hymn was first published in Threlfall's Sunshine and Shadow (1873). It was found in the Scottish Church Hymnary (1898) and in successive Scottish books, RCH, CH3 and CH4, and in Methodist books, such as MHB and The School Hymn Book of the Methodist Church (1950). It catches the Palm Sunday moment through the innocence of children with an admirable simplicity:
Hosanna, loud hosanna, The little children...
How far is it to Bethlehem. Frances Chesterton* (1869-1938).
This Christmas carol was written by Frances Chesterton on a Christmas Card, sent to friends in 1917. Percy Dearmer* may have been one of the recipients; he included it in SofP (1925), entitled 'Children's Song of the Nativity'. It had seven stanzas:
How far is it to Bethlehem? Not very far. Shall we find the stable-room, Lit by a star?
Can we see the little Child, Is he within? If we lift the wooden latch May we go...
Innario christiano (2000). Published in Turin, this is the third edition of the hymnbook used by Protestant churches in Italy, the Federazione delle chiese evangeliche in Italia (FCEI). It is the successor to the editions published in Florence in 1922 and in Turin in 1969. It was edited by a committee (Bruno Rostagno, Alberto Taccia, Franco Tagliero, under the chairmanship of Flavio Gatti, with Ferruccio Corsani as music editor). The introduction draws attention to particularly notable features...
Light of the world, faint were our weary feet. Laura Ormiston Chant* (1848-1923).
In Appendix II of JJ, this hymn was annotated as follows: 'Written in June 1901, at the request of the Rev. S. Collier, Superintendent of the Central Wesleyan Mission in Manchester' (p.1620). Samuel Collier (1855-1921) was one of the leaders of the Methodist Church at the time (he was President of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference in 1913). JJ went on to quote Chant herself, as she remembered that Collier had...
Mary had a baby. African American spiritual*.
A variant of this spiritual appears with five stanzas in approximately ten hymnals in the United States:
1. Mary had a baby, my Lord.
2. What did she name him, my Lord?
3. She named him King Jesus, my Lord.
4. Where was he born, my Lord?
5. Born in a manger, my Lord.
Christmas in the antebellum South
With some exceptions, such as 'Go tell it on the mountain'*, the nativity of Christ was not a common theme in African American spirituals. African...
O God of our forefathers, hear. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns on the Lord's Supper (Bristol, 1745) in four 6-line stanzas, in the section entitled 'The Holy Eucharist as it implies a Sacrifice'. It was included in John Wesley's A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), in the section entitled 'For Believers seeking for Full Redemption', where its eucharistic significance was obscured, as it has been by its placing in subsequent Methodist...
O Paradise! O Paradise! Frederick William Faber (1814-1863).
Published in Faber's Hymns (1862), in seven 8-line stanzas, entitled 'Paradise'. It was the penultimate hymn in the book, followed only by one entitled 'Heaven'. The second half of each stanza forms a refrain:
Where loyal hearts, and true, Stand ever in the light, All rapture through and through, In God's most holy sight?
The first five lines of each stanza were as follows:
O Paradise! O Paradise! Who doth not crave for rest?...
WESLEY, Samuel (I). b. 1662 (baptised 17 December); d. 25 April 1735. Born at Winterborn, Whitchurch, Dorset, where his father was vicar until he was ejected from the living in consequence of the Act of Uniformity; he was the father of Samuel (II)*, John* and Charles Wesley*. He was educated at a dissenting academy, but joined the Church of England and was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, where he lived in poverty. He married Susanna, the daughter of Dr Samuel Annesley, a celebrated Puritan...
Saviour, and can it be. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Hymns on the Lord's Supper (1745), which consisted of the abridgement by John Wesley* of The Christian Sacrament and Sacrifice (Oxford, 1673) by Daniel Brevint (1616-1695), followed by hymns by Charles Wesley. This one comes from Part II, 'As it [the Sacrament] is a Sign and a Means of Grace'. This is the same section that includes 'O Thou who this mysterious bread'* and 'O the depth of love divine'*. It had three 6-line stanzas. It...
The Saints of God! their conflict past. William Dalrymple Maclagan* (1826-1910).
Written in 1869, this hymn was first published in a Church of England periodical, Church Bells (1870), and immediately afterwards in the SPCK Church Hymns (1871, Church Hymns with Tunes, 1874). It was included in the Second Edition of A&M (1875) as a hymn for All Saints' Day. It had five stanzas:
The Saints of God! their conflict past,And life's long battle won at last,No more they need the shield or...
JOHNSON, Francis Hall. b. Athens, Georgia, 12 March 1888; d. New York, 30 April 1970. African-American composer, arranger, violinist, author, and choral director, Johnson was the fourth of six children, born to William Decker (1842–1909), an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal church and a college president, and Alice Virginia (née Sansom, b. 1857), enslaved until the age of 8, who entered Atlanta University (now the Atlanta University Center) at age 14. A strong proponent of...
I set myself against the Lord. John Leland* (1754–1841).
This hymn was probably first printed in two books published in 1793: Eleazar Clay, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, selected from Several Approved Authors, Recommended by the Baptist General Committee of Virginia (Richmond, Virginia: John Dixon), and John Peak, A New Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Third Edition (Vermont: Alden Spooner, 1793). It had ten stanzas in the meter of 8.8.6.8.8.6:
I set myself against the Lord,Despised his...
Hear the turmoil of the nations. Carl P. Daw, Jr.* (1944).
This paraphrase of Psalm 2 was initially published in Volume I of Praise, Lament, and Prayer: A Psalter for Singing (2018). It also appears in Voices Together (Harrisonburg, Virginia, 2000). Carl P. Daw, Jr. completed this three-volume collection in 2022 and stated that these paraphrases aim to 'give us the ability to interpret the psalm text anew, providing it with immediacy and application that it otherwise might not...
I would not live alway. William Augustus Muhlenberg* (1796-1877).
A version of this hymn is said to have been written in 1824 at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for a lady's album, where it began:
I would not live alway; no, no, holy man, Not a day, not an hour, should lengthen my span.
This suggests the jeu d'esprit of a young clergyman, although it was based on Job 7: 16: 'I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.' The original text had six 8-line stanzas. The text given in...
GOTTSCHALK of Orbais (Gottschalk der Sachse). b. ca. 803, d. 867 or 869. Born to a Saxon count named Berno, Gottschalk was given to the abbey of Fulda as a child oblate. He later challenged the validity of his oblation and petitioned to be released from his monastic vow. Gottschalk was allowed to leave Fulda by decree of a council at Mainz in 829, but Louis the Pious declared the decision void at the request of Hrabanus Maurus*, abbot of Fulda. Gottschalk was then transferred to the abbey of...
BRUGMAN, Johannes (Jan). b. Kempen, the Netherlands, ca. 1400; d. Nijmegen, June 1473. Brugman joined the Order of Friars Minor-Conventual in 's-Hertogenbosch some time between 1420 and 1425, and shortly afterwards entered the studium generale in Paris. He became swept up in the controversy over the interpretation of the rule of St Francis between the Conventual and Observant branches of the Franciscan Order (see Franciscan hymns and hymnals*) in the 1440s. Following the reformation of the...
GALLOWAY, Kathryn Johnston (née Orr). b. Dumfries, Scotland, 6 August 1952; d. 26 August 2025. She was educated at Boroughmuir Secondary School, Edinburgh (1964-70) and Glasgow University (BD 1974, Diploma in Pastoral Studies, 1976). She was licensed as a minister of the Church of Scotland, Edinburgh Presbytery (1976) and ordained in 1977 while Assistant Minister, Muirhouse Parish Church, Edinburgh (1976-79).
She had been a member of the Iona Community since 1976, was co-warden of Iona Abbey...
Winchester Hymnal (late 10th century). The Winchester Hymnal is a type of New Hymnal (see Medieval hymns and hymnals*) that was introduced during the late 10th-century Anglo-Saxon monastic reform movement called the Benedictine Reform (see 'Rule of Benedict'*). It is one of two types of monastic hymnal known to have been in use in England after the Benedictine Reform, the other being the Canterbury Hymnal*.
The Winchester Hymnal is clearly linked to the Benedictine Reform movement because it...
The Devotio Moderna (Modern Devotion or New Devotion) was a movement of religious revival that started in what is now the Netherlands in the late 14th century. Its main characteristics were an inward-looking piety, asceticism and the fostering of the virtuous life. Its instigator was Geert Grote (1340-1384). After having started an ecclesiastical career, a period of severe illness led to a process of inner conversion (1372). After several years of retreat he re-entered public life in 1379,...
STAINER, (Sir) John. b. Southwark, London, 13 June 1840; d. Verona, Italy, 31 March 1901. A chorister at St Paul's Cathedral (1848-56), he was organist at St Michael's College, Tenbury (1857-9), informator choristarum at Magdalen College, Oxford (1860-72), organist of St Paul's Cathedral (1872-88) and Professor of Music at Oxford (1889-99). He was knighted in 1888. Stainer was also H. M. Inspector of Music in Schools and Training Colleges between 1882 and his death. Stainer is nowadays best...
The Dominican order was founded by Domingo de Guzman (St. Dominic, ca. 1170-1221), a Spanish priest who emphasised humility and preaching the Gospel in his attempts to persuade Cathar heretics to return to the Roman Catholic church. He gained papal approval in 1216 to found a new order, the Ordo Praedicatorum, based on the rule of St Augustine* and emphasising the importance of preaching and confession. Medieval Dominicans were mendicant preachers and missionaries, often studying theology at...
Bind us together, Lord. Robert (Bob) Gillman* (1946— ).
'Bind us together, Lord' grew out of the controversy that developed over the impact of Pentecostal influences in churches in London during the 1970s, known as the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Those who had experienced the presence of the gifts of the Spirit wished for congregations with established historical liturgies to allow for more freedom to express these gifts during worship. As a result, a house church movement developed during...
ELLIOTT, Charlotte. b. Clapham, south London, 18 March 1789; d. Brighton, 22 Sept 1871. Clapham, then a village south of London, was the centre of the Evangelical 'Clapham Sect', and she came of distinguished evangelical lineage. Her mother, Eling Venn, was the eldest daughter of the Reverend Henry Venn, an eminent 18th-century Anglican clergyman. Her uncle, John Venn, was a leading member of the Clapham Sect. Elliott's father, Charles Elliott, a Bond Street merchant, was also a member of the...
HAVERGAL, Frances Ridley. b. Astley, Worcestershire, 14 December 1836; d. Caswell Bay, near Swansea, 3 June 1879. Her father, the musician and hymn tune writer, William Henry Havergal*, was rector of Astley. He became rector of St Nicholas', Worcester, in 1845. Her mother died in 1848, and she was sent to school, first to a private school, Campden Hill House, Belmont, near Hereford, and then (1851) to Powicke Court, near Worcester. In 1852-53, her father, having married again, travelled with...
Hark, ten thousand voices sounding. Thomas Kelly* (1769-1855).
According to JJ, p. 488, this was first published in Hymns on Various Passages of Scripture (Second Edition, Dublin, 1806). It was prefaced by the heading: 'Death is swallowed up in victory. 1 Cor.xv. 54.'
In the original version, the first stanza is in a different metre from the other three: it rhymes AABB and is in the metre of 77.77., whereas the other three are in 8.7.8.7. In the 1820 edition the text was as follows:
Hark ten...
O could I speak the matchless worth. Samuel Medley* (1738-1799).
This was Hymn I in Medley's Hymns. The public worship and private devotions of true Christians assisted, in some thoughts in verse: principally drawn from select passages of the word of God (1800). It began:
Not of terrestrial mortal themes, Not of the world's delusive dreams, My soul attempts to sing; But of that theme divinely true, Ever delightful, ever...
African American spiritual*
This spiritual is rooted deeply in the experience of enslaved Africans in the antebellum South. Many variants surfaced, including 'The Old Ship of Zion' in Slave Songs of the United States* (New York, 1867), the earliest collection of African American folksongs. The printed history of this spiritual reveals an uncommon number of variant melodies and texts when compared to others, though the 'Old ship of Zion' remains central to them all.
Versions of the spiritual...
Throughout Christian history, the language and imagery of worship has been overwhelmingly male. Congregations have sung of themselves as 'men' and 'brothers'; apart from Mary the mother of Jesus, references to biblical characters have focused on males; and God has been addressed in terms that emphasise masculinity. For much of this time, the creators and leaders of liturgy have been almost exclusively men.
With the rise of 'second wave' feminism in the 1970s, there was a specific move towards...
Down to the valley [river] to pray. African American spiritual*.
The earliest printed version of this song, entitled 'The Good Old Way', appears in the first collection of folk song published in the United States, Slave Songs of the United States* (New York, 1867). Ascribed in the index (No. 104) to 'Mr. G[eorge] H. Allan', Nashville, it is included in section 'III. Inland Slave States: Including Tennessee, Arkansas, and the Mississippi River'. It is likely that Allan transmitted the song...
Wade in the Water. African American spiritual*.
Wade in the water, wade in the water children, wade in the water, God's gonna trouble the water.
Water is an important image in the African American spiritual. 'Deep river'* is a song that finds hope on the other side of the river. 'Go down, Moses'* is a spiritual of deliverance in which Pharaoh's armies were drowned in the sea. Water was a primary aspect of slave experience. Africans began their captivity—the 'middle passage'—by traveling across...
The Cistercian movement, originating at the beginning of the 12th century, was founded on the desire to return to the rule of St Benedict (see Rule of Benedict*), which gave instructions for the chanting of Ambrosian hymns during the Offices of Nocturn, Lauds and Vespers. Cistercian brothers went to Milan to seek out St Ambrose*'s compositions, returning with a list of hymns. However, because of additions made during the intervening centuries, the Cistercians adopted a mixture of more recent...
Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound). John Newton* (1725-1807).
First published in Olney Hymns (1779) Book I, 'On select Passages of Scripture'. It had six Common Metre verses with the title 'Faith's Review and Expectation' and a reference to 1 Chronicles 17: 16-17. Here David exclaims in humble wonder at what the prophet, Nathan, has just said about God's care for him from his early days to his present position as king, a care that would extend to his successors. Newton applies this to his own...
TERRY, Darley. b. Brighouse, Yorkshire, 19 January 1847; d. Prestatyn, North Wales, 21 January 1933. Terry was a printer at Dewsbury, Yorkshire and a Sunday-school superintendent. He represented Yorkshire on the council of the National Sunday School Union. He was an active member of the Methodist New Connexion, serving on its Sunday schools committee from 1877 to 1899, and on its Young People's and Temperance Department. He is said to have published Poems and Hymns (1904, 1914, second series,...
From heaven you came, helpless babe. Graham Kendrick* (1950- ).
This song is usually known as 'The Servant King'. It was written for the Spring Harvest* event of 1984, 'to explore the vision of Christ as the servant who would wash the disciples' feet but who was also the Creator of the universe'. It has become one of the most popular of Kendrick's songs, and is to be found in many books published since that date, including RS, A&MCP, and A&MRW. In Australia it is included in...
Meekness and majesty, manhood and deity. Graham Kendrick* (1950- ).
Written for a Spring Harvest* event, and included in the CD Make Way for the King of Kings — A Carnival of Praise (1986). It moves from the meekness of Christ's washing of the disciples' feet (cf. 'The Servant King': see 'From heaven you came, helpless babe'*) through his crucifixion to his ascension in glory. It has become very popular: beginning with BPW in 1991, it has been included in many subsequent books. Its tune,...
CARTER, Russell Kelso. b. Baltimore, Maryland, 18 November 1849; d. Catonsville, Maryland, 23 August 1926. Carter graduated from the Pennsylvania Military Academy in 1867, and taught chemistry there (1869-73). Thereafter he had a career of astonishing variety. He moved to California to raise sheep, before returning to his alma mater to teach civil engineering and mathematics (1881-87); he then resigned to become a Methodist minister in 'Holiness camp meetings'. Later he studied medicine and...
Tempus adest floridum. from Piae Cantiones. This spring carol, translated as 'Spring has now unwrapped the flowers', is one of two in the section entitled 'De Tempore Vernali Cantiones' in Piae Cantiones (Greifswald, 1582). It had four verses, celebrating the return of the flowers that winter had concealed, and praising God for the joyful time of the year ('Gaudeamus igitur tempore iucundo'). See AH 45. 171. The tune is famous in English-speaking countries: it was used by John Mason Neale* for...
Out of the depths to the glory above. Avis Burgeson Christiansen* (1895-1985).
Published in Tabernacle Praises No 2, with a tune by Haldor Lillenas* (later given the name LILLENAS in Hymns for the Living Church, 1974, where Christiansen's hymn appears). It is probably better known for its refrain, 'Jesus has lifted me':
Out of the depths to the glory above,I have been lifted in wonderful love;From every fetter my spirit is free - Jesus has lifted me!
Jesus has lifted me!Jesus has lifted me!Out...
This is the glorious gospel word. Thomas Bowman Stephenson* (1839-1912).
This hymn was 'called forth by a religious Convention at Brighton' (JJ, p.1093). This must have been before 1875, when it was published in Calvary Songs: a collection of new and choice hymns for Sunday schools and families, edited by Charles S. Robinson* and Theodore E. Perkins (Philadelphia, 1875) to a tune by George F. Weeks. It may well have been published earlier in Britain, and it must have crossed the Atlantic very...
Calm on the bosom of thy God. Felicia Hemans* (1793-1835).
This three-stanza poem was as follows in Hemans' in Miscellaneous Poems (ca. 1823-4), where it was given the title 'A Dirge':
Calm on the bosom of thy God, Fair spirit! rest thee now!E'en while with ours thy footsteps trode His seal was on thy brow.
Dust, to its narrow house beneath! Soul, to its place on high!They that have seen thy look in death No more may fear to die.
Lone are the paths, and sad the bowers, Whence thy meek...
First of martyrs, thou whose name. Jean-Baptiste de Santeuil* (1630-1697), translated perhaps by a friend of Isaac Williams* (1802-1865).
This is a translation of Santeuil's 'O qui tuo, dux martyrum', from the Cluniac Breviary (1686) and from his Hymni Sacri et Novi (1689). It appeared in Williams's Hymns translated from the Paris Breviary (1839), with the first line 'Rightful Prince of Martyrs thou'. In the Preface Williams said that the translation was 'supplied by a Friend', whose identity...
YONGE, Frances Mary (née Bargus). b.13 January 1795; d. 28 September 1868. She married an army officer, William Yonge, who resigned his commission in 1822 to live with her at Otterbourne, Hampshire, part of the parish of Hursley, where John Keble* was to become vicar in 1836. The Yonge family found Keble's views and practice very congenial, and in imitation of Keble's most famous book, Frances Mary published The Child's Christian Year: Hymns for every Sunday and Holy-day in 1841, with a preface...
SANTEUIL, Jean-Baptiste de. b. Paris, 12 May 1630; d. Dijon, 5 August 1697. Born into a prosperous Parisian family, Jean-Baptiste de Santeuil became a regular canon of the celebrated Abbaye de Saint Victor in Paris, taking the name 'Santolius Victorinus'. His duties allowed him welcome opportunities for mingling with society, and he gained a reputation as a wit that was reflected, not entirely creditably, in Santeuilliania, a volume of sayings attributed to him that was published, ostensibly at...
THIMAN, Eric Harding. b. Ashford, Kent, 12 September 1900; d. Camden, London, 13 February 1975. The son of a Congregational minister, he was educated at Caterham School and the Guildhall School of Music, becoming FRCO in 1920. He was awarded the DMus degree by London University in 1927. He was Professor of Harmony and Composition at the Royal Academy of Music (1931- ), and Dean of the Faculty of Music, London University (1956-62). He was a noted teacher and recitalist, and an organist at...
GREGORY the Great. b. probably in Rome, ca. 540; d. Rome, 12 March 604. Born into a noble Roman family, Gregory was well educated. He became a monk in Rome, having founded a monastery there as well as six in Sicily. Gregory was sent to Constantinople with a diplomatic mission where he remained as 'apocrisiarius' ('ambassador'), and became very popular, from 579 to 585. He was recalled to Rome, and was elected Pope Gregory I in 590. Gregory is said to have seen Anglo-Saxon children in the slave...
UTENHOVE, Jan. b. the Netherlands, ca. 1520; d. London, 6 January 1566. Utenhove was a leading lay Reformer in the Calvinist tradition, born into a Flemish aristocratic family with strong connections with Erasmus. He was obliged to leave Ghent in 1544, almost certainly because of adverse reaction to a play he had written and performed. Thereafter he travelled widely in Europe, staying in Heinrich Bullinger's Zürich, Martin Bucer*'s and Peter Martyr's Strassburg, Thomas Cranmer's London, and...
Location and Population
Malaysia comprises two separate regions, the Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia (Sarawak and Sabah). It is a pluralistic community, comprising of several racial groups, cultures and religions. It has a population of about 28 millions. Malay is the predominant group that makes up about 50.4% of the population, and by the Malaysian Constitutional definition, all Malays are Muslims. The ethnic Chinese make up 23.7% of the population. They are economically active in...
O Christ our joy, gone up on high. David Thomas Morgan* (1809-1886).
From Morgan's Hymns of the Latin Church (privately printed, 1871). It was a translation of the Latin verses beginning 'Tu Christe nostrum gaudium'*, which formed the second part of 'Aeterne Rex altissime'*. Although Morgan's book was privately printed, it must have come to the attention of the compilers of the Second Edition of A&M, because it was included there for Ascensiontide, before being reprinted in Morgan's better...
The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended. John Ellerton* (1826-1893).
This hymn was published in A Liturgy for Missionary Meetings (Frome: Hodges, 1870). It was revised for inclusion in Church Hymns in 1871, where stanza 1 line 4 was 'Thy praise shall hallow now our rest' and stanza 5 line 3 was 'But stand, and rule, and grow for ever'. It was revised again for Ellerton's Hymns Original and Translated (1888). The 1888 text was used when the hymn was printed in the Supplement (1889) to the Second...
¡Gloria, gloria, gloria! Pablo Sosa* (1933—2020).
This joyful chorus comes directly from Luke 2: 14, the canticle of the angels. 'Gloria' (1978) was composed for a Christmas pageant, designed so that the congregation could join in the drama as the chorus of angels. The song-dance is based on the cueca, the national dance of Chile, but also popular in Bolivia and parts of Argentina. The musical style includes a lively three-four (¾) meter melded with a cross-rhythm of six-eight (6/8)...
ORD, Boris. b. Bristol, 9 July 1897; d. Cambridge, 30 December 1961. The son of Clement Ord, a lecturer in the University of Bristol, and Joanna Anthes, a German, he was christened 'Bernhardt', but was invariably known as 'Boris'. He was educated at Clifton College, Bristol, and the Royal College of Music (1914-1920, interrupted by war service in the Royal Flying Corps). At the RCM he was taught by Walter Parratt*. In 1920 he moved to Cambridge as organ scholar of Corpus Christi College, where...
SHURTLEFF, Ernest Warburton. b. Boston, Massachusetts, 4 April 1862; d. Paris, France, August 1917. He was educated at the Boston Latin School and Harvard University, with a further period of study at the New Church (Swedenborgian) Theological Seminary. He trained for the Congregational ministry at Andover Theological College, graduating in 1888. For the graduation ceremony he wrote the hymn by which he is still known, 'Lead on, O King eternal'*. He subsequently served as a minister at...
I know not where the road will lead. Evelyn Atwater Cummins* (1891-1971).
Written in 1922, this must be one of the first hymns to have been inspired by the radio. Cummins recalled that she was unwell, and unable to attend church, so she listened with earphones to a sermon by Dr Samuel Parkes Cadman (1864-1936, a pioneer religious broadcaster) on the topic of 'The King's Highway'. She continued: 'the title sort of stuck in my head, and so I thought I would put down what the King's Highway meant...
BRENNAN, Patrick. b. Carraghroe, Co. Roscommon, Ireland, 1877; d. North Perth, Western Australia, 18 May 1951. He left for Australia 'in his early years' (Milgate, 1982, p. 224). He was ordained to the priesthood in 1902, serving in the diocese of Perth and editing the diocesan paper, The Record. After twelve years in parish work, he was accepted in 1915 by the Congregation of the most Holy Redeemer (C.SS.R), the 'Redemptorists', who sent him as a missionary to the Philippine Islands. He was...
The beginnings of Danish Hymnody date back to the 15th century, partly originating in the lay movements of that time, and partly as a Danish version of the renaissance culture of Northern Europe. Only a few texts have been preserved. Revised versions of some songs to the Holy Virgin and a number of pre-Reformation Christmas and Easter carols were included in hymnals of the Reformation period. Some of these carols are from German sources and are either parallel translations from Latin or...
WINKWORTH, Catherine. b. London, 13 September 1827; d. Monnetier, France, 1 July 1878. She was the daughter of a silk manufacturer, who moved his family to Manchester in 1829. In common with most young women of the time, she had no formal higher education, but studied German with Tobias Theodores (the first teacher of German at Owens College, Manchester, later the University of Manchester) and Logic with James Martineau*. With her sister Selina, she spent the year 1845-46 in Dresden, living...
Lauluraamat Piiskoplikule Metodistikirikule Eestis (Tallinn, 1926; The Estonian Methodist Episcopal Hymnal). The Estonian Methodist Episcopal hymnal (cited as ESMEH 1926), like its Lithuanian and Latvian counterparts (see 'Lithuanian Methodist hymnody'* and 'Latvian Methodist hymnody'*), was strongly dependent on the Gesangbuch der Bischöflichen Methodisten Kirche in Deutschland und der Schweiz ('Hymnbook of the German and Swiss Methodist Episcopal Church', Bremen, 1896, cited as GBMK 1896). It...
Early history and the first hymnody
Norwegian language-use and hymnological terminology, while largely concordant with the other Scandinavian languages, differs significantly compared to those of most other languages. The term salme (from the Greek ψάλμος, psalmos) is used to denote both biblical, paraphrasal and other religious strophic verse set to music. This reflects the fact that the psalter in post-Reformation Denmark-Norway gradually disappeared from the service life of the church,...
Gospel Hymns Nos. 1 to 6 Complete (1894) (New York: Biglow & Main Company; and Cincinnati: John Church & Company): Gospel Hymns and Sacred Solos by P. P. Bliss and Ira D. Sankey as used by them in Gospel Meetings [No. 1] (1875), No. 2 (1876), No. 3 (1878), No. 4 (1883), No. 5 (1887), No. 6 (1891), Gospel Hymns Nos. 1 to 6 Complete (1894).
Beginning with the first Great Awakening ca.1730-60 (see Great Awakenings, USA*), the colonies, and subsequently the USA, have periodically...
HAMILTON, Fayette Montgomery ('F.M.'). b. Washington, Arkansas, 3 September 1858; d. Sparta, Georgia, 10 November 1912. The life of this hymnodist, composer, arranger, and editor is most accurately told within the context of the early history of the Colored Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church (in 1954 the name was changed to the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church). It was first organized on 16 December 1870 as The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, an ecclesial body of mostly African...
This account of Ethiopian Hymnody is in two parts: Traditional Hymnody (Ralph Lee); New Songs (Lila Balisky)
Traditional Ethiopian Liturgical Music
Of all the ecclesiastical arts liturgical singing is the most important and jealously guarded in the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition. No external influences are permitted and the purity of the original tradition is uncompromisingly protected. Music creates the atmosphere of worship: Orthodox believers often comment on the spiritual quality and...
QUARLES, John. b. (?) London, 1624 or 1625; d. London, 1665. The precise dates of John Quarles's birth and death are unknown. He was the son of Francis Quarles*, and probably born in London before his father took the family to Ireland on becoming secretary to Archbishop Ussher of Armagh (on whom John wrote an elegy in 1655). John Quarles entered Exeter College, Oxford, in 1643, finding himself there in the middle of the Civil War, when Oxford was a stronghold of the King. John is believed to...
Ye servants of a martyr'd God. Robert Campbell* (1814-1868).
This is Campbell's translation of the martyrs' form of 'Aeterna Christi munera'*, continuing 'Et martyrum victorias', possibly by Ambrose of Milan* (339/40-397). It was published in Campbell's Hymns and Anthems for Use in the Holy Services of the Church within the United Diocese of St Andrews, Dunkeld, and Dunblane (Edinburgh, 1850). It was used by the compilers of A&M (1904) to make a hymn that began like other translations 'The...
RHODES, Benjamin. b. Mexborough, Yorkshire, 1743, date unknown; d. Margate, Kent, 13 October 1815. He was the son of a schoolmaster, who gave him a good education. At the age of 11 he was much influenced by hearing George Whitefield* preach, and in 1766 he became one of 'Mr Wesley's preachers', serving until his death at Margate. In the obituary in the Minutes of the Methodist Conference he was described as 'a man of great simplicity and integrity of mind; he was warmly and invariably attached...
GRUNDTVIG, Nicolai Frederik Severin. b. Udby, 8 September 1783; d. Copenhagen, 2 September 1872. He was born in a small village in South Zealand, where his father had been priest since 1778. The small boy remembered news of the revolution in France arriving in the village in 1789, but he seems to have been more impressed in the previous year (when he was five years old) by the news that the Russian troops on the Black Sea coast were advancing south and hoped to be in Constantinople by Easter:...
HERBERT, George. b. Montgomery, 3 April 1593; d. Bemerton, near Salisbury, 1 March 1633. Born of a noble family at Montgomery Castle, he was one of seven sons and three daughters. He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1613, MA and Fellow of the College, 1616). In 1618 he was appointed Reader in Rhetoric at Cambridge and was Public Orator to the University, 1620-28. He represented Montgomery in parliament in 1624 and 1625, and appeared to be on the threshold of...
BAKER, (Sir) Henry Williams. b. London, 27 May 1821; d. Monkland, Herefordshire, 12 February 1877. The son of Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Loraine Baker and Louisa Anne Williams (from whose family came his second forename), he was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1844, MA, 1847). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1844, priest 1846), and after serving a curacy at Great Horkesley, Essex, he was presented to the living of Monkland, Herefordshire in 1851. He succeeded to the Baronetcy on the death of...
Come and taste, along with me. John Leland* (1754–1841).
This hymn was entitled 'The Christian's Consolation'. It was probably first published in 1801, in at least three collections: Richard Allen*, A Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs: from various authors (Philadelphia: T. L. Plowman, 1801); Richard Allen, A Collection of Spiritual Songs and Hymns (Philadelphia: John Ormrod, 1801); and Josiah Goddard, A New and Beautiful Collection of Select Hymns and Spiritual Songs (Walpole, New...
If when you give the best of your service (He Understands; He'll Say, ''Well Done''). Lucie Eddie Campbell-Williams* (1885-1963).
This was composed in 1933 for the annual gathering of the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc., and quickly became one of the all-time Convention favorites. African American scholar Horace Clarence Boyer* notes:
From 1930 to 1962, [Campbell] introduced a new song each year at the National Baptist Convention. Her songs became gospel standards, sung by all races...
BACH, Johann Sebastian. b. Eisenach, 21 March 1685; d. Leipzig, 28 July 1750. He was the most important member of a Thuringian family of musicians, whose technical accomplishment as a performer was revered by his contemporaries, and whose genius as a composer was not only recognized during his own time but has significantly influenced the development of Western music.
He was born in Eisenach and attended the local Latin school, the same one that Martin Luther* had attended two hundred years...
DEARMER, Percy. b. London, 27 February 1867; d. Westminster, London, 29 May 1936. He was born of French (probably Huguenot) descent, the son of a painter who knew Charles Dickens. He was educated at various schools, including Westminster (1880-81) and the Lutheran school at Vevey in Switzerland, and then at Christ Church, Oxford (BA 1889, MA 1896). In those years he encountered two important influences: high churchmanship at Pusey House, including the friendship of Charles Gore; and work among...
See how the mounting sun. Elizabeth Scott* (1708–1776).
Elizabeth Scott's most widely sung hymn, 'A Morning Hymn', appears in the manuscript collection, Hymns and Poems by Elizabeth Scott*. In a modern numbering of those 90 hymns and poems, this hymn is indexed as H31. A transcription of H31 showing Scott's heading, spelling (some of which are idiosyncratic), punctuation, and capitalizations follows below.
Possibly H31 was included in Scott's collection as early as 1740, as this date appears in...
Immigration and Organization
Danish Lutherans came to Hudson Bay in 1619 with Rasmus Jensen (d. 1620) and probably Den danske Psalmebog (Copenhagen, 1569) of Hans Thomissøn (1532-73) (see Danish hymnody*). Within a year they died or returned home. Lutherans from the Netherlands came to New York City in 1623. In 1657 when Johannes Gutwasser (fl. 1650s) led services, he was arrested by the Reformed authorities and in 1659 sent home. Swedish Lutherans came in 1638 to the Delaware River with...
The Book of Praise (1862)
This influential anthology of hymns was the work of Roundell Palmer*, a distinguished politician and man of letters. Its full title was The Book of Praise from the best English Hymn Writers. It was published by Macmillan in London and Cambridge in 1862. The frontispiece showed a picture of David with his harp, to emphasise the continuity of tradition between the great psalmist and contemporary hymn writers. The book was very successful, and there were many further...
Come, my soul, thy suit prepare. John Newton* (1725-1807).
In Olney Hymns (1779) this text is headed 'Ask what I shall give thee' and is the first of three on the same biblical text, 1 Kings 3: 5 (it is from Book I , 'On select Passages of Scripture', where the printer misplaced the heading of 1 Kings, so that it appears to be under 2 Samuel). In the early 19th century it appeared in Gadsby's hymns* (1814, and later editions), Edward Bickersteth*'s Christian Psalmody (1833), and in the...
God who created me. Henry Charles Beeching* (1859-1919).
This exuberant hymn comes from Beeching's In a Garden, and other Poems (1895). It seems to have been used as a hymn first in the Sunday School Hymnary (1905), edited by Carey Bonner*, and subsequently in the Boys' Brigade Hymnal (1922), the 1919 edition of The Public School Hymn Book, edited by Geoffrey Shaw, SofP (1925), RCH (1927) and SofPE (1931). In the USA it appealed to H. Augustine Smith*, who included it in the American Student...
ARNOLD, Gottfried. b. Annaberg, Saxony, 5 Sept 1666; d. Perleberg, Brandenburg, 30 May 1714. He was educated at the Gymnasium at Gera followed by the University of Wittenberg (1685-89). He became a private tutor to a family at Dresden, where he was much influenced by the sermons of Philipp Jakob Spener*, then Senior Court Preacher (until 1690). On Spener's recommendation Arnold obtained another tutor's post at Quedlinburg (1693-97); while at Quedlinburg he published Die erste Liebe, das ist,...
Goin' to lay down my burden (Down by the riverside) African American spiritual*
This antebellum spiritual may be found under various titles, including 'Study war no more' and 'Goin' to lay down my sword and shield'. Though the spiritual does not appear in their earliest printed collections, a recording by a male quartet from Fisk Jubilee Singers* in 1920 indicates that the song was in their repertoire (Columbia Gramophone Company A3596: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N2GQpiXWj4). Initial...
I know that my Redeemer lives. Samuel Medley* (1738-1799).
This inspiring Easter hymn exists in a number of different forms. It is a celebration of the risen Christ, and a meditation on the verse from Job 19: 25, 'For I know that my redeemer liveth'. It was first published anonymously in two anthologies, George Whitefield*'s Hymns for Social Worship (21st Edition, 1775) and Richard De Courcy*'s Collection of Psalms and Hymns (Fourth Edition, 1793) (JJ, p. 556). It was published in Medley's own...
Leader of faithful souls, and guide. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
This was hymn 41 in Hymns for those that seek, and those that have Redemption in the Blood of Jesus Christ (Bristol, 1747), entitled 'The Traveller'. It had eight 6-line stanzas:
Leader of faithful Souls, and Guide Of all that travel to the Sky, Come, and with us, ev'n Us, abide, Who would on Thee alone rely,On Thee alone our Spirits stay,While held in Life's uneven Way.
Strangers and Pilgrims here below, This Earth, we...
DeARMOND, Lizzie (Elizabeth Douglas Foulks DeArmond). b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 23 July 1847; d. Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 26 October 1936. She was a prolific writer of gospel songs and hymns, of which the best known is 'If your heart keeps right'*, beginning 'If the dark shadows gather'.
Little is known about Lizzie DeArmond's parents. The US Federal Census for 1850 indicates that her father was Charles F. Foulks (1825?- nda), a druggist in Philadelphia, and that her mother was Matty...
Love divine, all loves excelling. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns for those that seek and those that have Redemption in the Blood of Jesus Christ (1747) in four 8-line stanzas, and reprinted in Select Hymns with Tunes Annext (1761). It also appeared, with alterations, in Martin Madan*'s Collection of Psalms and Hymns (1760), and in Toplady*'s collection with the same title of 1776 (Toplady's Psalms and Hymns*). The second stanza was omitted in John Wesley*'s Hymns for...
Methodist Episcopal hymns, music, USA
A copy of A Collection of Psalms and Hymns (49 psalms and 38 hymns, some of each with multiple 'parts') was sent by John Wesley* to the Methodist Episcopal Church's organizing conference (Baltimore, 1784). This first 'authorized' hymnal did not include music, cite tune names or reference tune collections. The Minutes of several conversations between the Rev. Thomas Coke, LL.D., the Rev. Francis Asbury . . . (Philadelphia, 1785) included instructions on...
Hillsong: Hillsong (Hillsong Music Australia); Hillsong (Church)
Hillsong Church is a contemporary pentecostal megachurch founded in Sydney, Australia, in 1983. At the time of writing, the congregation gathers to worship on six continents with an additional outreach through its digital platform Hillsong Church Online (HCO) as well as music streaming on various online platforms. The Hillsong brand is one of the most recognisable among Christians globally. Hillsong is well known internationally...
WEBB, George James. b. near Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, 24 June 1803; d. Orange, New Jersey, 7 October 1887. One of the leading musicians of Boston, Massachusetts between 1830 and 1860, Webb composed the hymn tune WEBB (also called MORNING LIGHT, GOODWIN, and STAND UP), often sung to George Duffield*'s* hymn, 'Stand up! Stand up for Jesus'*.
George James Webb's parents, James Millett Webb (1772?-1848) and Isabella Ann Archer (nda), were married at St Margaret's Church, near Westminster...
RODEHEAVER, Homer Alvin [Alvan]. b. near Union Furnace, Ohio, 4 October 1880; d. Winona Lake, Indiana, 18 December 1955. A gospel song composer, musical evangelist, publisher, early recording artist, and compiler of convention collections, 'Rody', as he was called, is remembered today primarily for his association with evangelist Billy Sunday (1862–1935) where he charmed revival goers with his baritone voice and entertaining trombone playing.
Early Life
The third son of Thurman Hall...
The great Physician now is near. William Hunter* (1811-1877).
Published in Hunter's Songs of Devotion (Pittsburgh, 1859), entitled 'Christ the Physician'. Stanzas 4, 5 and 7 of the original have been omitted in many books, including the Baptist Hymnal (various editions). Reynolds (1976) quotes the three stanzas:
4. The children too, both great and small,
Who love the name of Jesus,
May now accept the gracious call
To work and live for Jesus.
5. Come, brethren, help me sing...
Episcopal Church Hymnody, USA
The Introduction is by Raymond F. Glover. The historical survey is by Robin Knowles Wallace.
Introduction
Among the vast number of persons who came as settlers beginning in 1607 to what is now known as the United States of America were many who brought with them a pattern of worship consistent with the liturgies of the Book of Common Prayer, the singing of metrical Psalms from the 'Old Version'* of Thomas Sternhold* and John Hopkins*, perhaps a few hymns of human...
All glory, laud and honour. Theodulf of Orleans* (ca. 760- ca. 821), translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866).
This is a translation of the Latin hymn, 'Gloria, laus et honor'*, attributed to St Theodulf (or Theodulph), who was bishop of Orleans, France. During the reign of Louis I (the son of Charlemagne), Theodulf was imprisoned in Angers for some time beginning in 818. According to Clichtoveus in his Elucidatorium Ecclesiasticum (Paris, 1516), the imprisoned bishop sang the hymn from his...
PURCELL, Henry. b. London, perhaps Westminster, [autumn] 1659; d. Westminster, 21 November 1695. A Child of the Chapel Royal, he was educated at a time when choirs in England were being revived during the Restoration of Charles II (after the proscription of choirs and organs in church during the Commonwealth under Cromwell). He may have been taught by John Blow and Pelham Humfrey. His gifts were evident early, and after his voice broke in 1673 he was kept on at court as an assistant to John...
I am a poor wayfaring stranger (Going over Jordan). Traditional American.
There are many congregational songs which contain tropes of 'wayfarer', 'stranger', 'traveler/traveling' or, 'pilgrim', while 'Jordan' as the symbol for crossing over from this life to the next recurs throughout hymnody (see, for example, 'On Jordan's stormy banks I stand'*, 'Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (Redeemer)*, 'Swing low, sweet chariot'*). This essay draws upon the excellent essay by John Garst (Garst, 1980, pp....
Gentle Mary laid her child. Joseph Simpson Cook* (1859-1933).
Cook penned the 'The Xmas Child' in an accounts ledger dated 1917 which he used as a notebook for his poetry. The text in his personal papers opens with 'Gentle Mary wrapped her child/ Lowly in a manger'. It seems to have been adopted quickly by United Church of Canada congregations. Alexander MacMillan, editor of The Hymnary (1930) could comment within five years on the fact that 'this lyric is already welcomed and sung at the...
Let us with a gladsome mind. John Milton* (1608-1674).
Together with a metrical version of Psalm 114, this paraphrase of Psalm 136 was published in Poems of Mr John Milton, Both English and Latin (1645). A note before Psalm 114 read: 'This and the following Psalm were don by the Author at fifteen yeeres old', which dates them at 1623 or 1624. This one had 24 verses, each ending 'For his mercies ay endure/ Ever faithfull, ever sure.'
A six-verse selection was printed by Josiah Conder* in The...
GRANT, (Sir) Robert. b. Kidderpore, Bengal, India, 15 January 1780; d. Dapoorie, Western India, 9 July 1838. He was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge (BA, 1801, MA, 1804). He became a Fellow of Magdalene College, was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn (1807), and became King's Serjeant in the Court of the Duchy of Lancaster. He became a Member of Parliament in 1818 and a Privy Councillor in 1831, promoting a bill in 1833 for the emancipation of the Jews, which passed the Commons but was...
LANGTON, Stephen. b. Langton by Wragby, Lincolnshire, ca 1150; d. Slindon, near Chichester, Sussex, 9 July 1228. He was 'one of the great churchmen of the middle ages' (ODNB), Archbishop of Canterbury from 1207 to 1228. He was probably educated at a school in Lincoln, followed by study at Paris in arts and theology. He taught theology in Paris from ca. 1180, preached, and wrote commentaries on the Old and New Testaments. He is thought to have been responsible for the division of the Bible into...
Above the clear blue sky. John Chandler* (1806-1876).
First published in Chandler's The Hymns of the Church, mostly Primitive (1841). It is one of the few hymns by Chandler that are not translations. It appeared in the Second Edition of A&M (1875) in the section 'For the Young', and was at one time very well known: JJ described its use as 'somewhat extensive' (p.8):
Above the clear blue sky,In heaven's bright abode,The Angel host on highSing praises to their God: Alleluia! They love...
Heralds of Christ. Laura L. Copenhaver* (1868-1940).
Laura Copenhaver was scheduled to speak for a conference in Northfield, Massachusetts in the summer of 1894. For personal reasons she could not attend. She wrote the poem 'The King's Highway' and sent it to the conference asking, according to her daughter Eleanor Copenhaver Sherwood, that it be 'accepted in my place' (Reynolds, 1964, p. 66).
Robert Guy McCutchan*, Methodist hymnologist and pastor, cited the author's own account of...
This is the traditional pattern in Britain and elsewhere for a Carol Service. The basic template was laid down at King's College, Cambridge, beginning in 1918. The Dean of King's, Eric Milner-White, had been a chaplain in the army during World War I, which had ended a month earlier, and was seeking for a Christmas service that would appeal to many people.
He based the service on one devised at Truro by Edward White Benson*, ca. 1880, which was the true beginning of the tradition. It was...
CAMPBELL, Robert. b. Trochaig, Ayrshire, 19 December 1814; d. Edinburgh, 29 December 1868. He was educated at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, becoming a lawyer. He began life as a member of the Church of Scotland, but became an Episcopalian and later (1852) a Roman Catholic. Before conversion to Catholicism he had shown strong signs of Anglo-Catholic tendencies. A poem or hymn entitled 'King Charles the Martyr' began:
What tears may wash the guilt away,That stained our land this...
Ye gates, lift up your heads on high. Scottish Psalter* (1650).
This is the metrical version of Psalm 24: 7-10, traditionally sung in the Church of Scotland at the 'Great Entrance' of the elements at the service of Holy Communion. Because this service was normally held on a few occasions in the year only, it became a moment of high significance. The minister and elders would bring in the bread and wine, and this part of Psalm 24 would be sung.
It was to match the solemn grandeur of this...
See also 'Byzantine rite'*, 'Greek hymnody'*, 'Rite of Constantinople'*, 'Rite of Jerusalem'*, 'Greek hymns, archaeology'*.
This is a highly sophisticated and powerful literary tradition of religious poetry intended for the liturgical services of the Eastern Orthodox Church and for private, devotional purposes. Profoundly doctrinal, Byzantine hymnody mirrored the major developments in Christology and Trinitarian theology throughout the first millennium of Christianity. At the same time, it was...
'Lining out' was the practice of having the minister or clerk sing a line of a psalm, which was then repeated by the congregation. It was a natural consequence of the seriousness attached to public worship by the Puritan element of the Church of England, which not only followed the precepts of Jean Calvin* in preferring psalms over hymns in divine service, but also tried to insist that the people sang them, line by line, and understood what they were singing. Following the execution of...
See also 'Byzantine hymnody'*, 'Byzantine rite'*, 'Greek hymnody'*, 'Rite of Constantinople'*, 'Rite of Jerusalem'*, 'Greek hymns, archaeology'*.
The earliest period
The Bulgarians officially accepted Christianity under Tsar Boris I in 865, and were granted an autonomous archbishopric in 870, whose seat was in Pliska. This archbishopric was under the jurisdiction of Constantinople, from where the first hierarch, clergy, and theological and liturgical books naturally came.
The very early...
The Canterbury Hymnal was a type of New Hymnal (see Medieval hymns and hymnals*) that was apparently introduced at Canterbury during the late 10th-century Anglo-Saxon monastic reform movement called the Benedictine Reform (see 'Rule of Benedict'*). It was one of two types of monastic hymnal known to have been in use in England after the Benedictine Reform, the other being the Winchester Hymnal*. All information about the Canterbury Hymnal must be deduced from the hymnals themselves, since other...
Dies irae, dies illa. Latin sequence*, author uncertain, possibly Franciscan.
This chant (Liber usualis, 1810–13) is one of only four Sequences to have been preserved in the Roman rite after the Council of Trent (1543-63). Dreves identifies the lyric text as a pia meditatio — a rhymed verse or a reading-song (Leselied) — that served as a sequence once it became part of the Roman liturgy (Dreves, 1892, p. 523). The Roman Missal prescribes its performance for the Mass of All Souls' Day [In...
Kyrie eleison. 'Kyrie eleison' has been a supplication since pre-Christian times, particularly in the imperial cultus, in which the emperor was referred to as kyrios. This Greek text, which translates as 'Lord have mercy' is used, in Greek, in many churches beyond the Greek-speaking world, including the Coptic*, Ethiopian*, West Syrian* and Roman Catholic churches. It is translated into the vernacular in the Armenian*, Romanian* and Nestorian Syrian churches, as well as in many protestant...
Milanese hymns. The hymns of Ambrose of Milan* were sung in the Milanese Church from the end of the 4th century onwards, and were quickly diffused in the West (cf. AVG. conf. 9,7,15 ; PAVL. MED. vita Ambr. 13), but nothing leads one to suppose that a Liber hymnorum was compiled during Ambrose's lifetime. The oldest preserved witnesses of the Milanese, or 'Ambrosian', hymnal are no older than the last third of the 9th century. These are the psalter-hymnals Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibl., Clm....
Brethren, we have met to worship. George Askins* (d. 1816).
Recent research by Richard Hulan* has clarified the authorship of this hymn and its early sources. Credit for the first printing goes to John J. Harrod who included it in his Social and Camp-Meeting Hymns for the Pious (Baltimore, 1817), a year after Askins' death (Steel and Hulan, 2010, p. 67). It is possible that it was published in an earlier collection during Askins' lifetime, but this cannot be verified. In a parallel course of...
WILLIAMS, David McKinley. b. Caernarvonshire, Wales, 20 February 1887; d. Oakland, California, 13 March 1978. One of the most dynamic 20th-century leaders of American church music, he is often identified with the music of St Bartholomew's Church in New York City, where he was organist and choirmaster from 1920 to 1947. Williams served on the Joint Commission on Church Music of the Episcopal Church and the Joint Commission on Revision of the Hymnal (H40). He composed hymn tunes and descants,...
Father of heaven, whose love profound. Edward Cooper* (1770-1833).
This appeared in A Selection of Psalms and Hymns for Public and Private Use (Uttoxeter, 1805), and Cooper's own compilation, A Selection of Psalms and Hymns (Lichfield, 1811). Between these two it was included in another Staffordshire book, Portions of the Psalms, chiefly selected from the versions of Merrick & Watts, with Occasional Hymns, adapted to the Service of the Church, for every Sunday in the year (Uttoxeter, 1808)....
Jerusalem, my happy home. Author unknown, ca. 1580. This hymn exists in many versions, most of which come from two sources:
British Library Add. MS 15, 225. This is a text of 26 4-line verses, described as 'A Song Mad (i.e. 'made') by F:B:P.'. The initials may have referred to a Roman Catholic priest (the 'P' standing for 'Pater') persecuted and perhaps imprisoned during the reign of Elizabeth I. For various theories, see 'F.B.P.'*.
A poem entitled 'Hymn on the New Jerusalem', by 'W. P.',...
Our Savior bowed beneath the wave. Adoniram Judson* (1788-1850).
These are the first three stanzas of a hymn by Judson in seven stanzas that first appeared in Thomas Ripley's A Selection of Hymns, for Conference & Prayer Meetings, and Other Occasions, Second Edition (1831) under the title 'Hymn written by Mr. Judson, Missionary; and sung at the baptism of several soldiers, at Maulmein, British Pegu' (Music and Richardson, 2008, p. 170). For the text of the first three stanzas, see the entry...
Schönster Herr Jesu. German, 17th century.
This hymn was printed in a Münster Gesangbuch of 1677, a Roman Catholic hymnbook (Münster was a Catholic city). It must have become popular, in the manner of a folk-song, because, according to The Hymnal 1940 Companion, it was recorded in 1839 by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben (1798-1874) in the district of Glaz in Silesia. With Ernst Friedrich Richter (1808-1879) Hoffmann von Fallersleben edited a collection of Silesian folk-songs,...
Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart. Irish, 10th/11th century or earlier, translated by Mary E. Byrne* (1880-1931), versified by Eleanor Hull* (1860-1935).
This text is found in two manuscripts in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin, one a poor copy of the other (Darling and Davison, p. 752). The Irish text dates possibly from the 10th/11th century (see https://codecs.vanhamel.nl/Rop_t%C3%BA_mo_baile). It began:
Rop tú ma baile a Choimdiu cride:
ní ní nech aile acht Rí secht...
Angels lament, behold your God. Charles Coffin* (1676-1749), translated by John Chandler* (1806-1876).
The text by Coffin was in the Paris Breviary, 1736, and in Hymni Sacri Auctor Carolo Coffin (1736). It began 'Lugete, pacis Angeli', and was set for Friday Vespers. It proved attractive to translators, including Isaac Williams*, William John Blew*, Robert Campbell*, John David Chambers*, and David Thomas Morgan* (JJ, pp. 701-2). The compilers of the First Edition of A&M chose Chandler's,...
By cool Siloam's shady rill. Reginald Heber* (1783-1826).
First published in the Christian Observer (April 1812), in a different metre, and beginning 'By cool Siloam's shady fountain'. It was entitled 'Christ a Pattern for Children. Luke ii. 40'. It was rewritten in the present Common Metre, and published in Heber's Hymns written and adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year (1827), for the First Sunday after Epiphany. It had six stanzas:
By cool Siloam's shady rill How sweet the lily...
In allen meinen Taten. Paul Fleming* (1609-1640).
Written on the eve of Fleming's first journey to Riga, Novgorod and Moscow. It was originally entitled 'Nach des VI Psalmens Weise', and dated '1633 November'. The anxiety of Psalm 6 emerges in the hymn's stanza 2, 'mein Sorgen ist umsonst' ('My sorrow is in vain'), but the hymn also reflects the comfort of the psalm in stanzas 8-9. The protector is Christ (in the original stanza 7, not included in EG). While beginning in the manner of Psalm 6,...
FROST, Maurice. b. Woodridings, Pinner, Middlesex, 22 June 1888; d. Deddington, Oxfordshire, 25 December 1961. He never knew his father, Maurice Isaac Scott, a clerk, who married Bessie or Eliza, née Wallace. On 8 January 1888, his father had been run over by a goods train at Pinner (now Hatch End) station and killed instantly. Maurice attended Reading School as a boarder, entered Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, as a sizar (a student receiving assistance from the college) in 1907, earned a...
Rise up, O men of God. William Pierson Merrill* (1867-1954).
Written in 1911 for the Presbyterian Brotherhood Movement at the suggestion of Nolan R. Best, editor of the Presbyterian newspaper, The Continent. It was also influenced by an article by Gerald Stanley Lee entitled 'The Church of the Strong Men'. Merrill said that he wrote it on a Lake Michigan steamer on the way to his church in Chicago 'almost without thought and effort'. It was published in The Continent, 16 February 1911, and then...
The fish in wave and bird on wing. Latin, translated by John Chandler* (1806-1876).
In Chandler's Hymns of the Primitive Church (1837), this was one of the daily hymns for Nocturn on Thursday. It was a translation of 'Iisdem create fluctibus', beginning in Chandler's version 'The deep a two-fold offspring bore':
Iisdem creati fluctibus Pisces natant, volant aves: Utrumque mortali genus Paratur esca corpori.
Chandler's translation was much altered by the compilers of the First Edition of...
JONES, William. b. Lowick, Northamptonshire, 30 July 1726; d. Nayland, Suffolk, 6 January 1800. He was educated at Charterhouse School and University College, Oxford (BA 1749), after which he took Holy Orders (deacon 1749, priest 1751). He served curacies at Finedon, and then Wadenhoe, both in Northamptonshire, before becoming the incumbent of Bethersden, Kent (1754-55) and then Pluckley, Kent (1755-77). In 1777 he moved to Nayland in Suffolk as Perpetual Curate, from which his many...
[This entry is in two parts: the first by Blake Wilson, the second by Marzio Pieri]
Lauda (plural Laude)
The origins of the Lauda* are bound up with the literary origins of the Italian language itself. The roots of the tradition can be traced to the 'Cantico di frate sole'* ('Canticle of the Sun') by St Francis of Assisi (ca. 1181/2-1226), beginning Altissimu, onnipotente bon Signore/tue so le laude, la gloria, et l'onore. Francis urged his followers to 'go through the world preaching and...
Sacred Songs and Solos.
This is the name given to a collection compiled ca. 1873 by the evangelist-musician team of Dwight L. Moody* and Ira D. Sankey* for use in England during their first revivals abroad. The hymnal ultimately grew into a bestselling volume of 1,200 hymns that remains in print today. Sankey notes in his autobiography that he brought along his pump organ and a scrapbook of gospel songs by American revival musicians Philip P. Bliss*, Philip Phillips* and others that he had...
When morning gilds the skies. Edward Caswall* (1814-1878).
A version of this hymn in six 6-line verses was published in A Collection of Catholic Hymns, edited by H. Formby and J. Lambert (1853). A longer version was printed in Caswall's The Masque of Mary, and Other Poems (1858). It was in 28 couplets, with a third line, 'May Jesus Christ be praised', printed (after the first couplet) as a refrain, 'May, &c'. This was reprinted in Caswall's Hymns and Poems, Original and Translated (Second...
Jubilate Hymns
The British Jubilate Group was founded in November 1980 as a limited liability company with the title Jubilate Hymns Ltd. It still retains its legal title but is now commonly known as the Jubilate Group.
Prior to their adoption of the Jubilate name, a team, chiefly of young Anglican clergy led by Michael Baughen*, later Bishop of Chester, began in the early 1960s to write hymn texts and tunes, initially for the church youth groups for whom they had pastoral responsibility. They...
The Litany is a form of prayer consisting of a series of petitions to which the people make set responses. It is thought to have originated in Antioch during the 4th century but soon spread to Constantinople and Rome. Pope Gelasius (492-96) introduced a Litany into the Mass of which the ninefold Kyrie eleison* alone survives. Two hundred years later the pattern of Litany for the Western Church throughout the Middle Ages was established under Pope Sergius in The Litany of the Saints. Its second...
WAGNER, (Wilhelm) Richard. b. Leipzig, 22 May 1813; d. Venice, 13 February 1883. Raised as the son of a police actuary, Carl Friedrich Wagner, he may in fact have been the son of the actor and painter, Ludwig Geyer, who looked after the boy's welfare after Carl Friedrich died in November 1813. His education in Leipzig began to reveal at an early stage his interest in drama and music, and at Leipzig University he studied intensively for about six months in 1831 under the Kantor of the...
LVOV, Alexei Fyodorovich. b. 5 June 1798, Reval (now Tallinn), Estonia; d. Kovno (Now Kaunus), Lithuania, 28 December 1870. Lvov was the son of Prince Fyodor Petrovich Lvov, the director of music at the Court Chapel at St Petersburg. He served as an officer in the Imperial army, rising to the rank of General, and becoming an aide-de-camp to the Tsar. He succeeded his father as musical director at St Petersburg in 1837, remaining in post until 1861, when he was forced to retire owing to...
As the fainting deer cries out. David George Preston* (1939- ).
This version of Psalm 42 was one of the last texts written for The Book of Praises: 70 Psalms for singing today, which the author compiled in 1986. It was paired from then on with his version of Psalm 43, 'God defend me; traitors rise'. As the two Psalms have much in common, including their refrain, and because they may have been a single song which was later divided, Preston has rendered them in the same 7777D metre and given...
Arise, your light is come. Ruth C. Duck* (1947-2024).
This was one of Ruth Duck's earliest hymns, published in Because We Are One People (Chicago: Ecumenical Women's Center, 1974). It was based on verses from Isaiah 60 and 61. She said that it was inspired by 'Lead on, O King eternal'* and 'Rise up, O men of God'*, presumably in the sense that these texts, the latter especially, offended her and caused her to write an inclusive text (see Wootton, 2010, p. 264). It was included by Erik...
HORNE, Charles Sylvester. b. Cuckfield, Sussex, 15 April 1865; d. near Toronto, Canada, 2 May 1914. He was educated at the Grammar School at Newport, Shropshire and the University of Glasgow (MA, 1886). He trained for the Congregational ministry at Mansfield College, Oxford (1886-89), where he was one of the first intake of students. He became minister of Allen Street Congregational Chapel, Kensington, London, and in 1903 moved to Whitefield's Tabernacle, Tottenham Court Road, where he...
Come and find the quiet centre. Shirley Erena Murray* (1931-2020).
This hymn, a favourite among North American congregations, was originally written in 1989 for a New Zealand Presbyterian Women's Conference whose theme was 'Making Space'. There it was sung to a Gaelic folk melody from the island of Lewis, also used in the Scottish CH4. When it was published in Shirley Murray's first major American collection, In Every Corner, Sing: The Hymns of Shirley Erena Murray (1992), it was set to a...
CHORLEY, Henry Fothergill. b. Blackley Hurst, near Billinge, Lancashire, 15 December 1808; d. London, 16 February 1872. He was the son of Quaker parents: his father was an iron-worker and lock-maker who died when he was a child, after which the family moved to Liverpool. Chorley was educated at the school of the Royal Institution there. After a frustrating time as a clerk in Liverpool, he began in 1830 to send articles to The Athenaeum, and in 1833 he moved to London to be a member of the...
ANSTICE, Joseph. b. Madeley, Shropshire, 21 December 1808; d. Torquay, Devon, 29 February 1836. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford (BA, 1831, MA, 1835), where he won prizes for English Verse and for an English Essay. He was a friend of William Ewart Gladstone*, who said of him 'would I were worthy to be his companion.' In 1831, at the age of 22, he was appointed Professor of Classics at the newly-founded King's College, London. He resigned through ill-health in...
'FIELD, Michael'. 'Michael Field' was the pseudonym of Katherine Harris Bradley (1846-1914, 'Michael') and Edith Emma Cooper (1862-1913, 'Henry'), aunt and niece lovers who jointly published poetry and drama at the end of the 19th century. Bradley and her widowed mother had moved into the household of her older sister, Emma Harris Bradley, and her husband, James Robert Cooper, around the time of the birth of Edith, and Bradley took charge of her niece after Emma became an invalid following the...
Non nobis Domine. Latin, date unknown.
The phrase 'Non nobis Domine' comes from the Vulgate (Psalm 113: 9). In the 1611 translation of the Bible, the King James Version, it opens Psalm 115 ('Not unto us, not unto us, O Lord'): the Latin phrase appears at the head of that Psalm in the Book of Common Prayer. It is a prayer of thanksgiving for some great achievement which avoids the sin of pride by ascribing the credit to God. The phrase begins 'Non nobis Domine, sed nomini tuo da gloriam'.
It...
O Christ our joy, to whom is given. Laurence Housman* (1865-1959).
This is a translation of an early Latin hymn 'Tu Christe nostrum gaudium'*, itself the second part, for use at Lauds, of the hymn beginning 'Aeterne Rex altissime'* (other translations of 'Aeterne Rex altissime' include that by James Russell Woodford* ('Christ, above all glory seated'*) and J.M. Neale*'s 'Eternal Monarch, King most high'*). The hymn celebrates the Ascension, asking for help in this present life, and looking...
Paul the Deacon [Paul of Friuli]. b. ca. 730; d. Montecassino ca. 799. Of noble Italian birth, Paul the Deacon was educated at the court of King Rachis at Pavia before becoming attached to the court of Duke Arichis of Benevento. He entered the monastery of Montecassino after the Carolingian conquest of Italy (773-4). His letter (782) to Charlemagne, petitioning for the release of his brother Arichis, a Lombard prisoner, brought him to the attention of the Frankish king, who summoned Paul the...
BROOKS, Reginald Thomas ('Peter'). b. Wandsworth, London, 30 June 1918; d. Harrow, Middlesex, 12 October 1985. He was a student at Mansfield College, Oxford. He was ordained into the Congregational ministry at Skipton, Yorkshire, later moving to Bradford, Yorkshire. In 1950 he joined the religious broadcasting department of the BBC. He is usually known as 'Peter Brooks', a name he preferred (see the Companion to RS, 1999, p. 764). Two of his hymns have become well known: 'O Christ the Lord, O...
RICHARD of Chichester, St. b. Droitwich (Wyche), Worcestershire, ca. 1197; d. Dover, 3 April 1253. Born Richard Wyche (at Wyche), he was educated at either Oxford or Paris, probably the former, where he was 'regent' in arts and then in canon law, and where ca. 1235 he was elected Chancellor of the University. He left, ca. 1236 to become Chancellor to (Saint) Edmund Rich, Archbishop of Canterbury. Rich, who died in 1240, was in disfavour with the king, Henry III, who attempted to seize church...
BRITTEN, (Edward) Benjamin. b. Lowestoft, Suffolk, 22 November 1913; d. Aldeburgh, Suffolk, 4 December 1976. Britten was educated at South Lodge Preparatory School, Lowestoft, and at Gresham's School, Holt, Norfolk, before winning a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in 1930 where his composition tutor was John Ireland*. From 1927, however, he was taught privately by Frank Bridge and these lessons continued throughout his years at the College, where he was also taught the piano by Arthur...
I want to be ready (Walk in Jerusalem). African American spiritual*.
Heaven is a prevalent theme in the spirituals. Enslaved Africans longed for heaven—'Deep river*, my home is over Jordan'. They imagined what heaven would be like—'I've got a robe, you've got a robe, / All God's children got a robe'. They were going to celebrate with Jesus in heaven—'I'm gonna sit [eat] at the welcome table'. They were vigilant in watching for heaven—'Keep your lamps trimmed and burning, / the time is drawing...
Come unto me, ye weary. William Chatterton Dix* (1837-1889).
This hymn appeared in The People's Hymnal (1867) and in 1875 it was taken into the Second Edition of A&M. Several tunes were used, including COME UNTO ME, which John Bacchus Dykes* wrote to accompany it in A&M. It is said that the hymn was written at a time when Dix was suffering from illness and depression, and that he looked on its composition as the turning-point which led to his recovery.
The hymn has much in common with...
NOEL, Caroline Maria. b. Teston, Kent, 10 April 1817; d. Marylebone, London, 7 December 1877. She was the daughter of a Church of England clergyman, the Revd Gerard Thomas Noel, and niece of Baptist Wriothesley Noel*. She wrote her first hymn at the age of 17. She suffered from ill-health for much of her life, but wrote a number of hymns which were published in The Name of Jesus, and other Verses for the Sick and Lonely (1861, enlarged edition, 1870). Some of them were written for the public...
Alleluia, song of sweetness. Latin, 11th century or earlier, translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866).
This is Neale's translation of 'Alleluya, dulce carmen'*, the hymn used in various rites to mark the pre-season of Lent, normally sung before Septuagesima Sunday, the ninth Sunday before Easter, the third Sunday before Ash Wednesday. It was printed in Neale's Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences (1851), with a preface:
The Latin Church, as is well known, forbade, as a general rule, the use of...
COLUMBANUS, St. b. Ireland, 543; d. Bobbio, Italy, 615. Born in the western part of the province of Leinster, St Columbanus became a monk at the Abbey of Bangor, Co. Down (now in Northern Ireland), during the abbacy of its founder, St Comgall (ca. 516-601). He went into exile, ca. 590, together with twelve companions. They called themselves Peregrini pro Christo and were responsible for the foundation of numerous monasteries in France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy during the 7th and 8th...
Courage, brother! do not stumble. Norman Macleod* (1812-1872).
Written for a Christian rally of working men, this was first published in 1857 in The Edinburgh Christian Instructor (Macleod was at one time its editor). With its strong ethical message ('Trust in God, and do the right') it was a very popular hymn in the 19th century, and in the first part of the 20th.
It had four 8-line stanzas in the Church Hymnary (1898), set to a tune, COURAGE, BROTHER, by Arthur Sullivan*:
Courage, brother! do...
THURMAIR, Maria Luise (née Mumelter). b. Bozen, Süd Tirol, Austria (now Bolzano, Alto Adige, Italy), 27 September 1912; d. Germering, München, 24 October 2005.
Her father was District 'Hauptmann', or District Superintendent, the last under Austrian rule. When Süd Tirol was ceded to Italy at the end of World War I, the family moved to Innsbruck, where the child Maria Luise went to school at the Ursuline Gymnasium. At the University she studied philosophy, German, history and liturgy, with a...
O Holy Spirit, enter in. Michael Schirmer* (1606-1673), translated by Catherine Winkworth* (1829-1878).
Schirmer's hymn, 'O Heilger Geist, kehr bei uns ein'* was published by Johann Crüger* in Newes vollkömliches Gesangbuch/ Augspurgischer Confession (Berlin, 1640), and then in D.M. Luthers und anderer vornehmen geistreichen und gelehrten Männer geistliche Lieder und Psalmen (Berlin, 1653) ('the Crüger-Runge Gesangbuch'). It had seven stanzas. It was translated by...
O North, with all thy vales of green. William Cullen Bryant* (1794-1878).
This was Hymn XIX in Bryant's Hymns (1864). It was headed 'Thou hast put all things under his feet' (from Psalm 8: 6, quoted in 1 Corinthians 15: 27 and Ephesians 1; 22). It had four stanzas:
Oh, North, with all thy vales of green! Oh, South, with all thy palms!From peopled towns and fields between Uplift the voice of psalms.Raise, ancient East! the anthem high,And let the youthful West reply.
Lo! in the clouds of...
ABELARD, Peter. b. le Pallet, near Nantes, Brittany, 1079; d. Châlons-sur-Saone, 21 April 1142. He was the son of Berengar, Lord of Pallet. His distinguished family background marked him out as a potential soldier, but he became a brilliant student of philosophy and theology, both at Paris and Laon. At 22 he was made a canon and teacher at the school attached to Notre Dame in Paris, where his lectures are said to have enthralled his students but alarmed his colleagues. However, one of them,...
Take my life, and let it be. Frances Ridley Havergal* (1836-1879).
Written on 4 February 1874, not long after Havergal's experience of 'the blessedness of true consecration' on the First Sunday in Advent, 1873. She described the composition herself, in an account of a visit to Areley House (near Stourport, Worcestershire):
I went for a little visit of five days. There were ten persons in the house, some unconverted and long prayed for, some converted but not rejoicing Christians. He gave me the...
History
The territory of present-day Latvia, a country of approximately 25,400 square miles, situated on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, has been inhabited since 9,000 BCE and by Baltic tribes since 2,000 BCE. These tribes settled various regions that have come to be known by their tribal names – Kurzeme (Courland), Zemgale (Semigallia), Latgale (Letgallia) and Vidzeme (Livland). These regions differed linguistically, with all but the Livs, who were Finno-Ugric speakers like their...
Mission Praise (Mission England Praise, 1983; Mission Praise 2, 1987; Mission Praise Supplement, 1989; Mission Praise Combined, 1990; New Mission Praise, 1996; Complete Mission Praise, 1999; new edition, 2005; online edition, 2008; 25th anniversary edition, 2009; 30th anniversary edition, 2015).
In terms of sales, Mission Praise was a phenomenally successful publication in the last fifteen years of the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st. Across all its editions, including Junior...
Attitudes towards the use of organs to accompany the congregational singing of hymns and metrical psalms varied dramatically across the centuries and from place to place. Religious zealots denounced them as vainglorious ornaments, whilst musical reformers advocated their use to impose order on undisciplined singing. This makes an account of the subject problematic since almost any statement can be contradicted. It is important to realise that whereas organs were habitually to be found in the...
From the river to the desert. Sylvia Dunstan* (1955-1993).
For the liberal Protestant church the adoption of the Revised Common Lectionary has meant a recovery of the church year and a need for hymns to mark particular events in the life of Christ. 'The Temptation', as Sylvia Dunstan called this hymn, was written for the first Sunday of Lent, 1989: 'I prepared this hymn on the temptation story. It is essentially a conversation between Jesus and Satan, bracketed by narration in the first stanza...
If you are tired of the load of your sin. Lelia Morris* (1862-1929).
This hymn is often known as 'Let Jesus come into your heart', from the second and fourth line of each stanza, and the fourth line of the refrain. Originally there were five stanzas:
If you are tired of the load of your sin, Let Jesus come into your heart; If you desire a new life to begin, Let Jesus come into your heart.
Refrain:
Just now, your doubtings give o'er;Just now, reject Him no more;Just now, throw open the...
OWENS, Jimmy Lloyd. b. Clarksdale, Mississippi, 9 December 1930. After school at Jackson, Mississippi, he attended Millsaps College, and was a jazz band arranger; after a conversion he directed music in several churches in southern California. He married Carol Owens* in 1954. Beginning in the 'Jesus Movement', the Owens were active in writing contemporary Christian musicals, performing and recording in various places in California, and doing musical missions for the Church of the Way in Los...
OWEN, William. b. Prysgol, Caernarvonshire (now Gwynedd), 12 December 1813; d. 20 July 1893. He was a musician who lived at Caerthraw (Gwyrfai district). He wrote anthems and hymn tunes, which he published in Y Perl Cerddorol (1886). His tune PRYSGOL was used in EH for two hymns printed consecutively, 'I lay my sins on Jesus' by Horatius Bonar*, and 'I need Thee, precious Jesus'*, by Frederick Whitfield* (1827-1904). He is best known, however, as the composer of the grand BRYN CALFARIA, set to...
The Galilean fishers toil. Christopher Wordsworth* (1807-1885).
First published in The Holy Year (1862), where it was assigned to the fourth Sunday in Advent. It relates to the Collect for that day which asks God to 'succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us'. It recalls the miraculous draught of fishes, the calming of the storm, Peter's denial...
KUNZE, John Christopher. b. Artern, Saxony, Germany, 5 August 1744; d. New York City, 24 July 1807. A prominent, innovative educator and Lutheran clergyman of Pietist persuasion, Kunze was orphaned in 1758. He attended the orphanage school in Halle, and received a classical education at the gymnasia in Rossleben and Merseburg. He went on to study history, philosophy, and theology at the University of Leipzig, following which he worked as a teacher for three years at Closter-Bergen, near...
English Carols
The carol is in origin a secular round dance with singing, and the English carol is closely connected to the French carole, which flourished from the mid-12th to the mid-14th century. The stanzas, during which, as the word (from Italian stanze) indicates, all stood still, were sung by a solo voice, and all joined in the 'burden' during which the circle dance took place (on the connections between the carol and the goliard, see Goliards*).
The most accessible resources for those...
BLANCHARD, George Bett. b. Ulceby, near Immingham, Lincolnshire, 1856, date unknown; d. Hull, 17 November 1927. Blanchard lived for most of his life in Hull, where he was an active member of Waltham Street Wesleyan Methodist Church, serving as Sunday-School Superintendent, Choirmaster, and Organist. In 1892 he began to supply his own hymns for Sunday-School Anniversaries, two of which were printed in Sunday School Praise (1958): 'Listen to the voice of Jesus'*, and the most unusual 'With a...
EAST, James Thomas. b. Kettering, Northamptonshire, 28 January 1860; d. Blackburn, Lancashire, 28 May 1937. He entered the Wesleyan Methodist ministry in 1886. He served in circuits at Glasgow, Daventry, Peterborough, Redruth, Frome, Driffield, Cradley (Staffordshire), Neath, Clayton-le-Moors (Lancashire), Rochdale, and Blackburn.
East is known for the popular children's hymn, 'Wise men, seeking Jesus'*, which appeared in the Wesleyan Methodist School Hymnal (1911), and in many subsequent...
BAKEWELL, John. b. Brailsford, Derbyshire, 1721, date unknown; d. Lewisham, London, 18 March 1819. He became an evangelist and moved to London where he associated with the early Methodists, beginning to preach for them in 1744. He also had connections with other evangelicals such as Martin Madan* and Augustus Montague Toplady*. He continued to preach for the Wesleyans and was interred in their burial ground at City Road Chapel. He was possibly the author of 'Hail, thou once despised Jesus'*,...
HUTCHINGS, William Medlen. b. Devonport, 28 August 1827; d. Camberwell, London, 21 May 1876. Little is known about him: he is said to have been a printer and publisher, working in London and perhaps in Wigan, Lancashire. He is believed to have been a member of the Congregational church.
Hutchings is thought to have lived and worked at Wigan at some time, because the hymn by which he is remembered, 'When mothers of Salem, their children brought to Jesus', was written for a Sunday-school...
WALKER, Wyatt Tee. b. Brockton, Massachusetts, 16 August 1929; d. Chester, Virginia USA, January 23, 2018. Prominent theologian, author, musician, and social activist, Walker holds the Bachelor of Science in chemistry and physics (1950), the Master of Divinity from Virginia Union University, Richmond, Virginia (1953), and a doctorate in African American studies from Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, Rochester, New York (1975). From 1953-60, Walker was pastor of Gillfield Baptist Church,...
I once was lost in sin ('Just a Little Talk with Jesus'). Cleavant Derricks* (1910–1977).
Derricks' most famous song achieved a status in both Black and White congregations, moving freely between publishers and performers in both communities. The late United Methodist homiletics professor William B. McClain notes that Black musicians freely 'borrowed' musical and lyrical ideas from existing songs in accordance with their immersion in an oral tradition. In McClain's words, 'The dictum was: One...
The Methodist Church Canada, the Congregational Union of Canada and 70% of the Presbyterian Church in Canada united to form The United Church of Canada on 10 June 1925. The first hymnbook of the new church, The Hymnary, was published in Toronto in 1930 by The United Church Publishing House. In 1971 the United Church of Canada and the Anglican Church of Canada issued a joint hymnal entitled The Hymn Book. It was the only product of a thirty-year dialogue towards church union. Voices United: the...
Let all the world in every corner sing. George Herbert* (1593-1633).
From Herbert's posthumous collection The Temple (Cambridge, 1633) where it is entitled 'Antiphon (I)', this was the first of Herbert's poems to be used as a hymn without significant adaptation when it was published in Church Hymns (1871).
An antiphon is 'a composition, in verse or prose, consisting of verses or passages sung alternately by two choirs in worship' (Oxford English Dictionary). In the original poem, this is made...
Matthäus Apelles von Löwenstern
The Reformation and its Impact (1517-1618)
Of the pre-Reformation writers, the one whose work is still used is John Tauler*, one of whose hymns was paraphrased with a first line 'As the bridegroom to his chosen'*. This version by Emma Frances Bevan* was published in her Hymns of Tersteegen, Suso and Others (1894). It was printed in School Worship (1926), but was little known until it was selected for 100HfT (1969) with a new tune (BRIDEGROOM, by Peter Cutts*). It...
Armenian Hymnody
The documented music in Armenian culture is the sacred music associated with the liturgical services of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church. The tradition developed soon after the invention of the Armenian alphabet (405-406). Fragmentary manuscripts of the Sharaknots ('Hymnal') with neumatic (khaz) notation date back to the 8th century. In common with other Christian cultures of the east, Armenian music was exclusively monodic.
During the first centuries of Christianity, the...
Preaching and hymns
From the earliest years of the Christian movement, the followers of Jesus have included in their worship the celebration of the Eucharist, prayers of praise and intercession as well as the singing of hymns and some form of preaching (e.g., 1 Corinthians 14: 1-19; Ephesians 5: 18-20; Colossians 3: 16-17). These activities, or better 'practices,' have thus been central to Christian liturgies in almost all traditions since groups of disciples began to form what we now call...
JONES, Abner. fl. 1830-1860. Around 1815 Jones seems to have lived in Carroll, a town in Chautauqua County, New York. In the 1830s he lived in New York City, near Murray Street Presbyterian Church which supported the founding of Union Seminary, and whose pastor, William D. Snodgrass (1796-1886), may have done some editing with him. Thomas McAuley (1778-1862) succeeded Snodgrass as pastor and became the first President of Union Seminary. Jones also knew Gardiner Spring who was a member of Brick...
Awake, my soul! lift up thine eyes. Anna Letitia Barbauld* (1743-1825).
First published in her friend William Enfield*'s Hymns for Public Worship: selected from various authors, and intended as a supplement to Dr Watts's Psalms (Warrington, 1772), entitled 'The Conflict'. It had six stanzas:
Awake, my soul, lift up thine eyes;See where thy foes against thee rise,In long array, a numerous host;Awake my soul, or thou art lost.
Here giant danger threat'ning standsMustering his pale terrific...
Behold, where breathing love divine. Anna Letitia Barbauld* (1743-1825).
According to JJ, p. 132, this hymn was first found in her friend William Enfield*'s Hymns for Public Worship: selected from various authors, and intended as a supplement to Dr Watts's Psalms (Warrington, 1772), and in Barbauld's (then Lucy Aikin's) Poems (1773). This is the hymn from which stanzas were taken to form the much better known 'Blest is the man whose softening heart*. The full text of eight stanzas will be...
Father, whose everlasting love. Charles Wesley* (1707-88).
First published in Hymns on God's Everlasting Love (1741) in seventeen 4-line stanzas. It was printed in full in the Arminian Magazine, 1788, but not in John Wesley's A Collection of Hymns for the use of the People called Methodists (1780), to which it was added in 1808. It is usually shortened to five or six stanzas.
The occasion for the writing and printing of Hymns on God's Everlasting Love was to make clear the Wesleys' opposition...
ORR, James Edwin. b. Belfast, Northern Ireland, 12 January 1912; d. Asheville, North Carolina, 22 April 1987. As a young man he became a travelling evangelist, beginning in 1933, visiting many countries. It was during one of these visits, to an Easter Conference at Ngaruwahia, New Zealand in 1936, that he wrote the hymn by which he has become known, 'Search me, O God, and know my heart today'*. He later became assistant pastor of the People's Church, Toronto, Canada; he was ordained to the...
Vital spark of heav'nly flame. Alexander Pope (1688-1744).
According to Aelius Spartianus in his Life of the Emperor Hadrian (76-138, Emperor 117-138), Hadrian composed some verses on his death-bed beginning 'Animula vagula, blandula' ('wandering pleasant little soul'). They were translated by Pope, with the title 'Adriani morientis ad Animam, or The Heathen to his Departing Soul'. This shows the dying Hadrian musing on the uncertain future of his soul: 'Whither, oh whither art thou flying!/ To...
COLLYER, William Bengo. b. Deptford, Kent, 14 April 1782; d. Peckham, south London, 9 January 1854. He was educated for the Independent ministry at Homerton College. He became the minister of a small chapel at Peckham, south London in 1800, 'much debased in doctrine' (Duffield, 1886, p. 195). He was ordained to that chapel in 1801. He remained there for more than fifty years, preaching his last sermon one month before his death. He greatly increased the congregation by his eloquent preaching,...
With all thy Pow'r, O Lord, defend. Rowland Hill* (1744-1833).
This is from Hill's A Collection of Hymns, chiefly intended for the Use of the Poor (1776), the second of two hymns for ministers, 'For Ministers at their Arrival', and 'For Ministers at their Departure':
With all thy Pow'r, O Lord, defendHim whom we now to Thee commend;Thy faithful Messenger secure,And make him to the End endure.
Gird him with all-sufficient Grace; Direct his Feet in Paths of Peace; Thy Truth and Faithfulness...
Aeterna Christi munera. Perhaps by Ambrose of Milan* (339/40-397).
This hymn exists in two principal forms, but with many variants:
1. 'Aeterna Christi munera/ Et martyrum victorias'. This hymn was attributed to Ambrose by Bede* in his De arte metrica, and this attribution was accepted by 19th- and early 20th-century editors: Analecta Hymnologica attributes it to Ambrose (50.19), and so does A.S. Walpole (1922, p. 104). The attribution had already been called into question (see JJ, p. 24),...
BROOKS, Arnold. b. Edgbaston, Birmingham, 25 December 1870; d. Edinburgh, 2 July 1933. Brooks was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (BA 1893, MA 1897). After serving a curacy at Bermondsey, London (1897-99), he moved to Scotland and to the Scottish Episcopal Church, becoming a 'licensed curate' of St Peter's, Lutton Place, Edinburgh (1899-1905), and then of St John's, Princes Street, Edinburgh (1905- 09). He was priest-in-charge of St...
As the sun doth daily rise. Horatio Bolton Nelson* (1823-1913).
The origins of this hymn are shrouded in mystery. It was a Latin text, beginning 'Matutinus altiora', translated by a 'J. Masters'. Nothing seems to be known of the Latin text or of its translator. JJ, p. 1579, followed by all commentators, gave the first line of Masters' translation as 'As the sun to brighter skies', and noted that the hymn was described as 'King Alfred's Hymn. Words by O.B.C. Music by Dr Smith'. The entry...
HUMPHREYS, Charles William. b. Oswestry, Shropshire, 1840 (Baptised, 14 September); d. Hastings, Sussex, 1 January 1921. He was educated at King Edward VI School, Birmingham, and became an insurance manager. In Songs of Praise Discussed (p. 160), Percy Dearmer mentions that Humphreys was living in South America at the time of the compilation of EH.
Humphreys wrote the first version, in Common Metre, of 'Strengthen for service, Lord, the hands'*. He also wrote 'From glory to glory advancing, we...
FULBERT of Chartres. b. ca. 960; d. 10 April 1028. Born possibly in Italy, he studied in Rome and later in Rheims. Between 984 and 987 he was at the court of the Frankish king. He moved to Chartres ca. 992, where he held a teaching office and that of singing-master. He was consecrated bishop of Chartres in 1006. He did much to enhance the spiritual and temporal power of the French bishops, and he began the rebuilding of the cathedral after the fire of 1020. The hymns ascribed to him are found...
God of light and life's creation. Michael Arnold Perry* (1942-1996). Unusually, this hymn is based on King Solomon's prayer of dedication in the Jerusalem temple (1 Kings 8, 2 Chronicles 6), seen from a contemporary Christian perspective. It was written at Bitterne, Southampton, in 1976. The occasion was 'Consecration Sunday', close to the church's anniversary, which was used as a time of re-dedication by all the church's leaders. An additional stanza, subsequently dropped, referred to the...
God who gives to life its goodness. Walter Farquharson* (1936-). A summer holiday inspired this two-verse hymn of celebration, written while the Farquharson family camped at Kenosee Lake in Moose Mountain Provincial Park in Saskatchewan.
It was sung at the ecumenical service of dedication for The Hymn Book (1971) organized by the United Church and the Anglican Church of Canada. Within a decade congregations in both churches across Canada knew it so well many had forgotten it was a 'new'...
OSWALD, Heinrich Siegmund. b. near Liegnitz, Silesia (now Legnica, Poland), 30 June 1751; d. Breslau (Wroclaw), 8 September 1834. He was educated locally before becoming Private Secretary to the Landrath von Prittwitz in 1773. He then worked in Hamburg and Breslau before being appointed to the staff of Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia. After the king's death in 1797 he retired, first to Hirschberg and then to Breslau. He is known as the author of 'Wem in Leidenstagen', a hymn of 14 stanzas,...
HUNTER, John. b. Aberdeen, 14 July 1848; d. Hampstead, London, 15 September 1917. He was apprenticed to a draper, but decided to train for the Congregational ministry. He was accepted at Paton Congregational College, Nottingham, which specialised in training young men with unusual qualifications. Dr Paton sent on his best students to Spring Hill College, Birmingham (later Mansfield College, Oxford), and Hunter was duly sent there. He served as a very successful Congregational minister at...
WILKINSON, Katie Barclay (née Kate Johnson). b. Timperley, Cheshire, 27 August 1859; d. South Kensington, London, 28 December 1928. Using the name Katie, she married Frederick Barclay Wilkinson (1854-1937), a commercial clerk, at Altrincham in 1791. Little was known for certain about her well-spent life until Gordon Taylor unearthed details of it, as follows:
she worked with girls and young women in Children's Special Service Mission beach meetings in Colwyn Bay in North Wales (1895-98) and St...
Before the Second Vatican Council, Western hymns in translation and settings of the ordinary of the mass were the primary sources of congregational music among the mainline colonial churches in Eastern Africa, including in Kenya. For Protestants, the spread of Pentecostal songs provided an impetus for change. Oral-tradition adaptations of Western hymns also flourished in African Independent (Initiated) Churches. Nathan J. Corbitt, a missionary ethnomusicologist in Kenya during the early 1980s,...
Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren. Joachim Neander* (1650-1680). First published in A und Ω. Joachimi Neandri Glaub- und Liebesübung: auffgemuntert durch einfältige Bundes Lieder und Danck-Psalmen (Bremen, 1680). It is found in EG in all five verses in the 'Loben und Danken' section (EG 317).
It is Neander's finest hymn, and one of the best known of all German hymns, a magnificent tribute to God as Creator and Preserver. It was written to a tune (in many English-speaking books...
O Lord of hosts, how lovely is your dwelling place. David George Preston* (1939-).
This text was written ca. 1980 at Leicester, where the author then lived and worked with the Inter-Varsity Press. With it, a contemporary paraphrase of a much-acclaimed and popular psalm (84) was wedded to a similarly celebrated and traditional tune, the LONDONDERRY AIR. The words were published in The Book of Praises (1986), and have been reprinted in local collections such as Praises for the King of Kings...
JARVIS, Peter George. b. London, 2 August 1925. He was educated at the King's School, Macclesfield, Cheshire (1934-42), followed by a period working for the Inland Revenue (1942-49). After a year as a pre-collegiate probationer, he studied for the Methodist ministry at Handsworth College (1950-54). He was ordained in 1954, and served in Methodist circuits at Dudley (1954-57), Leighton Buzzard (1957-61), Harrow (1961-67), Reading (1967-72), Tooting Mission (1972-78), Wantage and Abingdon...
ROBINSON, Richard Hayes. b. 1842; d. Bournemouth, Hampshire, 5 November 1892. Educated at King's College, London, he took Holy Orders (deacon 1866, priest 1868). He was curate of St Paul's, Upper Norwood, Surrey, 1869, curate of Weston, Bath, 1872, curate of St Michael's, Bath, 1881, and perpetual curate of St Germans, Blackheath, 1884. During his time at Weston he was Organising Secretary for the National Society (Southern District). He published Thought and Deed: Sermons on Faith and Duty...
The earth is yours. Michael Saward* (1932-2015).
Written in 1971 at Beckenham, Kent, one of no fewer than eight psalm paraphrases written in one evening, Christmas Eve, following the broadcast of the service of Nine Lessons and Carols* from King's College, Cambridge. This is a harvest hymn based on Psalm 65: 9-13. It was published in Psalm Praise (1973), and subsequently in more than twenty books. It uses the Short Metre effectively and simply to give thanks for seed-time, growth, and harvest,...
When all thy mercies, O my God. Joseph Addison* (1672-1719).
From The Spectator, no 453, Saturday, 9 August 1712. It had thirteen stanzas, taking the narrative from the development of the foetus ('When in the silent womb I lay') to babyhood ('hung upon the breast') through the 'infant heart' and 'the slippery paths of youth' to adulthood, when the singer/speaker has been saved from danger, vice, and sickness. Most hymnbooks print a selection of stanzas, ending with gratitude in this world...
GILL, William Henry. b. Marsala, Sicily, 24 October 1839; d. Worthing, Sussex, 27 June 1923. The son of a Manx family, he was educated at King William's College, Castletown, Isle of Man. He worked as a civil servant in London for forty years, and in that time transcribed and published Manx National Songs (1896) and A Manx Wedding and Other Songs (Abingdon, 1900). He wrote a number of hymns, including 'Father of all, thy never-dying love'. The best known is 'The Manx Fishermen's Evening Hymn',...
Lord, the light of your love is shining. Graham Kendrick* (1950- ).
Written in 1987, this song is universally known by the opening of its chorus, 'Shine, Jesus, shine', which is also (as often in Kendrick's work) the name of the tune, SHINE, JESUS, SHINE. Kendrick himself has described it as 'a prayer for revival', adding:
I had been thinking for some time about the holiness of God, and how that as a community of believers and as individuals, His desire is for us to live continually in His...
Morning breaks upon the tomb. William Bengo Collyer* (1782-1854).
First published in Collyer's Hymns partly collected and partly original (1812), with the title 'Jesus Rising . An Easter Hymn', and signed 'W.B.C.'
Morning breaks upon the tomb, Jesus dissipates its gloom! Day of triumph through the skies - See the glorious Saviour rise!
Christians dry your flowing tears, Chase those unbelieving fears; Look on his deserted grave, Doubt no more his power to save.
Ye who are of death afraid,...
APPLEFORD, Patrick Robert Norman. b. Croydon, Surrey, 4 May 1925; d. 9 December 2018. Educated at Hurstpierpoint College, Sussex, Trinity College, Cambridge, and Chichester Theological College (deacon 1952, priest 1953). He was curate at All Saints' with St Frideswide, Poplar, East London (1952-58); chaplain and lecturer, Bishop's College, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire (1958-61); and Education Secretary for the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (1961-66). He was Dean of Holy Cross...
What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought ('Since Jesus came into my heart'). Rufus Henry McDaniel* (1850–1940).
This hymn is often known as 'Since Jesus came into my heart'. McDaniel wrote it in 1914, after the tragic loss of his youngest son Herschel in 1913 as a way to honor him (Cottrill, 2010). It first appeared in The Message in Song, Nos. 1 and 2 (Philadelphia, 1914) compiled by Arthur S. Magann, Charles F. Allen, and John F. Hills, with a musical setting by Charles...
THOMPSON, Will Lamartine. b. Smith's Ferry, Pennsylvania, 7 November 1847; d. New York City, 20 September 1909. Thompson was the son of a prominent merchant banker and state legislator. He attended Mount Union College, Ohio, the Boston School of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston. He then studied at the Leipzig Conservatory of Music, Leipzig, Germany. In 1875 he settled in East Liverpool, Ohio, and founded the Will L. Thompson Co., a music publisher and retail sales...
SPARROW-SIMPSON, William John. b. London, 20 June 1859; d. Ilford, Essex, 13 February 1952. He was educated at St Paul's School, London, and Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1882, MA 1886, BD 1909, DD 1911). His initial ministry was in London, where he was curate of Christ Church, Albany Street (1882-88), then vicar of St Mark's Church, Regent's Park (1888-1904). In 1904 he moved to Essex, where he became chaplain of St Mary's Hospital, Ilford, an ancient charitable foundation; from 1919 he was...
WARNER, Anna Bartlett. b. New York, 31 August 1827; d. Constitution Island, 22 January 1915. Born at New York, she moved with her family in 1837 to a farmhouse on Constitution Island, on the Hudson River, after the failure of her father's real estate speculation. She and her sister, Susan Bogert Warner*, wrote many novels, Susan very successfully. Anna used the pseudonym 'Amy Lothrop'. She also wrote hymns for the Sunday school, and translated hymns from French and German. She compiled Hymns of...
O let the heart beat high with bliss. Latin, 15th century, translated by Percy Dearmer*.
The Latin text, 'Exultet cor praecordiis', was found in a Sarum Breviary of 1495, and is in two 16th-century Breviaries, Hereford (1505) and Aberdeen (1510) (Frost, 1962, p. 520). A translation in five stanzas was made for the First Edition of A&M (1861), beginning 'Let every heart exulting beat', and placed in the 'General Hymns'. It was not included in the Second Edition (1875), nor in any subsequent...
Aeterne Rex altissime. Latin, 9th century or earlier.
This anonymous hymn was cited by Gottschalk of Orbais* in the 9th century, and entered the liturgical tradition as an Ascension hymn in the 9th-century New Hymnal (see 'Medieval hymns and hymnals*). It continued in use throughout the middle ages, in (for example) the Dominican* and Cistercian* hymnals as well as in Benedictine liturgical practices. It was included in the 1632 printed Roman Breviary; this text was edited in the 19th century,...
BENSON, Arthur Christopher. b. Crowthorne, Berkshire, 24 April 1862; d. Cambridge, 17 June 1925. He was the son of Edward White Benson*, who was Headmaster of Wellington College, Crowthorne, at the time of his birth, and subsequently Archbishop of Canterbury. The younger Benson was educated at Eton, and King's College, Cambridge (BA 1884). He taught at Eton, 1885-1903, resigning to become a full-time writer. He went to live at Cambridge, where he was elected to a Fellowship at Magdalene College...
Cantico di frate sole. St Francis (ca. 1181/2-1226).
This hymn, 'Canticle of brother son, praise of all creation', ('laude della creatur') is believed to be the earliest Italian Laude spirituale. It may have been written over a period of time, and finished (with the reference to death) in 1225, at a time when St Francis was suffering greatly in mind and body. It has affinities with Psalm 148, but adds its own uniquely affectionate wording, praising the elements of the creation in terms of...
Christian Carolina Anna Burke. b. London, 18 September 1859: d. Saffron Walden, Essex, 4 March 1944. There is not much information available about Christian Burke. It is Frost who gives her second name as 'Carolina', and her place of death as Saffron Walden (1962, p. 540). According to James Mearns*, she was living in Highgate, London, in 1906 (JJ, p. 1617). She must have been well known as a writer on religious topics. During the 1880s and 1890s she published several books or tracts: Jim: a...
The Colored Sacred Harp (Ozark, Alabama, 1934; Montgomery, Alabama, 2004) is a collection of 77 shape-note pieces. It was the result of the work of Judge Jackson (1883-1958) and members of a committee appointed by the Dale County Colored Musical Institute and the Alabama and Florida Union State Convention.
Sacred Harp singing had started with the publication of B. F. White* and Elisha J. King*'s The Sacred Harp (Philadelphia, 1844). Since the 1870s, African Americans had held singing...
For my sake and the Gospel's, go. Edward Henry Bickersteth* (1825-1906)
Bickersteth was a strong supporter of Christian missions. This hymn was first published in The Church Missionary Hymnbook (1899). It was written for, and perhaps inspired by, the splendid tune by Arthur Sullivan*, BISHOPGARTH. Sullivan's tune had been written two years earlier to words written for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria by William Walsham How*, 'O King of kings, Whose reign of old'*. Sullivan hoped that the...
BURTON, Henry. b. Swannington, Leicestershire, 26 November 1840; d. West Kirby, Hoylake, Cheshire, 27 April 1930. As a young man Burton went with his family when they emigrated to the USA in 1856. They settled in Wisconsin, and Henry studied at Beloit College, then fairly new (founded 1846). He became a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was in charge of a church at Monroe, Wisconsin, for a short time. He then returned to Britain: he was ordained into the Wesleyan Methodist...
GRAMANN, Johann. b. Neustadt-an-der-Aisch (north-west of Nürnberg), 5 July 1487; d. Königsberg, 29 April 1541. He was educated at Leipzig, where he became rector of the Thomasschule. During the famous disputation at Leipzig in 1519 between Luther* and the Dominican Johannes Eck, Gramann was so impressed by Luther that he went to study at Wittenberg. He became a Lutheran pastor, succeeding Paul Speratus* as cathedral preacher at Würzburg in 1522. In 1525, at the suggestion of Duke Albrecht of...
DARWALL, John. b. Haughton, near Stafford, 27 December 1731 (baptised 13 January 1732); d. Walsall, Staffordshire, 18 December 1789. The son of the rector of Haughton, Randle Darwall, he was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Brasenose College, Oxford. He took Holy Orders (deacon 1756, priest 1757), becoming curate of Haughton, and then Bushbury, 1757, followed by Trysull, 1758. He moved to St Matthew's, Walsall, in 1761, becoming vicar in 1769, and remaining there until his death. He...
WILKES, John. dates unknown, perhaps 1823-1882. John Wilkes is given as the arranger of MONKLAND, the tune named after the village in Herefordshire of which Sir Henry Williams Baker* was squire and vicar. It was set in the First Edition of A&M (1861) and in subsequent editions to Baker's 'Praise, O praise our God and King'*. The tune had been composed by John Antes*, and had appeared in a Moravian book, The Hymn Tunes of the Church of the Brethren (1824), compiled by John Lees (1773-1839)...
PESTEL (Pestell), Thomas. b. Leicester, 1586 (baptized 9 October); d. Leicester, 1667 (buried 2 July). He was the son of a tailor who must have been prosperous and well connected, because Pestel's career was determined by patronage. He was an undergraduate at Queens' College, Cambridge; after ordination he was presented to the living of Coleorton, Leicestershire by Sir Thomas Beaumont (1611). He became vicar of the next village, Packington, in 1622, holding both appointments until he...
Sweetly, Lord, have we heard Thee calling. Mary Bridges Canedy Slade* (1826-1882).
This has been Slade's most popular hymn from its first appearance onwards. It was published in The Amaranth (Nashville, Tennessee, 1871), compiled by Atticus Greene Haygood and Rigdon M. McIntosh* (http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/f/o/o/t/footstep.htm).
It had a refrain and seven stanzas: the refrain was:
Footprints of Jesus, That make the pathway glow; We will follow the steps of Jesus Where'er thy...
Annue Christi saeculorum Domine. Latin, before 11th century.
This hymn, 'Grant us, O Christ, lord of the ages', was used at Vespers on the Feasts of individual Apostles, and was included in the late-tenth century Anglo-Saxon hymnals associated with the Benedictine reforms at Canterbury* and Winchester*. It was quite widely used in the middle ages, including by the Carmelites* in their distinctive feast in honour of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The hymn has four stanzas succeeded...
Ich bin ein Gast auf Erden. Paul Gerhardt* (1607-1676).
First published in Johann Georg Ebeling*'s Pauli Gerhardti Geistliche Andachten Bestehend in hundert und zwantzig Liedern (Berlin, 1666-67). It was headed 'Auß dem 119. Psalm Davids'. It had fourteen 8-line stanzas. EG 529 shortens it by omitting verses 4b, 5 and 6a:
GerhardtJohn Kelly
4b. Wie mußte doch sich schmiegen Der Vater Abraham, Eh als ihm sein Vergnügen Und rechte Wohnstatt kam!
5. Wie manche schwere Bürde Trug Isaak, sein...
Hymns of Universal Praise (Putian Songzan, 普天頌讚) (Shanghai, 1936; Hong Kong, 1977, 2006)
The first edition of Hymns of Universal Praise (hereafter HUP) (Shanghai, 1936) was a project led by Chinese theologian and hymnwriter Timothy T'ing Fang Lew* (Liu) (劉廷芳) (1891–1947) and edited by Methodist missionary Bliss Wiant* (1895–1975). It was published in China as a joint project of six colonial denominations who had established mission work in pre-Communist China. Andrew Granade and Anping Wu...
As inhabitants of the territory north of the Lower Danube, Romanians participated in Byzantine culture, in common with most Christian peoples in the region. The principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia were established in the 14th century and organized into two metropolitan churches dependent on Constantinople. This was followed by the spreading of Slavonic hymns and, secondarily, of Greek hymns, in forms almost identical to those of the Romanians' southern neighbours. Hymn books spread from...
Come, Christians, join to sing. Christian Henry Bateman* (1813–1889).
This hymn was published in Bateman's Sacred Melodies for Children (Edinburgh, 1843) in five stanzas with the first line as 'Come, children, join to sing'. The number of stanzas was reduced to three in Melodies for Sabbath Schools and Families (1854). The inspiration for the hymn came directly from an earlier text by the British educational writer William Edward Hickson*, 'Join now in praise, and sing', published in an...
BROWNLIE, John. b. Glasgow, 3 August 1857; d. Crieff, Perthshire, 18 November 1925. He was educated at the University of Glasgow and the Free Church College, Glasgow. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Glasgow in 1884, and was appointed assistant minister, Trinity Free Church of Scotland, Portpatrick, Wigtownshire (south-west Scotland). He remained there for most of his life, succeeding the senior minister in 1890 and becoming a distinguished and active participant in local affairs (for...
Come, every soul by sin oppressed. John H. Stockton* (1813-1877).
The words and music first appeared under the title 'Come to Jesus' in Notes of Joy for the Sabbath School, edited by 'Mrs. Joseph F. Knapp' (Phoebe Palmer Knapp*) (New York, 1869), and it was used by Ira D. Sankey* in the Moody* and Sankey evangelistic campaign in Britain in 1873. It was published in Stockton's Salvation Melodies No. 1 (Philadelphia, 1874) and in Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos (1875 edition). It appeared in The...
HEWITT, Eliza Edmunds. b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 28 June 1851; d. Philadelphia, 24 April 1920. Eliza Hewitt spent her entire life in the city of her birth. She taught school there, after being educated at the Girls' Normal School, until she was incapacitated by a spinal injury for some time. Initially active in Olivet Presbyterian Church, Hewitt worked at the Northern Home for Friendless Children, and later as a Sunday-school superintendent at Calvin Presbyterian Church. Publishing various...
STANFIELD, Francis. b. probably at Camden, London, 5 November 1835; d. Clapton, east London, 12 May 1914. His family lived at Camden from 1832 to 1839. He was the son of Clarkson Stanfield (1793-1867), the theatrical and landscape painter, and friend of Charles Dickens. Clarkson Stanfield became an increasingly devout Roman Catholic in his later years. Two of his children, Francis and Raymund, became Catholic priests. Francis, a convert to Catholicism like his father, was ordained in 1860 and...
What can wash away my sin. Robert Lowry* (1826-1899).
First published in Gospel Music (New York, 1876), compiled by Lowry and William Howard Doane*, with the first line as 'What can wash away my stain?' . It is based on Hebrews 9: 22. It is normally given the title 'Nothing but the Blood', referring to the repeated lines 2 and 4 of each stanza.
It had six stanzas. Some books, such as Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos, editions of the Baptist Hymnal and UMH, and the British Song Book of the...
MURRAY, Anthony Gregory (monastic name) OSB. b. Fulham, London, 27 February 1905; d. 19 January 1992. He was educated at Westminster Cathedral Choir School (1914-20) and St Benedict's Priory School, Ealing (1920-22). He entered Downside Abbey as a monk in 1922, and read History at Cambridge University (1926-29). He was organist and choirmaster at Downside from 1929 to 1941. He was parish priest at Ealing, (1941-46), Hindley, near Wigan, (1948-52), and Stratton on the Fosse (Downside)...
FRANKLIN, Kirk Dewayne. b. Fort Worth, Texas, 26 January 1970. Kirk Franklin is a contemporary artist and composer who has been dubbed the 'reigning king of urban gospel music' (Jackson, 2003, n.p.). Viewed as an iconoclast in the popular sacred music industry, Franklin often composes songs with a radical social theme within a genre whose audience is mostly conservative and seeking a positive, uplifting message. Various online sources indicate that his musical education began with piano...
MATHIAS, William James. b. Whitland, Pembrokeshire, 1 November 1934; d. Anglesey, 29 July 1992. Mathias studied at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth and at the Royal Academy of Music with Sir Lennox Berkeley. He established himself as one of the most distinctive and accessible composers of his generation and became particularly celebrated for his church and choral music.
In 1981 he composed an anthem 'Let the People Praise Thee, O God' (Psalm 67) — for the Wedding in St. Paul's...
Christe qui lux es et dies. Latin, before 9th century, author unknown.
This hymn is in the Ambrosian metre, but is thought not to be by him.'Christe qui lux es et dies' was quoted by Hincmar of Rheims in his controversy with Gottschalk of Orbais*, in Hincmar's Collectio de una et non trina deitate (857). See JJ, p. 227. It was included in the Old Hymnal. The hymn is mentioned in Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 28118, an early 9th century manuscript containing Caesarius of Arles Rule...
Blest is the man whose softening heart. Anna Letitia Barbauld* (1743-1825).
This text is taken from the hymn beginning 'Behold, where breathing love divine'*, first published in her friend William Enfield*'s Hymns for Public Worship: selected from various authors, and intended as a supplement to Dr Watts's Psalms (Warrington, 1772), where it was entitled 'Christian Charity'. It had eight stanzas. The present hymn starts at stanza 3. It was published in Barbauld's Poems (1773) as 'Hymn IV'...
LYON, James. b. Newark, New Jersey, 1 July 1735; d. Machias, Maine, 12 October 1794. Lyon was a Presbyterian minister, patriot, tunebook compiler, and composer. He is known primarily for compiling the tunebook Urania.
Lyon was the son of Zopher Lyon (1717-1744) and Mary Wood Lyon (1716-1746). Little is known of his childhood and musical training. He attended the College of New Jersey, then known as Nassau Hall, a large building completed in 1756 (now Princeton University). The 1759...
Presbyterian hymnody, Canadian
Canadian Presbyterian congregations for the most part have adopted hymnals sanctioned by their General Assemblies for congregational singing of hymns: Hymnal of the Presbyterian Church in Canada was issued in 1880 (full music edition in 1881), and The Book of Praise in 1897, 1918, 1972 and 1997.
Two seminal figures in the hymnody of the early Presbyterian Church in Canada were Daniel James Macdonnell (1843-1896), whose career within the church is extensively...
CAMPBELL-WILLIAMS, Lucie Eddie. b. Duck Hill, Mississippi, 30 April 1885; d. Nashville, Tennessee, 3 January 1963.
Early years, education, and career
Hymn writer, singer, music director, educator, and mentor to scores of African American church musicians, Campbell, one of nine children, was the daughter of formerly enslaved African Americans in Mississippi. She rose to be one of the most important figures of her era in African American gospel song, and the most prominent voice in shaping the...
Behold the messengers of Christ. Jean-Baptiste de Santeuil* (1630-1697) translated by Isaac Williams* (1802-1865), altered by the compilers of A&M.
This is a translation of de Santeuil's Latin hymn, 'Christi perennis Nuntii', from his Hymni Sacri et Novi (Paris, 1689), used for Vespers and Nocturns in the Paris Breviary (1736) for the Feasts of St Mark (25 April) and St Luke (18 October). The Latin text began:
Christi perennes Nuntii, Retecta qui caelestibusScriptis Dei mysteriaTotem per...
For ever with the Lord. James Montgomery* (1771-1854).
First published in The Amethyst: or Christian's Annual for 1834, in which there were twenty-two 4-line stanzas, in three parts: 4 stanzas; 9 stanzas; and 9 stanzas. It was published again in Montgomery's Poet's Portfolio (1835), in two parts of (1) 9 stanzas and (2) 13 stanzas. It was entitled 'At Home in Heaven. 1 Thess. 4: 17'. In the edition of Montgomery's Poetical Works of 1873, it was titled 'Anticipations of Heaven'. It contained a...
In Gottes Namen fahren wir. German, 13th century and after.
This is the German pilgrims' hymn, probably dating from the time when pilgrimages became an important part of the religious life of the Middle Ages. For those who could travel, there were journeys to be made from all parts of Europe to Jerusalem, Rome, or Santiago de Compostella, and in England to Canterbury or Durham. 'The five hundred years from the early 11th to the early 16th century were the golden age of pilgrimage in Europe. It...
KEBLE, John. b. Fairford, Gloucestershire, 25 April 1792; d. Bournemouth, 29 March 1866. The son of a clergyman, he was educated at home and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, to which he won a scholarship in 1806, at the age of 14. He graduated with a 'Double First' (First Class in Honour Moderations and in Finals) in 1811. He took Holy Orders (deacon 1815, priest 1816), and became a Tutor at Oriel College in 1817. As a young and brilliant figure in Oxford, he exercised a considerable...
Lord, in this Thy mercy's day. Isaac Williams* (1802-1865).
This is from Williams's The Baptistery; or, The Way of Eternal Life (1842). This book consisted of 32 'Images'. This hymn was from 'Image the Twenty-second', a long poem entitled 'The Day of Days; or, the Great Manifestation'. It had 105 three-line stanzas (the stanza form probably modelled on the 'Dies irae, dies illa'*). It was prefaced by Ecclesiastes 12: 14: 'God shall bring every work into judgement, with every secret thing,...
O Welt, ich muss dich lassen. Attributed to Johannes Hesse* (1490-1547). This is a religious adaptation of an Austrian song, 'Innsbruck, ich muß dich laßen', a traditional folk song (see 'Austrian hymnody'*). It is printed in two texts by Wackernagel, Das Deutsche Kirchenlied III. 952-4, both of which emphasise the journey to heaven rather than a worldly journey. Wackernagel speculates that it was written for a particular person or special event. JJ (where the hymn is found under 'Hesse')...
O Word of God above. Isaac Williams* (1802-1865).
First published in the publication that was sympathetic to Tractarian views and to the Oxford Movement*, the British Magazine, in July 1837. It was then included in Williams's Hymns translated from the Parisian Breviary (1839). It was a translation of a hymn by a Jesuit, Charles Guiet (1601-1664), beginning 'Patris aeterni soboles coaeva' ('Issue of the eternal Father') published in a Paris Breviary of 1680 and in later editions. In 1839...
CHOPE, Richard Robert. b. 21 September 1830; d. 29 May 1928. He received his education at Exeter College, Oxford (BA 1855). A year later he took Holy Orders and became curate of Holy Trinity, Stapleton, north east of Bristol, whose new Gothic church, built by John Norton, was opened in 1857. Although Chope was at Stapleton for no more than two years, his interest in the activities of the church choir there, the current enthusiasm for hymn-singing, and the publication of new hymnbooks,...
COPELAND, William John. b. Chigwell, Essex, 1 September 1804; d. Farnham, Surrey, 25 August 1885. He was educated at St Paul's School and Trinity College, Oxford (BA 1829, MA 1831, BD 1840). He was a Fellow of the College, and Dean (1832-49). During this time he translated and edited Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, and Homilies on the Epistle to the Ephesians of S John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople (Oxford, 1848). He took Holy Orders ( deacon 1829, priest 1830) and...
The Churches of Christ in the United States trace their beginnings to 1906 when they became generally recognized as a distinct Christian group of congregations. These congregations were previously associated with the Restoration Movement, also known as the Stone-Campbell Movement (Foster, p. 1779; see Disciples of Christ hymnody*). Because there are no national administrative offices, boards, publishing houses, or conferences, it is difficult to refer to them as a 'denomination'. Indeed, there...
Jesu, my Lord, my God, my all. Henry Collins* (1827-1919).
Published in Collins's Hymns for Missions (Leeds, 1854, later republished in London), the book compiled during his brief tenure of a post in the Church of England. It is one of only two hymns by Collins in that book.
It bears a striking – and confusing – resemblance to a hymn by Frederick William Faber* for the Feast of Corpus Christi, published in his Hymns (1849) and in his Jesus and Mary (1849), beginning
Jesus! my Lord, my God, my...
TALBOT, Ellen Alice ('Nellie'). b. Debenham, Suffolk, 3 November 1861; d. Portsmouth, Hampshire, 3 June 1950. Until recently little was known about Nellie Talbot, but new research has her date of birth and death as above. It comes from an article in The Hymn, 76/3 (Summer 2025) by Toni Thomas, Brett Nelson, and Brent Yorgason. This article convincingly disposes of earlier attempts to identify the author of Jesus wants me for a sunbeam*: that she was an American from Missouri living in Chicago,...
The prize is set before us. Christopher Rubey Blackall* (1830-1924).
According to JJ, p. 144, this was written for the Sunday school of the Second Baptist Church, Chicago, Illinois, in 1874, and set to music by Horatio Richmond Palmer* (1834-1907). It was published in Palmer's Songs of Love for the Bible School (1871), and later in Ira D. Sankey*'s Sacred Songs and Solos (1881 edition), where it remains, with Palmer's tune, to this day. It was also included in Palmer's Book of Gems for the...
British Public School hymnody.
'What is a college without a chapel?' Bishop Christopher Wordsworth* asked a canon of Winchester Cathedral. 'An angel without wings' was the reply. This incident neatly expresses the central importance of daily worship in the life of a Victorian educational institution in Britain. Wordsworth was referring to a teacher training college, but his remark applied equally to a public school. It was these leading boys' schools that educated many of the professional men...
The original Jubilee Singers was a choral group of students sponsored by Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee (founded 1866), and sponsored by the American Missionary Association (see Anderson 2010). From Oct. 1872 until June 1878 the singers toured the northern U.S. and England, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, Switzerland, and Germany singing a repertory of hymns, parlor songs, and most significantly, spirituals. They were responsible for popularizing spirituals in mainstream white society and...
WILLCOCKS, (Sir) David Valentine. b. Newquay, Cornwall, 30 December 1919; d. Cambridge, 17 September 2015. A chorister at Westminster Abbey between 1929 and 1933, and a schoolboy at Clifton College, he pursued his musical studies at the Royal College of Music before going on to King's College, Cambridge as an organ scholar during the period of Boris Ord* (1897-1961, see 'Adam lay y-bounden'*) as director of music. There he also held the John Stewart of Rannoch scholarship in sacred music, as...
Our earth we now lament to see. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
This was 'Hymn II' in Hymns of Intercession for All Mankind (1758). It was entitled 'For Peace'. The hymns are an extraordinary demonstration of Methodist loyalty in time of war, with Hymn X entitled 'For His Majesty King George', Hymn XI 'For the Prince of Wales', followed by no fewer than four hymns 'For the King of Prussia'. Others are 'For the Magistrates', 'For the Parliament', 'For the Army',...
1788-1859
The European phase of Australian history commenced with the establishment in 1788 of a penal settlement to which prisoners or convicts were transported from England, Ireland and Scotland to serve out their sentences. Little evidence concerning the singing of hymns in this settlement or elsewhere in the earliest years has survived, although it is clear that hymns were greatly treasured by individuals and groups. An early chronicler recorded that the first service in Melbourne was...
STONE, D (orothy) Helen. Dates unknown, late 19th or early 20th century (unconfirmed b. Bristol, 1890; d. Bristol 16 April 1954). This author contributed four hymns to Hosanna: A Book of Praise for Young Children, ed. T. Grigg-Smith, Charles Wood* and H. Middleton (1930). One of them, 'For sunshine and the whistling breeze' was in The School Hymn-Book of the Methodist Church (1950); another, 'I can picture Jesus toiling'*, became much better known. It was included in CP, CH3, and WOV. Except...
HOPPER, Edward. b. New York City, 17 February 1816; d. New York City, 23 April 1888 [not to be confused with the USA painter Edward Hopper, 1882-1967]. Hopper graduated from New York University (1839), and Union Theological Seminary (1842). He led the Sag Harbor Presbyterian Church on Long Island for 11 years, and spent the remainder of his life at the Church of the Sea and Land, in New York City, where he became well-known for his ministry to sailors; nautical imagery is apparent in his best...
SMITH, Elizabeth Lee (née Allen). b. 3 September 1817; d. 1898, date unknown. Born Elizabeth Allen, she was the daughter of William Allen (1808-1882), a distinguished clergyman and academic who became President of Dartmouth College (1817-20) and of Bowdoin College (1820-39). Her father edited a collection, Psalms and Hymns (1835). Elizabeth married (1843) Henry Boynton Smith (1815-1877), who later (1850) became a Professor at Union Theological Seminary, New York. She was a good linguist,...
BERRIDGE, John. b. Kingston, Nottinghamshire, 1 March 1716; d. Everton, Bedfordshire, 22 January 1793. He was educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge (BA 1738, MA 1732). He took Holy Orders, and was a Fellow of Clare (now Clare College). He was curate of Stapleford, near Cambridge (1749-55), and then vicar of Everton, near Potton, Bedfordshire, from 1755 until his death. He was chaplain to the Earl of Buchan.
He was associated with Methodists of both kinds (Calvinist and Arminian), and was friendly...
PARKER, William Henry. b. Basford, Nottingham, 4 March 1845; d. Basford, 2 December 1929. He was apprenticed as a machine-constructor in a lace-making factory, and later worked for an insurance company, of which he became head. He became an active member of Chelsea Street Baptist Church, Nottingham, and a teacher in the Sunday School. He published a book of verse, The Princess Alice and Other Poems (1882), and wrote hymns for Sunday School Anniversaries. Ten were printed in the Sunday School...
FEATHERSTON, William Ralph. b. Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 23 July 1846; d. Montreal, 20 May 1873. Featherston died at the age of 26, and little is known about his life. He was a member of the Wesleyan Methodist church in Montreal. He is normally accepted as the author of the famous Gospel hymn, 'My Jesus I love Thee, I know Thou art mine'*. Information about this hymn is uncertain, but it is believed to have been written at some point between 1858 and 1864, when it was published anonymously in...
HOFFMAN, Elisha Albright. b. Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania, 7 May 1839; d. Chicago, Illinois, 25 November 1929. Hoffman was an Evangelical Association minister's son (his middle name was given in honour of the founder of the Association, Jacob Albright). After fighting on the Union side in the Civil War, he attended Union Bible Seminary in New Berlin, Pennsylvania, and was ordained in 1868 by the Evangelical Association. He worked with the Association's publishing arm in Cleveland, Ohio (1868-79)....
Father, I adore you. Terry Coelho* (1952- ).
Dated 1972, this was copyrighted by Maranatha! Music. It has three stanzas. The first is 'Father, I adore you/ And I lay my life before you/ How I love you'. The second stanza begins 'Jesus…' and the third 'Spirit…'. It has become very popular, and is translated into other languages.
JRW
Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ. Martin Luther* (1483-1546), stanzas 2-7; pre-Reformation, stanza 1.
The first stanza of this hymn dates from the 14th century: it is one of the German hymns found in the Medingen collections (see Northern German devotional manuscripts*) . It exists in a number of German forms, deriving from the Christmas Latin sequence 'Grates nunc omnes reddamus Domino Deo, qui sua nativitate nos liberavit de diabolica potestate' ('Now let all give thanks to God, who in his...
He stood before the court. Christopher Martin Idle* (1938- ).
This hymn for Passiontide was written at Limehouse, east London, in June 1980. Idle had been moved by an address by Gordon Fyles, then ministering in Islington, London, on John 19. Fyles showed that Jesus was our representative not only on the cross but also at his trial: his silence before Pilate, and the reference to Romans 8: 1, follow from that.
The verb 'to stand' has a long history as a signifier of steadfastness, from...
HEMY, Henri Friedrich. b. Newcastle upon Tyne, 12 November 1818; d. Hartlepool, County Durham, 10 June 1888. Born to Roman Catholic German parents (the name is pronounced 'Hemmy'), he was educated at Newcastle and became organist of St Andrew's Church (Catholic) in the city. He taught at Tynemouth and then at Ushaw College, Durham. He published Easy Hymn Tunes with the Words in full, adapted for Catholic Schools (1851) and a highly regarded instruction book for the piano (1858). He is chiefly...
SCHWARZBURG-RUDOLSTADT, Ludämilia Elisabeth. b. Heidecksberg, near Rudolstadt, 7 April 1640; d. Rudolstadt, 12 March 1672. Of noble birth, she was privately educated at Rudolstadt: she was 'a good Latin scholar, and well read in divinity and other branches of learning' (JJ, p. 701). From 1665 to 1670 she lived with her mother at the castle of Friedensburg. On her return to Rudolstadt she was engaged to be married, but an epidemic of measles carried off her sister, Sophie Juliane. Nursing her,...
That boy-child of Mary. Tom Colvin* (1925-2000).
Written in Malawi to a traditional dance tune. The theme of naming reflects the fact that in Africa generally the name given is carefully chosen to express the hopes the family has for the child or to record the events associated with his/her birth. Here, through the naming of Jesus and the circumstances of his birth, the meaning of the Incarnation is simply and tellingly expressed. The song is shared between a soloist and a wider group.
Douglas...
The happy morn is come. Thomas Haweis* (1734-1820). From Haweis's Carmina Christo, or, Hymns to the Saviour (1792). It is an Easter hymn, with the second line normally 'Triumphant o'er the grave', though there are variations. In the USA it was reprinted in The Sabbath Hymn Book: for the Service of Song in the House of the Lord, edited by Lowell Mason*, Edwards Amasa Park, and Austin Phelps (New York and Boston, 1858) as 'The happy morn is come' with a reference to Psalm 68: 18: 'Thou hast led...
DYKES BOWER, (Sir) John. b. Gloucester, 13 August 1905; d. Orpington, Kent, 29 May 1981. 'DB' (as he was universally known) was one of four unmarried sons of a Gloucester ophthalmic surgeon who was a keen amateur musician (great-grandson of John Bacchus Dykes*): all four were not only distinguished in their chosen professions but inherited their father's skill in music and interest in architecture. In particular, Stephen Dykes Bower (1908-94) was a talented amateur organist and by profession an...
GRANT, John Webster. b. Truro, Nova Scotia, 27 June 1919; d. Toronto, 16 December 2006. He was educated at Pictou Academy and Dalhousie University, Halifax (BA 1938, MA 1941). He attended Princeton University on a graduate scholarship before enrolling in Pine Hill Divinity Hall at Halifax. Ordained to the ministry of the United Church of Canada in 1943, he was appointed director of information to the non-Roman Catholic churches with the Wartime Information Board and chaplain to the Royal...
Judge eternal, throned in splendour. Henry Scott Holland* (1847-1918).
Headed 'Prayer for the Nation', this hymn first appeared in the Christian Social magazine edited by Holland, Commonwealth, in July 1902, and then in EH (1906):
Judge eternal, throned in splendour, Lord of lords and King of kings,With thy living fire of judgement Purge this realm of bitter things:Solace all its wide dominion With the healing of thy wings.
Still the weary folk are pining For the hour that brings...
KOMITAS. Komitas I Aghtsetsi, Catholicos of All Armenians. b. ca. 560; d. 628. A well-known churchman, poet, and musician. When he was Catholicos (primate) of the Armenian church (615-628) the relics of a group of nuns, headed by Gayanē and including Hrip'simē, who was of famed beauty, were discovered in Edjmiadsin. Komitas constructed the Church of St. Hrip'simē in 618, where the remains were interned, and composed the hymn 'Andzink' nvirealk'' ('Devoted souls') to celebrate the occasion. He...
My country, 'tis of thee. Samuel F. Smith* (1808-1895).
Written in 1831, this hymn was first sung on 4 July 1831 at an Independence Day celebration of the Boston Sabbath School Union at Park Street Congregational Church, Boston, Massachusetts. It had five stanzas. The original stanza 3, with its reference to British tyranny, was omitted from subsequent printings:
No more shall tyrants here
With haughty steps appear,
And soldier bands;
No more shall tyrants tread
Above the patriot dead...
O holy night, the stars are brightly shining. John Sullivan Dwight* (1813-1893), from the French of Placide Cappeau* (1808-1877).
This is a translation of Placide Cappeau's Christmas hymn, 'Minuit, chrétiens, c'est l'heure solennelle'*. It dates from 1855. An edition with French and German texts only was published in England in 1852; another (n.d., with English words by C.L. Kenney) was one of many published in England and France. In the USA 'O holy night' appeared in the Plymouth Sunday-School...
WESLEY, Samuel (III). b. Bristol, 24 February 1766; d. 11 October 1837. He was the younger son of Charles Wesley*, the nephew of John Wesley*, the brother of Charles Wesley (II)*, and the father of Samuel Sebastian Wesley*. He converted to Roman Catholicism in 1784, and although he did not remain for long an observant Roman Catholic, he retained a love of, and fascination with, Roman Catholic church music and ritual for the rest of his life. For many years he was involved with the music of the...
DAVIES, (Sir) (Henry) Walford. b. Oswestry, Shropshire, 6 September 1869; d. Wrington, Somerset, 11 March 1941. He was a choirboy and pupil-assistant at St George's Chapel, Windsor (1882-90), before studying at the Royal College of Music under Parry*, Stanford*, and Rockstro* (1890-94), where he taught counterpoint (1895-1903). As organist of the Temple Church (1898-1923) his career as a choral conductor and composer developed rapidly. He was professor of music at University College,...
ANNA SOPHIA, Countess of Hesse-Darmstadt. b. Marburg, 17 Dec 1638; d. Quedlinburg, 13 Dec 1683. She was the daughter of the Landgrave (Count) Georg II. She chose a convent life, and in 1657 was elected Pröpstin (lady provost) of the aristocratic Fürsten-Töchter Stift (the prince's daughter's foundation), a Lutheran institute at Quedlinburg. She was elected Abbess in 1680. She wrote Der Treue Seelen-Freund Christus Jesus mit nachdenklichen Sinn-Gemählden, anmuthigen Lehr-Gedichten und neuen...
McKEEVER, Harriet Burn. b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 28 August 1807; d. Chester, Pennsylvania, 7 February 1886 or 1887. A member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, McKeever taught for 36 years in a girls' school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was also a successful author of novels, mainly on religious themes and for young women, several of which are still available in digital/printed form. An example is Edith's Ministry (Philadelphia, 1860), which traces the life of the eldest daughter...
Hear thy children, gentlest Mother. Francis Stanfield* (1835-1914).
This was the first of two hymns for children by Stanfield, written in the same four stanzas, and in the same metre. The other was 'Hear thy children, gentle Jesus'*. The present (earlier) hymn was published in his Catholic Hymns (1858, 1860):
Hear thy children, gentlest Mother, Prayerful hearts to thee arise; Hear us while our evening Ave Soars beyond the starry skies.
Darkling shadows fall around us, Stars their silent...
BROKERING, Herbert Frederick. b. Beatrice, Nebraska, 21 May 1926; d. Bloomington, Minneapolis, 7 November 2009. Born into a Lutheran pastor's home, Brokering studied at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa; the University of Iowa (MA, 1947); and Trinity [Lutheran] Theological Seminary in Columbus, Ohio (BD, 1950). He did further studies at the University of Pittsburgh and at the universities in Erlangen and Kiel, Germany. After serving as a parish pastor in Lutheran congregations in Cedarhurst,...
Hilf, Herr Jesu, laß gelingen. Johann Rist* (1600-1667).
First published in Johann Risten himlische Lieder (Lüneburg, 1642), with the title 'Ein Neu Jahresgesang/ Welches Anfang/Mittel und Ende in und mit dem süssen Namen Jesu bestebet' ('A new-year song, of which the beginning, middle and end are sanctified in and with the sweet name of Jesus'). It had sixteen 6-line stanzas. It is found in the 'Jahreswende' section of EG in six stanzas (EG 61). The missing stanzas are 2 ('Alles wass Ich...
PARK, John Edgar. b. Belfast, Northern Ireland, 7 March 1879; d. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 4 March 1956. Park was educated at the Queen's University of Belfast (then Queen's College), and thereafter at Universities of Dublin, Edinburgh, Leipzig, Munich, Oxford and Princeton. His time at Princeton was followed by permanent residence in the USA: he became a Presbyterian minister, serving in the lumber camps of the Adirondack Mountains in upper New York State. He then became a Congregational...
Low in the grave he lay. Robert Lowry* (1826-1899).
Written in 1874, this was published in Brightest and Best (New York, 1875), one of the many publications edited by Lowry and William Howard Doane*, and later in Gospel Hymns No 5 (New York, 1887). Its triumphant statement of the Easter message is expressed in the short stanzas and longer refrain, and in the rhythms and melodies of Lowry's vigorous tune:
Low in the grave he lay, Jesus, my Saviour; Waiting the coming day, Jesus, my...
ALLEN, Oswald. b. Kirkby Lonsdale, Westmorland (now Cumbria), 1816; d. 2 October 1878. He was educated locally, but suffered for much of his life from a disease of the spine. For a brief period he lived in Glasgow, where he worked on the Stock Exchange. His spinal complaint led to his return to Kirkby Lonsdale, where he became the manager of the local branch of the Lancaster Banking Company. He published Hymns of the Christian Life (1861), from which come two hymns that have been used...
CULL, Robert Marcus. b. Los Angeles, California, 24 May 1949. He was encouraged by his parents to begin piano study at age six. He soon began playing music in his church, learning more than a dozen instruments. He attended Southern California College (now Vanguard University of Southern California), Costa Mesa, an Assemblies of God institution, and joined the Accents, a singing group recorded by Maranatha! Music. He attended campus concerts featuring song writers and performers in the emerging...
BARRY, Alfred. b. London, 15 January 1826; d. Windsor, 1 April 1910. He was the son of the architect of the Houses of Parliament, Sir Charles Barry. He was educated at King's College, London (1841-44) and Trinity College, Cambridge (1844-48; BA 1848, MA 1851). He was briefly a Fellow of Trinity College, and took Holy Orders (deacon 1850, priest 1853). By that time he had become sub-Warden of Trinity College, Glenalmond, Perthshire, an independent school of the Scottish Episcopal Church founded...
Almighty Father, who dost give. John Howard Bertram Masterman* (1867-1933).
First published in In Hoc Signo: hymns of war and peace (1914), with music edited by Walford Davies*. It is eminently suitable for war time, but because the sentiments are general, it can be seen as a hymn for various purposes: after the war of 1914-1918 it came to be seen as a hymn for World Peace and Brotherhood (the heading of the section in which it appears in MHB). It could also be used for missions: it appeared in...
BOYE, Birgitte Katerine (née Johansen). b. Gentofte, Denmark, 7 March 1742; d. 17 October 1824. Born into a family in the king's service, she was married to Herman Hertz, one of the king's foresters. He was appointed forester of Vordingborg, in the south of Zealand, in 1763. Birgitte bore him four children, and also found time to study German, French and English: she translated hymns into Danish from these languages. She was discovered as a hymn writer when a new hymn book to replace that of...
LEECH, Bryan Jeffery. b. Buckhurst Hill, Essex, England, 14 May 1931; d. Walnut Creek, California, 30 June 2015. Leech was educated at London Bible College, and pastored a church in Surrey before emigration to the USA in 1955; with further study at Barrington College in Massachusetts (BA, MA), North Park Seminary, Chicago; and Westmont College, Santa Barbara, California. He was ordained in 1959 in the Evangelical Covenant Church and pastored churches in Boston, Massachusetts; Montclair, New...
Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire. John Cosin* (1595-1672).
This is probably the best known of the many English translations of the medieval Latin hymn 'Veni creator spiritus'*. It was first printed in Cosin's A Collection of Private Devotions in the Practice of the Ancient Church (1627), where it was assigned to the Third Hour, at which the Holy Ghost was traditionally thought to have descended at Pentecost. It may have been written for the coronation of King Charles I in 1625, at which...
Creator of the earth and skies. Donald Hughes* (1911-1967).
First published in six stanzas in Hymns for Church and School (1964), and then, shortened and altered to four stanzas, in the British Methodist supplement, Hymns and Songs (1969). The two missing stanzas were 2 and 5:
Like theirs of old, our life is death, Our light is darkness, till we see The eternal Word made flesh and breath, The God who walked by Galilee.
Stanza 4 was:
We have not loved you: far and wide The wreckage of our...
PLUMPTRE, Edward Hayes. b. London, 6 August 1821; d. Wells, Somerset, 1 February 1891. The son of a solicitor, Plumptre was educated at home, at King's College, London, and at University College, Oxford, where he took a 'double first' (in Honour Moderations and in Finals). He was a Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford (1844-47). He married Theodosia, the sister of the theologian F.D. Maurice, in 1847. He joined the staff of King's College London, where he was chaplain (1847-68), Professor of...
GIARDINI, Felice. b. Turin, Italy, 12 April 1716; d. Moscow, 8 June 1796. He was a chorister in Milan Cathedral and was a pupil of Paldini before studying the violin under G. B. Somis. It was as a violinist that he became well known, both as an orchestral player and a soloist, particularly for his prowess as an embellisher of melody. After a period at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, he travelled throughout Germany and France before arriving in London where, according to Charles Burney, he made...
BELL, George Kennedy Allen. b. Hayling Island, near Chichester, 4 February 1883; d. Canterbury, 3 October 1958. He was the son of a clergyman, who later moved to Southampton, Pershore and Balsall Heath, Birmingham. George was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford (1901-05). He trained for the priesthood at Wells Theological College (deacon 1907, priest 1908), serving his curacy at Leeds. After a period back at Christ Church as tutor and then Student (i.e., Fellow), he was...
Give me joy in my heart, keep me praising. Anonymous, 20th century, perhaps Traditional.
This praise song has been commonly used in Britain and elsewhere by worshippers who wish to express something of their delight in singing their belief together. The 'my' and 'me' in line 1 of each stanza become subsumed into a collective happiness, just as the initial prayer, 'Give me...' is seen as a response to the concept of living a life of continual praise. 'Give me...'is succeeded by 'keep me...',...
Iesu, Rex admirabilis. Latin, 12th Century.
This is one of the many hymns taken from 'Iesu dulcis memoria'* (cf. 'Iesu dulcedo cordium'*). James Mearns* noted a selection consisting of stanzas 9, 11, 4, 14 from the Bodleian Library manuscript and a further stanza beginning 'Te nostra Iesu vox sonet' (JJ, p. 588). The selection of stanzas varies. Mearns has:
Jesu, Rex admirabilis
Amor Jesu dulcissimus
Jesu, dulcedo cordium
Cum digne loqui nequeam
Te nostra Iesu vox sonet
Two editions of...
In the Lord's atoning grief. Bonaventura da Bagnoregio* (ca. 1217-1247), translated by Frederick Oakeley* (1802-1880). St Bonaventura's hymn was written for Matins at the Office of the Holy Cross; one account is that it was written at the request of King Louis IX of France (Saint Louis, King from 1226 to 1270). It began 'In passione Domini, qua datur salus homini'. Oakeley's translation was written when he was still an Anglican, and printed in his Devotions Commemorative of the Passion (1842)....
ANTES, John (Johann). b. Frederick, Pennsylvania, 24 March 1740; d. Bristol, England, 17 December 1811. Born near the Moravian Church community of Bethlehem, Antes was educated at the Moravian Boys' School in Bethlehem, where his talent in music was encouraged. During the early 1760s, he established an instrument-making atelier in Bethlehem where he crafted violins, violas, and violoncellos (he is known to have made at least seven instruments, of which two are still extant). Feeling the call of...
MURRAY, John Stewart. b. Dunedin, New Zealand, 5 November 1929; d. 17 February 2017. The son of a pioneer Scottish settler family, John Murray was educated at King's High School and the University of Otago, Dunedin. After graduating (MA 1952), he studied at King's College and Westminster College, Cambridge, from 1952 to 1955, completing an MA in Divinity in 1954, followed by a period of study at the Graduate School, Bossey Ecumenical Institute, Geneva, where he was awarded a Diploma in...
COOK, Joseph Simpson. b. County Durham, England, 4 December 1859; d. Toronto, Ontario, 27 May 1933. He emigrated to Georgetown, Ontario, entering the Methodist ministry as a probationer with London Conference in 1880, serving Bayfield Mission on the eastern shore of Lake Huron from 1881 until 1883. He enrolled in a combined course in Arts and Theology at McGill University and Wesleyan Theological College, being ordained in 1885. He earned an MA from Illinois Wesleyan University (1892), a BD...
O God of earth and altar. Gilbert Keith Chesterton* (1874-1936).
First published in EH (1906), and subsequently included in many hymnals. It has often been stated that it appeared in the Christian Social Union magazine The Commonwealth, but this is not so (see Bernard Massey, 'O God of earth and altar. A Cautionary Tale', Bulletin of the Hymn Society, 220, July 1999, pp. 240-1). The story that Chesterton wrote it for the tune AURELIA, which he thought 'the typical tune for hymns', is a...
O what can little hands do. Probably by Grace Webster Hinsdale* (1833-1907).
Published in The Church Missionary Juvenile Instructor for May 1862, with the signature 'Farin' (Hinsdale's usual pseudonym). It was chosen for the Scottish Church Hymnary (1898), and described by John Brownlie* as 'far removed from the namby-pamby stuff which so many think good material for children's worship' (1911, p. 283).
Originally the hymn had five stanzas, beginning:
O what can little hands do To please the...
Sing Alleluya forth ye saints on high. George Timms* (1910-1997).
Timms often re-worked earlier hymns. This is clearly written in imitation of 'Sing Alleluia forth in duteous praise'*, the translation of 'Alleluia piis edite laudibus' by John Ellerton*, found in the Appendix (1868) to the First Edition of A&M and in Church Hymns (1871; Church Hymns with Tunes, 1874). This had become very popular when set to ALLELUIA PERENNE by William Henry Monk* for the early editions, or later to a...
The Church of God a kingdom is. Lionel Boulton Campbell Lockhart Muirhead* (1845-1925).
Written for Muirhead's friend Robert Bridges*, and included in Part III of the Yattendon Hymnal* (1898). It was included in EH, and subsequently in the Standard Edition of A&M (1922) and in SofP. It is now a well-known item in Church of England books (A&MR, A&MNS, A&MCP, NEH), and it is found in BBCHB and in the Roman Catholic Parish Hymn Book (1968). In the USA it was printed in H40, and it...
The Sacred Harp
The Sacred Harp (Philadelphia: T. K. & P. G. Collins, 1844) was a 'Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, Odes, and Anthems; selected from the most eminent authors, together with nearly one hundred pieces never before published…well adapted to churches of every denomination, singing schools, and private societies, with plain rules for learners', by B. F. White* and Elisha J. King*, of Hamilton, Georgia.
The Preface consists of a main paragraph dated April, 1844 followed by the...
BINNEY, Thomas. b. Newcastle upon Tyne, 30 April 1798; d. Clapton, London, 24 February 1874. Born into a Scottish family, he was an apprenticed to a bookseller; he studied English literature, and taught himself Latin and Greek; he then applied to train as a minister at Wymondley College, Hertfordshire. He was minister of the New Meeting, an Independent chapel at Bedford (1823) and at St James' Street Chapel, Newport, Isle of Wight (1824), before being appointed to the distinguished post of...
DRAPER, William Henry. b. Kenilworth, Warwickshire, 19 December 1855; d. Clifton, Bristol, 9 August 1933. He was educated at Cheltenham College and Keble College, Oxford (BA 1879, MA 1880). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1880, priest 1881) and was successively curate of St Mary's, Shrewsbury (1880-83); vicar of Alfreton, Nottinghamshire (1883-89); vicar of Holy Cross (the Abbey), Shrewsbury (1889-99); vicar of Adel, Leeds (1899-1919); and Master of the Temple (1919-30). After retirement to...
KETHE, William. b. probably in the east of Scotland,, date unknown; d. Child Okeford, Dorset, before 6 June 1594. He is first heard of in the reign of Edward VI (1547-53) as a militant Protestant, author of poems attacking the Roman Catholic church. Unsurprisingly, therefore, he went into exile during the reign of Mary Tudor (1553-58), first at Frankfurt and then at Geneva, where he was closely associated with John Knox. He contributed 25 metrical psalms to the 1561 edition of The Forme of...
SANDYS, William. b. London, 29 October 1792; d. 18 February 1874. Sandys came from a well known Cornish family, but was born and lived in London. He was educated at Westminster School, and became a solicitor in 1814. From 1861 to 1873 he was head of the law firm of Sandys and Knott, as well as being a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. He was well trained in music (he played the cello) and collaborated in a book on the history of the violin. In 1833 he published Christmas Carols, ancient and...
God be in my head. 15th century, author and provenance unknown. The first trace of this very moving verse is in a French text dating from ca. 1490:
Jesus soit en ma teste et mon entendement.
Jesus soit en mes yeulx et mon regardement.
Jesus soit en ma bouche et mon parlement.
Jesus soit en mon cueur et en mon pensement.
Jesus soit en ma vie et mon trespassement. Amen.
The English text is found in a Book of Hours printed by Robert Pynson at London, Hore beate marie/virginis ad vsum in/signis ac...
Loving Creator. Daniel Thambyrajah Niles* (1908-1970).
This is the version in CH4 of Niles's Trinitarian hymn addressed in its three stanzas to the three persons of the Holy Trinity, beginning 'Father in heaven'*. In stanza 1 the CH4 version avoids the image of 'Father' for God, changing the first line, and also lines 7-8 from 'Father in heaven,/ Father, our God' to 'Loving Creator,/ Parent and God'. Stanzas 2 and 3 also have substantial alterations from Niles's...
OLUDE, (A. T.) Olajida. b. 16 July 1908; d. c. 1986. A Nigerian Methodist minister, Olude was educated at Wesley College, Ibadan, and at the Mindola training school. He was awarded the Order of Niger and, from the University of Nigeria, the Mus.D. degree (Young, 808).
A.M. Jones describes Olude as 'profoundly upset by the way European-type hymns murdered his language' (Jones, 1976). Jones also notes that Olude built up a collection of at least 77 hymns whose melodies followed precisely the...
Saviour, like a shepherd lead us. Probably by Dorothea Ann Thrupp* (1779-1847).
First printed in the Revd William Carus Wilson's magazine, The Children's Friend (June 1838), signed 'Lyte' (though in a different manner from a hymn attributed to Lyte in January 1838). It was then printed in Thrupp's Hymns for the Young (ca. 1830, Fourth Edition, 1836) but without an author's name. It was found in many books including the Church Hymnary (1898) and RCH, MHB, and the Salvation Army Song Book (1953...
Souls of men! why will ye scatter. Frederick William Faber* (1814-1863). First published in eight verses in Oratory Hymns (1854), and expanded in Faber's Hymns (1862) to thirteen verses, with the title 'Come to Jesus'. It is frequently shortened, and the order of verses is different in many books. The most common opening in modern books is now Faber's verse 4, beginning 'There's a wideness in God's mercy'*. This not only avoids the non-inclusive language of the original opening line, but has...
Could we with ink the ocean fill. Author unknown.
According to Steve Perisho this hymn dates from August 1746 (at the very latest: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015021278463&seq=461). It was printed in The Lord's Songs: a Collection of Composures in Metre, such as have been most used in the late glorious revivals; Dr Watts's Psalms and Hymns excepted (Salem, Massachusetts: Joshua Cushing, 1805), compiled and edited by Joshua Spalding* AM, 'Minister at the Branch Church at...
WHITE, Henry Kirke. b. Nottingham, 21 March 1785; d. Cambridge, 19 October 1806. He was destined first for the hosiery trade, and then for the law, but he showed early literary promise, publishing Clifton Grove, A Sketch in Verse, with other Poems (1803). At one time he was inclined to Deism, but his mind was changed by reading The Force of Truth: an authentic narrative (1779; many editions) by Thomas Scott, chaplain to the Lock Hospital (see 'London hospitals and their hymns'*). He was also...
HODGES, John Sebastian Bach. b. Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, 12 January 1830; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 4 February 1895. An Episcopal priest, Hodges composed several hymn tunes, including EUCHARISTIC HYMN, that are found in present-day hymnals.
J. Sebastian B. Hodges (as his name often appears) was the son of Edward Hodges* and brother of Faustina H. Hodges*, George Frederick Handel Hodges (1822-1842), and Jubal Hodges (1828-1870). The latter was also an Episcopal priest, and...
STONE, Samuel John. b. Whitmore, Staffordshire, 25 April 1839; d. Finsbury, London, 19 November 1900. He was educated at Charterhouse (1853-58), where he won a prize for English verse composition, and then as Holford Exhibitioner, Pembroke College, Oxford (1859-62). He was ordained (deacon 1862, priest 1863) at Lavington, Oxford, to serve his title at New Windsor Parish Church, in a poor district. It was for the people of New Windsor that he wrote Lyra Fidelium (1866), in which his most famous...
CLARK, Thomas. b. Canterbury, Kent, 1775 (baptised 5 February); d. Canterbury, 30 May 1859. He was the son of William Clark, a boot maker and a musician at the Wesleyan Methodist Church. Thomas completed his apprenticeship as a cordwainer in 1796 and became a Freeman of the City of Canterbury. Like his father Thomas maintained both interests and took over his father's business. It seems that his links with the Wesleyan Methodist choir at St Peter's Street Chapel were severed around 1840, about...
Bonaventura da Bagnoregio (Giovanni di Fidanza) b. Bagnoregio, Italy, ca. 1217; d. Lyons, France, 14 July 1274. The rise of St Bonaventura from young scholar to prominent theologian and mystic, minister general of the Order of Friars Minor, prelate, and advisor of popes is one of the remarkable stories of the Middle Ages. There is no contemporary source of biographical information about Bonaventura. The earliest are a 15th-century biography by Mariano of Florence and a Chronicle of the...
The fact that the meetings for worship of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain are held on the basis of silence does not mean that there were no hymns in Quaker worship in the past, nor that hymns are not sung by Quakers in other parts of the world. From the beginning of their movement in 17th-century England Quakers sang psalms, but their attitude to them differed from that of other Christian groups. Robert Barclay, the early Quaker theologian, wrote in An Apology for the...
Brief History of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines
The end of Spanish rule in the Philippines in 1898 marked the end of the Roman Catholic Church's exclusive control over religious affairs, creating opportunities for Protestant mission* churches from the United States to establish their work in the country. (See Philippine hymnody* for a detailed account of Roman Catholic contributions.) The initial wave of Protestant churches — Presbyterian, Methodist, Congregational, Disciples,...
Zimbabwean hymnody
In Zimbabwe the interaction between missionaries and African musicians has yielded hymnody that captures the spirit of the country's churches. The southern region of Africa has a long history of interaction between missionaries and indigenous tribes. As African independence movements (See African hymnody*) spread throughout the 1960s, the development of hymnody conceived by Africans was influenced by the rise of African Independent (Initiated) Churches free from the influence...
Jesu, joy of man's desiring. Attributed to Robert Bridges* (1844-1930).
The music used with this text is known better than the poem. The tune is familiar primarily through its arrangement by Johann Sebastian Bach* taken from Cantata 147, 'Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben' ('Heart and mouth and deed and life'), composed in 1723 during his first year as Cantor at Thomaskirche in Leipzig. As was Bach's compositional practice, he borrowed sections of this Cantata from an Advent Cantata written in...
Now in a song of grateful praise. Samuel Medley* (1738-1799).
According to JJ, p. 722, this hymn was from the Gospel Magazine, June 1776 (the last month in which Augustus Montague Toplady* was editor), but this has not been verified (the Gospel Magazine print-out for June 1776 is defective). Nor is the hymn in either the Second Edition of Hymns. By the Rev. S. Medley, of Liverpool (1789), or Hymns.The public worship and private devotions of true Christians assisted, in some thoughts in verse:...
Why should I fear the darkest hour. John Newton* (1725- 1807).
According to JJ, p. 1279, this was published in the Gospel Magazine for June 1771, signed 'Omicron', with the title 'In uno Jesu omnia'. It was then included in Olney Hymns (1779), Book III, 'On the Rise, Progress, Changes, and Comforts of the Spiritual Life', where it was Hymn XLVI, with the title 'Jesus my all'. It was in the 'Comfort' section, hymns XLIII to LVIII. It had eight 3-line stanzas, with one misprint ('interceedes',...
JAMES, Mary Dagworthy (née Yard). b. Trenton, New Jersey, 10 August 1810; d. New York City, 4 October 1883. Her father was a Quaker and her mother a Baptist, but she was converted at a Methodist revival meeting as a child, and began teaching Sunday school in the Methodist Episcopal church when she was thirteen years old. She married Henry B. James in 1834. They moved to Mount Holly, New Jersey, returning to Trenton in 1853, where she helped to found a home for distressed and orphaned children....
O may the Son of God enfold you ('Spirit Song'). John Wimber* (1934-1997).
'Spirit Song' is the most lasting musical contribution of Wimber's contributions to congregational song, though written in 1979 before the movement was formed and before it became known as the Vineyard Fellowship.
Stanza one begins with an image of Christ, inviting 'The Son of God' to 'enfold' the worshipper 'with his Spirit and love'. The song encourages an intimate relationship between the singer and Christ through...
One, only one, shall be the fold. Friedrich Adolf Krummacher* (1767-1845), translated by Catharine Hannah Dunn* (1815-1863).
This is Dunn's translation of Krummacher's hymn, 'Eine Heerde und ein Hirt'*, in her Hymns from the German (1857), where it is called 'The Blessed Hope'. Her translation of the stanza above uses the Biblical 'fold' (from John 10: 16) in preference to Krummacher's 'Heerde' ('flock'). Her translation of the first stanza was:
One, only one, shall be the fold, And one the...
Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin. Edward Henry Bickersteth* (1825-1906).
Written at Harrogate in 1875, when Bickersteth was on holiday there. He heard a sermon by the vicar of Harrogate, William Wynter Gibbon, on the text 'Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee' (Isaiah 26: 3). On that Sunday afternoon, he visited an elderly dying relative, Archdeacon Hill. He found the archdeacon troubled in mind, and wrote the hymn to provide spiritual comfort. He...
With water freely flowing. Larry E. Schultz* (1965).
This is the most frequently published hymn by the author. It appears in Celebrating Grace (2010), Community of Christ Sings (2013), and Voices Together (2020). It describes the symbolism of freely flowing water in Christian baptism. The is appropriate for the Epiphany season on the second week of January, at a baptismal service, or during a confirmation of faith.
The author entered this hymn in a Baptism Hymn Search sponsored by Orange...
Though troubles assail, And dangers affright. John Newton* (1725-1807).
Written in February 1775 for a Sunday evening service at the Great House in Olney, and published in the Gospel Magazine (January 1777) entitled 'Jehovah-jireh, i.e. The Lord will provide', Gen. xxii. 14.', referring to the provision of the ram which enabled Abraham to save killing his son Isaac. It was subsequently published in Olney Hymns (Book I, Hymn VII), as 'The Lord will provide'.
'The Lord will provide' ends each of...
The God of Sarah praise. David Bjorlin* (1984– ).
This hymn dates from 2017. The three stanzas introduce three inter-related biblical characters—Sarah, Abraham, and Hagar. The author notes, 'I wanted to start and end with a stanza highlighting the women's roles in God's covenant—both the simple biological necessity of bearing the descendants that will become the Hebrew people and the often surprising and subversive ways in which the line continues' (Email, 16 March 2024).
In the first...
TANGEMAN, Elizabeth Clementine (née Miller). b. Columbus, Indiana, 17 February 1905; d. Columbus, Indiana, 17 January 1996. She was a philanthropist and trustee, associated with the School of Sacred Music, Union Theological Seminary*, Yale University Institute of Sacred Music, various other institutions of higher education, and the Girl Scouts of the United States of America. She was also co-editor of Christian Hymns, copyrighted in 1945.
Clementine, as she was commonly known, along with her...
A brighter dawn is breaking. Percy Dearmer* (1867-1936).
Written for EH (1906) to fit the German tune SELNECKER (NUN LASST UNS GOTT DEM HERREN). Dearmer said that it was written for Eastertide 'because there was a dearth of cheerful Easter tunes' (Songs of Praise Discussed, 1933, p. 231):
A brighter dawn is breaking,And earth with praise is waking;For thou, O King most highest,The power of death defiest;
And thou hast come victorious,With risen Body glorious,Who now for ever livest,And life...
Auf, auf, ihr Reichgenossen. Johann Rist* (1607-1667).
First published in Rist's Sabbahtische Seelenlust (Lüneburg, 1651). The book is arranged with hymns for the Sundays of the Christian year, and this one is set for the first Sunday in Advent ('Arise, arise...'). It had twelve 8-line stanzas, with the title 'Uber das Evangelium am Ersten Advents Sontage/ Welches beschrieben wird vom heiligen Evangelisten Mattheuss / in seinem Evangelien Buche am 21 Kappitel: Da Sie nun nahe bei Jerusalem...
PETTI, Anthony Gaetano Raphael. b. Islington, London, 12 February 1932; d. Calgary, Canada, 13 January 1985. He was educated at St Michael's College, Hitchin, Hertfordshire (1941-45) and St Ignatius' College, London (1945-50). After National Service he read English at University College, London (BA 1955, MA 1957), teaching at the College from 1960 to 1969. He was Professor of English, University of Calgary, Canada, from 1969 until his early and sudden death.
Petti was a specialist in medieval...
FARRELL, Bernadette. b. Altofts, West Yorkshire, 1957. Farrell was educated at King's College London and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She quickly made her mark as one of the founder members of the St Thomas More Group*. She has worked as diocesan music advisor for Southwark and Westminster and as a workshop presenter both in the UK and in the USA. Her ministry flows in to social action and reflects her strong commitment to justice and peace. In addition to her work with the St...
LINCOLN, Charles Eric. b. Athens, Alabama, 23 June 1924; d. Durham, North Carolina, 5 June 2000. Lincoln was educated at Le Moyne College, Syracuse, New York (AB 1947); Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee (MA 1954), the University of Chicago (BD 1956), and Boston University (MEd, PhD 1960). Initially he taught at various schools and universities: Clark College, Atlanta, Georgia (1954-64), Union Theological Seminary, New York (1966-73), and Fisk University (1973-76). He is best known for his...
Children of Jerusalem. John Henley* (1800-1842).
This Palm Sunday hymn for children has appeared in many forms. The text that is found in the Memorials compiled by his widow is presumably the one that Henley approved before his untimely death. It was printed as follows:
“HOSANNA! BLESSED IS HE THAT COMETH IN THE NAME OF THE LORD! HOSANNA IN THE HIGHEST!”
1.Children of JerusalemSang the praise of Jesu's name;Children, too, of modern daysJoin to sing the Saviour's praise.
CHORUS: - Hark! while...
TOMLIN, Christopher (Chris). b. Grand Saline, Texas, 4 May 1972. Tomlin is a performer, worship leader and songwriter, well-known in the USA for his association with the Passion Conferences, and internationally for his contributions to contemporary Christian music. He was educated at Tyler Junior College, Texas, and Texas A&M University. He is a multiple-award winner in the Gospel Music Association's Dove Awards. He has released ten albums, and has collaborated frequently with other...
McAFEE, Cleland Boyd. b. Ashley, Missouri, 25 September 1866; d. Jaffrey, New Hampshire, 4 February 1944. Educated at Park College in Parkville, Missouri (founded in 1875 by his father) (BA, 1884; MA, 1888) and Union Theological Seminary in New York City (dipl. 1888), Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri (PhD, 1892). McAfee returned to Park College, served the campus church as Presbyterian preacher and led its choir while he taught philosophy there (1888-1901). Later, he was pastor of First...
Come and join the celebration. Valerie Collison* (1933- )
According to the Companion to HP (1988), p. 89, this cheerful song first appeared in Carols for Children (1972), but we have been unable to verify this. It was published in the Baptist supplement Praise for Today (1974), and in Songs of Worship (ScriptureUnion, 1980) before making its way into mainstream books such as HP, ICH5 and Complete Mission Praise (both 2000), and the Scottish CH4, followed by the Methodist book, Singing the...
ILIFF, David. b. Margate, Kent, 19 March 1939; d. 4 December 2024. Educated at King Henry VIII Grammar School, Coventry and the University of London. He was Director of Music at Bushey Hall School (1961-83) and at the British School in Brussels, (1983-2001). He was also Director of Music at the large suburban Anglican Church of Emmanuel, Northwood, Middlesex (1961-81) and at the Pro-Cathedral in Brussels from 1996-2001.
He was a founder member of Jubilate Hymns* in 1980, becoming a Director in...
FISHEL, Donald Emry. b. Hart, Michigan, 1 November 1950. Fishel, a flautist, attended the University of Michigan, studying under Nelson Hauenstein and Michael Stoune (BM, 1972). Brought up a Methodist, he turned to Roman Catholicism in 1969, and worked for the charismatic Roman Catholic 'Word of God Community' in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as publications editor of their Servant Music and as director of the parish orchestra, until 1981. He was principal flautist with Dexter Community Orchestra and...
Es geht daher des Tages Schein. Michael Weisse* (ca. 1480-1534).
This morning hymn was first printed in Ein new Geseng buchlein (Jungbunzlau, 1531). It is the first of three 'Geseng auf die tagezeiten' ('Hymns for times of day'; Wackernagel, Das Deutsche Kirchenlied III. 318). This is the first of three hymns, of which 'Der Tag bricht an und zeiget sich'* was the second.
It had seven 4-line stanzas. It is found in EG in six stanzas (EG 439), with slight alterations, omitting stanza...
From all thy saints in warfare. Horatio Bolton Nelson* (1823-1913).
Published in Nelson's Hymns for Saints' Days, and other Hymns, by a Layman (1864). It was modelled on J.S.B. Monsell*'s 'Ye saints! In blest communion'. It consisted of a general opening, individual verses for the feasts of particular saints and a general ending. A revised version, with additional verses contributed by friends, was published in The Sarum Hymnal (1868). It provided for seventeen festivals. The hymn was included...
IRONS, Geneviève Mary. b. Brompton, London, 28 December 1855; d. Eastbourne, Sussex, 13 December 1928. She was the daughter of William Josiah Irons*. She contributed to the Sunday Magazine from 1876 onwards. She became a Roman Catholic (the Latin title of her manual for Holy Communion, Corpus Christi, 1884, suggests that she was a convert by that time). She translated The Divine Consoler: little visits to the most holy Sacrament, by J.M. Angéli, of the Lazarist Fathers (1900), and published a...
CAIRD, George Bradford. b. Wandsworth, London, 19 July 1917; d. near Oxford, 21 April 1984. He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham (1929-36) and Peterhouse, Cambridge (1936-39). He then trained for the Congregational ministry at Mansfield College, Oxford (1939-43). While a student there in 1941, he wrote the hymn 'Almighty Father, who for us thy Son didst give'*. He was ordained to Highgate Congregational Church, London, in 1943; then moved to Canada to become Professor of Old...
BOURNE, George Hugh. b. St Paul's Cray, Kent, 8 November 1840; d. Salisbury, 1 December 1925. Born the son of a clergyman, he was educated at Eton and Corpus Christi College, Oxford (BA 1863; BCL 1866, DCL 1871). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1863, priest 1864), serving a curacy at Sandford-on Thames before becoming headmaster of St Andrew's College, Chardstock (1866-74). The College moved to Salisbury as St Edmund's College in 1874, and Bourne remained its headmaster (1874-85). For the school...
MacDONALD, George. b. Huntly, Aberdeenshire, 10 December 1824; d. Ashstead, Surrey, 18 September 1905. Educated at King's College, Aberdeen (MA 1845), MacDonald moved to London where he was briefly a student at Highbury Theological College (1848- ). Although he did not complete the course, he was ordained at Arundel Congregational Church in 1950. He resigned in 1853, and moved to Manchester, where he became a writer, publishing a dramatic poem, Within and Without (1855), Poems (1857), Hymns and...
CONDER, George William. b. Hitchin, Hertforshire, 30 November 1821; d. Forest Hill, London, 8 November 1874. He was educated at Hitchin Grammar School. He then went to London to make a career in business, becoming a member of King's Weigh House Chapel under the ministry of Thomas Binney*. Binney encouraged him to enter the Congregational Church ministry, and he trained at Highbury College before serving at High Wycombe (1845-47), Ryde, Isle of Wight (1847-49), and Belgrave Chapel, Leeds...
KITCHIN, George William. b. Naughton, Suffolk, 7 December 1827; d. Durham, 13 October 1912. Born the son of a clergyman, he was educated at a school in Ipswich and at King's College School, London, followed by Christ Church, Oxford (BA 1850, MA 1853). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1852, priest 1859), becoming Censor of Christ Church (1863-68), and then Censor of Non-Collegiate Students at Oxford. During this period he also taught history and was active in the work of the Oxford University Press....
Glory be to God the Father. Horatius Bonar* (1808-1889).
Written for the hymnbook of the English Presbyterian Church, Psalms and Hymns for Divine Worship (1867), although Bonar had also printed it in his Hymns of Faith and Hope, Third Series (1866). It was entitled 'Praise':
Glory be to God the Father, Glory be to God the Son,Glory be to God the Spirit, - Great Jehovah, Three in One! Glory, glory While unending ages run!
It had four stanzas, beginning
Glory be to Him who loved us,
Glory...
GREGORY of Nazianzen. b. Nazianzen, ca. 329; d. Nazianzen, 25 January 389. His father was bishop of Nazianzen, and Gregory was born on the family estate. He studied at Caesarea, Alexandria, and Athens, where he studied rhetoric in the 350s. He became a monk, but returned home, where he was ordained by his father in 362. For the next decade, he assisted his father. In 372 a new administrative division of Cappadocia led to the establishment of a new see at Sasima. Against his will, Gregory's...
Hark, my soul, how everything. John Austin* (1613-1669).
From Austin's Devotions in the Antient Way of Offices (1668), where it is the hymn for Lauds on Monday, with the first line as 'every Thing'. It found its way, via George Hickes's Reformed Devotions, into John Wesley*'s first hymn book, the Collection of Psalms and Hymns (Charlestown, 1737), where Wesley altered the metre from 7.7.7.7. to 8.8.8.8., probably for the sake of a tune, thus:
Hark, my dull Soul, how every Thing
Strives to adore...
SHUTTLEWORTH, Henry Cary. b. Egloshayle, near Bodmin, Cornwall, 20 October 1850; d. Westminster, London, 24 October 1900. He was educated at Forest School, Walthamstow, London, and St Mary Hall (part of Oriel College) and Christ Church, Oxford (BA 1871, MA 1874). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1874, priest 1876), and was curate of St Barnabas, Oxford and chaplain of Christ Church (1874-76); minor canon of St Paul's Cathedral (1876-84) and rector of St Nicholas Cole Abbey, London (1883- ). He was...
GREATOREX, Henry Wellington. b. Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, England, 24 December 1813; d. Charleston, South Carolina, USA, 10 September 1858. Greatorex is remembered as a composer of hymn tunes, primarily those first published in his book, A Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes… (see below).
According to Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography and many subsequent accounts, Greatorex was born in 1816. However, the notice of his death (of yellow fever) in the Charleston Daily Courier,...
IRVINE, Jessie Seymour. b. Dunnottar, Kincardineshire, 26 July 1836; d. Aberdeen, 2 September 1887. She was the daughter of Alexander Irvine, Minister of Crimond, Aberdeenshire. After an apparently uneventful life, she was buried in St Machar's Cathedral, Aberdeen.
She was possibly the composer of the tune CRIMOND, found in the Scottish Psalter (1929) and made famous in the early days of broadcasting by Sir Hugh Roberton and the Glasgow Orpheus Choir as a setting for the metrical version of...
ALCOCK, John. b. London, 11 Apr 1715; d. Lichfield, Staffordshire, 23 Feb 1806. Alcock trained as a chorister of the Chapel Royal under Charles King. He was also a student of the great organist John Stanley*. He was organist of parish churches in Plymouth (1737-42) and Reading (1742-50), and then of Lichfield Cathedral (1750–60). He then returned to parochial work in Midland towns, becoming organist of Sutton Coldfield (1761–86) and Tamworth (1766–90). He received the Oxford degrees of...
Lord, of Thy mercy hear our cry. Emma Toke* (1812-1878).
This prayer for righteousness in the nation was first published in the SPCK Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship (1852), edited by Thomas Vincent Fosbery*. It was not included in its successor, Church Hymns (1871), but remained in use until recent times in Ireland, being found in ICH3 (1919) and ICH4 (1960).
Lord, of Thy mercy hear our cry For this long favour'd land;That now, as in the days gone by, Her strength may be Thy hand!
May...
DAWN, Maggi Eleanor. b. 1959. Maggi Dawn is a British musician, author, theologian, and Church of England priest. Prior to ordination, she worked as a singer-songwriter. She remains active as a guitarist and singer. She held chaplaincies at King's College and Robinson College, Cambridge University; from 2011 to 2019 she was Associate Dean for Marquand Chapel and Associate Professor of Theology and Literature at Yale University. She was Principal of St Mary's College, Durham University, UK from...
KROETSCH, Murray John. b. Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, 7 April 1952. He was educated at St. Jerome's University College, University of Waterloo (BA in Religious Studies, 1974) and King's College, University of Western Ontario (MDiv, 1978); University of Notre Dame, Indiana (MA in Liturgical Studies, 1985); and postgraduate studies at Lateran University, Rome (2002-03).
Murray Kroetsch was ordained a priest for Hamilton Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Canada on 29 April 1978; and was...
BRADY, Nicholas. b. Bandon, Cork, Ireland, 28 October 1659; d. Richmond, Surrey, 20 May 1726. He was educated at Cork, and at Westminster School, London. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, but was sent down, for reasons that are unknown. He returned to Ireland and entered Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1685, MA 1686). He was ordained in 1687, becoming a prebendary of Cork Cathedral and the holder of several poor Irish livings. Early in the reign of William III he came to London, where he...
O spread the tidings 'round, where ever man is found. Francis Bottome* (1823-1894).
According to Donald P. Hustad* (1978, p. 77) this hymn was first published in the 1890 edition of Precious Hymns for Times of Refreshing and Revival (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), selected by Thomas Harrison (nda), musical editors, John R. Sweney* and William J. Kirkpatrick*. It was published with its tune, COMFORTER, by Kirkpatrick, referring to the refrain:
The Comforter has come! The Comforter has come! ...
FLETCHER, Phineas. b. Cranbriook, Kent, April 1582 (baptized 8 April); d. Hilgay, Norfolk, between 1 and 13 December 1650. He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge (BA 1604, MA 1608), and ordained priest in 1611. He seems to have had some hope of fame and royal favour in these years, but they were disappointed. He served as chaplain to his patron, Sir Henry Willoughby, at Risley, Derbyshire, until 1621, when Willoughby presented him with the living of Hilgay, Norfolk, where he...
Praise! (2000)! A result of collaboration between FIEC (the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches), and the Grace Baptists, this hymnbook was published in 2000. Chaired by Brian Edwards, an Editorial Board of twelve co-ordinated the work of several smaller groups in selecting its 999 items. The book broke new ground in two main directions; it was the first major work from this constituency to face the issue of archaic language, eliminating what were regarded as obsolete pronouns and...
MAHLMANN, Siegfried August. b. Leipzig, 13 May 1771; d. Leipzig, 16 December 1826. He was educated at the University of Leipzig. After a period as a private tutor, he became a bookseller and writer, later editing a journal, Zeitung für die elegante Welt (1806-16), and the newspaper Leipziger Zeitung (1810-18). He wrote a novel, Albano der Lautenspieler (1802) and a play, Der travestirte Doktor Faust (Berlin, 1806). His poems were published in 1825, and in further editions during the 19th...
TOWNEND, Stuart. b. Edinburgh, 1 June 1963. He was educated at Sowerby Bridge High School, near Halifax, West Yorkshire, then at the University of Sussex, Brighton (1981-1985), where he gained an honours degree in American Studies (Literature). Remaining in Brighton, after a year of training in evangelism at the Clarendon Church (now Church of Christ the King), he joined the staff at Kingsway Music, Eastbourne, initially as an in-house arranger and editor, and later as Head of Music, editing...
The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want. Scottish Psalter (1650).
This paraphrase of Psalm 23 is the most famous of Scottish metrical psalms, although its fame outside Scotland is comparatively recent. The text is that of the Scottish Psalter* of 1650, sometimes printed with the slight emendation of 'no ill' for the original 'none ill' (verse 3 line 2).
Psalm 23 is a psalm that is greatly loved for its beauty and its power to comfort, and it is not surprising that this version is now frequently...
The north wind is tossing the leaves. John Harry Rupert Angior Wheeler* (1901-84). John Wheeler was born in the small town of Colac in the state of Victoria, Australia, and there is a local anecdote that the text was written as the result of a very hot and windy day in Colac. Leaves from the plane trees lining the streets were blowing round the poet's feet and those of his friend the composer William James*, and both men were attempting to keep the dust out of their eyes. Wheeler reportedly...
To God with heart and cheerful voice. George Wither* (1588-1667).
This hymn appeared in Hymnes and Songs of the Church (1623), for Ascension Day, and, slightly altered, in Haleluiah, or Britans second Remembrancer (1641), where it is hymn 37 in the section, 'Hymns Temporary'. It was included in SofP in the 1623 text, omitting stanza 2:
The human nature, which of late
Beneath the angels was,
Now raisèd from that meaner state,
Above them hath a place.
And at man's feet all creatures bow,
...
Unto us a boy is born. Latin/German carol, translated by Percy Dearmer* (1867-1936).
The Latin text appears in a 15th-century manuscript from Trier, and in several other manuscripts of that period in Germany. It began 'Puer nobis nascitur'*, from a Moosburg Gradual dated 1355-60, and there is also a German text beginning 'Uns ist geborn ein Kindelein'. A good translation was made by George Ratcliffe Woodward* for the Cowley Carol Book* (1902) beginning 'Unto us is born a Son,/ King of Quires...
What sweeter music can we bring. Robert Herrick* (1591-1674).
From Herrick's His Noble Numbers: or, His Pious Pieces, Wherein (amongst other things) he Sings the Birth of his Christ: and Sighes for his Saviours Suffering on the Crosse (1647). It was entitled 'A Christmas-Carroll, sung to the King in the presence at White-Hall', which suggests a date of composition before 1641 (the English Civil War began in 1642). The text in 1647 is divided into 'Chor.', followed by 'the Song', in irregular...
Whosoever heareth, shout, shout the sound. Philip P. Bliss* (1838-1876).
Written during the winter of 1869-70, during a series of evangelistic meetings in Chicago conducted by an English travelling preacher, Henry Moorhouse. It was published in The Prize, a collection of songs, hymns, chants, anthems and concert pieces, for the Sunday school (Cincinnati, 1870) edited by George F. Root*. According to Ira D. Sankey*, when singing it Bliss put special emphasis on the word 'whosoever' (Sankey,...
BENNETT, (Sir) William Sterndale. b. Sheffield, 13 April 1816; d. London, 1 February 1875. He was the son of Robert Bennett (1788-1819), organist of Sheffield Parish Church from 1811. After his father's death, Bennett was brought up by his paternal grandparents in Cambridge, where his grandfather, John Bennett (1754-1837) was a bass lay clerk in the choir which served the colleges of King's, St John's and Trinity. At the age of seven, Bennett became a chorister in King's College Chapel and from...
JONES, Charles Price Sr. b. Texas Valley, Georgia, 9 December 1865; d. Los Angeles, California, 19 January 1949. Preacher, hymnist, and denominational leader, Jones was baptized in 1884 and ordained in 1887. He became senior pastor of St Paul Missionary Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas (1888) and graduated at Arkansas Baptist College (ca. 1893), accepting a call to Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church in Searcy, Arkansas, and serving as corresponding secretary of the Arkansas Colored...
How to reach the masses. ('Lift him up'). Johnson Oatman, Jr.* (1856–1922).
This is often known by its title as 'Lift him up'. It is difficult to determine the exact date of the hymn's composition: Hymnary.org indicates its initial publication in Golden Songs of Glory (Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, 1906), Shining Light (Atlanta, Georgia, 1906), The Star of Hope (Huntsville, Alabama, 1906)—all the same year and all in the southern United States. Following in close succession was the inclusion of the...
The blood will never lose its power. Andraé Crouch* (1942-2015).
Written when Crouch was 15, this is the title of two stanzas, beginning 'The blood that Jesus shed for me', and a refrain, 'it reaches to the highest mountain,/ it flows to the lowest valley'. Since its performance by Andraé Crouch and the Disciples and its inclusion on their CD 'Take the message everywhere' (1969) it has been a staple of gospel singing groups and their audiences.
The COGICS recorded it in 1962, a song that...
Thou didst leave thy throne and thy kingly crown. Emily Elizabeth Steele Elliott* (1836-1897).
Written for the choir of St Mark's, Brighton, of which her father was the incumbent, and privately printed there in 1864. It was included in several books, mostly after 1870 (see JJ, p. 1169), and published in the Church Missionary Juvenile Instructor in 1870. Elliott revised the text for her Chimes for Daily Service (1880), producing the changed wording of the refrain in stanzas 4 and 5 (in the...
Early Irish hymnody
The arrival of Christianity in Ireland is commonly associated with the mission of St Patrick in the 5th century, though there were certainly some groups of Christians in the island at an earlier date. The early history of Irish Christianity (including details of Patrick's work) remains tantalisingly obscure, but what is certain is that, subsequently, monasticism developed rapidly in Ireland, so that from the middle of the 6th century onwards substantial monastic foundations...
See also 'Byzantine hymnody'*, 'Byzantine rite'*, 'Greek hymnody'*, 'Rite of Constantinople'*, 'Rite of Jerusalem'*, 'Greek hymns, archaeology'*.
Historical background
Kievan Rus' was the result of the coming together of the eastern Slavic tribes in the 9th century, under Count Oleg (879-912). Christianity had existed in Kiev at least from the mid-10th century (there is evidence of a community with a church at the time of Count Igor, where in 945 the Count's troops made a contract with the...
WHITFIELD, Frederick. b. Threapwood, near Whitchurch, Shropshire, 7 January 1829; d. Lower Norwood, Surrey, 13 September 1904. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin (1856-59, BA 1859). It is not clear why he went to TCD so late: his son spoke of 'quiet uneventful years, in which God was doubtless preparing His servant for his future labours' (Whitfield, 1905, p. 5). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1859, priest, 1860). He was successively curate of Otley,Yorkshire (1859-61), and vicar of...
LAVATER, Johann Kaspar. b. Zürich, Switzerland, 15 November 1741; d. Zürich, 2 January 1801. The son of a doctor, he was educated in his native city in the Academic Gymnasium and the Theological Faculty of the University (as a young man he was a close friend of Heinrich Füssli, who came to England and became famous as the painter Henry Fuseli). Lavater was ordained in 1762, taking up a position as diaconus of the Orphanage Church in 1769 and becoming pastor in 1775. In 1778 he became diaconus...
BIRKEN, Sigmund von. b. Wildstein, Bohemia (now Skalná, Czech Republic), 5 May 1626; d. 1681 (buried 16 June). His Protestant family was forced to leave Wildstein in 1629 during the re-Catholicising of Bohemia following the Battle of the White Mountain (1620). The family fled to Nürnberg, where Birken was at school before attending the University of Jena for two years (1643-45). As a young man he came to know the Nürnberg theologian Johann Michael Dilherr, with consequences for his later life;...
What is our calling's glorious hope. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
This hymn is formed from the last six stanzas (9-14) of a hymn beginning 'Jesu, Redeemer of Mankind', first published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1742). It was preceded by a quotation from Titus 2: 14: 'Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from ALL Iniquity.' It began with a denunciation of 'sinners of a carnal mind':
Jesu, Redeemer of Mankind, How little art Thou known By Sinners of a Carnal Mind Who claim Thee...
OWENS, Carol. b. El Reno, Oklahoma, 30 October 1931. She was educated at San Jose State College in California. Her husband Jimmy* (they married in 1954) was a jazz band arranger who directed music in several churches in southern California. Beginning in the 'Jesus Movement' (see Christian popular music, USA*), the Owens were active in writing contemporary Christian musicals, performing and recording in various places in California, and doing musical missions for the Church of the Way in Los...
Down in the valley with my Saviour I would go. William Orcutt Cushing* (1823-1902).
Written in 1878, this hymn was published in Robert Lowry*'s Good as Gold hymn book: a new collection of Sunday school songs (New York and Chicago, 1881), with a tune by Lowry entitled FOLLOW ON. Ira D. Sankey* was a great admirer of Cushing's work: Sankey printed it in Sacred Songs and Solos (1882 edition, and subsequently), with the title 'Follow On!', and a quotation: '''If any man serve Me, let him follow...
Du großer Schmerzensmann. Adam Thebesius* (1596-1652). This is a Passion-tide hymn ('Thou great man of sorrows') published in Passionale Melicum, Das ist: Außerlesene Geist- und Trostreiche Betrachtungen deß allerschmertzlichsten Leydens und Todes unsers Einigen Heylandes und Erlösers Jesu Christi ('Exceptional spiritual and comfort-full considerations of the all-sorrowful sufferings and death of our only Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ'), edited by Martin Janus (Görlitz, 1663). This hymn was...
McNEIL (sometimes McNeill), Duncan. b. Glasgow, 15 February 1877; d. Glasgow, 28 January 1933. McNeil was a travelling Scottish evangelist, based in Glasgow. He continued to live there, apart from a visit to the USA in 1927-30, where he was associated with Kimball Avenue United Evangelical Church, Chicago (1928-30).
McNeil published Duncan McNeil's Hymn Book (London and Glasgow: Pickering and Inglis, n.d., but dated 1923 in British Library Catalogue). It is said to include 'Song Testimonies'...
Eine Heerde und ein Hirt. Friedrich Adolf Krummacher* (1767-1845).
According to James Mearns* in JJ, p. 634, this is from the Third Edition of Das Christfest (1821). Das Christfest was the second Festbüchlein, the series of publications in which Krummacher interspersed narrative, reflections and hymns. It had six 6-line stanzas, each ending with the line 'Jesus hält, was Er verspricht' ('Jesus holds – or keeps – what he promised'). The 'Heerde' in line 1 is sometimes spelt 'Herde' ('flock')....
NEUMEISTER, Erdmann. b. Üchteritz, Weissenfels (south of Halle), 12 May 1671; d. Hamburg, 18 August 1756. He was educated at the University of Leipzig (1689-95), where he taught as a lecturer (1695-97). He was assistant pastor and then pastor of Bibra (1697-1704), followed by a post as tutor and court preacher to Duke Johann Georg of Weissenfels (1704-06), and then as court preacher and Lutheran superintendent at Sorau to Count Erdmann II von Promnitz (1706-15). In 1715 he became pastor of St...
MARTIN, Hugh. b. Glasgow, 7 April 1890; d. East Grinstead, Sussex, 2 July 1964. He was educated at the University of Glasgow and Glasgow Baptist College. He was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Student Christian Movement in 1914, and worked for the SCM until 1950; he was one of the founders of the SCM Press, and later editor of the Press. An eminent Baptist, he was Moderator of the Free Church Federal Council, 1953-54. He was made a Companion of Honour in 1955.
For the SCM Press he wrote or...
MORRIS, Lelia (née Naylor: Mrs C.H. Morris). b. Pennsville, Ohio, 15 April 1862; d. Auburn, Ohio, 23 July 1929. The family moved to Malta, Ohio, in 1866. After her father's death Lelia, her mother and sister opened a millinery shop across the Muskingum River in McConnelsville. There, in 1881, she married Charles H. Morris. She and her husband participated in camp meetings, including those at Mountain Lake Park, Maryland, and in other musical, evangelistic, and educational activities of the...
BAXTER, Lydia (née Odell) (the History of Ontario County, New York cites her sister's name as Mary Odell). b. Petersburg, New York, 2 September 1809; d. New York, 22 June 1874. Baxter became a Christian after hearing the preaching of Baptist missionary Eben Tucker. She helped to establish the Baptist Church in Petersburg, and upon marriage moved to New York City. There her home was always a local base for various preachers and evangelists, even though she was an invalid for much of her adult...
Pass me not, O gentle Savior. Fanny Crosby* (1820-1915).
This was the first of Crosby's hymns to become famous. It was written in 1868, following a visit to a worship service in a Manhattan prison, where Crosby heard a prisoner cry out 'Good Lord, do not pass me by' (Reynolds, 1990, p. 226). It was published in William Howard Doane*'s Songs of Devotion for Christian Associations (1870). Carlton R. Young*, noting that the hymn is based on the blind beggar's cry to Jesus (Matthew 20: 29-34; Mark...
Savior, thy dying love. Sylvanus Dryden Phelps* (1816-1895).
The first version of this hymn appeared unsigned on page 194 in The Youth's Companion (Boston, December 3, 1863) with the title 'Something for Thee'. It was completely rewritten by Phelps, and appeared in its present form in The Poet's Song for the heart and the home (New York, 1867) p. 384. Robert Lowry* composed the setting, later named SOMETHING FOR JESUS, and included it in Pure Gold, For The Sunday School (New York, 1871) with...
COOMES, Tommy. b. Long Beach, California, 19 May 1946. Singer/songwriter, producer, worship leader and music executive, Coomes played a key role in 'Jesus Music' in the 1960s and 1970s and development of worship music repertoire for the church in the late 20th century. Raised in Lakewood, California, he played trumpet and guitar in high school, studied music at California State University, Long Beach, and enlisted in the US Army. A year after leaving the army in 1969 he met a nucleus of hippie...
Introduction
Indonesia is a large archipelago of more than 10,000 islands, extending from east to west as far as the distance from Moscow to the west coast of Ireland and covering three time zones. Hundreds of languages and cultures are united in the present-day Republic of Indonesia, proclaimed in 1945 after a centuries-long history of trade relations (with Arab, Indian, Chinese, Portuguese and English merchants), domination and colonisation (since the 17th century by the Dutch East India...
Latin American hymnody
A new Christian hymnology has risen in Latin America and in many communities in the US, among Roman Catholics and Protestants alike. It has roots in Latin folk and popular music, and most of the time reflects the social realities of the southern continent, owing much to the secular movement called the 'newsong.' This new song is rooted in Latin folk and popular music of the 20th century which express the people's happiness (Raquel Gutiérrez-Achón*, in González, 1996,...
NEALE, John Mason. b. London, 24 January 1818; d. East Grinstead, Sussex, 6 August 1866. The son of a Church of England clergyman, he was educated privately in Shepperton by the Revd William Russell, then at schools in Blackheath; Sherborne, Dorset; and Farnham, Surrey. He won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1836, and was the best classicist of his year; but weakness in mathematics meant he only gained a pass degree in 1840.
Neale entered Cambridge as an Evangelical, but emerged...
Ask ye what great thing I know. Johann Christoph Schwedler* (1672-1730), translated by Benjamin Hall Kennedy* (1804-1889).
Schwedler's hymn, beginning 'Wollt ihr wissen was mein Preis?', has the response at the end of each stanza, 'Jesu, der Gekreuzigte' ('Jesus the crucified'):
Wollt ihr wissen, was mein Preis? Wollt ihr wissen, was ich weiß? Wollt ihr sehn mein Eigentum? Wollt ihr hören, was mein Ruhm? Jesus, der Gekreuzigte, Jesus, der Gekreuzigte.
The hymn was published after his...
Because He lives. Gloria Gaither* (1942- ) and William J (Bill) Gaither* (1936- ).
This song is based on John 14:19c, 'because I live, you also will live,' a theme that is effectively supported by a soaring melody in the refrain. After the opening reference to the Incarnation ('God sent his son, they called him Jesus'), the first stanza turns to to the empty grave on Easter Day and its significance. Stanza two is about hope, even in uncertain days, because of the singular significance of the...
HALL, Elvina Mable (née Reynolds); JJ prints her second name thus; HymnQuest prints it as 'Mabel'. b. Alexandria, Virginia, 4 June 1820; d. Ocean Grove, New Jersey, 18 July 1889. She was a member of the Monument Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Baltimore. She married Richard Hall; after his death she married the Revd Thomas Myers, of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Church. She is remembered for one hymn, 'I hear the Savior say'*. This is frequently known and referred to as 'Jesus...
BEAUMONT, Geoffrey Phillips. b. Coggeshall, Essex, 13 July 1903; d. Stellenbosch, Republic of South Africa, 24 August 1970. Before going to Cambridge he worked in his father's office as a trainee solicitor, going to Trinity College as a mature student, a step rather unusual at that time (BA 1931, MA 1947). He trained for the priesthood at Ely Theological College (deacon 1932, priest 1933). He was curate of St Antholin, Nunhead (1932-34) and of St John the Evangelist with All Saints', Waterloo...
Humble souls who seek salvation. John Fawcett* (1740-1817).
According to JJ, this appeared in Hymns on Believers' Baptism (Birmingham, 1773), edited by John Fellows. In Fawcett's Hymns: adapted to the circumstances of Public Worship and Private Devotion (Leeds, 1782) it had the heading 'Invitation to follow the Lamb. Matt. iii. 15.' It had three stanzas:
Humble souls, who seek salvation, Thro' the Lamb's redeeming blood, Hear the voice of revelation, Tread the path that Jesus trod. Flee to...
I stand all bewildered with wonder. Wilbur F. Crafts* (1850-1922).
Written at some time before 1873, when (according to hymnary.org.) it appeared in Winnowed Hymns: a Collection of Sacred Songs, especially adapted for revivals, prayer, and camp meetings. Crafts was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1872 (he later became a Congregationalist, and then a Presbyterian), so this is the work of a youthful enthusiast. It had four stanzas and a refrain:
I stand all bewildered with wonder, And...
SCHLEGEL, Katharina Amalia Dorothea von. b. 22 October 1697; d, place and date unknown. Her name suggests that she came from an aristocratic family, and she is known to have been connected with a small ducal court at Köthen, north of Halle; but little is known of her life. She may have become a Lutheran nun. She is known as the author of 'Stille, mein Wille; dein Jesus hilft siegen', published in a collection entitled Neue Sammlung geistlicher Lieder ('A new collection of spiritual songs')...
Let us be bread (I am the bread of life, broken for all). Tom Porter* (1958– ).
This song was written in 1987 for the author/composer's wedding. It was initially published as an anthem with GIA Publications, Inc.* (Chicago, 1990), this song first appeared in congregational form in Gather Comprehensive (Chicago, 1994). 'Let us be bread' reflects post-Vatican II liturgical theology and practice. This refrain style liturgical song weaves together themes of Eucharist, Paschal Mystery and mission....
My God, I am thine. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Volume I of Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), in a section entitled 'Hymns for Believers', the first of a group of seven hymns in the metre of 5.5.11. In the 1780 Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists the two short lines were printed as one, and the six verses printed as three quatrains:
My God, I am thine; What a comfort divine,What a blessing to know that my Jesus is mine!In the heavenly Lamb Thrice...
My Lord, you wore no royal crown. Christopher Martin Idle* (1938- ).
Written in November 1978 when the author was rector of Limehouse, after reading Hans Küng's On Being a Christian. It follows Küng in seeing Jesus Christ as transcending leadership models, and ends with a personal prayer. It is one of author's own favourites: he chose it for the events to mark the publication of HFTC in 1982, set to the arrangement in triple time of the tune by Michael Praetorius*, PUER NOBIS NASCITUR (cf....
Snake handling songs
Snake handling communities are independent offshoots of the Pentecostal Holiness churches in parts of the USA. They are non-denominational, holding that denominations are corrupt. During worship services the participants handle snakes or drink poison, sometimes with fatal consequences. They justify the practice with reference to Mark 16: 17-18: 'And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They...
POLLIO, Symphorianus. b. Strasbourg, date unknown, ca. 1480; d. date and place unknown.
In some contemporary documents he is known as 'Symphorianus Althiesser', and he was called by C.H. Herford (1886, p. 36) 'Meister Ziprian'. He was a priest at St Stephen's Church, Strasbourg, and then at St Martin's: at one time he was the preacher at the church of Ste Aurélie, where he followed the great Martin Bucer*. He was also interim preacher at the Cathedral. He married in 1524, but continued in...
When fear and grief had barred the door. Basil Ernest Bridge* (1927-2021).
Written in April 1983, and first printed in Stainer & Bell's series Hymns and Congregational Songs (Vol 1 no 1, 1988). It was subsequently included in BPW. The words are based on John 20: 19-23. The final line of the penultimate stanza, 'Love's freedom know', refers to Jesus's charge to his disciples to offer forgiveness; the same Greek word can mean 'forgive' and 'release'. In stanza two, 'what' has occasionally...
This essay examines Jewish hymnals, primarily English language ones, published in the United States and represents to a large extent the Reform tradition and only to a lesser extend the Conservative branch of Judaism. Traditional Jewish hymnody is covered in two articles: Hebrew hymnody* (piyyut) and Jewish Sabbath hymns*.
19th century
Although Jewish communities existed in the United States as early as 1654, the early settlers were primarily Portuguese (Sephardic) and hymnody beyond the...
Abide with me; fast falls the eventide. Henry Francis Lyte* (1793-1847).
Probably written in 1847, this is one of the world's best known hymns. Based on Luke 24: 29, it is particularly associated with funeral services, but has had wide appeal in secular contexts as well. Its origins are somewhat uncertain. It was originally thought that Lyte had written it in his study on the evening before preaching his farewell sermon in the parish of Brixham, Devon, in September 1847; this account is...
We do not know how hymns were performed in early Christian times. The first clear sign of instrumental accompaniment was the introduction of organs to the liturgy in the 10th century. At first they probably duplicated the chant in unison. Their evident purpose was to hold the singers together and in tune, and to provide continuity, since (when properly blown or powered) the organ does not tire or pause for breath, and can maintain an unchanging dynamic level. These functions are still the...
Christ, who knows all his sheep. Richard Baxter* (1615-1691).
This is from Baxter's poem, 'The Exit', dated 'Decemb. 19.1682' and printed in Additions to the Poetical Fragments of Richard Baxter (1683). It begins 'My Soul go boldly forth,/ Forsake this Sinful Earth', and the theme throughout is the contrast between the joys of heaven and the pain and sorrow of earth. Verse 11, for example reads:
O Blessed Company,
Where all in Harmony,
Jehovah's Praises Sing,
Still without ceasing:
And all...
Come, Holy Spirit, come,/ with energy divine. Benjamin Beddome* (1717-1795).
According to JJ, p. 122, this was first published in the 10th Edition of John Rippon*'s Selection of Hymns* (1800), sold in Britain and America. The title was 'The Holy Spirit invoked', with no author's name. It had four stanzas. The text in 1800 was as follows:
Come, holy Spirit, come! With energy divine; And on this poor benighted soul With beams of mercy shine.
From the celestial hills, Light, life,...
God bless our native land. William Edward Hickson* (1803-1870).
Written in 1836 and published in The Singing Master, Hickson's famous book on musical education, where it had three stanzas. A fourth stanza was added to the Second Edition of The Singing Master in 1844. Hickson said that it had been written 'as a new national anthem' (JJ, p. 1566): it follows the metre of 'God save our gracious Queen (King)', and can be sung to the normal tune, although it is often set to MOSCOW by Felice...
Gott sei Dank durch alle Welt. Heinrich Held* (1620-1659).
First published in Neu-erfundene Geistliche Wasserquelle (Frankfurt/Oder, 1658) edited by Johannes Niedling (1602-1668), with the title 'Von der Zukunfft Christi'. According to JJ, p. 507, it also appeared in an edition of Johann Crüger*'s Praxis Pietatis Melica dated 1659. It was translated into English by Catherine Winkworth* for The Chorale Book for England (1863). It had nine 4-line stanzas, shortened to four (1-4) in the 'Advent'...
LAWES, Henry. b. Dinton, Wiltshire, 1596 (baptized 5 January); d. London, 21 October 1662. His early career was as teacher of music in the household of the Earl of Bridgewater. In 1626 he was appointed to the Chapel Royal, and in 1631 he became a musician in the King's Musick. At the Restoration of 1660 he was reinstated to these positions, becoming additionally 'Composer in ye Private Musick for Lutes and Voices'. He was famous in his own time, holding concerts at his house which were attended...
Holy Spirit, truth divine. Samuel Longfellow* (1819-1892).
First published in Hymns of the Spirit (1864), edited by Longfellow and Samuel Johnson*, where it had the title 'Prayer for Inspiration'. It had six stanzas, setting out the virtues associated with the Holy Spirit, beginning with 'Truth divine' and continuing with 'Love divine', 'Power divine', 'Right divine', Peace divine' and 'Joy divine'. The 1864 text was as follows::
Holy Spirit, Truth divine!Dawn upon this soul of mine;Word of...
SCHOP, Johann. b. Hamburg, ca. 1590; d. Hamburg, summer 1667. No documents survive pertaining to his youth and school years. In 1614, Schop gained probationary employment as a musician at the court chapel of Duke Friedrich Ulrich in Wolfenbüttel. His varied instrumental expertise on the lute, cornet and trombone, and his excellent violin playing, led to a permanent post there in 1615. Nevertheless, in the same year Schop moved to the court chapel of King Christian IV of Denmark in Copenhagen,...
LAMPE, John Frederick. b. perhaps Braunschweig/Brunswick, 1702/3; d. Edinburgh, 25 July 1751. Lampe was a German-born composer and performer, who was described as coming from Brunswick in the records of the University of Helmstedt, where he studied law from 1718 to 1720. He settled in Britain from 1725/6, establishing himself as a harpsichordist and bassoonist, performing under Handel*'s direction, and also as a composer of operatic music. In the mid-1740s, he came into contact with John* and...
GOSS, (Sir) John. b. Fareham, Hampshire, 27 December 1800; d. London, 10 May 1880. His father, Joseph Goss, was organist at Fareham. He was a chorister at the Chapel Royal from 1811 under John Stafford Smith (1750–1836), who perhaps inculcated in him a reverence for old music; later he studied composition with Thomas Attwood*. As organist of the new parish church of St Luke, Chelsea (1824–38) Goss brought out a four-volume collection, Parochial Psalmody (1826). He composed one successful opera,...
Let the whole creation cry. Stopford Brooke* (1832-1916).
From Brooke's Christian Hymns (1881), the book compiled for his congregation at Bedford Chapel (even though by that time he had left the Church of England). It was published by the Women's Printing Society, a recently-founded enterprise to employ women, which became associated with the early years of the suffragette movement. It was also an example of Brooke's liking for long hymns, for it had ten 4-line stanzas. It was based on Psalm...
Lord of all power and might. Hugh Stowell* (1799-1865).
According to JJ, p. 1097) this was written for the Jubilee of the British and Foreign Bible Society, 7 March 1853, and published after his death in Hymns, by the late Rev. Canon Stowell, M.A. (Manchester, 1868). It was subsequently published in the enlarged edition of Stowell's A Selection of Psalms & Hymns Suited to the Services of the Church of England (Manchester, 1877), edited by his son, Thomas Alfred Stowell (1831-1916). It had...
SAWARD, Michael John. b. Blackheath, London, 14 May 1932; d. Switzerland, 31 January 2015. Educated at Eltham College, Bristol University and Tyndale Hall, Bristol. From 1949-52 he worked in an office, followed by National Service. Ordained in 1956, he served curacies at Croydon (1956-59) and Edgware (1959-64). He was Warden of Holy Trinity Inter-Church Centre, Liverpool (1964-67); the Church of England's Radio and TV Officer (1967-72); incumbent of Fulham (1972-78), and Ealing (1978-91)...
My God, I love Thee, not because. Latin, attributed to St Francis Xavier* (?) (1506-1552), translated by Edward Caswall* (1814-1878).
The Latin text, 'O Deus ego amo te', is found in the Coeleste Palmetum (Cologne, 1669) of a Jesuit priest, Wilhelmus Nakatenus. It was a translation of a Spanish sonnet, 'No me mueve, mi Dios, para quererte', which was printed in Epitome de la vida y muerte de San Ignacio de Loyola (Roermond, 1662). It is said that this was used daily by St Ignatius in his...
O Filii et Filiae. Jean Tisserand* (d. 1494).
This hymn on the events of Easter, with an emphasis on the episode of St Thomas, is found in an untitled booklet printed between 1518 and 1536, probably at Paris. It was a 'Salut', a greeting to the Blessed Sacrament on Easter Day. It was entitled 'L'aleluya du jour de Pasques', and in translation it is prefaced by the three-fold 'Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!' There is some suggestion that the triple 'Alleluia' may have been sung between each...
O light of light, by love inclined. Laurence Housman* (1865-1959).
This is a translation of a Latin hymn of unknown origin, but at least as old as the 10th century, 'O nata Lux de lumine'. This hymn for the Transfiguration was included in EH, to be sung to plainsong (though not the same melody as either of those associated with the Latin text in the manuscripts edited by Bruno Stäblein in Monumenta Monastica Medii Aevi, Kassel, 1956) or to the tune WHITEHALL by Henry Lawes*. The hymn is a...
O Thou Whose all-redeeming might. Latin, 8th or 9th century, translated by Richard Meux Benson* (1824-1915).
This translation of the anonymous Latin hymn 'Iesu Redemptor omnium'* was included in the First Edition of A&M (1861), in the section 'Martyrs, &c.' It was preceded by a quotation from 1 Timothy 3: 1: 'If a man desire the office of a Bishop, he desireth a good work.' In subsequent editions of A&M it is headed 'For a Bishop'. It was slightly altered in A&M (1904), but...
O where are kings and empires now. Arthur Cleveland Coxe* (1818-1896).
The customary form of this hymn is that of four quatrains, selected from Coxe's longer poem, 'Chelsea', a tribute to the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church, Chelsea, Massachusetts, where he was a divinity student. According to JJ, p. 267, it first appeared in the Churchman (1839). In ten 8-line stanzas, it was published in Coxe's Christian Ballads (1840). It is a confident poem in which the opening is...
Praise the Lord, his glories show. Henry Francis Lyte* (1793-1847).
From Lyte's The Spirit of the Psalms: or, The Psalms of David adapted to Christian Worship (1834). It was a christianized paraphrase of Psalm 150, in two 8-line stanzas:
Praise the Lord, His glories show, Saints within His courts below, Angels round His throne above, All that see and share His love. Earth to heaven, and heaven to earth, Tell his wonders, sing his worth; Age to age, and shore to shore, Praise Him, Praise...
The Salisbury Hymn Book (1857). This was published in Salisbury and London, although it may have originated in a hymnbook for the local diocese of the former. It was edited by Horatio Bolton Nelson*. There was no Preface, but a letter addressed to Earl Nelson from the Bishop of Salisbury, Walter Kerr Hamilton, dated November of that year, was printed as follows: 'My dear Lord,/ I very much like the Hymn-book which you have sent me, and I quite approve of your publishing it./ I remain, Yours...
The son of consolation. Maud Coote* (1851-1935).
This hymn for St Barnabas' Day was written before 1871, when it was published in Church Hymns (1871, Church Hymns with Tunes, 1874), so it was the work of a young woman. It should really have been attributed to Maud Oswell, her maiden name, but in hymnbooks it is given as above.
The name Barnabas means 'son of consolation' (Acts 4: 36). The hymn had five stanzas, printed in EH for St Barnabas' Day (11 June), shortened to three and radically...
DORSEY, Thomas Andrew. b. Villa Rica, Georgia, 1 July 1899; d. Chicago, 23 January 1993. Born into a Baptist preacher's family that moved to Atlanta when he was five, Dorsey studied music there and came under the influence of local blues pianists. He moved to Chicago in 1915, where he studied at the Chicago College of Composition and Arranging, and played in nightclubs as 'Georgia Tom' or 'Barrelhouse Tom', accompanying blues singers such as Tampa Red, Ma Rainey, and Bessie Smith. Because of...
BIRKS, Thomas Rawson. b. Staveley, Derbyshire, 20 September 1810; d. Cambridge, 21 July 1883. He was the son of a Baptist tenant farmer, educated locally at Chesterfield and then at Mill Hill school, north London, founded in 1807 as a nonconformist Grammar School, where he became a master for a short time. He became a member of the Church of England in 1830, and went on in that year to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he had a distinguished career as an undergraduate (BA 1834), and became a...
Thou, whose almighty word. John Marriott* (1780-1825).
Marriott's hymns were not published during his lifetime. This appeared shortly after his death in the Evangelical Magazine (June 1825) as part of a record of a meeting of the London Missionary Society on 12 May, when it had been quoted by the Revd Thomas Mortimer, Lecturer of St Olave's, Southwark. It then appeared in The Friendly Visitor (July 1825). It had no author's name. It was entitled 'Missionary Hymn'. According to one of Marriott's...
Trying to walk in the steps of the Savior. Eliza E. Hewitt* (1851-1920).
This was one of the most popular of the many hymns by Eliza Hewitt. The first page scan in Hymnary.org gives its provenance as one of the many gospel hymnals published in Philadelphia by John J. Hood, with its companion piece, both dated 1889: Redemption Songs, and a compilation entitled Sacred Trio: comprising Redemption Songs, Showers of Blessing, the Joyful Sound. The author was given as 'L.H. Edmunds', one of the...
BLEW, William John. b. Westminster, London, 13 April 1808; d. Westminster, 27 December 1894. Born at Westminster, London, he was educated at a school at Ealing run by a Dr George Nicholas, where a fellow-pupil was John Henry Newman*. He then went to Wadham College, Oxford (BA 1830, MA 1832) and took Holy Orders (deacon 1832, priest 1834), serving as curate of Nuthurst and Cocking, Sussex (1832-40) and curate of St Anne's, Soho, London (1840-42). In 1842 he became the incumbent at St John's,...
CHATFIELD, Allen William. b. Chatteris, Cambridgeshire, 2 October 1808; d. Much Marcle, Gloucestershire, 10 January 1896. He was educated at Charterhouse and Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1831, MA 1836). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1832, priest 1833), and was vicar of Stotfold, Bedfordshire (1833-47) and of Much Marcle with Yatton, Gloucestershire, Diocese of Hereford (1847-96). He followed John Mason Neale* in his interest in Greek hymnody: he was a remarkable translator from (and into)...
BRIDGE, Basil Ernest. b. Norwich, 5 August 1927; d. Norwich, 11 September 2021. He was educated at the City of Norwich School and Fitzwilliam House, Cambridge (BA, 1948). He trained for the Congregational ministry at Cheshunt College, and was ordained in 1951. He served in Congregational (after 1972 United Reformed Church) churches at Knowle, Warwickshire (1951-55), Leicester (1955-74), Stamford and Bourne, Lincolnshire (1976-89), and Harrold, Bedforshire (1989-94). He has written over 30 texts...
Can I forget bright Eden's grace. William Williams* (1717-91), translated by Herbert Arthur Hodges* (1905-76).
This translation of Williams's 'Yn Eden, cofiaf hynny byth' was first printed for the Hymn Society's 'Act of Praise' at its conference in Cardiff in 1975 with the title 'Eden and Calvary'. As this title suggests, the hymn is a highly charged and compressed account of the Fall and the Redemption. The translator's article on Williams (Bulletin of the Hymn Society, 135, 1976) notes that...
BOWATER, Christopher Alan (Chris). b. 1947. Bowater is a British songwriter and pastor. Between 1978 and 2006 he had published some 51 songs through Sovereign Lifestyle Music, Kingsway and Thankyou Music. Many of these have featured in various editions of series such as Mission Praise* and Songs of Fellowship*, as well as in denominational hymnals. Among his most popular and enduring songs are 'Faithful God' (1985) and 'Jesus shall take the highest honour' (1998). He has also published new...
MONAHAN, (Carl) Dermott. b. Ikkada, South India, 1 January 1906; d. Lambeth, London, 23 May 1957. He was the son of a Wesleyan Methodist missionary, educated at Kingswood School, Bath, the school founded by John Wesley* for the sons of ministers. From there he went to Trinity Hall, Cambridge (BA 1927); after a year (1927-28) as a Colonial Administrator in the Gold Coast (now Ghana), he studied at Handsworth College, Birmingham. He served in educational work in India in the Hyderabad District...
NEWPORT, Doreen (née McFee). b. Manchester, 24 February 1927; d. Winchester, 25 October 2004. Born in Manchester, she was educated at Somerville College, Oxford and then at the University of Manchester, where she completed a Diploma in Education. Newport, known familiarly as 'Bunty', taught music in Norfolk, Cambridge and Winchester, as well as being active as an accompanist. In 1951 she married a Congregational (later URC) minister, Jack Newport.
Her best known hymn is 'Think of a world...
CODNER, Elizabeth (née Harris). b. Dartmouth, Devon, 1823; d. Croydon, Surrey, 28 March 1919. She was interested in the mission field from an early age, and two of her early publications were entitled The Missionary Ship (1853) and The Missionary Farewell (1854) relating to the Patagonia Mission (later the South American Missionary Society). She married Daniel Codner, an Anglican clergyman: he appears in the Clergy Lists for this period, but without a benefice.
She was closely involved with...
Es wolle Gott uns gnädig sein. Martin Luther* (1483-1546).
This paraphrase of Psalm 67, 'Deus misereatur', originally 'Es wollt uns Gott…', was published as a broadsheet (a man was arrested in Magdeburg in 1524 for selling it), and in one of Luther's liturgical books on the Mass and Communion, Ein weise christlich Mess zuhaltē (Wittenberg, 1524). It then appeared in Eyn Enchiridion oder Handbuchlein (Erfurt, 1524). It had three 9-line stanzas (Jenny, Luthers geistliche Lieder, no.10, pp....
DUFFIELD, George, Jr. b. Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 12 September 1818; d. Bloomfield, New Jersey, 6 July 1888. Duffield was born into a Presbyterian preacher's home. A graduate of Yale College (1837) and of Union Theological Seminary in New York City (1840), he served Presbyterian churches in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Illinois. He was a regent for the University of Michigan for seven years; served as editor of the Presbyterian journal, the Christian Observer; promoted...
I heard an old, old story. Eugene M. Bartlett* (1885-1941).
Published in 1939, following a stroke that rendered Bartlett partially paralyzed and unable to perform or travel, this hymn, composed in a gospel-quartet style, was widely performed and recorded and became his best-known work. It is sometimes identified by its refrain as 'O victory in Jesus':
O victory in Jesus My Savior forever He sought me and bought me With His redeeming blood He loved me ere I knew Him And all my love is due Him He...
I serve a risen Savior. Alfred Ackley* (1887-1960). Published in Triumphant Service Songs, by the Rodeheaver HallMack Publishing Company in 1934, this modern gospel hymn rapidly became a favorite at evangelistic meetings and campaigns. The music was by Ackley himself. Like many of Ackley's hymns, it is probably better known from its refrain, 'He lives, he lives, Christ Jesus lives today!':
He lives, he lives, Christ Jesus lives today!He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way.He...
I was sinking deep in sin. James Rowe* (1865-1933).
This dramatic hymn was written ca. 1912, at the height of the Reconstruction Era urban gospel hymnody movement. It was published by Robert H. Coleman* in one of the many Coleman publications, The Herald (Dallas, 1915). It is a three-verse nautical-imagery hymn, praising Jesus, 'master of the Sea', who saves the sinner from sinking. The refrain is 'Love lifted me!', ending 'When nothing else could help/ Love lifted me!' The tune is called...
It passeth knowledge, that dear love of Thine. Mary Shekleton* (1827-1883).
Written in 1863 and first published in broadsheet form. It was later included in Ira D. Sankey*'s Sacred Songs and Solos No 1 (ca. 1873) to be sung to Sankey's tune IT PASSETH KNOWLEDGE. It is a reflection on Ephesians 3: 17-19, ending 'to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God'.
It had seven verses. It still appears in some hymn books (WOV, HP) in...
NOBLE, James Ashcroft. b. Liverpool, 25 June 1844; d. Wandsworth, London, 3 April 1896. Noble became a literary critic and an active man of letters in Victorian England: he wrote essays for The Spectator, produced a book on shorthand, and became the editor of a periodical, The Illustrator. Among his many books were The Pelican Papers: Reminiscences and Remains of a Dweller in the Wilderness (1873), Morality in English Fiction (Liverpool, 1886), The Sonnet in England, & other essays (1893),...
MAUBURN, Jean. b. Brussels, ca. 1460; d. Paris, 1503. According to Frost (1962, p. 561), he studied music at Utrecht, and was an Augustinian canon of various French abbeys (in The Voice of Christian Life in Song, 1858, Elizabeth Rundle Charles* described him as Abbot of Livry).
In 1491 Mauburn published Rosetum exercitiorum spiritualium ('Spiritual Exercises for the Confraternity of the Rosary'). According to The Hymnal 1982 Companion, these were spiritual exercises for the laity. From this...
Jesus, Lord, Redeemer. Patrick Miller Kirkland* (1857-1943).
This moving Easter hymn was first published in the English Presbyterian hymnbook, Church Praise (revised edition, 1907). It is unusual in hymnody because it includes the story of the road to Emmaus and the ten disciples (without Judas and Thomas) in hiding on the first Easter day:
Faithful ones, communing, Towards the close of day, Desolate and weary, Met Thee in the way...
In the upper chamber, Where the ten, in fear,...
BODE, John Ernest. b. London, 23 February 1816; d. Castle Camps, Cambridgeshire, 6 October 1874. He was educated at two schools, Eton and Charterhouse, followed by Christ Church, Oxford (BA 1837, MA 1840). He became a Student (a Fellow) of Christ Church (1841-47), and took Holy Orders (deacon 1841, priest 1843). He was vicar of Westwell, Oxfordshire (1847-60), and of Castle Camps, Cambridgeshire (1860-74). He gave the prestigious Bampton Lectures at Oxford in 1855, published under the title The...
OATMAN, Johnson, Jr. b. Medford, New Jersey, 21 April 1856; d. Norman, Oklahoma, 25 September 1922. Oatman attended Herbert's Academy in Vincentown, New Jersey, and the New Jersey Collegiate Institute in Bordentown. Ordained a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, his pastoral work was limited, owing to his employment in his father's mercantile business, and later as an insurance agent in Mount Holly, New Jersey, until ill health caused his retirement in 1892-93.
In the years that...
O'NEILL, Judith Beatrice (née Lyall). b. Melbourne, Australia, 3 June 1930; d. 25 March 2006. She was educated at Mildura High School (the family moved to Mildura, in the north of the State of Victoria, in 1940) and the University of Melbourne. She studied in London (1952-53), and taught English Literature at the University of Melbourne (1954-55, and again in 1959-64; from 1955 to 1959 she was in Göttingen and Cambridge, with her postgraduate student husband, whom she married in 1954). In 1964...
Lord of all, to whom alone. Cyril Argentine Alington* (1872-1955). This hymn appeared in the Eton College Hymn Book (1937), and was entitled 'A Litany' in Alington's verse collection In Shabby Streets (1942). It was subsequently included in BBCHB and many other hymnbooks. It takes the form of a simple petition for forgiveness. The first two verses echo the collect (prayer) for purity in the Holy Communion in the Book of Common Prayer ('Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open, all desires...
DOBSON, Marjorie. b. Eldon, County Durham, 6 June 1940. She was educated at Bishop Auckland Girls' Grammar School, after which she worked in the civil service and in local government. She has been a Methodist Local Preacher from the age of 20, and since the early 1970s she has explored the possibilities of contemporary hymnody in making worship as relevant as possible to young people.
She began to write hymns in the late 1980s, some of which were published in the periodical Worship Live...
WAKEFORD, Mary (née Steele). b. Broughton, Hampshire, 1724; d. 1772. She was born to William Steele III (1689-1769, of Broughton, and his second wife, Anne Cator Steele (1689-1760). She was thus half sister to Anne Steele*. Her father was the pastor of the Baptist congregation, and the Steeles were the leading family in the local chapel. In 1749 she married, as his second wife, Joseph Wakeford (1719-1785). She wrote occasional poetry, mainly addressed to literary friends, between 1748 and 1769,...
COOTE, Maud (née Oswell). b. Whittington, Shropshire, 1851; d. Westminster, London, 18 March 1935. Little is known of Maud Oswell's life, except the dates and places above (from Shropshire Baptism Records and HymnQuest) and that she married Mr Coote (she appears as 'Mrs. Coote' in EH, which is misleading, because her hymns must have been written before she was twenty). She was certainly active as a writer and in church work as a young woman, because what little is known of her life is taken by...
Name of all majesty. Timothy Dudley-Smith* (1926-2024).
At Ruan Minor, Cornwall, in August 1979, the author drafted this text from notes made earlier that year during his reading of Walter de la Mare's Collected Poems. These referred mainly to the metrical form of three of them, on one of which 'this text came to be loosely modelled'. Headed simply 'The Lord Jesus Christ', it is a poetic exposition of the phrase 'Jesus is Lord', which 'is said to be the earliest baptismal creed of the church:...
O wie freun wir uns der Stunde. Karl Johann Philipp Spitta* (1801-1859).
First published in Spitta's Psalter und Harfe. Zweite Sammlung (Leipzig, 1843) in six 8-line stanzas. It was entitled 'Du hast Worte des ewigen Lebens' ('Thou hast the words of eternal life', from John 6: 68). It is delightfully simple in places, as in verse 1b:
Lass uns heute nicht vergebens Hörer eines Wortes sein, Schreibe selbst das Wort des Lebens Tief in uns're Herzen ein.
Let us not neglect today Hearers of...
One day when heaven was filled with his praises. John W. Chapman* (1859-1918).
Written ca. 1908, and given to a musician, Charles Howard Marsh (1886-1956), who wrote a tune for it. A publishing dispute meant that it was not published until 1911. It had five stanzas, with a refrain:
Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me;
Buried, He carried my sins far away;
Rising, he justified freely for ever:
One day He's coming – O glorious day!
The message is that 'one day when sin was as black...
OWENS, Priscilla Jane. b. Baltimore, Maryland, 21 July 1829; d. Baltimore, 5 December 1907. Owens was educated at the Patapsco Institute, in Howard Country, Maryland, and the Ladies' Collegiate Institute, Baltimore. Owens taught in the public school system for 49 years, and in Union Square Methodist Episcopal Church's Sunday School for even longer. She composed poetry and prose on a wide range of topics, including ballads relating to the Civil War, religious verse, and hymns and Sunday school...
JONES, Roger. b. Birmingham, 15 May 1948. Educated at the Birmingham School of Music, Jones is a composer of Christian musicals and hymn tunes. He began his career as a school teacher, but moved into full-time Christian Music Ministry in 1984. He received the Cranmer Award for Worship from the Archbishop of Canterbury in 2019. He directs Christian Music Ministries (CMM), which publishes his music. Many of his early hymn tunes were written for inclusion in the series of Christian musicals he...
WARNER, Susan Bogert. b. New York, 11 July 1819; d. 17 March 1885. Born in New York, she was the older sister of Anna Bartlett Warner*. With the failure of her father's real estate speculation in 1837, the family moved to a farmhouse on Constitution Island on the Hudson River, where the sisters made a living by writing. Susan, who was the more successful of the two, wrote under the pseudonym of Elizabeth Wetherell. Her novel, The Wide, Wide World (1851), was a best-seller, admired by Henry...
CHISHOLM, Thomas Obediah. b. Franklin, Kentucky, 29 July 1866; d. Ocean Grove, New Jersey, 29 February 1960. Thomas Chisholm received little formal education beyond elementary school. He served as a teacher at his own rural school from age 16, and then assumed editing duties at his hometown newspaper, The Franklin Favorite, at age 23. Converted under the preaching of Henry Clay Morrison (founder of Asbury College & Seminary), Chisholm became editor and manager of the Pentecostal Herald in...
MATHAMS, Walter John. b. Bermondsey, London, 30 October 1853; d. Swanage, Dorset, 29 January 1931. He went to sea as a young man, and then took part in the Alaska gold rush. He subsequently decided to train for the Baptist ministry, entering Regent's Park College, London, in 1874. He became a pastor at Preston, Lancashire, but was forced to give up because of ill health. On recovery, he became a pastor at Falkirk (1883-88) and Birmingham (1888-1900). He then joined the Church of Scotland,...
We have heard the joyful sound. Priscilla Jane Owens* (1829-1907).
Written for a Sunday-school anniversary sometime before 1882, when it was published in Songs of Redeeming Love, compiled by John R. Sweney*, C.C. McCabe, T.C. O'Kane, and William J. Kirkpatrick*. The tune is by Kirkpatrick. The 'joyful sound' is 'Jesus saves, Jesus saves', repeated throughout the hymn. Originally the opening was 'We have heard a joyful sound', altered to the present form in Gospel Hymns No 5 (1887), edited by...
TENNYSON, Alfred. b. Somersby, Lincolnshire, 6 August 1809; d. Haslemere, Surrey, 6 October 1892. He was the son of the rector of Somersby, educated at Louth Grammar School, and then privately. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827, leaving in 1831 without taking a degree, but having published Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830).
At Cambridge he became friendly with the brilliant Arthur Henry Hallam (1811-33), whose sudden death, and the reflections upon it, were the cause of Tennyson's most...
WHITE, Benjamin Franklin. b. near Cross Keys, Union County, South Carolina, 20 September 1800; d. Atlanta, Georgia, 5 December 1879. White was the principal compiler, along with Elisha J. King*, of The Sacred Harp*.
Benjamin White was the twelfth child of Robert White (1743?-1843) and Mildred White (1745?-1807). As a result of Mildred's death, Benjamin lived for about 11 years in the household of his brother, Robert White, Jr. (1784-1880). Evidence of family involvement with music is the...
Christian, do you struggle. Bert Polman* (1945-2013).
This is based on an ancient New Testament hymn text about Christian experience of conflict. Polman comments, in the Psalter Hymnal Handbook (p. 751):
The Christian battle is 'not against flesh and blood' but against the 'powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil.' It is a deadly serious battle that requires Christians to 'put on the full armour of God,' which his Word and Spirit provide. This spiritual warfare is...
City of God, how broad and far. Samuel Johnson* (1822-1882).
Written in 1860, and first published in Hymns of the Spirit (Boston, 1864), a notable Unitarian hymnbook compiled by Johnson and his friend Samuel Longfellow*. It was entitled 'The Church the City of God'. It became renowned as a grand American poem, and was included in Edmund Clarence Stedman's An American Anthology (1900), as well as in many hymnbooks. The first words echo Saint Augustine, and 'one holy church' (verse 2 line 1) is a...
Clichtoveus. b. Nieuwport, Flanders, 1572; d. Chartres, France, 22 September 1543.
During the Renaissance it was common for learned authors to Latinize their names (cf. Andreas Gryphius*, Paul Speratus*). Judocus Clichtoveus Neoportuensis, usually referred to as 'Clichtoveus' was the name for Josse van Clichtove, educated at Leuven (Louvain) and Paris. He became Librarian of the Sorbonne before moving back to Flanders in 1519 with Louis Guillard, Bishop of Tournai. He later moved with Guillard...
HOLBROOK, David Kenneth. b. Norwich, 9 January 1923; d. Cambridge, 11 August 2011. Educated at the City of Norwich School and Downing College, Cambridge, Holbrook fought in the Normandy campaign during World War II, landing in France on D-Day and later being wounded, before returning to Cambridge to complete his degree in 1947. He was a tutor at Bassingbourn Village College, Hertfordshire (1954-61), a Research Fellow of King's College (1961-65), and Fellow and Director of Studies in English at...
Father of all, we come to Thee. Edwin Alec Blaxill* (1873-1953).
Written in 1912, this remarkable and little known hymn is a neat versification of the Scout Promise ('On my honour, I promise that I will do my best/ To do my duty to God and the Queen/ To help other people/ and to keep the Scout Law.') Elements of the original Scout Law are found in stanzas 1 ('A scout is loyal…'), 2 ('A scout's honour is to be trusted'), 3-4 ('A scout's duty is to help other people'), 6 ('A scout smiles and...
HORT, Fenton John Anthony. b. Dublin, 23 April 1828; d. Cambridge, 30 November 1892. He was educated at Rugby School and Trinity College, Cambridge (BA, 1851). He became a Fellow of Trinity College, and took Holy Orders (deacon 1852, priest 1854). On his marriage in 1857 he resigned his Fellowship, and was appointed to a rural parish near Hitchin. He returned to Cambridge in 1872 as Fellow and Tutor of Emmanuel College, and was appointed Hulsean Professor of Divinity in 1878. With Brooke Foss...
SMART, (Sir) George Thomas. b. London, 10 May 1776; d. London, 23 February 1867. He received his early musical education as a Child (chorister) of the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace, and began his career as organist of St James' Chapel, Hampstead Road (1791). A few years later he added a similar post at Brunswick Chapel and in 1822 he was appointed one of the two joint organists of the Chapel Royal. By the end of his career his inability to play the pedals was out-dated: when invited to try a...
God, my Father, loving me. George Wallace Briggs* (1875-1959).
First published in Songs of Praise for Boys and Girls (1929), in five stanzas. It then appeared in the 'For Children' section of SofPE (1931), revised and with the last stanza omitted:
Then, when I am called to share
Yonder home thou dost prepare,
I shall meet my King, and praise
Him through everlasting days.
Apart from this stanza it is a good example of a hymn for children, containing profound truths in simple language. The...
DARKE, Harold Edwin. b. London, 29 October 1888; d. Cambridge, 28 November 1976. Born in London, Darke studied the organ with Walter Parratt* at the Royal College of Music and composition with Stanford*. He was organist of St Michael's, Cornhill, London from 1916 to 1966, gaining a reputation for his performances of Bach* (in the style of Schweitzer) and for his regular Monday recitals. He also founded and conducted the City of London Choral Union in 1925, and the St Michael's Singers (1919-66)...
HOWELLS, Herbert Norman. b. Lydney, Gloucestershire, 17 October 1892; d. Putney, London, 23 February 1983. Howells was an articled student (with Ivor Gurney and Ivor Novello) of Herbert Brewer at Gloucester Cathedral (1909-12) and went on to study with Stanford* and Charles Wood* at the Royal College of Music (1912-17). He joined the teaching staff of the RCM in 1920 and taught there until 1979. Succeeding Gustav Holst*, he was also director of music at St Paul's Girls' School, Hammersmith...
I bind unto myself today. Cecil Frances Alexander* (1818-1895). This hymn, in its original Irish form has been attributed to St Patrick, although the dating and authorship remain obscure: in the Irish Liber hymnorum it is said to be 'a lorica [breastplate] of faith for the protection of body and soul against demons and men and vices'. The pagan king, Laoghaire, was confronted by Patrick at Tara in County Meath on Easter Eve: the druids were silenced, and Patrick lit the paschal fire on the hill...
FABRICIUS, Jakob. b. Köslin, Pomerania (now Koszalin, Poland), 19 July 1593; d. Stettin (now Szczecin, Poland), 11 August 1654. After school at Köslin and at the Prince's school at Stettin, he studied philosophy and theology (including Hebrew) at Lübeck and Rostock. He became a teacher at Köslin, and then succeeded his father-in-law as diaconus, before being summoned by Duke Bogislaw IV to be Hofprediger (chief preacher) at Rügenwalde. He was awarded a Doctorate of Theology from the University...
ALTENBURG, Johann Michael. b. Alach, near Erfurt, 27 May 1584; d. Erfurt, 12 February 1640. He was educated at school at Erfurt and at the University (BA 1599, MA 1603). He was a schoolmaster at Erfurt, first as a teacher at the Reglerschule and then as Rektor of the school connected with St Andreas' Church (1600-09). He was also Kantor at St Andreas' from 1601. In 1609 he left teaching to become a pastor, and was assistant at two parishes near Erfurt before becoming pastor at Tröchtelborn...
GEYER, John Brownlow. b. Wakefield, Yorkshire, 9 May 1932; d. Tayport, Fife, 26 July 2020. He was educated at Silcoates School, Wakefield, the Congregational foundation for the sons of nonconformist ministers. After National Service (1951-53), he read Theology at Queens' College, Cambridge (BA 1956), and trained for the Congregational ministry at Mansfield College, Oxford (1956-59), with a period studying at Heidelberg (1957-59). He was minister of the Congregational Church, St Andrews, Fife,...
GURNEY, John Hampden. b. London, 15 August 1802; d. London, 8 March 1862. He was the eldest son of Sir John Gurney, a lawyer. He was educated at Chobham School, Surrey, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied law (BA 1824, MA 1827). After a short time as a lawyer he decided to take Holy Orders (deacon 1827, priest 1829). He served as curate of Lutterworth, Leicestershire (1827-44), rector of St Mary's, Bryanston Square (1847-62) and Prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral (1857-62). He was a...
MORISON, John. b. Cairnie, Aberdeenshire, 1750 (baptized 12 June); d. Canisbay, Caithness, 12 June 1798. He was a student at King's College, Aberdeen, after which he became a private tutor, first at Dunnet, Caithness, then at Halkirk (1768-ca. 1771). For a short time in 1773 he was a teacher at Thurso, before moving to Edinburgh. He contributed poetical pieces to Ruddiman's Edinburgh Weekly Magazine under the pseudonym 'Musaeus', and met Dr Macfarlane, minister of Canongate Kirk, who was a...
VERNON, John Richard. b. Louth, Lincolnshire, 1833; d. Williton, Somerset, 30 September 1902. Educated at Hertford College, Oxford, he took Holy Orders (deacon 1860, priest 1861), serving curacies at Sellindge, Kent (1860-64), Cheriton, Kent (1864-67), Newington, Kent (1867-69), Stogumber, Somerset (1869-71) and Streatham, south-west London (1871-74). He was rector of St Audries, West Quantoxhead, Somerset, from 1874 until his death.
Vernon published many books on devotional topics. Probably...
ADAM, Joseph. b. perhaps Dundee, ca. 1843, date unknown; d. Bournville, Birmingham, 10 March 1919. According to the Churches of Christ periodical, The Bible Advocate ('Pleading for a Complete Return to the Faith and Practice of the New Testament Church'), 4 April 1919, he was born 'some seventy-six years ago in the city of Dundee'. Adam was trained as a carpenter, but became a Churches of Christ evangelist, trained at Birmingham by the great Churches of Christ evangelist David King (1819-1894)....
Let sighing cease and woe. Charles Coffin* (1676-1749), translated by William John Blew* (1808-1894).
Coffin's hymn, 'Iam desinant suspiria'* was written for Matins on Christmas Day. Blew's translation was dated 1852 by JJ, p. 577, where it was stated as 'not in C.U.' It was rescued from oblivion by the editors of EH, probably influenced by Percy Dearmer*, who, as a Christian Socialist, and a lover of the childlike, would have admired some of the stanzas, such as 4, 6 and 7 (the last):
We...
Lord of beauty, thine the splendour. Cyril Argentine Alington* (1872-1955).
First published in Eton Faces (Eton, 1933), the book which Alington published as a farewell to Eton when leaving to become Dean of Durham. It then appeared in the Eton College Hymn Book (Oxford, 1937) with the tune OBIIT, by Walter Parratt* (but many other tunes have also been used, including Basil Harwood*'s ST AUDREY). The 'burning sun' and 'moonlight tender' in the first stanza are reminiscent of the first stanza of...
LECKEBUSCH, Martin Ernest. b. Leicester, 25 February 1962. Educated at King Edward VII College, Coalville, Oxford University and Brunel University. He works in the field of Information Technology, and has had links with Pentecostal, Methodist, Anglican and Baptist churches. He began writing hymns in 1987, and his work was first published in New Start (1999). By 2005 he had written some 350 hymns, of which 200 have been published, including metrical paraphrases of all 150 psalms. His texts have...
May God be near thee, friend. Henry Burton* (1840-1930).
This was published in Burton's Songs of the Highway (1924), with the title 'To an Absent Friend'. Burton's poems or hymns were well known in the mid-20th century, and this one was chosen for The School Hymn-Book of the Methodist Church (1950). Stanza 3 was omitted, and there were some minor alterations (stanza 2, with an eye on the mission field, was altered in line 1 to 'In distant, desert places'):
May God be near thee, friend, ...
SCHIRMER, Michael. b. Leipzig, 1606 (baptised 18 July); d. Berlin, 4 May 1673. He was educated at the Thomasschule at Leipzig, and studied theology at the University there. He was a youthful prodigy, who began his undergraduate study at the age of 13. He became Rektor at Freiberg (Saxony) in 1630, combining it with the post of pastor at Striegnitz. He was crowned as a 'King's Poet' in 1637.
In 1636 he was appointed Sub-Rektor at the Gymnasium at the Greyfriars Cloister in Berlin, where he...
TATE, Nahum. b. ca. 1652; d. 30 July 1715. Born of an Irish family, he was educated at Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1672). He moved to London in 1676, and became part of the London literary scene, where he became a friend of John Dryden* and published poems and translations from Ovid and Juvenal. He was active in the drama also, re-writing the end of Shakespeare's King Lear to give it a happy ending (which is not such a silly idea as it sounds: Dr Johnson approved of it, and it was played as the...
O God of heaven, we give thee thanks. Anastasia Van Burkalow* (1911-2004).
This four-stanza hymn, dated 1973, captures beautifully Anastasia Van Burkalow's passion for the planet she had spent a lifetime studying:
O God of heaven, we give thee thanks for all thy gifts of light:the brilliance of the sun by day, the moon and stars by night;and that most gracious Light of lights, our Savior and our King,who came the night of sin to end, eternal day to bring.
O God of earth, we give thee...
O quickly come, dread Judge of all. Lawrence Tuttiett* (1825-1897).
Based on the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22: 12 and 20, this hymn was first published in Tuttiett's Hymns for Churchmen (1854), and included in the Second Edition of A&M (1875). Although beginning with a reference to Advent, it was rightly placed in the 'General Hymns' section, because the four stanzas refer to other aspects of the divine presence:
O quickly come, dread Judge of all; For, awful though Thine...
TRENCH, Richard Chenevix. b. Dublin, 9 September 1807; d. London, 28 March 1886. He came from a distinguished family: his uncle Frederic was Lord Ashtown, and his great-grandfather was Bishop of Waterford. He was educated at Harrow School (1819-25) and Trinity College, Cambridge (1825-29: BA 1829; MA 1833), where he was a member of the exclusive 'Apostles' club, together with Alfred Tennyson* and Arthur Hallam. After a period spent travelling, he took Holy Orders (deacon 1832, priest 1835),...
HAWKER, Robert. b. Exeter, 1753; d. Plymouth, 6 April 1827. He studied medicine at Magdalen Hall (now Hertford College), Oxford, and the title page of some of his published works describes him as 'D.D.'. He was described by Sabine Baring-Gould*, in the biography of his grandson, Robert Stephen Hawker*, as 'a man as remarkable for his abilities as he was for his piety' (1899, p. 1). He took Holy Orders and served as the incumbent of Charles Church, Plymouth, from 1784 until his death. Like many...
THOMAS, Ruth ('Ruthie'). b. in England of African Caribbean parents, 7 July 1956. She grew up in Wales. She was a student at King Alfred's University College, Winchester, where she received a P.D. James Bursary and was awarded an MA in the School of English in Writing for Children. She has subsequently published two novels for children, Ruby Tucker (2008) and Different (2010). She is a gospel singer, performer, poet, and hymn writer whose work has appeared in a number of contemporary...
Shout the glad tidings, exultingly sing. William Augustus Muhlenberg* (1796-1877).
First published in the hymnal of the Episcopal Church in America (1826) entitled The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church in the United States of America, known as the 'Prayer Book Collection'. According to JJ, Muhlenberg said that it was written 'at the particular request of Bishop John Henry Hobart (1775-1830), who wanted something that would...
MOLEFE, Stephen Cuthbert. b.1917; d.1987. Molefe was born in the Transkei area of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, of Sotho descent. He worked with David Dargie* in composition workshops for the Lumko Institute throughout southern Africa in the 1970s and 1980s, and was a prolific musician.
Molefe served as a choirmaster at the Catholic Church in Vosloorus. He was not only a skilled musician (writing music in Tonic Sol-fa* rather than staff notation) but also fluent in a variety of South...
Stir me, O stir me, Lord, I care not how. Bessie Porter Head* (1849/1850-1936).
This hymn of five 6-line stanzas appeared in Lady Victoria Carbery*'s Church Hymnal for the Christian Year (1917, 1920), with the attribution to 'Mrs Albert A. Head' and the date 1913.
It was prefaced by '“Stir into flame.” – 2 TIM. i. 6 (R.V. , marg.).'
It is a hymn that strangely, and rather uncomfortably, combines a missionary zeal with a personal series of reflections. Stanza 1 lines 4-6 are:
Stir, till the...
WALKER, Vera Evaline. b. Mirfield, Yorkshire, 24 November 1887; d. 28 March 1979. She was educated at a private school and at West Hill Teachers' Training College, Selly Oak, Birmingham. From 1910 to 1916 she lived in London, working at Whitefield's Central Mission, Tottenham Court Road. After a breakdown in health, she recovered at the Chaldecote Community, Charlton, south-west London, and returned to educational work. She became a member of King's Weigh House Chapel, London (formerly the...
Vexilla Regis prodeunt. Venantius Fortunatus* (ca. 540 – early 7th century).
This hymn (Poem 2.6), with 'Pange lingua gloriosi proelium certaminis'* (Poem 2.2), and 'Crux benedicta nitet' (Poem 2.1) were the first Christian hymns to the Cross, composed by Fortunatus to celebrate the arrival of relics of the Holy Cross from Byzantium in the convent of the Holy Cross in Poitiers in the 570s.
Fortunatus articulated ideas and images that had been current since earliest Christian times,...
We praise thy name, all-holy Lord. Ebenezer Josiah Newell* (1853-1916).
This hymn on Saint David (ca. 500- ca. 589) was included in EH and NEH, SofPE, and A&MR. The three stanzas in EH and subsequent books were selected from a hymn in seven stanzas on the Welsh saints, published in The Northern Churchman and St David's Weekly (29 February 1896, i.e. just before Saint David's day, 1 March). There is reference to David's noble birth (he was the son of Ceredig ap Cunedda, king of Ceredigion)...
DRUMMOND, William, of Hawthornden. b. Lasswade, near Edinburgh (now in Midlothian), 13 December 1585; d. Lasswade, 4 December 1649. He was the son of Sir John Drummond (1553-1610), Laird of Hawthornden. He was educated at the High School of Edinburgh, and Edinburgh College (now the University of Edinburgh), MA 1605, followed by a time in France studying law. On the death of his father he became the Laird of Hawthornden, and lived at Lasswade, devoting his time to local affairs and to writing....
SCHMOLCK, Benjamin. b. Brauchitzdorf, near Liegnitz, Silesia, 21 December 1672; d. Schweidnitz, 12 February 1737. The son of a Lutheran pastor, he was educated at the Gymnasium at Lauban and at the University of Leipzig (1693-97). He was ordained in 1701. In 1702 he was appointed diaconus of the Lutheran Friedenskirche at Schweidnitz. He remained there for the rest of his life, as diaconus, then archdiaconus (1708), and then pastor primarius (1714). Following the wars of religion, Schweidnitz...
Woolston, C. Herbert. b. Camden, New Jersey, 7 April 1856; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 20 May 1927.A pastor, gospel song writer, and sleight-of-hand magician, Clarence Herbert Woolston claimed that he had 'addressed many more than 1,000,000 children' (The Philadelphia Inquirer, 1927, p. 4).
The son of Isaiah S. and Sarah B. Woolston, Herbert attended public schools in Camden, New Jersey, and the South Jersey Institute at Bridgeton. He entered the ministry under the influence of evangelist...
How lost was my condition. John Newton* (1725-1807).
From Olney Hymns (1779), Book I, 'On select Texts of Scripture'. It was Hymn 62, entitled 'The good Physician'. The text on which is was based is (unusually) not given, but it comes after a hymn on Isaiah 45: 22 and before a hymn in Isaiah 54: 5-11. There is no physician in the intervening chapters, but it is a very general hymn on the power of Jesus to heal the sin-sick soul (cf. Jeremiah 8: 22, Mark 2: 17). It had five stanzas in 1779:
How...
Let him to whom we now belong. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Hymns on the Lord's Supper (1745) in four 4-line stanzas, in Part V, entitled 'Concerning the Sacrifice of our Persons'. It was fittingly the last hymn in that section:
Let him to whom we now belong His sovereign Right assert,And take up every thankful Song, And every loving Heart,
He justly claims us for his own Who bought us with a Price:The Christian lives to Christ alone, To Christ alone he dies.
Jesus, thine own at...
SANDELL-BERG, Lina (née Sandell, Karolina Vilhelmina, sometimes Sandell, Lina). b. 3 October 1832; d. 27 July 1903. Born at Fröderyd, Smaland, Sweden, the daughter of a pastor, she lost both her parents, her father drowning before her eyes in a boating accident. After the death of her parents she lived in a home run by a religious group, and began to write poems, using the initials 'L.S.'. Many of them were set to music by the guitarist Oskar Ahnfelt (1813-1882), the 'spiritual troubadour' of...
Open our eyes, Lord. Robert M. Cull* (1949- ).
Written in Hawaii in 1975. This one-stanza worship song was written to address those who had, in Cull's words, 'closed minds' to the Christian gospel. The music is by Cull himself. It has become very popular, and has appeared in many worship song books in the USA and in Britain. It has also been included in one mainstream denominational hymnal in Britain, BPW (1991).
Cull described the circumstances of composition:
I was touring in Hawaii as...
Worship Songs, Ancient and Modern was published as a joint venture in 1992, in Britain by the Canterbury Press, Norwich, and in the USA by Hope Publishing Company*, Carol Stream, Illinois. It was something of a surprise: A&M was 'an organisation identified so positively with the traditional world of hymnody', but it had identified a need to bridge 'the present gap between the classic hymn and the popular chorus' (Introduction).
The 100 songs are arranged alphabetically. There are some that...
We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing. Dutch hymn, 16th century, translated by Theodore Baker* (1851-1934).
This is a translation of a German version of stanzas 1, 2, and 4 of a four-stanza Dutch hymn written at the end of the 16th century to celebrate the Protestant Northern provinces' newly won freedom from Spanish rule. That hymn was first published in a collection of 76 patriotic songs set to traditional folk melodies for voice, with independent scores for lute and cittern,...
Come, ye that love the Savior's name. Anne Steele* (1716-1778).
This was Hymn CXXVI in John Ash* and Caleb Evans*s Collection of Hymns Adapted to Public Worship (Bristol, 1769). It was entitled 'The King of Saints' and attributed to 'T.', for Theodosia, the name chosen by Steele for her hymns. It had eight stanzas:
Come, ye that love the Savior's Name, And joy to make it known; The Sovereign of your Hearts proclaim, And bow before His Throne.
Behold your King, your Savior crown'd With...
BROWN-BORTHWICK, Robert. b. Aberdeen, 18 May 1840; d. 17 March 1894 . He was educated at St Mary Hall, Oxford, then an independent Hall associated with the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, now a part of Oriel College. He took Holy Orders in 1865, serving curacies at Sudeley, Gloucestershire (1865-66), Evesham, Worcestershire (1866-68). He became Assistant Minister of Quebec Chapel (1868-69), Incumbent of the Chapel of the Holy Trinity, Grange in Borrowdale, near Keswick (1869-86), and...
Soon and very soon. Andraé Crouch* (1945-2015).
This song was first published in sheet music form (Waco, Texas, 1976) (Daw, 2016, p. 384), and first heard in 1976 on Andraé Crouch and the Disciples' album, 'This is another day' (Companion to ICH5, 2005, p. 220). Stanza one is based on Revelation 22: 7 (and 12, 20). Stanzas 2 and 3 draw on Revelation 21: 3-4: 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with...
KEN, Thomas. b. Little Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire, July 1637; d. Longleat, Wiltshire, 19 March 1711. He was the son of Thomas Ken, an attorney. He was brought up by his brother-in-law, Isaak Walton (1593-1683), the biographer of John Donne* and George Herbert*. Ken was educated at Winchester College (1651-56), Hart Hall, Oxford, and New College, Oxford (BA 1661, MA 1664). He was appointed Tutor in Logic at New College in 1661, and took Holy Orders in 1661 or 1662. He was rector of Little...
Veni, Sancte Spiritus. Latin, Pope Innocent III (1161-1216), or (more probably) Archbishop Stephen Langton* (1150-1228).
This is the Sequence* used at Pentecost from the Middle Ages onwards, sometimes known as 'The Golden Sequence'. It is widely regarded as 'one of the masterpieces of Latin sacred poetry' (JJ, p. 1212). It was written in ten 3-line stanzas, the first two lines of each stanza rhyming, the final line rhyming through the stanzas:
Veni, sancte Spiritus,
Et emitte coelitus
Lucis...
CROSBY, Frances Jane (later van Alstyne). b. Putnam County, New York, 24 March 1820; d. Bridgeport, Connecticut, 12 February 1915. 'Fanny' Crosby was born to a distinguished Puritan family. She was blinded, probably through bad treatment for an eye infection from a man passing himself off as a doctor, when she was six weeks old. Her father died the same year. She was raised as a Presbyterian by her mother and grandmother, and later by a Mrs Hawley. She attended the New York City School for the...
Postcolonial and Decolonial Perspectives on Hymnody
Introduction
The recent adoption of the language of 'postcolonial' and 'decolonization' in the fields of hymnology and church music is part of a growing trend to address issues in ecclesial settings with post- and decolonial theoretical and theological lenses. Other academic disciplines are also widely adopting these theoretical approaches. For the purposes of this essay, postcolonial theory refers to intellectual analysis of the dynamic...
And now, my soul, another year. Simon Browne* (1680-1732).
This hymn was found in a number of British books in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a shortened form of a dramatic hymn by Browne, from Volume 1 of his Hymns and Spiritual Songs, in Three Books, designed as a Supplement to Dr Watts (1720). It was entitled 'New Year's Day'. The original text is dramatic and revealing:
And now, my soul, another year Of my short life is past: I cannot long continue here, And this may be...
BEDDOME, Benjamin. b. Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire, 23 January 1717; d. Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, 3 September 1795. He was the son of a Baptist minister. He intended to become a doctor, and was apprenticed to a Bristol surgeon; but he moved to London and became a member of the Prescott Street Baptist Church in 1739. At that church he was called to the ministry, and in 1740 he moved to Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire. He remained there as Baptist pastor for the remainder of...
Come, O thou Traveller unknown. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1742) in fourteen 6-line stanzas under the title 'Wrestling Jacob', based on Jacob's encounter with the angel in Genesis 32: 24-32. It is also indebted to Matthew Henry's Commentary of 1708, which Charles Wesley used throughout his life.
John Wesley* included the hymn in the 1780 Collection of Hymns for the use of the People called Methodists, omitting stanzas 5 and 7 of the original:
'Tis...
BELL, Gordon William. b. Durham, England, 7 September 1943. He was the only child of William Wallace Bell and Gladys Winifred (née Collinson). He was brought up in Durham, in a musical family, and attending the Durham Academy of Music (1958-60). In 1961 he commenced his career in hospital management, obtaining the Diploma of Health Service Management (1971). In 1979 he moved to Aberdeen, as Records and Information Officer for Grampian, followed by Quality Assurance Officer. He retired from the...
Gospel Pearls (1921)
Published in 1921 by the Sunday School Publishing Board of the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Gospel Pearls is recognized as the first hymnal for African American congregations with 'gospel' in the title. It cast a profound influence on the African American worship tradition, and became known for its blend of traditional hymnody, gospel songs, spirituals, and songs by a new generation of black composers.
The need for a new hymnal developed after a 1915 dispute over...
Great God, what do I see and hear. William Bengo Collyer* (1782-1854) and others.
Stanza 1 of this hymn was published anonymously in a volume entitled Hymns for Public and Private Devotion (Sheffield, 1802), and subsequently in two books dating from 1810, John Kempthorne's Select Portions of Psalms from Various Translations, and Hymns, from Various Authors (JJ, p. 616) and Robert Aspland's Psalms and Hymns for Unitarian Worship. Collyer could have seen the stanza in any one of these three...
How blest the sacred tie that binds. Anna Letitia Barbauld* (1742-1825).
This was entitled 'Pious Friendship'. It was written, when Barbauld and her husband were living in Suffolk, for the marriage of Sarah Rigby and Caleb Parry at Palgrave in October 1778. Parry was a graduate of the Warrington Academy (McCarthy and Kraft, 1994, p. 274). The hymn was published in Barbauld's Poems (1792):
How blest the sacred tie that binds In union sweet according minds! How swift the heavenly course they...
Sweet the time, exceeding sweet. George Burder* (1752-1832).
According to JJ, p. 1108, this was first published in the Gospel Magazine, April 1779, in five stanzas, headed 'An Hymn for Christian Company', and signed 'A.R'. In Burder's A Collection of Hymns, from various authors, intended as a supplement to Dr. Watts's hymns, and imitation of the psalms (Coventry, 1784), it was indexed as by 'G. Burder'. It was entitled 'Another', one of five hymns on 'Brotherly love' in different...
Thy ceaseless, unexhausted love. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures (Bristol, 1762), as three separate hymns, each of one 8-line stanza and each based on Exodus 34: 6b ('The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,'):
Gracious, long-suffering, xxxiv. 6.
Thy causeless unexhausted love, Unmerited and free,Delights our evil to remove. And help our misery;Thou waitest to be gracious...
When as returns this solemn day. Anna Letitia Barbauld* (1742-1825).
This hymn was first published in Hymns intended to be used at the Commencement of Social Worship (1802), entitled 'Hymn XLV. Long Metre.' (McCarthy and Kraft, 1994, p. 301). It had three stanzas:
When, as returns this solemn day,
Man comes to meet his maker God,
What rites, what honours shall he pay?
How spread his sovereign's praise abroad?
From marble domes and gilded spires
Shall curling clouds of incense...
Womb of life and source of being. Ruth C. Duck* (1947-2024).
This hymn challenges the traditional language used in the Trinitarian formula. Duck believed that the exclusive, male-centered language, the traditional formula – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – limited the understanding of the work of the Trinity. 'Womb of life and source of being' made an effort to broaden the images of the persons in the Trinity and to establish it as a model for a vibrant community:
Womb of life, and source of...
Jazz is a unique type of 20th-century music created by African Americans characterized by melodic variation, the use of 'blue notes', syncopated rhythms, extended and altered harmonies, improvisation by the performers, and an open-sounding timbre. Initially, jazz was the music of the dance hall and club, but it gradually gained acceptance in the church. Jazz used in worship now includes keyboard, instrumental, and choral music, as well as accompaniments of sung liturgies and congregational...
Hope Publishing Company.
The Beginning: 1892-1922.
Hope Publishing Company was founded by Henry (Harry) Shepherd Date (1858-1915) in 1892. As a popular Methodist campground evangelist and organizer of the Young People's Alliance (later called the Epworth League), Harry saw the need for an appropriate gospel songbook that could be sold at a reasonable price and decided to publish such a book. He rented a one-room office to house his secretary, a portable pump organ, and the proof pages of the...
Sarawak hymnody in the Chinese Methodist Church in Malaysia
Introduction
This article focuses on the development of hymns in a particular region of Malaysian hymnody*. The Sarawak Chinese Annual Conference of the Methodist Church in Malaysia (SCAC) began with the arrival of Foochow immigrants in Sibu on 16 March 1901. The immigrants, predominately Christians from the Methodist Episcopal Church, were led by the Chinese headman (港主), Wong Nai Siong (1849–1924), from Foochow, China. On Sunday,...
Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ. Nikolaus Selnecker* (1530/1532 –1592).
The first stanza of this evening hymn ('Abide with us, Lord Jesus Christ') appeared in a Nürnberg hymn book, Geistliche Psalmen, Hymnen Lieder und Gebett (1611). It is a translation of a verse from a Latin hymn by Philipp Melanchthon*, beginning 'Vespera jam venit'. The remainder of the hymn is by Selnecker. Stanza 2 is the second of two additional stanzas found in the Nürnberg 1611 book (see Wackernagel, Das Deutsche...
GÜNTHER, Cyriakus. b. Goldbach, near Gotha, 15 January 1650; d. Gotha, 7 October 1704. Günther was educated at Goldbach and at Gotha. He studied at the University of Jena, after which he was appointed 'Conrektor' at Eisfeld, Thuringia; he returned to Gotha in 1679 as 'Collega tertius' (third-form master) at the Gymnasium, remaining in that post until his death.
At his death he left a notebook containing over thirty hymns. His son, Friedrich Philipp Günther, verger of St George's Church at...
MacALISTER, Edith Florence Boyle. b. Dublin, 1873; d. Cambridge, 27 November 1950. She was the daughter of the Professor of Anatomy at Trinity College, Dublin, and the sister of Robert Alexander Stewart Macalister* (note the spelling of the surname: it changed to MacAlister on her marriage). She was educated in Dublin and Cambridge (her father had moved to Cambridge as Professor of Anatomy in 1883). She became a Primary School teacher. In 1895 she married a doctor who was a distant relative,...
HONTIVEROS, Eduardo. b. Molo, Iloilo City, 20 December 1923; d. 15 January 2008. This Filipino Jesuit musician was educated at Manila High School and the San Jose Seminary (1939-45). He entered the Society of Jesus in 1945, took novice's vows in 1947, studied theology in the USA, and was ordained in 1954. He is known as 'the father of Filipino liturgical music'. In October 2000, Pope John Paul II conferred on him the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice bestowed on clergy and laypersons who have served...
CHISHOLM, Emily Mary. b. Airdrie, Lanarkshire, 1 July 1910; d. Buckhurst Hill, Essex, 11 February 1991. She was educated at Glasgow High School and the University of Glasgow. She was a modern linguist, who also studied at the Sorbonne, Paris, and at Universities in Germany and Austria. After a short period teaching at Airdrie, she was appointed in 1938 to Loughton High School for Girls, Essex, where she later became Head of Modern Languages, remaining there until retirement in 1970. In...
Father of everlasting grace/ Be mindful. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
Charles Wesley sometimes used and re-used lines that he found graceful or appropriate. This hymn has the same opening as the better known 'Father of everlasting grace'*, found in many Methodist (and some other) books, published in Hymns of Petition and Thanksgiving for the Promise of the Father (Bristol, 1746).
The present hymn, which has been used in a few books in the USA and Canada (see below), is from Volume I of Short...
COX, Frances Elizabeth. b. Oxford, 10 May 1812; d. Oxford, 28 September 1897. She was a pioneer in the translation of German hymnody, publishing Sacred Hymns from the German in 1841 and Hymns from the German in 1864. The former contained 50 hymns, written in the same metre as the German, with the German text placed opposite the English. The preface stated that the hymns were 'taken from the large and interesting collection of Chevalier Bunsen, and it is hoped that the translations will be found...
Hark! hark! my soul! Angelic songs are swelling. Frederick William Faber* (1814-1863).
First published in Faber's Oratory Hymns (1854) in seven 4-line stanzas, with the refrain 'Angels of Jesus, Angels of light,/ Singing to welcome the pilgrims of the night!' In Faber's Hymns (1861) it was given the title 'The Pilgrims of the Night'.
It was included in the Appendix (1868) to the First Edition of A&M, with slight alterations and omitting stanzas 2 and 6:
2. Darker than night life's shadows...
He looked beyond my faults. Dottie Rambo* (1934-2008).
'He looked beyond my faults (and saw my need)' (1967) is one of the most lasting contributions of Rambo. Alluding to John Newton*'s famous hymn in the incipit ('Amazing grace shall always be my song of praise'), this song has drawn the attention of well-known recording artists such as Elvis Presley, Barbara Mandrell, Johnny Cash, Whitney Houston, Pat Boone, and Sandi Patty (Drudge, n.p.). The pairing of the tune LONDONDERRY AIR with her...
FERGUSON, John. b. Manchester, 2 March 1921; d. Birmingham, 22 May 1989. He studied Classics and Theology, becoming Professor of Classics at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He was subsequently founding Dean of Arts at the Open University, and President of the Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham.
Ferguson took part in the Dunblane Consultations from 1962 onwards (see Dunblane Praises*). He was a lay preacher in the Congregational Church, after 1972 in the United Reformed Church. He was a committed...
FISHER, (Malcolm) Leith. b. Greenock, Renfrewshire 7 April 1941, d. Glasgow, 13 March 2009. Educated at Greenock Academy, he studied Arts and Divinity at the University of Glasgow 1959-65 (MA, BD), and received a Diploma in Pastoral Studies from Birmingham University (1965-66). He was licensed by the Presbytery of Greenock, May 1965. On 18 January 1967 he was ordained by the Presbytery of Glasgow while assistant minister (1966-68) at Govan Old Parish Church, the church from which in 1938 George...
Long ago and far away (Fill the Cup). Pat Mayberry* (1950– ).
This song was composed in 2000. It was recorded by children on the album Kids Songs for Choirs and Congregations (2004). The editorial note under this song in More Voices (2007) identifies it as a 'communion song for all ages.' It is written with children in mind yet possesses a depth of imagery that also nourishes adult spirits.
The song begins with the textual formula of countless traditional stories for children: 'Long ago and...
O happy souls that love the Lord. Susanna Harrison* (1752-1784).
This was hymn 13 in Harrison's Songs in the Night (1780). It was prefaced by a quotation from the Book of Proverbs: 'I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me. - PROV. Viii.17.' It had eight stanzas:
O happy souls that love the Lord, He will return them, love for love: All needful grace he will afford To such as seek the world above.
They in his kind protection share, He is their father and...
Quem pastores laudavere. Latin, 15th century. This carol is found in a German MS from Hohenfurth Abbey dated 1410. The tune has become better known than the words, although the Latin text was in the Oxford Book of Carols (1928) and is retained in NOBC. According to NOBC it was originally in three verses, beginning 'Quem pastores laudavere', 'Ad quem magi ambulabant' and 'Christo Regi, Deo nato': this refers to the shepherds ('pastores') in verse 1 and the Wise Men ('magi ambulabant', verse 2),...
FRANCIS, Samuel Trevor. b. Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, 19 November 1834; d. Worthing, Sussex, 28 December 1925. As a child his family moved to Hull, where he sang in a church choir. He later moved to London, where he became a merchant. He joined the Plymouth Brethren, and joined the assembly at Kennington, south London. He began to preach and to write hymns: he was an assistant to Dwight L. Moody* and Ira D. Sankey* in their London mission of 1873 and after. JJ, p. 1564, noted that his hymns had...
MARAK, Simon Kara. b. near Kamrup, Assam, India, 1877; d. Jorhat, Assam, India, 16 February 1975. Simon Marak, an ethic A·chik (Garo) man, was a schoolteacher, pastor, and missionary in Assam, a state in far northeastern India. He received his primary education from the Guwahati Government School with the financial assistance of the Kamrup Baptist Association (1907–09) and continued his study at the Government Training School (1909–12), supplementing his early years of teaching with work as a...
Sing we of the Blessed Mother. George Timms* (1910-1997).
This hymn on the Blessed Virgin Mary was published in English Praise (1975), a supplement to EH. Timms chaired the committee that produced it, and this is one of the best of his 11 hymns in it. It was retained in NEH, and transferred some years later to the A&M tradition, being found in A&MCP and A&MRW. In Ireland it is included in ICH5 (2000). It is also found in the Roman Catholic Laudate (1999). It has become one of the...
Still the night, holy the night. Stopford Augustus Brooke* (1832-1916).
This is one of many translations of the celebrated Austrian carol by Joseph Mohr* with music by Franz Gruber*. It was printed in Brooke's Christian Hymns (1881). It was used, with alterations, by the compilers of RCH, with the music harmonized by David Evans*. The alterations were as follows:
BrookeRCH
Still the night, Holy the night, Sleeps the world, yet the light Shines where Mary watches there, Her child Jesus...
Sweet the moments, rich in blessing. Walter Shirley* (1725-1786).
This hymn for Good Friday was first published in The Collection of Hymns, sung in the Countess of Huntingdon's Chapel (Bath, 1770). It was a re-writing of some stanzas by the Inghamite minister James Allen* beginning 'While my Jesus I'm possessing' (see JJ, pp. 1274-5). Part of this text was reprinted in The Church Hymnal (1853), edited by William Cooke* and William Denton*, with some additional stanzas beginning 'Lord, in...
Yield not to temptation. Horatio Richmond Palmer* (1834-1907).
First published in The National Sunday School Teachers' Magazine (1868), and in Palmer's Sabbath School Songs in the same year, this achieved wide circulation in hundreds of American and Canadian hymnals, and is still used in many books, especially those designed for young people. It is found in Britain in Scottish and in Irish books (Church Hymnary, 1898, RCH, CH3, ICH3, ICH4, ICH5). It was included in other British books such as...
A toi la gloire, O Ressuscité. Edmond Louis Budry* (1854-1932).
Companions and Handbooks have long been uncertain about the date of this hymn and its first printing. The Swiss National Library confirms that it was published in Chants Évangéliques (Lausanne, 1885), and in subsequent editions of that book (1886, 1889, 1892, 1896, 1908). It was well enough known in Switzerland to have been selected as one of the texts in Chants de Pâques à 2 ou 4 voix avec accompagnement d'Orgue (Lausanne, 1905)....
DALE, Alan Taylor. b. Baddeley Green, near Stoke-on-Trent, 9 April 1902; d. Dartmouth, Devon, 31 January 1979. He was educated at Hanley School, Stoke. He trained as a teacher, and taught for two years before entering Victoria Park College, Manchester, to train for the United Methodist Church ministry. Ordained in 1928, he was a missionary in China (1929-35), followed by Methodist circuits at Skipton, Blackpool North, Sheffield North-East, and Bath. His final post was as a lecturer in religious...
Away with our sorrow and fear. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
Funeral Hymns (1744), a small book of 24 pages, contained 16 hymns. It was dated by JJ, p. 1259, as 1744, but by the modern editors of A Collection of Hymns (1780) as 1746 (Hildebrandt and Beckerlegge, 1983; no copy dated 1744 has been found). The text in 1746 was as follows:
Away with our Sorrow and Fear! We soon shall recover our Home; The City of Saints shall appear, The Day of Eternity come; From Earth we shall quickly...
All thanks to the Lamb. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
This was first published in Volume 2 of Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), the book issued by Charles Wesley alone, but with his brother's approval. It had seven stanzas:
All Thanks to the Lamb Who gives us to meet! His Love we proclaim, His Praises repeat: We own Him our Jesus Continually near, (in 1749 'Continally') To pardon and bless us, And perfect us here.
In Him we have Peace, In Him we have Power, Preserv'd by his Grace ...
MILES, C. (Charles) Austin. b. Lakehurst, New Jersey, 7 January 1868; d. Pitman, New Jersey, 10 March 1946. Educated at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and the University of Pennsylvania, Miles ended his pharmaceutical career in 1892 and turned to writing gospel music. His first song 'List, 'tis Jesus' voice' was accepted by the Hall-Mack Publishing Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which led to his appointment as editor and manager, a post he continued after that company's merger in...
EACC Hymnal (1963). This pioneering hymnbook was published in 1963 for the East Asia Christian Conference. The general editor was Daniel Thambyrajah Niles*, and the music editor was John Milton Kelly, assisted by his wife Edna and by Shanti Rasanayagam. The book was printed in Japan.
The language used was English, the international language of Asia. The words and music were European/American for the first 'General Section' of 100 hymns (including 11 'Spirituals'), followed by an 'Asian...
Eat this bread. Robert Batastini* (1942– ) and Jacques Berthier* (1923–1994).
John 6:35, one of the 'I AM' sayings of Jesus, provides the basis for the text of 'Eat this bread': 'Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”' (NIV):
Eat this bread, drink this cup, come to me and never be hungry.Eat this bread, drink this cup, trust in me and you will not thirst.
©1984 Ateliers et Presses de Taizé,...
BARTLETT, Eugene Monroe Sr. b. Waynesville, Missouri, 24 December 1885; d. Siloam Springs, Arkansas, 25 January 1941. Bartlett received his education at the Hall-Moody Institute in Martin, Tennessee, and at the William Jewell Academy, Independence, Missouri (1913-14). He served as president of the Hartford Music Company, in Hartford, Arkansas (1918-35), publishing songbooks and editing the company's music magazine, Herald of Song. He was associated later with the Stamps-Baxter Publications* in...
HODGES, George Samuel. b. Walmer, Kent, 1827; d. Maidenhead, Berkshire, 10 December 1899. He was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge (BA 1851), and took Holy Orders (deacon 1851, priest 1852). He served curacies at Calbourne, Isle of Wight (1851-52), Farnham, Surrey (1852-55), Calbourne again (1856-58), Kirkham, Lancashire (1858-60), and Fladbury, Worcestershire (1860-61), before becoming vicar of Wingates, Lancashire (1861-75). He was subsequently vicar of Dunston and Coppenhall,...
Give of your best to the Master. Howard B. Grose*(1851-1939).
This was published in The Endeavor Hymnal (New York, 1902). It had three stanzas with a refrain:
Give of your best to the Master, Give of the strength of your youth, Throw your soul's fresh, glowing ardor Into the battle for truth. Jesus has set the example, Dauntless was He, young and brave: Give Him your loyal devotion, Give Him the best that you have.
Refrain:
Give of your best to the Master, Give of the strength of...
LEMMEL, Helen Howarth. b.Wardle, Manchester, England, 14 November 1863; d. Seattle, Washington State, 1 November 1961. Her family immigrated to the USA when Helen was nine, living at Madison and Milwaukee. She became a travelling evangelist, organising a women's quartet that played and sang at (among other places) Lake Chautauqua (see Mary Artemisia Lathbury*). In 1904 she moved to Seattle, and became a member of Ballard Baptist Church while also continuing to travel widely as an evangelist....
THOBURN, Helen. b. Union City, Pennsylvania, 17 June 1885; d. New York City, 3 February 1932. She served as the YWCA's national publication secretary and later as a YWCA foreign secretary in China. On her return to the United States she took on responsibility for the YWCA's international educational programme. She published Christian Citizenship for Girls (YWCA, 1914) and Studies in knowing Jesus Christ, for younger girls (New York: The Woman's Press, 1919). She was the joint author, with...
I am resolved no longer to linger. Palmer Hartsough* (1844-1932).
William J. Reynolds* describes the origins of this hymn. James H Fillmore (1849-1936), of Fillmore Publishers, Cincinnati, wrote the words and music in 1896 for a Christian Endeavour conference in San Francisco. It was sung by fourteen trainloads of attenders who travelled from Ohio to California (Reynolds, 1990, pp.108-109). Fillmore then asked Hartsough to write a text that would allow the hymn to be used more generally. It...
Jesu, thy blood and righteousness. Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf* (1700-1760), translated by John Wesley* (1703-1791).
Wesley found Zinzendorf's 'Christi Blut und Gerechtigkeit' in the 1739 Appendix to Das Gesang-Buch der Gemeine in Herrnhut (1735). His free translation was published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1740), with the title 'The Believer's Triumph. From the German':
Jesu, Thy blood and righteousnessMy beauty are, my glorious dress:Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,With joy shall I...
SCRIVEN, Joseph Medlicott. b. Seapatrick near Banbridge, Co Down, Ireland (later Northern Ireland), 10 September 1819; d. Port Hope, Ontario, Canada, 10 August 1886. The son of James Scriven and Jane Medlicott, he attended Addiscombe Military College, Surrey (1837-39), training for service in India. Owing to poor health he withdrew, returning to Ireland and studying at Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1842). Impelled by his fiancée's drowning on the eve of their wedding, Scriven emigrated from...
VAN DE VENTER, Judson Wheeler. b. near Dundee, Michigan, 5 December 1855; d. Tampa, Florida, 17 July 1939. Educated at Hillsdale College, Michigan, he was a student of drawing and painting, with ambitions to be a great artist. He studied painting in Europe in 1885, before becoming a teacher of art. He supported himself financially by teaching at Sharon High School, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, becoming supervisor of art in the public schools of the city, and then in Bradford, Pennsylvania. He...
Let us draw near! The blood is spilt. Margaret Clarkson* (1915-2008).
Written in 1936, when Clarkson was in her first year of teaching at Barwick, in the Rainy River District of northern Ontario. Many years later it was revised and published in Clear Shining After Rain (1962). Each stanza begins and ends with 'Let us draw near', celebrating the forgiving love of Jesus Christ as Saviour. It is based on Hebrews 10: 22: 'Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith…'. It has been...
Like a child. Daniel C. Damon* (1955- ).
Words and music of this three-verse song are dated 1992. It was published in Faith Will Sing (Carol Stream, 1993), with a lilting tune by Damon himself. It has proved one of the most popular of Damon's texts: it celebrates the idea that Jesus comes like a child, 'claiming heart soul and mind' but also 'like a child on the street' with 'ragged clothes dirty feet'. It has been included in a number of books in the USA and in the Canadian VU. It has been...
Lobt Gott, ihr Christen alle gleich. Nikolaus Herman* (ca. 1500-1561).
This Christmas hymn appears in Herman's Die Sontags Evangelia uber des gantze Jar, in Gesenger verfasset, für die Kinder und christlichen Haussvetter (Wittenberg, 1560). It had eight 4-line stanzas. It was the first of 'Drey Geistliche Weinacht Lieder, vom Newgebornen kindlein Jhesu, für die kinder im Joachimstal' ('Three Spiritual Christmas Songs of the new-born child Jesus, for the children in Joachimsthal'). It has...
Love's redeeming work is done. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
The first stanza of this hymn is stanza 2 of Charles Wesley's 'Christ the Lord is risen today'*. Wesley used quotation marks in the first line to indicate that he was echoing the first line of the hymn from Lyra Davidica (1708), 'Jesus Christ is risen today'*. He probably wanted to demonstrate that he could write a different, and greater, hymn than the three simple stanzas of Lyra Davidica.
'Christ the Lord is risen today' was first...
Nada te turbe. St Teresa of Avila* (1515-1582).
According to P. Silverio, the editor of the works of Saint Teresa, these lines were found in the Breviary that she used in prayer during the Divine Office when she was dying at Alba de Tormes ('Guardaba Santa Teresa estas sentencias en el breviario que usaba para el rezo del oficio divino, cuando murió en Alba de Tormes'). They were:
Nada te turbe,
nada te espante,
todo se pasa;
Dios no se muda.
La paciencia
todo lo alcanza
quien a Dios...
None is like Jeshurun's God. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1742), entitled 'Deuteronomy xxxiii. 26, &c', in nine 8-line stanzas. Jeshurun is the name for the People of Israel. It was included in John Wesley*'s A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), in the section 'For Believers Seeking for Full Redemption', with minor emendations and the omission of the last three stanzas:
God's almighty word shall stand,
...
Now behold the Lamb. Kirk Franklin* (1970– ).
'Now behold the Lamb' is an early song by Franklin that draws on his evangelical roots. It was included in Franklin's popular album 'Kirk Franklin and the Family Christmas' (1995) and is his most published song in hymnal collections.
Though Franklin is known for pushing the boundaries of Black gospel music, the theme of 'Now behold the Lamb' has very traditional roots. John 1: 29 is its primary scriptural source: 'The next day John seeth Jesus...
O! to be like thee, blessed Redeemer. Thomas O. Chisholm* (1866-1960).
Three of Chisholm's many hymns became very popular. This is the third, in addition to 'Great is thy faithfulness'* and 'Living for Jesus, a life that is true'*. It was published in The Young People's Hymnal: adapted to the use of Sunday Schools, Epworth Leagues, Prayer Meetings, and Revivals (Nashville, Tennessee, 1897), edited by James Atkins, W.D. Kirkland, and William J. Kirkpatrick*. It had a refrain and five stanzas....
Saviour, now the day is ending. Sarah Doudney* (1841-1926).
According to JJ, p. 307, this was published in the Sunday School Union's Songs of Gladness (1871). It was a hymn for the close of day, but with particular reference to the ending of a school day or a Sunday-school class. It had four 6-line stanzas:
Saviour, now the day is ending, And the shades of evening fall, Let Thy Holy Dove descending, Bring Thy mercy to us all; Set Thy seal on every heart, Jesus, bless us ere we part!
...
THEOCTISTUS of the Studium. b. date unknown; d. ca. 890. He was a monk at the Studios monastery at Constantinople, of which St Theodore* had been a member in the early 9th century. He is remembered for the hymn 'Iesou glukutate', known as the 'Suppliant Canon to Jesus' and found at the end of the Parakletikê or Great Oktoechos, a volume containing the daily Office for eight weeks. It was translated by John Mason Neale* as 'Jesu, Name all names above'*. Neale thought that Theoctistus was a...
There is a Name I love to hear. Frederick Whitfield* (1829-1904).
According to Harry Eskew* (Handbook to the Baptist Hymnal [1991], 1992, p. 250) this hymn was first published separately on a hymn sheet, ca. 1855; but Whitfield's son said that it was written while his father was an undergraduate at Trinity College, Dublin, which places it between 1856 and 1859 (Whitfield, 1905, p. 6). It was included in Whitfield's Sacred Poems and Prose (Dublin, 1859), where it was the first hymn in the book....
Trotting, trotting through Jerusalem. Eric James Reid* (1936-1970).
Written during the Scottish Churches' Music Consultation, of which Reid was a member, and first published in Dunblane Praises No 2 (1967). Its natural, conversational retelling of the Palm Sunday story has particularly recommended it to the children for whom it was intended, as has the appealing setting, also by Reid, which captures the sound and onward movement of the donkey that carried Jesus into the city. Each verse ends...
When morning gilds the skies (Bridges). Robert Bridges* (1844-1930).
This is a translation, or free paraphrase, of the German hymn 'Beim frühen Morgenlicht', previously translated by Edward Caswall*. Caswall's translation is annotated separately.
The present translation was made by Bridges for the Yattendon Hymnal* (1899), beginning with the same lines. Bridges described the hymn, presumably in its German form, as 'of great merit', adding 'I have tried to give a better version of it than the...
Why has God forsaken me? William (Bill) Wallace* (1933-2024).
Originally written by a Methodist minister, William (Bill) Wallace, in 1979 for a funeral resource pack prepared by the New Zealand Methodist Church, this hymn was published in Wallace's first collection of hymns, Something to Sing About: Hymns and reflections in search of a Contemporary Spirituality (1981), where it was associated with a setting named SHIMPI, by the Japanese composer Taihei Sato (1936-), created when author and...
FERGUSON, William Harold. b. Leeds, 1 January 1874; d. Littlehampton, Sussex, 18 October 1950. He was educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford, where he was a chorister, and Keble College (BA 1896). He became a schoolmaster, teaching at St Edward's School, Oxford (1896-99) and Bilton Grange School, Rugby (1899-1901). He then prepared for ordination at Cuddesdon College (deacon 1902, priest 1903). He was chaplain, master and organist at Lancing College, Sussex (1902-13), Warden (headmaster)...
The hymnody composed within the Byzantine rite is essentially a continuation of Hagiopolite hymnody (Rite of Jerusalem*), but the liturgical framework is no longer the Palestinian rite but the new rite resulting from the fusion of the Palestinian and the Constantinopolitan rites. This fusion, whose result is usually called the 'Byzantine rite', took place from the 7th century onwards in the patriarchate of Constantinople, thereafter spreading to other regions, for instance Southern Italy...
A Light is Gleaming ('When light comes pouring into the darkest place'). Linnea Good* (1962– ).
Written first for The Whole People of God church school curriculum (1992), Linnea Good's 'A Light Is Gleaming' appeared subsequently in Voices United (VU, 1996) the denomination hymnal of the United Church of Canada.
The song begins with a refrain inviting the singers to come and share in the light and love of God. Notable in its text construction, the line 'living in the light', sung twice in the...
A virgin unspotted, the prophet foretold. English traditional carol.
An alternative first line begins 'A virgin most pure, as the prophets foretold'. The text appears in many different versions. It originated probably in the western counties of England, perhaps in broadsheets: it is found in William Sandys*'s Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern, including the most popular in the West of England, with the tunes to which they are sung (1833). The New Oxford Book of Carols identifies the first...
REINAGLE, Alexander Robert. b. Brighton, 21 August 1799; d. Kidlington, near Oxford, 6 April 1877. He was brought up in Oxford where his father, the cellist and composer Joseph Reinagle, had settled. After studying with his father he worked as a teacher of stringed instruments in Oxford and was organist of St Peter-in-the-East (1822-53). During the 1860s he was highly active in Oxford music-making and worked closely with John Stainer* who, between 1860 and 1872, was organist of Magdalen...
At the dawning of creation. David Fox* (1956-2008).
This hymn for Baptism first appeared in a hymnbook in the United Reformed Church's Rejoice and Sing (RS, 1991). Robert Canham confirms that it came from the First Edition of Fox's Thy Various Praise (1986). It seems to be the only hymn by Fox that has crossed the Atlantic, in the hymnal of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, edited by Donald Anderson and Andrew Donaldson*, The Book of Praise (1997). It was entitled 'Water means Life', which...
DUNN, Catharine Hannah. b. Nottingham, 7 November 1815; d. 18 May 1863. The daughter of a bookseller and printer, Dunn published Hymns from The German (London: Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1857). It contained 36 hymns. A prefatory note says 'Translations of a few of these Hymns have already appeared in the “Lyra Germanica,” and would have been withheld, but that this little book will be accessible to many who may not possess Miss Winkworth's larger collection.'
It is possible that Dunn was being...
FRY, Charles William. b. Alderbury, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, 30 May 1838; d. Polmont, near Falkirk, Scotland, 24 August 1882. He was the son of a bricklayer. He was registered at birth as 'William Charles', but married as 'Charles William'. At the age of 17 he was converted at a Sunday evening prayer meeting at the Wesleyan chapel in Alderbury. He became a Wesleyan local preacher, but he was also a considerable musician, playing various instruments, including the cornet, which he played in a...
Child of blessing, child of promise. Ronald Cole-Turner* (1948- ).
Written in 1980, this charming hymn for Baptism was published in Everflowing Streams (Pilgrim Press, 1981), edited by Ruth C. Duck* and Michael G. Bausch. It was sung at the Baptism of the author's second daughter, Rachel Elizabeth, on 13 June 1982 (Young, 1993, p. 268). Its first appearance in a denominational hymnal was in UMH (1989), which printed a four-stanza text, but did not include stanza 1 lines 2-3, owing to the...
NILES, Daniel Thambyrajah. b. Jaffna, north Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) 4 May 1908; d. 17 July 1970. He was born into a Tamil Christian family: his grandfather was a Methodist minister, and his father was a lawyer. He studied law, but then chose to become a Methodist minister; he was ordained in 1936. As a young district evangelist, he was a delegate to the International Missionary Council Tambaram Conference of 1938; he then became YMCA evangelism secretary in Geneva (1939-40), before returning to...
WHITTLE, Daniel Webster. b. Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, 22 November 1840; d. Northfield, Massachusetts, 4 March 1901. Whittle was given the name of the great lexicographer, Daniel Webster, which suggests a respect for learning on the part of his parents, who moved to Chicago in his teenage years. He worked as a Wells Fargo Bank cashier in Chicago before serving in the Civil War. In 1861 he joined the 72nd Illinois infantry regiment: he took part in Sherman's march through Georgia from...
PARSON, Elizabeth (née Rooker). b. Tavistock, Devon, 5 June 1812; d. Plymouth, 1873. The daughter of a Congregational minister, she married T. Edgecombe Parson in 1844. According to JJ, p. 882, she held a class for young men and women in the vestry of her father's chapel on Sunday evenings. It was known as the 'willing class' because people came 'willingly'. Her hymns were written for these class meetings, and later published as Willing Class Hymns (n.d.) by her former pupils for private...
Father in heaven. Daniel Thambyrajah Niles* (1908-1970).
This touchingly simple hymn in three stanzas was written for the EACC Hymnal (1963) to fit the tune HALAD by Elena G. Maquiso* . The tune had been composed in 1961 for an offering hymn (HALAD means 'offering') in the Cebuano dialect (see 'Philippine hymnody'). Niles's hymn celebrates Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It was originally in the second person singular ('Father in heaven,/ Grant to Thy children'). It has been altered to the 'you'...
SCOTT, Frederick George. b. Montreal, 1861; d. 19 January 1944. He was educated at Bishop's University, an Anglican foundation, at Sherbrooke, Lennoxville, Quebec (BA 1881, MA 1884). He was ordained (deacon 1884, priest 1886), and after serving as a curate at St John the Evangelist, Montreal (1884-86) he spent a year in England as curate of Coggeshall, Essex (1886-87). Returning to Canada, he was rector of St George's, Drummondville, Quebec (1887-96); curate and then rector of St Matthew's,...
BETHUNE, George Washington. b. New York, 18 March 1805; d. Florence, Italy, 27 April 1862. The son of a merchant who was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church, he was educated at Columbia University (1819-22), Dickinson College, Pennsylvania (1822-23), and Princeton. He was ordained in 1827 to the pastorate of Rhinebeck DRC at New York (1827-30). He then served at Utica, New York (1830-34), First and Third Church, Philadelphia (1834-49), Brooklyn Heights, New York (1850-59) and 21st Street...
LATTY, Geraldine. b. 1963. Latty is a British songwriter and performer of West Indian descent. Her diverse religious background includes time spent in Pentecostal, Methodist and Baptist churches. A music graduate of Bath University, she taught music in a Catholic school in Bristol for twelve years. She has also taught a range of music courses at the London School of Theology and Dordt University, Iowa. She has released six solo albums of her own music and has also featured prominently in...
HAYN, Henriette Luise von. b. 22 May 1724; d. 27 August 1782. Born at Idstein, Nassau, she became a member of the Moravian community at Herrnhaag. She taught in the girls' school there, and at Grosshennersdorf. From 1751 to 1766 she taught at Herrnhut; from 1766 until her death she cared for the invalid sisters of the community. JJ described her as 'a gifted hymn-writer' (p. 499), and noted that over 40 of her hymns were in the Moravian Brüder Gesang Buch (1778), but annotated one hymn only....
HARBAUGH, Henry. b. Midvale, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, 28 October 1817; d. Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, 28 December 1867. The son of a farmer, and the tenth of twelve children, he worked on his father's farm, attended a school in winter, and read an English grammar while ploughing. In search of a further education he moved to Carroll County, Ohio, where he attended New Hagerston Academy while also working as a carpenter. He returned to Pennsylvania in 1840, studying at Franklin and Marshall...
His name is wonderful. Audrey Mieir (1916-1996).
This hymn was written in 1955, when Christmas Day fell on a Sunday. Mieir has recounted that she was sitting in Bethel Union Church, Duarte, California, where her brother-in-law was the pastor, on Christmas morning. The church had been decorated with pine branches, and she 'was almost overwhelmed by the fragrance, the sounds, and most of all, the gentle moving of the Spirit'. After the first hymn the pastor began the service with the words 'His...
Hymns and Songs (1969). Hymns and Songs (1969) was a British Methodist Supplement to MHB. It contained 99 hymns and songs, five canticles and psalms, and 26 'Supplementary Tunes' to hymns in MHB. Some of the contents were traditional, because the opportunity was taken to include some omissions from MHB (such as James Montgomery*'s 'Songs of praise the angels sang'*). Others were (in the words of the preface) 'in an idiom and style which answer the demand for more contemporary expressions and...
He comes to us as one unknown. Timothy Dudley-Smith (1926-2024).
In A House of Praise (2003) the author placed this in the section entitled 'The Lord Jesus Christ: known in experience'. It was written at Ruan Minor and on Poldhu Beach in August 1982. The first line comes from a sentence in The Quest of the Historical Jesus (1919) by Albert Schweitzer, 'He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lakeside, He came to those first men who knew him not.' That beautiful...
STANPHILL, Ira Forest. b. Belleview, New Mexico, 14 February 1914; d. Overland Park, Kansas, 30 December 1993. His family moved to Coffeyville, Kansas, in 1922. After graduating from Coffeyville Junior College, he became Minister of Youth and Music at the First Assembly of God Church, Breckenridge, Texas, and pastored Assemblies of God churches at Springfield, Missouri, Fort Worth, Texas, and California. Stanphill was a gifted musician, and a singing itinerant evangelist who ministered...
Jauchzet, ihr Himmel. Gerhard Tersteegen* (1697-1769). From Tersteegen's Geistliches Blumen-Gärtlein, Drittes Büchlein (Book III) (1731), where it was entitled 'Die Herzliche Barmherzigkeit Gottes, erschienen in der Geburt des Seylandes Jesu Christi' ('the great mercy of God, shown forth in the birth of the blessed Jesus Christ'). It had eight stanzas, beginning 'Jauchzet, ihr Himmel! Frolocket, ihr Englische Chören!' (angel choirs, not English choirs). It is found in EG in the Weihnachten...
RANKIN, Jeremiah Eames. b. Thornton, New Hampshire, 2 January 1828; d. Cleveland, Ohio, 28 November 1904. Rankin was born into a preacher's family. A graduate of Middlebury College, Vermont (1848), and Andover Theological Seminary (1854), Rankin served Congregational churches in New York, Vermont, and Massachusetts, before pastoring the First Congregational Church in Washington, DC (1869-1884), where the Sunday evening services often consisted entirely of his hymns. After briefly serving the...
POUNDS, Jessie Hunter (née Brown). b. Hiram, Ohio, 31 August 1861; d. Hiram, 3 March 1921. She was born into a family of the Church of the Disciples of Christ. She was often in poor health as a child and was educated at home. She wrote essays and poems for religious periodicals, notably the Christian Standard, and for newspapers at Cleveland. In 1897 she married John E. Pounds, pastor of the Central Christian Church, Indianapolis. He later became pastor in her native town of Hiram.
Jessie...
JENKINS, Jill. b. Ealing, west London, 14 October 1937. She was educated at Blackheath High School for Girls, and as an external student at Napier University, Edinburgh. She has worked as a Personal Assistant in the London Probation Service and as a volunteer administrator of a Bereavement Support Service (one of her hymns on HymnQuest is 'Gracious God of might and mercy', written for a friend whose grand-daughter had died of leukaemia). Jenkins is the author of two hymns, 'Living God, your...
CHAPMAN, John Wilbur. b. Richmond, Indiana, 17 June 1859; d. Long Island, New York, 25 December 1918. Chapman was educated at Lake Forest University in Illinois (BA, 1879), and Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry in 1881: his first pastorate was a two-point charge to neighbouring churches in Liberty, Indiana, and College Corner, Ohio. In 1883 he became the minister of the Old Saratoga Dutch Reformed Church in Schuylerville, New York; in...
ATCHINSON, Jonathan Burtch. b. Wilson, Niagara County, New York State, 17 February 1840; d. Midland City, Ohio, 15 July 1882. The son of Henry M. Atchinson (1807-1889) and Annah Burtch (1805-1884), he served in the Union army during the Civil War, was licensed to preach (1869), and became a ministerial member of in the Genesee Conference [Western New York] (1870). He transferred his membership to the Detroit [Michigan] Conference in 1873. According to the Detroit Conference Journal (1882, p....
LAFFERTY, Karen Louise. b. Alamogordo, New Mexico, 29 February 1948. Born into a Southern Baptist home, Lafferty was an oboist in the New Mexico All-state Symphony Orchestra, and graduated from Eastern New Mexico University in Portales (BMEd, 1970). Moving to California in 1970, she joined Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California, while earning a living as a singer in night-clubs and hotel lounges. She felt called to be a full-time musician for Christ, and gave up a lucrative career: it was at...
DUNCAN, Mary (née Lundie). b. Kelso, 26 April 1814; d. Cleish, Kinross-shire, 5 January 1840. She was the daughter of the minister of Kelso. She married William Wallace Duncan, minister of Cleish, in 1836. Her hymns were written for her own children during the last year of her tragically short life. The best known, which was found in many books until the 1960s, was 'An Evening Prayer', beginning 'Jesus, tender Shepherd, hear me'*. Her life was commemorated in a memoir written by her mother,...
WALKER, Mary Jane (née Deck). b. Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, 27 April 1816; d. Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, 2 July 1878. She was the sister of James George Deck*. Little is known of her life except that she married Edward Walker in 1848 (JJ, p. 1231). He served a curacy in Manchester, and his early career was spent there: at the time of the marriage he was curate of St George's and lecturer of St Saviour's, Manchester, and (in the same year) of Silverdale, Lancaster. He was the incumbent of St...
WISEMAN, Nicholas Patrick Stephen. b. Seville, Spain, 2 August 1802; d. London, 15 February 1865. He was born in Spain, of an Irish family. When he was a small child, the family returned to Ireland on the death of his father. He was educated at a school in Waterford, and then in England at St Cuthbert's College, Ushaw, near Durham. From there he went to the English College at Rome (DD, 1824), becoming a sub-deacon in 1824, deacon and priest in 1825, and rector of the college in 1828. He visited...
O Lord, I sing Thy praises. Peter Grant* (1783-1867), translated by Lachlan Macbean* (1853-1931).
This is a rare example of a Gaelic hymn in a mainstream hymnbook. It was included in RCH (1927), set to a Gaelic melody given the name KILLIN, sung in unison but harmonized by a Glasgow musician,Thomas Cuthbertson Leithead Pritchard (1885-1960). It had three 8-line stanzas. There are echoes of the psalms, especially of Psalm 23 in stanza 3, and of Horatius Bonar*'s 'Jesus, sun and shield art thou'*...
Simply trusting every day. Edgar Page Stites* (1836-1921).
Stites wrote the words at some time before 1876, when they appeared in a newspaper. The newspaper has never been identified. Ira D. Sankey* relates that a cutting from the paper containing the words was given to Dwight L. Moody*, who 'asked me to write a tune for them' (Sankey, 1906, p. 291). Words and music were published in Gospel Hymns No. 2 (1876), edited by Sankey and Philip P. Bliss*. It became closely associated with many revival...
Sleep thy last sleep. Edward Arthur Dayman* (1807-1890).
First published in The Sarum Hymnal (1868), edited by Dayman with Horatio Bolton Nelson* and James Russell Woodford*, in a section 'For the Service at the Burial of the Dead, and in Times of Affliction'. It had three 8-line stanzas, prefaced by a quotation from Hosea 14: 7: 'They that dwell under His shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn':
Sleep thy last sleep, Free from care and sorrow, Rest, where none weep, Till the...
Son of the Lord most high. George Wallace Briggs* (1875-1959).
First published in Briggs's Songs of Faith (1945), his selection of his own work, in the section on 'Jesus Christ our Lord'. It was entitled 'His Ministry'. It was written to fit the tune RHOSYMEDRE (although it is sometimes set to Henry Lawes*' LAWES' PSALM XLVII, as in CP and RS, and other books). The hymn was printed with alterations in CP and subsequently in 100HfT and thus in A&MNS (though not in A&MCP). CP altered...
Sweet Saviour, bless us ere we go. Frederick William Faber* (1814-1863).
First published in Faber's Jesus and Mary; or, Catholic Hymns for Singing and Reading (1849), and then in his Hymns (1862). It had seven stanzas. A six-stanza hymn was printed in the First Edition of A&M (1861), with an alteration in stanza 5 lines 3-4 from 'Let not our works with self be soiled,/ Nor in unsimple ways ensnared' to 'Ah! never let our works be soiled/ With strife, or by deceit ensnared'. A&M also...
Weil ich Jesu Schäflein bin. Henriette Luise von Hayn* (1724-1782).
First published in the Moravian Brüder Gesang Buch (1778), in three 6-line stanzas. It is a children's hymn, rejoicing in the care of the Good Shepherd (the 'guten Hirten' of verse 1 line 3) for his little lamb. It has clear echoes of Psalm 23, with the pleasant pastures of verse 2; and the ending ('How lucky I am!') is charming:
Weil ich Jesu Schäflein bin,Freu' ich mich nur immerhinÜber meinen guten Hirten,Der mich wohl weiss...
Who is on the Lord's side. Frances Ridley Havergal* (1836-1879).
Written on 13 October 1877, and published in Havergal's Loyal Responses (1878). It was entitled 'On the Lord's Side' and prefaced with the quotation '“Thine are we, David, and on thy side, thou son of Jesse.” – I Chron. xii.18.'
It had five 8-line stanzas, each followed by a 4-line response. Most books print a four-stanza text, omitting the original stanza 2:
Not for weight of glory,
Not for crown and palm,
Enter we the army,
...
LITTLEWOOD, William Edensor. b. London, 2 August 1831; d. Hatfield, Broad Oak, Essex, 3 September 1886. He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge (BA 1854, MA 1860), where he had a distinguished undergraduate career, winning the Chancellor's English Medal in 1851. He took Holy Orders (deacon 1857, priest 1858), serving a curacy at St John, Wakefield (1857-61), before becoming Headmaster of Hipperholme Grammar School, near Halifax, Yorkshire (1861-68). He was curate of Southall (1868-70)...
PENNEFATHER, William. b. Dublin, 5 February 1816; d. Muswell Hill, Middlesex, 30 April 1873. He was the son of a distinguished Irish lawyer who became chief Baron of the Exchequer Court. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin (BA 1840; his undergraduate career was interrupted by illness). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1841, priest 1842), and was successively curate at Ballymacugh and vicar of Mellifont, near Drogheda, where he ministered to the people during the famine of 1845. He moved to...
Brightly gleams our banner. Thomas Joseph Potter* (1827-1873).
This was printed in The Holy Family Hymns (London, Dublin and Derby, 1860), a Catholic hymnbook for the Archconfraternity of the Holy Family, and later in Crown of Jesus (1862). A line in verse 1, 'Take our homeward way', suggests that it was intended as a final hymn in an act of worship, although 'See Thy children meet' in verse 2 suggests the gathering for worship. With its emphasis on the Holy Family, the hymn has a clear...
Dear Angel! ever at my side. Frederick William Faber* (1814-1863).
There are two entries in JJ for this hymn, both under the heading 'Dear Angel! ever at my side', which was Faber's own first line. The first gives the printing in Faber's Jesus and Mary; or, Catholic Hymns (1849). The entry in the 'New Supplement', p. 1627, also gives the date of publication as 1849, in Faber's St Wilfrid's Hymns (Faber, converted in 1846, had founded the 'Brothers of the Will of God of the Congregation of St...
BEVAN, (Emma) Frances (née Shuttleworth). b. Oxford, 25 September 1827; d. Cannes, France, 15 March 1909. Born at Oxford, the daughter of the Warden of New College, the anti-Tractarian Philip Shuttleworth, who became Bishop of Chichester in 1840. She married Robert Bevan, a banker, in 1856. She subsequently became a member of the Plymouth Brethren. She referred to herself as 'Frances Bevan' or 'F.B.'.
She published many books on religious topics, including Service of Song in the House of the...
BONAR, Horatius. b. Edinburgh, 19 December 1808; d. Edinburgh, 31 July 1889. Educated at the Edinburgh High School and Edinburgh University, he served as a missionary assistant at St James' Church, Leith, and in 1837 was ordained and inducted as minister of the North Parish Church, Kelso. He left the Church of Scotland in the Disruption of 1843 and remained in Kelso as a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. In 1866 he was called to Thomas Chalmers Memorial Church in Edinburgh and in 1883 he...
I've had many tears and sorrows (Through it all). Andraé Crouch* (1942–2015).
The song was written in 1971 when Andraé Crouch and The Disciples were on a concert tour in California where the composer was in a time of deep disillusion and disappointment. Minutes after the completion of the song there was an earthquake in the San Fernando Valley where the concert was taking place (Stanislaw and Hustad, 1992, p. 152). The refrain became the title for the autobiography written by Andraé Crouch...
BUCK, (Sir) Percy Carter. b. West Ham, East London, 25 March 1871; d. Hindhead, Surrey, 3 October 1947. A student at the Guildhall School of Music and at the Royal College of Music, he worked under Parratt*, C.H. Lloyd* and Parry* (1888-92). At the RCM he won an organ scholarship, and while still a student there he was appointed organist at Worcester College, Oxford (1891-94). At Oxford he took his BMus (1892) and DMus (1897), having completed work for the degrees in 1893. From Oxford he moved...
Sedulius Scottus (fl. ca. 850) was known as 'the Irishman (Scottus)' to distinguish him from the Roman Sedulius* four centuries earlier; his vernacular name appears to have been Suadbar, rather than the Siadhal for which Sedulius is usually the equivalent. There is no basis for the theory that he formed part of an embassy sent in 848 to Charles the Bald, king of West Francia (later emperor), by Máel Sechnaill mac Máele Ruanaid, high king of Ireland; more likely he came to the Continent in...
A hymn for martyrs sweetly sing. Bede* (673/4-735), translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866).
This hymn, 'Hymnum canentes Martyrum', is found in an anthology, Hymni Ecclesiastici (Cologne, 1556), ascribed to the Venerable Bede. Neale's translation of some of the verses appeared in Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences (1851), with a first line 'The hymn for conquering martyrs raise', and a note saying that it was 'a Hymn for the Holy Innocents'. It appeared in the First Edition of A&M with the...
BRENT SMITH, Alexander. b. Brookethorpe, near Gloucester, 8 October 1889; d. Brookethorpe, 3 July 1950. He received his education at the King's School, Worcester, and was a chorister in Worcester Cathedral. After studying with Ivor Atkins, he became his assistant organist. In 1912 he was appointed Director of Music at Lancing College, Sussex, where Peter Pears was among his pupils. He left Lancing in 1934 and taught at Pate's Grammar School in Cheltenham. He served as an enthusiastic member of...
Alle Menschen müssen sterben. Johann Georg Albinus* (1624-1679). This celebrated hymn (no longer in EG) was written for the funeral of a Leipzig merchant, Paul von Henssberg, 1 June 1652, and then became well known. It is said to have been a favourite hymn of Philipp Jakob Spener*. It was translated by Catherine Winkworth* in The Chorale Book for England (1863) as 'Hark! a voice saith, All are mortal'. She omitted verse 5, 'Da die Patriarchen wohnen' ('there the Patriarchs dwell'), which was...
PRATT, Andrew Edward. b. Paignton, Devon, 28 December 1948. He was educated at Barking Regional College of Technology, London, where he read Zoology, and the University College of North Wales, Bangor, where he obtained an M.Sc. in Marine Biology. He became a teacher, but then decided to train for the Methodist ministry, studying at Queen's College, Birmingham. (1979-82). He has served as a Methodist minister in circuits in Cheshire and Lancashire (Northwich; Nantwich; Leigh and Hindley; Orrell...
GURNEY, Archer Thompson. b. Tregony, Cornwall, 15 July 1820; d. Bath, 21 March 1887. He was the son of a vice-warden of the Stannaries (tin-mining towns) of Devon. He became a student of the Middle Temple in April 1842, and was called to the bar in May 1846. His career as a lawyer was short, because in 1849 he was ordained to the curacy of Holy Trinity, Exeter. In 1851 he took charge of St Mary's, Crown Street, Soho, where he remained until 1854, when he obtained the senior curacy of...
As Thou didst rest, O Father, o'er nature's finished birth. Alfred Barry* (1826-1910).
This hymn was written before 1886, when it appeared in Henry Allon*'s Congregational Psalmist Hymnal. It was subsequently included in Godfrey Thring*'s A Church of England Hymn Book (1880), and William Garrett Horder*'s The Hymn Lover: an account of the rise and growth of English Hymnody (1889). It was retained in Horder's Worship-Song (1905). It was also found in the revised edition of Church Hymns (1903),...
A song of Spring once more we sing. William Howse Groser* (1834-1925).
This was written in 1904 and first published in the Sunday School Hymnary (1906), edited by Carey Bonner*. It was designated for the middle section of a Sunday School ('Hymns for the General School' in Bonner's three-section hymnal) and prefaced with 'Thou blessest the springing thereof. Psalm lxv.10.' It had four stanzas. The last two lines of each stanza were repeated to fit a lively tune, ST FLORENCE, by W.G. Hancock,...
TYAMZASHE, Benjamin John Peter. b. Kimberley, South Africa, 5 September 1890; d. East London, Republic of South Africa, 5 June 1978. Also known affectionately was B-ka-T, Tyamzashe was the son of a Congregational minister in South Africa and a prolific composer of over 200 works (Dargie, 1997). He followed John Knox Bokwe*'s footsteps in adding innovations to the makwaya* style of singing, a choral form often sung by large groups of people in church and civic settings.
Tyamzashe was educated at...
BOETHIUS, Anicius Manlius Severinus. b. ca. 475-77; d. ca. 524. Born into an aristocratic family, the Anicii, Boethius was adopted into an even more illustrious family, the Symmachi, following his father's death. In his twenties he married his adopted father's daughter, Rusticiana, and began a project to write books on the four mathematical sciences or quadrivium (arithmetic, music, geometry and astronomy – his writings on only the former two survive). His rapid political rise, marked by...
HOARE, Brian Richard. b. Upminster, Essex, 9 December 1935. Hoare was educated at Southwell Minster Grammar School, at Westminster College, London, and at Richmond College, University of London. After teaching Religious Education at Calverton, Nottinghamshire, he became Secretary of the Colleges of Education Christian Union (Inter-Varsity Fellowship) in London (1962-68). He was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1971, and was chaplain at Hunmanby Hall School, Filey, Yorkshire. He then served...
Cambridge Hymnal (1967). This hymnal, published in 1967, was the work of David Holbrook* (1923-2011) as literary editor and Elizabeth Poston* as music editor. It originated in discussions between Holbrook (tutor at Bassingbourn Village College, Cambridgeshire, 1954-61, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, 1961-65) and local teachers, concerning the quality of hymns used at morning assemblies in English schools. Holbrook argued that 'little or no attention was paid to the meaning of what was...
Children of the Heavenly Father. Lina Sandell-Berg* (1832-1903), translated by Ernst W. Olson.
Many commentaries on this hymn state that Sandell-Berg wrote the original Swedish hymn 'Tryggare kan ingen vara' in 1858 as a result of her father's tragic death by drowning. Per Harling*, author of Sandell's most recent biography, Blott en dag: Lina Sandell og hennes sanger (Stockholm, 2004), drawing upon research by Swedish hymnologist Oscar Lövgren, suggests that Sandell wrote the hymn much...
Christ triumphant, ever reigning. Michael Saward* (1932-2015).
Written April-May 1964 when Saward was curate and youth leader at St Margaret's, Edgware, Middlesex (now North West London). He drafted the words at home in Elmer Gardens for the tune ANGEL VOICES, to mark the 28th birthday of the church's Youth Fellowship. It was the fifth text he had written (the first being 'O Holy Spirit, giver of life' in 1962, published in Youth Praise) and has proved by far the most popular, providing the...
Christian Congregational Music Conference: Local and Global Perspectives
The Christian Congregational Music Conference [CCMC] explores the varying cultural, social, and spiritual roles that church music plays in the life of Christian communities around the world. The first conference, convened in 2011 at Ripon College, was organized by Monique Ingalls (University of Cambridge), Carolyn Landau (King's College, London), Martyn Percy (Ripon College, Cuddesdon), Tom Wagner (Royal Holloway, London),...
HERNAMAN, Claudia Frances (née Ibotson). b. Addlestone, Chertsey, Surrey, 19 October 1838; d. Brussels, 10 October 1898. Her father, the Rev. William Haywood Ibotson, was perpetual curate of Addlestone. She married the Rev. J.W.D. Hernaman, a school inspector. She was the author of The Child's Book of Praise: A Manual of Devotion in Simple Verse (1873), and co-editor (with Elizabeth Harcourt Mitchell and Walter Plimpton) of the Anglo-Catholic Altar Hymnal: A Book of Song for Use at the...
SERMISY, Claudin de. b. ca. 1490; d. Paris, 13 October 1562. Very little is known about Sermisy's youth. In 1508, as one of the lower clergy in the Sainte Chapelle du Palais (Royal Chapel, Paris), he was called 'Claudin'. By 1510, he was a singer in the Queen's private chapel, and a cleric in the Noyon diocese. Before 1515, he is mentioned as a member of the Chapelle du Roy (the King's household chapel). From 1532 to at least 1555 he was the successor of Antoine de Longueval (or Longaval) as...
Come, let us join with faithful souls. William George Tarrant* (1853-1928).
Written in 1915, and published in the Congregational Hymnary (1916). It was one of four hymns by Tarrant in the revised Fellowship Hymn Book (1933). It remained in use in Unitarian churches (Hymns of Worship, 1927, Hymns of Worship Revised , 1962) and it remains in HFF (1991), though not in HFL (which prints only two hymns by Tarrant). It had six stanzas:
Come, let us join with faithful souls Our song of faith to...
TUTU, Desmond. b. Klerksdorp, North West Province, Republic of South Africa, 7 October 1931; d. Cape Town, RSA, 26 December 2021. After a short period as a teacher, he was ordained an Anglican priest in 1960. He went to Britain to pursue theological studies at King's College, London (1962-66). Returning to South Africa, he taught at UBLS (the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland) before becoming Director of the Theological Education Fund for Africa (1972-75). He was Dean of St Mary's...
Earth, with all thy thousand voices. Edward Churton* (1800-1874).
From Churton's The Book of Psalms in English Verse (1854), sometimes (as in JJ) called 'The Cleveland Psalter'. It is a paraphrase of Psalm 66, 'Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands'. Churton's long original was radically changed by Benjamin Hall Kennedy*, who used stanzas 1, 2, and 8-13 to make a two-stanza hymn in Hymnologia Christiana (1863), with 16 lines to each stanza. It was also in 'Wesley's Hymns' (1876) in four...
SILL, Edward Rowland. b. Windsor, Connecticut, 29 April 1841; d. Cleveland, Ohio, 27 February 1887. The son of Elisha Noyes Sill (1801-1888), he was educated at Yale like his father, who moved to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, in 1829, became a Senator in the Ohio State Senate in 1844, and managed a bank. Edward Rowland graduated from Yale in 1861, and entered Harvard Divinity School in 1867. He left after a short time. His editor and biographer, William Belmont Parker, wrote of 'his lessening interest...
NAYLOR, Edward Woodall. b. Scarborough, 9 February 1867; d. Cambridge, 7 May 1934. After early study with his father, John Naylor, organist of York Minster, he gained a choral scholarship to Emmanuel College, Cambridge (1884-87) and continued his education at the Royal College of Music (1888-92). He was organist of St Michael's, Chester Square, London (1889-96); St Mary's, Kilburn (1896-97); Emmanuel College, Cambridge (1897-1934); also lecturer at Emmanuel College (1902-32). He was assistant...
BLAXILL, (Edwin) Alec. b. Colchester, Essex, 16 March 1873; d. Colchester, 25 June 1953. He was educated at the Grammar School (later the Royal Grammar School) at Colchester, and lived all his life in the town. After leaving school he worked in the family business, which included a builders' merchants (which still exists). He was a member of Lion Walk Congregational Church at Hythe ( part of Colchester), and a teacher, and later Superintendent of the Sunday School there. He was elected to the...
HATCH, Edwin. b. Derby, 4 September 1835; d. Oxford, 10 November 1889. Born into a nonconformist family, he was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham and Pembroke College, Oxford (BA 1857). He joined the Church of England in 1853 and took Holy Orders (deacon 1858, priest 1859). After a brief time working in an east-end parish of London he was appointed professor of Classics at Trinity College, Toronto (1859-62). He then served as rector of the high school in Quebec City (1862-67), before...
For thee, O dear, dear Country. Bernard of Cluny* (12th century), translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866).
This is the second part of the translation by John Mason Neale of the poem, De Contemptu Mundi, by Bernard of Cluny or Morlaix (see 'Hora novissima, tempora pessima sunt, vigilemus'*; for Neale's comments on the poem and its metre, see 'Brief life is here our portion'*). The Latin text began 'O bona patria, lumina sobria te speculantur'. The translation is from Neale's Mediaeval Hymns...
KRUMMACHER, Friedrich Wilhelm. b. Mörs, 1796; d. Potsdam, 10 December 1868. The most celebrated of the distinguished family of Krummacher, Friedrich Wilhelm was the son of Friedrich Adolf Krummacher* (rector of the Gymnasium at Mörs) and the father of Cornelius Friedrich Adolf Krummacher*. He was born when his father was pastor at Mörs, and moved to Duisburg when his father became professor there. As a schoolboy he tried to join the army to fight against Napoleon, but was rejected as under age....
Happy are they, they that love God. Charles Coffin* (1676-1749), translated by Robert Bridges* (1844-1930).
From Bridges's Yattendon Hymnal*, Part II (1897). It is a translation of a hymn by the French Latin writer Charles Coffin beginning
O quam juvat Fratres, Deus
unum quibus Christus caput
vitale robur sufficit
uno moreri spiritu.
The hymn was published in the Parisian Breviary (1736) and in Coffin's Hymni Sacri (1736). It had been translated by John Chandler* in his Hymns of the...
RAWNSLEY, Hardwicke Drummond. b. Shiplake-on-Thames, 18 September 1851; d. Grasmere, Westmorland (now Cumbria), 28 May 1920. The son of the rector of Shiplake, he was educated at Uppingham School and Balliol College, Oxford (BA 1874). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1875, priest 1877, after serving as chaplain of Clifton College Mission). He became vicar of Low Wray, near Windermere (1878-83), and in 1883 he became vicar of Crosthwaite and rural dean of Keswick. From 1888 to 1895 he served on...
Hark! what mean those holy voices. John Cawood* (1775-1852).
This hymn, entitled 'For Christmas', appeared in the suppressed eighth edition of Thomas Cotterill*'s Selection of Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship (1819) in six 4-line stanzas, each followed by 'Hallelujah!':
Hark! what mean those holy voices, Sweetly sounding through the skies? Lo! the' angelic host rejoices; Heavenly Hallelujahs rise. Hallelujah!
Listen to the wondrous story, Which...
BANCROFT, Henry Hugh. b. Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, 29 February 1904; d. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, 11 September 1988. A student of E. P. Guthrie and J. S. Robson at Grimsby, Bancroft took his FRCO in 1925 and served as organist and choir director at Old Clee Parish Church for four years before emigrating to Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1929 to begin his Canadian career at St Matthew's Anglican Church. He completed an external BMus at Durham in 1936. During 1936-37 he served at the Church of the...
PLAYFORD, Henry. b. Islington, London, 5 May 1657; d. London, May-Dec 1709. As the son of the leading English music publisher of the time, John Playford*, he naturally followed in the same line, being apprenticed to his father in 1674, and inheriting part of the business in 1687. Henry maintained many of John Playford's titles and adhered to his preference for typeset music, which was steadily losing ground to the new engraving methods; for these reasons he never attained his father's dominance...
TWELLS, Henry. b. Ashted, near Birmingham, 13 March 1823; d. Bournemouth, 19 January 1900. He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, and Peterhouse, Cambridge (BA, 1848, MA 1851). He was ordained (deacon 1851, priest 1852) and served his title at Berkhamstead, before moving to become curate in Stratford-upon-Avon. He then spent two years as Master of St Andrew's House School in Mells, Somerset, and then became Headmaster of Godolphin School, Hammersmith in 1856. During his 14 years...
Holy Father, in thy mercy. Isabella Stephana Stevenson* (1843-1890).
This hymn was written in 1869, when Stevenson's brother was embarking for South Africa for his health ('Keep our loved ones, now far distant,/ 'Neath Thy care', stanza 1). It was printed in leaflet form, and later used on board HMS Bacchante, the ship on which the future King George V and his brother were taken round the world in 1881-82. It was sent back to the Royal Family, who sang it during the Princes' absence, and then...
How lovely shines the morning star. Philipp Nicolai* (1556-1608), translated by Henry Harbaugh* (1817-1867).
This is a translation of Nicolai's great hymn, 'Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern'*, written at Unna during an outbreak of the plague in 1597, and subsequently imitated by others. The original German text was included in the Deutsches Gesangbuch: eine Auswahl geistlicher Lieder aus allen Zeitender Christlichen Kirche für öffentlichen und häuslichen Gebrauch , edited by Philip Schaff*...
I sing the birth was born tonight. Ben Jonson* (?1573-1637).
Published in Underwoods, a collection of his writings added to his Workes and published in 1640 after his death. It was entitled 'A Hymne, On the Nativitie of my Saviour'. The first appearance in a modern book was in the Oxford Hymn Book (1908). It shows Jonson's cleverness, especially in stanza 3 (of 4):
I sing the birth, was borne to night,The Author both of Life, and light; The Angels so did sound it,And like the ravish'd...
In the dark and silent night. Jane Eliza Leeson* (1808-1881).
First published in The Christian Child's Book (1848) (JJ, p. 670). It had three stanzas:
In the dark and silent night, Blessèd Lord, be Thou my light; So shall nothing me affright, Hallelujah!
Safely shadowed 'neath Thy wing, Help Thy little one to sing, Glory to the heavenly King, Hallelujah!
Angels sing, and so would I, While upon my bed I lie, Praise my Father silently, Hallelujah!
This charming hymn for children appeared...
WOOTTON, Janet. b. Bedford, England, 10 August 1952. She was educated at Loughborough High School and Oxford University, with 1st Class Honours in Classics (1975) and Theology (1978), followed by a Certificate in Theology at Oxford and a PhD at King's College, London (1988). She was ordained into the ministry of the Congregational Federation in 1979, serving at Haverhill (Suffolk) and Steeple Bumpstead (Essex) from 1979 to 1986. In 1986 she became Minister of Union Chapel, Islington, London. At...
DONNE, John. b. London, between 24 Jan/19 June 1572; d. London, 31 March 1631. He entered Hart Hall (now Hertford College) Oxford in 1584 and Lincoln's Inn in 1592. He pursued a successful court career, including foreign service with the Earl of Essex until 1601, the year in which he became Member of Parliament for Brackley, Northamptonshire, and secretly married Ann More without her parents' permission. This apparent rashness incurred the wrath of his influential patrons, led to his brief...
DRYDEN, John. b. Aldwincle, Northamptonshire, 9 Aug 1631; d. London, 1 May 1700. He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1654). He became a civil servant under Cromwell, whom he admired, although at the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 he wrote a poem entitled Astraea Redux ('Justice led back again'). In the years that followed he acquired a distinguished name as a dramatist and poet, becoming Poet Laureate in 1667. He became active as a satirist, notably...
BARTLETT, Lawrence Francis. b. Mosman, Sydney, 13 February 1933, d. Melbourne, 17 March 2002. He was educated at public schools in Mosman and Manly, and at the North Technical High School, where he accompanied the school choir and made musical arrangements for it. From 1950 to 1957 he studied harmony, piano, organ and singing at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and in 1960 at the Melbourne Conservatorium.
After holding the position of Assistant Director of Music at the King's School,...
TUTTIETT, Lawrence. b. Colyton, Devon, 1825 (baptized 31 Oct); d. St Andrews, Fife, 21 May 1897. He was the son of a surgeon in the Royal Navy, and was educated at Christ's Hospital and King's College, London. Tuttiett originally intended to become a doctor, but changed careers, and took Holy Orders (deacon 1848, priest 1849). At the beginning of his ministry he came under the influence of the Christian Socialists Charles Kingsley* and Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-72), but later adopted the...
Light's glittering morn bedecks the sky. Latin, before 8th century, translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866).
Neale's translation of the Latin hymn for the Easter season, 'Aurora lucis rutilat'*, was made for The Hymnal Noted Part I (1851) as two hymns, beginning 'Aurora lucis rutilat' ('Light's glittering morn bedecks the sky') and 'Sermone blando Angelus' ('With gentle voice the Angel gave'). Each hymn ended with two stanzas, a prayer and a doxology:
We pray Thee, King with glory...
Lord of the brave, who call'st Thine own. John Huntley Skrine* (1848-1923).
Written in 1893 for a service of Confirmation during the time that Skrine was Warden (Headmaster) of Trinity College, Glenalmond, a 'public' or independent school (i.e. private school) with a strong Anglican tradition. It was later published in Skrine's Thirty Hymns for Public School Singing (1899). It was included in the Public School Hymn Book (PSHB, 1903), and remained in later editions (1919, 1949), until it was...
Lord, thy church on earth is seeking. Hugh Sherlock* (1905-1998).
Written in 1965 for the Jamaica District of the Methodist Church, to be sung at a service inaugurating a 'year of renewal'. It was printed in a pamphlet containing seven of Sherlock's hymns (n.d.), with the title 'Renewal'. It had no tune in this printing, but was set to ABBOT'S LEIGH by Cyril Taylor* in the Methodist Supplement Hymns and Songs (1969).
Some subsequent books have used other tunes (EVERTON, by Henry Smart* in HFTC,...
SLADE, Mary Bridges Canedy. b. Fall River, Bristol County, Massachusetts, 18 January 1826; d. Fall River, 15 April 1882. One of thirteen children born to William Barnabas Canedy (1784-1855) and Susan Hughes Canedy, née Luther (1787-1858), she married (1850) her pastor at Fall River, Albion King Slade. They had five children. She was a school teacher, and Assistant Editor of the New England Journal of Education (see https://www.jstor.org/stable/i40201609). She wrote material for teachers: for...
O loving Lord, who art for ever seeking. William Vaughan Jenkins* (1868-1920).
This appeared in Jenkins's Grave and Gay (1921, published after his death and containing poems by his daughter also). It was entitled 'A Hymn', followed by '“Wherefore… I was not disobedient unto the Heavenly vision.” – St. Paul.' It was printed in MHB, BHB and HP.
O loving Lord, who art for ever seeking Men of Thy mind, intent to do Thy will,Strong in Thy strength, Thy power and grace bespeaking; Faithful to...
HOLMES, Oliver Wendell. b. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 29 August 1809; d. Boston, Mass., 7 October 1894. The son of a distinguished Congregational minister, Holmes attended Phillips Andover Academy, and Harvard College BA 1829, MD 1836), with additional study in Europe, mainly in Paris. He taught medicine at Dartmouth (1838-40), and Harvard (1847-82), serving as dean of the medical school. Holmes' contributions to American medical practice include his paper 'The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever'...
On Christmas night. English Traditional, ascribed to Luke Wadding (1628–1691).
Paul Westermeyer* notes that this is a '“Wexford carol” (though not the carol most often called the “The Wexford Carol”' (Westermeyer, 2010, p. 50). The text and the tune of this favorite carol have distinct backgrounds, though the exact origins of each are unclear. The first printed version of an earlier form of the text appears with the ascription, 'Another short Carroll for Christmas day' in A Smale Garland of...
On the day of Pentecost. Thomas Charles Hunter Clare* (1910-1984).
This is Clare's best known hymn in Britain. Hymnary.org dates the writing of the words as 1950, which was the year in which he published The Voice of Praise (Leicester, 1950). It is a skilful and economical versification of the narrative of the first Whit-Sunday, in five stanzas. The principal tune is by Erik Routley*, given the name WHITSUN CAROL. It was composed in 1960 (but not used, because of some copyright problem with...
Palms of glory, raiment bright. James Montgomery (1771-1854).
This is one of many hymns written by Montgomery for the Sheffield Sunday-School Union, and first printed on a broadsheet for their Whitsuntide anniversary in June 1829. It had six stanzas. It was published in Montgomery's Poet's Portfolio (1835) and in his Original Hymns (1853), where it was entitled 'Heaven in prospect' (in the 1873 edition it was entitled 'Victory through the Cross'). It was included in the Second Edition of...
SPERATUS, Paul. b. probably at Rötlen, near Ellwangen (now in Baden-Württemberg),13 December 1484; d. Marienwerder (now Kwidzyn, Poland), 12 August 1551. His original name was 'Hofer' or 'Hoffer' ('hoper'), but in common with others at the time (cf. Johannes Scheffler*- Angelus Silesius), the name was Latinised to 'Speratus'. He was educated at the University of Freiburg, and later in France and Italy: he is said to have held doctorates in three subjects, philosophy, law, and theology. He...
WHITLOCK, Percy William. b. Chatham, Kent, 1 June 1903; d. Bournemouth, Hampshire, 1 May 1946. Whitlock was educated at Rochester Cathedral choir school, the Guildhall School of Music, King's School, Rochester (1917-18) and the Royal College of Music (1920-24). He was assistant organist at Rochester Cathedral (1921-30), organist at St Mary's Church, Chatham (1924-29), director of music at St Stephen's, Bournemouth (1930-35) and Borough Organist at the Bournemouth Municipal Pavilion...
CUTTS, Peter Warwick. b. Birmingham, 4 June 1937; d. 26 January 2024. He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, and, after National Service, at Clare College, Cambridge (BA 1961), where he read music. He then read theology at Mansfield College, Oxford (BA 1963). He taught at Huddersfield at the technical college and at Oastler School of Education (1963-68), followed by Bretton Hall College, Wakefield, Yorkshire (1968-1989), where he was Warden and Lecturer in Music. In 1989 he took...
DASS, Petter. b. Northern Herøy, 1647, date unknown; d. Alstadhaug, 18 September 1707. Born at Northern Herøy in Nordland, he was the son of Peiter Pittersen Dundas (c. 1620-1654), a Scottish immigrant from Dundee, and Maren Falch (1629-1707). Following his father's death he was taken into care by relatives and friends, and was schooled in Bergen from 1660. After study at the University of Copenhagen (1666-69) he returned to Norway, where he became tutor for the family of the parish priest of...
The Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) is an educational charity that promotes the best use of music in worship, church life, and the wider community. It also publishes music and training resources, and organizes courses, short workshops and activities. With over 7,500 affiliates, members and 1,500 supporting friends in over 40 countries, it is an international network, supported by over 750 volunteers and a small team of staff based throughout the UK. RSCM in America, RSCM Australia, RSCM...
WEBBE, Samuel (I), the Elder. b. London, 7 October 1740; d. London, 25 May 1816. Born into an initially wealthy, but later poorer, family, Webbe received intermittent formal education. He was apprenticed for seven years to a cabinet maker from the age of 11, subsequently compensating for his lack of education with a rigorous programme of self-teaching, including the acquisition of many foreign and ancient languages. He worked as a copyist at Peter Weckler's music shop in Gerrard Street, Soho,...
See him lying on a bed of straw. Michael Perry* (1942-1996).
The words and music of this 'Calypso Carol' were composed together in 1964 while the writer was training for ordination at Oak Hill College in Southgate, North London. He remembered Peter Hancock, curate of his own Beckenham church, asking 'How would you like to be born in a cowshed?'; this proved the seed-thought when a final item was needed for the Christmas concert at Christ Church, Cockfosters, London.
Its original form ('See...
Shepherd of tender youth. Clement of Alexandria (Titus Flavius Clemens), ca. 150-ca. 220), translated by Henry Martyn Dexter* (1821-1890).
This hymn, entitled 'Hymn of the Saviour Christ', is one of the earliest (if not the earliest) Christian hymns. It was appended to the end of Book III of Paidagogos ('The Tutor'), a treatise by Clement, who taught philosophy and religion in the school at Alexandria. It was translated by Dexter during his time as a minister at Manchester, New Hampshire, and...
Songs of thankfulness and praise. Christopher Wordsworth* (1807-1885).
First published in The Holy Year (1862) and revised in the 1863 edition. It was assigned to the sixth Sunday after Epiphany and was intended to recapitulate the successive manifestations of Christ presented in the preceding weeks, and to look forward to the ultimate epiphany of his second coming. The hymn was one of eight by Wordsworth included in the Appendix (1868) to A&M:
Songs of thankfulness and praise,Jesu, Lord,...
Take up thy cross and follow me ('Wherever He leads I'll go'). Baylus B. McKinney* (1886-1952).
Written in January 1936 at Clanton, Alabama, during a meeting of the Alabama Baptist Sunday School Convention. McKinney was commiserating with a missionary, Robert S. Jones, who was unable on health grounds to return to the mission field, but who said 'Wherever he leads, I'll go'. These words form the first line of the refrain, by which the hymn is sometimes known:
Wherever He leads I'll...
The happy Christmas comes once more. Nicolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig*, translated by Charles Porterfield Krauth* (1823-1883).
This Christmas hymn,'Det kimer nu til Julefest', is from Grundtvig's Nyeste Skilderie af Kjøbenhagen (1817). It was translated by Krauth for the Lutheran Church Book (Philadelphia, 1867), and almost immediately included in Christ in Song, edited by his fellow Lutheran Philip Schaff* (New York, 1869). It has become Krauth's best known work in hymnals.
It had nine...
The Master hath come, and he calls us to follow. Sarah Doudney* (1841-1926).
This children's hymn was first published in a Sunday School Union book, Songs of Gladness (1871). Although other hymns from this book were included in Doudney's Psalms of Life (1871) this one was not, perhaps because it was written too late for inclusion.
It had six 4-line stanzas, sometimes printed as 8-line ones to accommodate the Welsh tune THE ASH GROVE, which is found in many recent books:
The Master hath...
There's a light upon the mountains. Henry Burton* (1840-1930).
From Burton's Wayside Songs of the Inner and Outer Life (1883). According to Wesley Milgate, (1982, p. 98), this hymn on Christ's coming in glory appeared in American books before British ones (Burton lived in the USA for most of his early life). In Britain it has been particularly popular with Methodists, since its first appearance in the Wesleyan Methodist School Hymnal (1911). There were five stanzas, of which HP omits no 2:
In...
Thine for ever! God of love. Mary Fawler Maude* (1819-1913).
Written in 1847 for her class in the Sunday School at Newport, Isle of Wight, where her husband was curate. It was printed at the beginning of Twelve Letters on Confirmation 'by a Sunday School Teacher' (1848). It was included in her privately printed Memorials of Past Years (1852):
Thine for ever! God of love,Hear us from Thy throne above;Thine for ever may we beHere and in eternity.
Thine for ever! O, how blestThey who find in Thee...
OLIVERS, Thomas. b. Tregynon, Montgomeryshire, 1725 (baptized 8 September); d. London, 7 March 1799. He became an orphan at four years old. He was apprenticed to a shoemaker, but became a wild young man, much given to what he himself later called 'profane and impious behaviour'. He left Tregynon for Shrewsbury and Wrexham, where local Methodists saw some good in him and invited him to join their Society; he resisted them until he went to Bristol, where he heard George Whitefield* preach and was...
GRIFFITHS, Thomas Vernon. b. West Kirby, Cheshire, England, 22 June 1894; d. 23 November 1985. He was the son of an Anglican priest, educated at Norwich Grammar School. After war service in Europe, he won an organ scholarship to the University of Cambridge. There he gained a BA in History (1921) and a MusB (1922). He converted to Catholicism; and in 1926 he emigrated to New Zealand to take up a post as lecturer in music at Christchurch Teachers' Training College with responsibility for the...
To thee, my God and Saviour. Thomas Haweis* (1734-1820).
From Haweis's Carmina Christo; or, Hymns to the Saviour (Bath, 17920), with the heading 'Psalm xcvi' and the words 'Be telling of his salvation from day to day'. It had three stanzas:
To thee my God and Saviour, My heart exulting sings,Rejoicing in thy favor, Almighy King of kings.I'll celebrate thy glory, With all thy saints above,And tell the joyful story, Of thy redeeming love.
Soon as the morn with roses, Bedecks the dewy...
Verzage nicht, du Häuflein klein. Jakob Fabricius* (1593-1654). This remarkable piece of history was printed on a broadsheet to be sung by the army at morning prayers before the battle of Lützen on 16 November 1632. It was printed in two pamphlets at Leipzig shortly after the battle, Epicidion and Blutige Siegs-Crone (1632/33) in three stanzas. In J. Clauder's Psalmodiae Novae Pars Tertia (Leipzig, 1636), two more stanzas were added by an unknown hand. It is found in EG (in the 'Sammlung und...
Von Gott will ich nicht lassen. Ludwig Helmbold* (1532-1598).
Printed on a broadsheet in 1563-64, and again in the Hundert Christenliche Haussgesang (Nürnberg, 1569). It was written during the plague at Erfurt. It exists in three forms, the first with an elaborate title and inscription and a preliminary poem, dedicating the hymn, 'Ein Gottförchtiger und lieblicher Gesang' to Regine, wife of Dr Pancratius Helbich, Rector of the University, and a close friend of the author: 'In den Truck (=...
BOURNE, William St Hill. b. St Paul's Cray, Kent, 24 August 1846; d. Hendon, north London, 22 March 1929. Educated at Merchant Taylors' School, London, and the London College of Divinity, he took Holy Orders (deacon 1869, priest 1870). He served four curacies, at Holy Trinity, Derby (1869-71), Harrow-on-the-Hill (1871-72), St Paul's, St Leonards-on-Sea (1872-73) and Christ Church, Ashford (1873-75). He was vicar of Pinner, Middlesex (1875-80), of All Saints, Haggerston, London (1880-87), St...
I/weshall not be moved; African American spiritual*/Folk Song.
Black Spiritual
Bernice Johnson Reagon reminds us that,'The African American spiritual and its evolution within American society—like a great river shooting off hundreds of tributaries to be joined together somewhere further down the way—give us the richest opportunity to view the tradition in a way that unleashes the powerful human story it holds' (Reagon, 1992, p. 13). 'I shall not be moved' is an example of this premise:
I...
The gospel song or gospel hymn is a genre of Christian worship-song that developed in revivals held in Great Britain and the USA, 1865-74. Its primary antecedents were camp meeting songs which joined personal witness and freedom of expression. and the widely popular Sunday school song. Start-up music publishers (see Publishing and publishers, USA*), exploited the product of pittance-paid, albeit talented songwriters and composers, and banded with organizers, preachers and song leaders of white...
The term 'Greek hymnody' within Christianity has both a contemporary and an historical sense. First, it signifies the hymnody of the present Byzantine liturgical rite, contained in the official liturgical hymnbooks. The Byzantine or Eastern Roman empire ended in 1453, but the Byzantine rite contined to be practised in post-Byzantine times, both by Orthodox and eventually by Catholic Uniate churches, as it still is. Second, Greek hymnody incorporates all hymnody used in any of several historical...
The Evangelical Covenant Church today consists of about 850 congregations in North America and Canada. While non-creedal, it bases its beliefs firmly in scripture, and explains its applied doctrine by means of six affirmations that connect it to the larger evangelical Protestant community:
We affirm the centrality of the word of God.
We affirm the necessity of the new birth.
We affirm a commitment to the whole mission of the church.
We affirm the church as a fellowship of believers.
We...
At the Lamb's high feast we sing. Latin, Roman Breviary, 1632, translated by Robert Campbell* (1814-1868).
This Easter Communion hymn is a translation of 'Ad regias Agni dapes'*, a hymn in the Roman Breviary (1632) derived from 'Ad cenam Agni providi'* (pre-8th-century). Campbell's translation appeared in his Hymns and Anthems for Use in the Holy Services of the Church within the United Diocese of St Andrews, Dunkeld, and Dunblane (Edinburgh, 1850). It was then printed with alterations in the...
Awake, and sing the song. William Hammond* (1719-1783).
From Hammond's Psalms, Hymns & Spiritual Songs (1745), where it had 14 stanzas. It was entitled 'Before singing of Hymns, by Way of Introduction'. The 14 stanzas were shortened and altered by successive 18th-century editors, including George Whitefield*, Martin Madan* and Augustus Montague Toplady* and further revised by William John Hall* and Edward Osler* for the 'Mitre' hymn book, Psalms and Hymns adapted to the Services of the...
MAROT, Clément. b. Cahors, 1496; d. Turin/Torino, Italy, 1544. He was the son of the poet and rhetorician Jean Marot. He played a leading role in the development of French poetry and hymnology. He had possibly received a musical education, allowing him to sing and play an instrument. He was first at the service of Nicolas de Neufville, seigneur de Villeroy, and secondly, around 1519, of Marguerite d'Alençon (1492-1549), sister of Francis I. In 1527, he was appointed as a 'valet de chambre'. In...
Come let us join our friends above. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Funeral Hymns (1759) in five 8-line stanzas, this hymn has been subjected to considerable textual revision and does not appear in any hymnbook in its full, original form, which can be found in Frank Baker's Representative Verse of Charles Wesley (1962), pp. 131ff. The least drastic amendment follows the example of MHB in retaining most of the original text, omitting only verses 3b and 4a:
His militant, embodied...
Flor y Canto (flower and song) is a hymnal that represents the diversity of Latino/a cultures in the United States. Published by Oregon Catholic Press in four editions (1989, 2001, 2011, 2023), the title indicates the symbolism of flower and song found in Aztec culture and the experiences of indigenous peoples in Hispanic cultures. Unlike earlier Spanish-language Protestant hymnals, this Catholic publication includes a limited number of hymns in Spanish translation from traditional Western...
KAAN, Frederik Herman. b. Haarlem, Holland, 27 July 1929; d. Glenridding, Cumbria, 4 Oct 2009. After a childhood spent under German occupation, during which his family sheltered a young Jewish woman, he was educated at the University of Utrecht, where he read Theology with Psychology (1949-52). He then studied at Bristol University (Theology, 1952-54, Sociology and Pastoral Theology, 1954-55). He was ordained in 1955 as a minister of the Congregational Union in England and Wales, later becoming...
From east to west, from shore to shore. Sedulius* (ca. 5th century), translated by John Ellerton* (1826-1893).
The Latin text, beginning 'A solis ortus cardine'* is part of an abecedary poem of 23 stanzas entitled 'Paean Alphabeticus de Christo' ('A triumphal alphabetical song about Christ'). Another selection of stanzas from this hymn is 'Hostis Herodes impie'*, translated by Percy Dearmer* as 'Why, impious Herod, shouldst thou fear'*.
Ellerton's translation of 'A solis ortus cardine' was made...
Gloria, laus et honor. Theodulf of Orleans* (d. 821). Theodulf (or Theodulph) of Orleans was a prominent figure in the literary revival at the time of Charlemagne, but was imprisoned by the Emperor's successor, Louis (ca. 818) on suspicion of involvement in a rebellion (ca. 817). According to a charming legend in Clichtoveus' Elucidatorium Ecclesiasticum Paris (1516), he secured his freedom by writing 'Gloria, laus et honor': the King, passing by in the Palm Sunday procession, heard Theodulf...
God bless our native land. American version.
A few hymnals published in the USA and Canada use 'God bless our native land*/ May heaven's (or 'his') protecting hand'* by the British author William Edward Hickson*. Some print two texts, Hickson's and a similar one, 'God bless our native land!/ Firm may she ever stand'. Others use the second only.
This version has a complicated textual history, given in detail by JJ, p. 1566. There are two variant texts, one by Charles Timothy Brooks (1813-1883),...
Goliards, goliardic
The term 'goliard' may first have arisen in connexion with Abelard*, though what we identify as the 'goliardic' tradition is some centuries older. An alternative, equally unsatisfactory, epithet is 'wandering scholars', a translation of vagantes, depicting the clerics whose journeys between ecclesiastical establishments in Europe were responsible for the transmission of Latin verse of various types such as love-songs, hymns and carols, polemical or trivial lyrics, planctus*...
Hail the day that sees him rise. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739), under the title 'Hymn for Ascension-Day' and immediately following 'Christ the Lord is risen today'*. It had ten 4-line stanzas. 'Alleluia' was added to every line in G.C. White's Hymns and Introits (1852) and in this form, though with a multiplicity of minor textual emendations, the hymn has been extensively used throughout the English-speaking world. The full original text is...
FOOTE, Henry Wilder (II). b. Boston, Massachusetts, 2 February 1875; d. Southwest Harbor, Maine, 27 August 1964. Highly respected author, scholar, and hymnologist, Foote was a Unitarian minister, teacher, and progressive figure whose ministry highlighted music, poetry, and art. Born to Frances Anne Eliot (1838-1896) and Henry Wilder Foote (1838-1889), the younger Foote had strong connections with Unitarianism and Harvard University. His grandfather, Samuel Atkins Eliot (1798-1862) was mayor of...
How lovely is thy dwelling place. Scottish Psalter*, 1564 onwards.
This metrical psalm was the version of Psalm 84 in the first Scottish psalm book after the Reformation, entitled The forme and ministration of the sacraments &c. used in the English church at Geneva, approved and received by the Church of Scotland. Whereunto besydes that was in the former bokes, are also added sondrie other prayers, with the whole psalms of David in English meter (Edinburgh: Robert Lekprevik, 1564). Psalm...
Hymns for Prayer and Praise (1996). Hymns for Prayer and Praise was published by the Canterbury Press for the Panel of Monastic Musicians in 1996. It was intended primarily for use in monastic and religious communities, but also in churches in which daily prayer is offered with music. It acknowledges a debt to the Liber Hymnarius of the monks of Solesmes (1983), but its texts are in English, with a small selection of Latin hymns at the end of the book (501-515). The first five hundred hymns...
INGALLS, Jeremiah. b. Andover, Massachusetts, 1 March 1764; d. Hancock, Vermont, 6 April 1838. Ingalls is known primarily for The Christian Harmony; or, Songster's Companion (Exeter, New Hampshire, 1805). (https://archive.org/details/christianharmony00inga)
Before marrying Mary Bigelow in 1781, Ingalls had moved to Newbury, Vermont, where he made a living as a cooper and farmer. In 1794, he became a choir leader at the Newbury Congregational Church, and two years later, his tune NEW JERUSALEM...
NEANDER, Joachim. b. Bremen, 1650; d. Bremen, 31 May 1680. Born the son of a schoolmaster (the family name was Neumann or Niemann, and this was changed to the Greek form by Joachim's grandfather). He was educated at the Academic Gymnasium ('Gymnasium illustre') of Bremen. According to his first biographer, Reitz, Neander was scornful of religion as a young man, entering St Martin's Church, Bremen to make fun of the proceedings and of the pastor, Theodor Undereyk (1635-1693). He was so affected...
MILTON, John. b. London, 9 December 1608; d. London, November 1674 (buried 12 November). He was the son of a prosperous scrivener and notary, John Milton, the elder*, a musician who contributed three harmonizations to Thomas Ravenscroft*'s The Whole Book of Psalms (1621). The younger John Milton was educated privately and at St Paul's School; then at Christ's College, Cambridge (BA 1629, MA 1632). Dissatisfied with Cambridge, he embarked on a life of study at his father's house, first at...
RYLAND, John. b. Warwick, 29 January 1753; d. Bristol, 25 June 1825. He was the son of a Baptist pastor, John Collett Ryland (1723-1792), a notable figure in 18th-century Baptist circles (he was baptized by Benjamin Beddome* and his funeral sermon was preached by John Rippon*). To distinguish himself from his forceful parent, the son called himself 'John Ryland, Junior'. In 1759 John Collett Ryland moved to Northampton as pastor: he taught his son Hebrew and Greek, and John Ryland Junior is...
Lord of might, and Lord of glory. John Stuart Blackie* (1809-1895).
In Blackie's Songs of Religion and Life (Edinburgh and New York, 1876) this hymn was entitled 'Prayer for Direction':
Lord of might, and Lord of glory, On my knees I bow before Thee, With my whole heart I adore Thee, Great Lord! Listen to my cry, O Lord!
Passions proud and fierce have ruled me, Fancies light and vain have fooled me, But Thy training stern hath schooled me; Now, Lord, Take me for Thy child, O...
MORGAN, John Michael. b. Macon, Georgia, 24 November 1948; d. Fairburn, Georgia, 25 December 2022. Morgan grew up in a Baptist home to adoptive parents, his father a farmer and his mother an elementary school teacher. He credited his childhood pastor and pianist with early inspiration for the role of music in worship. By the third grade, Morgan was studying piano; he began organ studies in the sixth grade with LaGrange (Georgia) College organ professor, Katherine Cline, which led to...
Piae Cantiones. This collection of carols and songs was published in Greifswald, then part of Swedish territory, in 1582. It consisted of 74 items, arranged in 11 sections:
24 Cantiones for Christmas;
9 for Passion-tide and Easter;
1 for Pentecost;
3 for Trinity Sunday;
2 for Holy Communion;
4 'Songs of Prayer';
14 on 'the Frailty and Miseries of Human Life' ('De Fragilitate et Miseriis Humanae Conditionis');
10 on School Life;
2 on Peace;
3 'Songs of History'; and
2 Carols for Spring.
The...
BRIDGES, Robert Seymour. b. Walmer, Kent, 23 October 1844; d. Oxford, 21 April 1930. The Bridges family had been yeomen and gentleman farmers for generations. His father died in 1853, and his mother married the Reverend John Molesworth, vicar of Rochdale, Lancashire, where Bridges spent some of his vacations during his formative years at school and college. He was educated at Eton and Corpus Christi College, Oxford (BA 1867, MA 1874). After Oxford, he travelled in the Middle East (1868) and...
The Chorale Book for England (1863). The Chorale Book for England was published in London in 1863. It was compiled and edited from the repertoires of the Lutheran, Roman Catholic and other churches by the musical editors, William Sterndale Bennett* and Otto Goldschmidt*, for use in the Church of England. Many of the texts were taken from Lyra Germanica translated by Catherine Winkworth*; though, in order to meet the needs of the Anglican liturgy, a substantial proportion of fresh material...
Thee will I love, my Strength, my Tower. Johannes Scheffler* (1624-1677), translated by John Wesley* (1703-1791).
Scheffler's hymn, beginning 'Ich will dich lieben, meine Stärke', was published in his Heilige Seelen-lust, oder Geistliche Hirten-Lieder (Breslau, 1657). Wesley would have found it in Das Gesang-Buch der Gemeine in Herrnhut (1735), the book brought by the Moravians on the voyage to Georgia. It had eight 6-line stanzas, of which Wesley translated seven, omitting stanza 2 ('Ich...
ATTWOOD, Thomas. b. Pimlico, London, 1765 (baptized 23 November); d. Chelsea, London, 24 March 1838. Thomas Attwood, his father, was a coal merchant and musician: an under-page in the court of George III, he was also a viola player in the king's band as well as a trumpeter. This connection with royalty and royal patronage was of immense benefit to his son who became a chorister in the Chapel Royal at the age of nine. After leaving the choir at the age of sixteen in 1781, he became a Page of the...
SWAN, Timothy. b. Worcester, Massachusetts, 23 July 1758; d. Northfield, Massachusetts, 23 July 1843. Swan, a composer and hat maker, is of particular interest to modern music historians, in part for the originality and distinctiveness of his melodies, as well as the extent to which related research sources have been preserved. Swan's primary musical publication was New England Harmony, Containing a Variety of Psalm Tunes in Three and Four Parts, Adapted to All Metres: Also a Number of Set...
We shall overcome. African American Song, source unknown.
The origins of this powerful song have been outlined by Eileen Southern: 'the opening and closing phrases point back to the old spiritual, “No more auction block for me”, and the [chorus] of Charles Albert Tindley*'s gospel hymn “I'll overcome some day”' (Southern, 1997, pp. 471-2). A version of the spiritual appeared under the title 'Many thousand gone' in The Story of the Jubilee Singers (Marsh, 1875).
Tindley's hymn, one of eight...
What star is this, with beams so bright. Charles Coffin* (1676-1749), translated by John Chandler* (1806-1876).
This is a translation of Coffin's 'Quae stella sole pulchrior', found in the Paris Breviary of 1736, and in Hymni Sacri Auctore Carolo Coffin (1736). Chandler's translation was set for the Epiphany in his Hymns of the Primitive Church (1837). It became well known in Britain after its inclusion in the First Edition of A&M (1861), where it was altered by the compilers, in order to...
HOW, William Walsham. b. Shrewsbury, Shropshire, 13 December 1823; d. Leenane, Ireland, 10 August 1897. He was the son of a solicitor, educated at Shrewsbury School and Wadham College, Oxford (BA 1845, MA 1847). He trained for the priesthood at the University of Durham, and took Holy Orders (deacon 1846, priest 1847), serving at Kidderminster, Worcestershire (1846); Shrewsbury, Shropshire (1848-51); Whittington (1851-53); as rural dean of Oswestry (1853-79); as Suffragan to the Bishop of London...
ORSBORN, Albert (William Thomas). b. Maidstone, Kent, 4 September 1886; d. Boscombe, Hampshire, 4 February 1967. He was the son of Salvation Army officers who had helped to pioneer Army work in Norway in 1888; he became one of the Army's most significant writers of congregational song in the 20th century.
His early efforts at writing poetry, as a junior clerk, aged about 15, were despised by his office manager, but were encouraged by the editors of The War Cry, the Salvationist newspaper, when...
All ye that pass by. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns on the Great Festivals, and Other Occasions (1746), the book in which Wesley's texts, some unpublished, were set to music by his friend John Frederick Lampe*. This is hymn 4 in the book, entitled 'On the Crucifixion', the first of three hymns with that title. It was then published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), with the title 'Invitation to Sinners'. It is based on Lamentations 1: 12: 'Is it nothing to you, all ye...
BRECK, Carrie Elizabeth (née Ellis). b. Walden, Vermont, 22 January 1855; d. Portland, Oregon, 27 March 1934. Carrie Breck, writer of poems, prose, and hymns, including 'Face to face with Christ my Saviour'*, was the second of seven children born to Stephen Thompson Ellis (1827-1901) and Elizabeth Naomi Boynton Cobern Ellis (1833-1911). Her father sold his farm in Walden and moved with his family to Vineland, New Jersey, in December 1863 (Breck, p. 45). Vineland had been founded less than...
GELLERT, Christian Fürchtegott. b. Hainichen, Saxony, 4 July 1715; d. Leipzig, 13 December 1796. The son of a Lutheran pastor, he was educated at the famous Electoral College at Meißen. From 1734 to 1743, interrupted by periods of earning his living as a tutor, he attended Leipzig University. After finishing his BA and MA (1744), he launched into an academic career and was appointed professor of philosophy in 1751. Beginning under the auspices of J.Chr. Gottsched and taking part in publications...
Christians, if your hearts be warm. John Leland* (1754–1841).
Leland probably composed this hymn in 1788, and it appeared in print two years later in Richard Broaddus and Andrew Broaddus, Collection of Sacred Ballads (unpaged, Caroline Co, Virginia, 1790). The first page scan in Hymnary.org is from Divine Hymns, or Spiritual Songs: for the use of religious assemblies and private Christians (Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 1794), where it was headed 'Admonition to Christian Duties':
Christians,...
Let earth and heaven agree. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns on God's Everlasting Love (1742) in ten 6-line stanzas, it appeared in the second edition (1765) of Select Hymns, and in John Wesley*'s A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), in eight stanzas:
Let earth and heaven agree, Angels and men be joined, To celebrate with me The Saviour of mankind,T'adore the all-atoning Lamb,And bless the sound of Jesu's name.
Jesus,...
Lyra Davidica (1708). The full title of this book is Lyra Davidica, or, A Collection of Divine Songs and Hymns, Partly New Compos'd, partly Translated from the High-German, and Latin Hymns: And set to easy and pleasant Tunes, for more General Use. A quotation from Isaiah on the title page reads 'Isa. XXIV. XVI, XIV, XV. From the [Wing] of the Earth we have heard Songs: Even Glory to the Righteous. — They shall Sing for the Majesty of the Lord; they shall Cry aloud from the Sea. — Wherefore...
One there is above all others/O how he loves. Marianne Nunn* (1778-1841).
This is a reworking of the hymn by John Newton*, 'One there is above all others'* to fit the Welsh tune AR HYD Y NOS ('All through the night'), found in Edward Jones's Music and Poetical Relics of the Welsh Bards (1784). The words were published in Marianne's brother John's Psalms and Hymns from the most Approved Authors; and intended to assist the worship of the church, family, and closet (Third Edition, 1817). The...
Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship (SPCK, 1852-1869).
There are a number of books with this title, or similar titles, published by different editors in the mid-19th century. They are strong evidence of the increasing importance of hymn singing in worship. The list in JJ, p. 337-8, is instructive: many of them seem to have been compiled by incumbents of parishes for the use of their congregations. Examples included Christian Psalmody; being Psalms and Hymns adapted to Public Worship by the...
MASSIE, Richard. b. Chester, 18 June 1800; d. Pulford, Cheshire, 11 March 1887. He was the eldest son of an ancient and wealthy family ('Massie of Coddington' in Burke's Landed Gentry). His father, Richard Massie (1771-1854), a Cheshire vicar, had twenty-two children, of whom eighteen survived into adulthood. Richard, the father, was a graduate of St John's College, Cambridge, but there is no record of Richard, the son, matriculating at either Cambridge or Oxford (although some of his brothers...
We are but little children weak. Cecil Frances Alexanderr* (1818-1892).
According to JJ, p. 1241, this was first published in her friend Walter Farquhar Hook*'s Church Sunday School Hymn Book (Leeds, 1850). Probably she had shown it to him, or sent it to him, in the years in which they were close. It is almost always known by its first line, as above, but according to Frost (1962, p. 313), the first two lines were 'We are but little children poor/ And born in very low estate'. The alteration...
The Early Years (750?-1550)
The first Slovenian musical records date from the second half of the 16th century. Prior to that date there were sacred songs, defined as songs of religious content that are sung at church service. Their contents are based on the Bible (psalmic hymns), religious truths (catechetic hymns) and on the lives of the saints (hymns of the saints and pilgrimage hymns). This survey will give an outline of the sacred music that took place on the Slovenian territory and was...
All praise to our redeeming Lord. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
Entitled 'At Meeting of Friends', this was first published in Hymns for those that seek and those that have Redemption in the Blood of Jesus Christ (1747), in three 8-line stanzas:
All Praise to our Redeeming Lord, Who joins us by his GraceAnd bids us, Each to Each restor'd, Together seek his Face.He bids us build each other up, And gather'd into One;To our high Calling's glorious Hope We Hand in Hand go on.
The Gift which He on...
Ancient of Days, who sittest throned in glory. William Crosswell Doane* (1832-1913).
Written in 1886 by Doane, the local bishop, for the bicentenary of the charter for the city of Albany, New York, the first chartered city in America. Its original first stanza refers to the occasion:
Ancient of Days, who sittest, throned in glory,
To whom a thousand years are but a day;
First, on this day that crowns our City's story,
With its two hundred years, to Thee we pray.
This verse was amended...
Behold a little child. William Walsham How* (1823-1897).
This is one of the many hymns written by How for children. It first appeared in Church Hymns (1871; Church Hymns with Tunes, 1874) of which How was one of the editors. It was then in the SPCK Children's Hymns (1872) and was later included in the Children's Hymn Book (1881), edited by Frances Carey Brock*. It was included in the Supplement (1889) to the Second Edition of A&M, remaining in A&M books until it was dropped...
KYAMANYWA, Bernard. b. Kagera Region, Tanganyika (now Tanzania); 10 May 1938. A teacher, Lutheran pastor, and hymnwriter, Kyamanywa studied to be a schoolteacher at Kigarama Teacher's College (Bukoba, Tanzania) where he received his basic musical training. He continued his study at Lutheran Theological College (now Makumira University College) in Arusha (Diploma in Theology, 1968). He became known for his exceptional mastery of Hebrew, a skill that earned him the position as a representative of...
The early Brethren emphasized the unity of believers: 'one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren' (Matthew: 23:8). While not all Brethren have practised this truth, it remains a basic principle. They began in about 1825 in Dublin, whence they spread to Plymouth, and established the first assembly. When members went out preaching, people called them 'brethren from Plymouth'. Brethren believe in the two views of the church that they find in scripture, namely the universal church -...
BLACKALL, Christopher Rubey (or Ruby). b. New York State, 18 September 1830; d. 25 January 1924. Blackall trained and worked as a doctor, including service in the Union army during the Civil War. After the war he became secretary of the American Baptist Publication Society for the North West in 1867. He wrote a history of the Society, entitled A Story of Six Decades (Philadelphia, 1885).
Blackall had a special interest in hymns for children: he published Gems for the Little Ones (Philadelphia,...
Clare Taylor. b. probably early 18th century, date unknown; d. February 1778. Her hymns were published by Daniel Sedgwick* in a small volume containing the hymns of John Ryland*, Clare Taylor, and Samuel Crossman*. The title of the Taylor section was Hymns composed chiefly on The Atonement of Christ, and Redemption Through His Blood (1765). This was followed by two quotations: 'The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 1 John 1. 7', and another from the first stanza of Hymn...
VAUGHAN, Edmund. b. Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, 26 November 1827; d. Bishop Eton, Liverpool, 1 July 1908. Born at into a distinguished Roman Catholic family, he became a member of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (C.ss.R), the order of mission priests ('Redemptorists') founded by St Alphonsus Liguori*. He was a Novice in 1850, made his profession as a Redemptorist on 2 February 1852, and was ordained to the priesthood on 22 February 1852. He worked for a time in Australia, and was...
THORNE, Edward Henry. b. Cranborne, Dorset, 9 May 1834; d. London, 26 December 1916. Thorne was a chorister at St George's Chapel, Windsor, and a pupil of the organist, Sir George Elvey*. He held organist's appointments at Henley Parish Church (1852), Chichester Cathedral (1863), St Patrick's, Hove (1870), St Peter's, Cranley Gardens, London (1873), St Michael's, Cornhill (1875) and St Anne's, Soho (1891).
While at Henley Thorne published A Selection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes (1858), intended for...
HOOD, Edwin Paxton. b. London, 24 October 1820; d. Paris, 12 June 1885. He was from a poor family: his father was an able seaman and his mother was a domestic servant. Both of his parents died before he was seven years old and he was brought up at Deptford by a heraldic painter and his wife. He was self-educated and began to lecture on temperance and peace, ca.1840; he was greatly influenced by the powerful preaching of Thomas Binney*. He was ordained into the Congregational ministry in 1852,...
MAKER, Frederick Charles. b. Bristol, 1844; d. Bristol, 1 January 1927. He was a chorister at Bristol Cathedral, and later taught music in Bristol. He was a part-time teacher at the public (independent) school, Clifton College. He was organist at three nonconformist churches: Milk Street Methodist Free Church, Clifton Downs Congregational Church, and Redland Park Congregational Church. He held the last post for almost thirty years (1882-1910). At the invitation of the editor, Alfred Stone, he...
God has spoken—by his prophets. George Wallace Briggs* (1875-1959).
This hymn was written for the Hymn Society of America, which advertised for new hymns to celebrate the publication of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible in 1952. This was one of ten hymns chosen out of 500, appearing in Ten New Bible Hymns (1953), and subsequently in many books on both sides of the Atlantic, including A&MRW (2013), and in Australia in WOV (1977) and TIS (1999). This is such a valuable hymn that it...
BRORSON, Hans Adolph. b. 20 June 1694; d. 3 June 1764. Born at Randerup in the Danish part of West Schleswig, where his father Broder Broderson was vicar. He was educated at the Cathedral School of Ribe (1709-1712) and from 1712 at the University of Copenhagen, where he graduated as Master of Theology in 1721. From 1716 to 1721 Brorson was back in West Schleswig, most of the time as private tutor at the family of one of his uncles in Løgumkloster. Here he became acquainted with the Lutheran...
Happy day, happy day. 19th Century, author unknown.
This was a refrain added at some time in the 19th century to the hymn by Philip Doddridge*, 'O happy day, that fixed my choice'*:
Happy day, happy day, When Jesus washed my sins away, He taught me how to watch and pray, And live rejoicing every day, Happy day, happy day, When Jesus washed my sins away.
This may have developed from the hymn into a camp-meeting song. Its first appearance in a hymnbook seems to have been in The Wesleyan Sacred...
How happy are we. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Hymns for the Use of Families, and on Various Occasions (Bristol, 1767). It was Hymn CXLVI, entitled 'To be sung at the Tea-Table.' It had eight stanzas, all of which were reproduced by John Wesley* in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780) in the section 'For the Society, giving Thanks'. It began:
How happy are we Who in Jesus agree To expect his return from above! We sit under our VINE, And...
I hear the Savior say. Elvina Mable Hall* (1820-1889).
Written in 1865 at Monument Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Baltimore, during a long prayer by the pastor. JJ quotes (p. 1568), presumably from the author herself, that it was 'written on the fly-leaf of the New Lute of Zion in the choir of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Baltimore'. It is said (in HymnQuest) that it was written 'during a long prayer by the pastor'. The hymn was given to the pastor, who gave it to the church organist,...
I will follow thee, my Savior. James Lawson* (1847-1926).
This hymn is dated 1866 in Songs of Pilgrimage: a hymnal for the Churches of Christ (Boston, 1886), edited by Horace Lorenzo Hastings (1831-1889) and attributed to James Lawson (in some later books 'Rev. James Lawson'). There has been confusion about the authorship, because in some books it was attributed to 'Jas. L., Elginburg', and in The Revivalist (1872), edited by Joseph Hillman, the words and music are said to be by 'Jas. L.,...
DECK, James George. b. Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, 1 November 1807 (JJ gives 1802); d. Motueka, near Nelson, New Zealand, 14 August 1884. He was educated under one of Napoleon's generals to serve in the army, and posted to India in 1824. His religious interests were strengthened by conversion in England in 1826, and he returned to India to witness for Christ among his brother officers. He resigned his commission in 1835. He left the army with the intention of becoming a priest of the Church of...
BORTHWICK, Jane Laurie. b. Edinburgh, 9 April 1813, d. Edinburgh, 7 September 1897. Born the daughter of James Borthwick, insurance manager of the North British Insurance Office; she was a staunch member of the Free Church of Scotland.
In collaboration with her sister, Sarah Laurie Findlater* she was instrumental in mediating German hymnody to Britain in the 19th century. Some of these English renderings were first published in the Free Church Magazine in the late 1840s, before being collected...
Jesu, we look to thee. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Volume II of Hymns and Sacred Poems (Bristol, 1749), in four 8-line DSM stanzas. A few words were altered and the last stanza was omitted when the hymn was included in John Wesley*'s A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780). The 1749 text was as follows:
Jesus, we look to Thee, Thy promis'd Presence claim,Thou in the midst of Us shalt be Assembled in thy Name: Thy Name Salvation is, ...
OLEARIUS, Johann. b. Halle, 17 September 1611; d. Weissenfels, 14 May 1684. Born the son of a well-known Lutheran superintendent, he was educated at the Latin school and at the University of Wittenberg (MA 1627, adjunct of the Faculty of Philosophy, 1635). In 1637 he became Licentiate and Superintendent at Querfurt (south-west of Halle); in 1643 he became 'Hofprediger' (court preacher) and 'Beichtvater' (private chaplain) to the Duke August von Sachsen-Weissenfels at Halle. In the same year he...
ROMMEL, Kurt. b. Kirchheim unter Teck, 20 December 1926: d. Bad Cannstatt, Stuttgart, 5 March 2011. On taking the abitur and leaving school, the young Rommel was conscripted into the army. Taken prisoner, he spent time in a French prisoner-of-war camp near Montpellier, taking the opportunity to study at the University on day release. Returning to Germany, he studied at Tübingen and Heidelberg. In 1954 he became a priest at Friedrichshafen on the Bodensee (Lake Constance), followed by Bad...
Lift your glad voices in triumph on high. Henry Ware, Jr.* (1794-1843).
This joyful hymn for Easter was first published in the Christian Disciple (1817), a liberal periodical, of which Ware was at one time editor. Its name was changed to the Christian Examiner and (in the words of Ware's brother) it became 'the principal, if not the accredited, organ of Unitarianism in the United States' (Memoir, 1846, p. 440). In the unusual metre of 10.11.11.11.12.11.10.11., it nevertheless became Ware's...
Louange et Prière (1939). Louange et Prière ('Praise and Prayer'), for the French Protestant churches, was published in 1939. It originated with the General Assembly at Marseilles in 1929, and the Commission interecclésiastique of 1931. Delegates from the different churches – Reformed (Calvinist), Lutherans, Methodists, Moravians, and Independent - were invited to join a Souscommission, which began work in 1932.
The book was based on the preceding books of the various churches, notably the...
SMITH, Peter David. b. near Weybridge, Surrey, 26 April 1938. He was educated at Farnham Grammar School, where he learned classical piano, gaining the nickname, 'Mozart Smith'. In the mid-1950s, he discovered Skiffle and, later, developed an interest in folk music. He taught himself to play the guitar, and sang with a friend at folk concerts and clubs.
He felt a vocation to ministry while serving an apprenticeship in the aircraft industry, and trained at the Richmond Theological College for the...
LEACH, Richard. b. Bangor, Maine, 7 August 1953. Richard Leach graduated from Bowdoin College (BA, Religion, 1974) in Brunswick, Maine, and Princeton Theological Seminary (MDiv, 1978). Leach was a pastor for United Church of Christ congregations from 1978-1999 and is now a layperson in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. He has worked in various capacities: as a business manager for a software company, as a poet, and as a visual artist specializing in paper collage. He currently resides...
TERESA of Avila, St. b. Gotarrendura, Avila, Spain, 28 March 1515; d. Alba de Tormes, 4 October 1582. She was born into a prosperous merchant family. Her intense idealism was shown in childhood when, at the age of seven, she went with her brother Rodrigo to look for the Moors with the intention of being martyred (see the Prelude to Middlemarch, by George Eliot: they were brought back by an uncle, who happened to see them). In 1536 she entered the Carmelite* convent of the Incarnation at Avila....
The shepherds had an angel. Christina Georgina Rossetti* (1830-1894).
This children's hymn is found in the Poetical Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti (1904), edited by her brother William Michael. It was entitled 'A Christmas Carol. For my God-children', and dated 1856. It appeared in the Sunday School Hymnary (1905) and the Oxford Hymn Book (1908), and thereafter in SofP and other books:
The shepherds had an angel, The wise men had a star;But what have I, a little child, To guide me home...
They who tread the path of labour. Henry van Dyke* (1852-1933).
Van Dyke's poem, The Toiling of Felix (New York, 1898) was the origin of the popular hymn in the USA, 'Jesus, thou divine companion'*. A number of British books printed a different text from the poem, using lines that were closer to the original, and making good use of the resonant phrase from the Coptic Gospel of Thomas, 'Raise the stone, and thou shalt find Me; cleave the wood and there am I' (changed to 'I am there' in the...
BRADBURY, William Batchelder. b. York, Maine, 6 October 1816; d. Montclair, New Jersey, 7 January 1868. At the age of 14, Bradbury moved with his family from York to Boston, Massachusetts, where he studied music with Sumner Hill and attended the Boston Academy of Music, studying under Lowell Mason* and George James Webb*. Between 1838 and 1840, on Mason's recommendation, he taught music in Machias, Maine, and St John's, New Brunswick. In 1840, he was appointed choir director of the First...
TICE, Adam Merrill Longoria. b. Boynton, Pennsylvania, 11 October 1979. Adam Tice spent his growing up years in several states across the USA, ending up in the town of Goshen in northern Indiana. He is a graduate of Goshen College (B.A. in music, 2002), and the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana (now Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, AMBS), with an MA in Christian Formation (2006).
It was at AMBS that he wrote his first hymn text. This began a profound and...
MIDLANE, Albert. b. Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight, 23 January 1825; d. Newport, Isle of Wight, 27 February 1909. He was educated at Newport, Isle of Wight, and contributed to magazines in his youth under the name 'Little Albert'. He was then employed as an ironmonger's assistant, ultimately going into business for himself as tinsmith and ironmonger. Though he received his religious training in the Congregational church and its Sunday school, in which he became a teacher, he subsequently joined the...
Approach, my soul, the mercy seat. John Newton* (1725-1807).
First published in Olney Hymns (1779), Book III, 'On the Rise, Progress, Changes, and Comforts of the Spiritual Life', where it is the second of two texts entitled 'The effort' in the section 'Seeking, Pleading, and Hoping'. Its description of the Christian life as spiritually demanding and strenuous is characteristic of Newton. JJ states, 'It came into early use in the hymnals and has attained to a foremost position as one of the...
WAUGH, Benjamin. b. Settle, Yorkshire, 20 February 1839; d. Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, 11 March 1908. He left school at 14, and was apprenticed to a linen draper in Southport; but at 23 he entered Airedale College, Bradford, to train for the Congregational ministry (1862-65). He served at Newbury, Berkshire (1865-66), Greenwich, London (1866-85), and New Southgate, Middlesex (1885-87). While at Greenwich he became interested in the welfare of children, and in 1887 he resigned from the full-time...
MASSEY, Bernard Stanford. b. Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, 22 June 1927; d. Redhill, Surrey, 28 October 2011. He was educated at Watford Boys' Grammar School and Queen Mary College, University of London. From 1952 to 1984 he was successively Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader, and Tutor in the Mechanical Engineering Department, University College, London; he was the author of three text-books.
Massey was the editor of the Bulletin of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland from 1975 to...
Chorister's Prayer, The
The Chorister's Prayer is prayed regularly by those who sing in choirs associated with the Royal School of Church Music*, and other choral groups in the UK and North America.
Bless, O Lord, us Thy servants,who minister in Thy temple. Grant that what we sing with our lipswe may believe in our hearts,and what we believe in our hearts,we may show forth in our lives.Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Although no original source for this prayer is acknowledged, the...
ZSCHECH, Darlene Joyce. b. Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 8 September 1965. She was given an early training in music and dance as a child at Brisbane. By the age of ten she was performing on and hosting segments of a children's weekly television programme, and went on to record commercials for a number of international companies and form backing choirs for touring singers. During her teenage years she led various gospel bands in Brisbane, then with her husband Mark joined a youth band which...
Das deutsche Kirchenlied DKL Kritische Gesamtausgabe der Melodien (1975) is the title of a work in the RISM series (Répertoire International des Sources Musicales, VIII). It deals with the music of German hymnbooks from the beginning to 1800. The publishers are Bärenreiter (Kassel, Basel, Tours, London). The editors are Konrad Ameln, Markus Jenny and Walter Lipphardt.
It is a catalogue of printed sources of German hymns, of all denominations, that contain at least one melody in musical...
Depth of mercy! can there be. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Hymns and Sacred Poems (1740), where it was headed 'After a Relapse into Sin'. It had thirteen 4-line stanzas. In the 1780 Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists it was printed in the section 'Convinced of Backsliding', moving stanza 8 ('Whence to me this waste of Love?') to stanza 4, and omitting stanza 3:
I my Master have denied,
I afresh have crucified,
Oft profan'd his Hallowed Name,
Put Him to an open...
SHILLITO, Edward. b. Hull, 4 July 1872; d. Buckhurst Hill, Essex, 1 March 1948. He was educated at Silcoates School, Wakefield, Yorkshire (founded as the Northern Congregational School), and Owens College, Manchester (later the University of Manchester). He trained for the Congregational ministry at Mansfield College, Oxford, and was ordained as an assistant at Ashton-under-Lyne, near Manchester (1896). He subsequently served at Tunbridge Wells (1898-1901), Brighton (1901-06), Harlesden,...
CLEPHANE, Elizabeth Cecilia Douglas. b. Edinburgh, 18 June 1830; d. Melrose, Roxburghshire, 19 February 1869. She was a daughter of Andrew Clephane, Sheriff Principal of Fife and Kinross. The family later moved to Melrose, in the Scottish Borders, where Clephane became renowned for her kindness and generosity to the poor: she is said to have sold her horses to provide relief for the poor. Between 1872 and 1874 eight of her hymns were published in The Family Treasury, a religious magazine, under...
First New England School. This label refers to the first group of native-born composers and tune compilers active in New England between about 1770 and 1810. William Billings*, who was deemed the unofficial leader of the school, published his ground-breaking tune collection The New-England Psalm-Singer (Boston, 1770). In addition to being the first collection of tunes composed by a single American composer, this book considerably influenced American compositional activity in the decades to...
WESTBROOK, Francis Brotherton. b. Thornton Heath, Norbury, Surrey, 16 June 1903; d. Harpenden, Hertfordshire, 19 September 1975. He was educated at Whitgift Middle School, Croydon, and Didsbury (Wesleyan) Theological College, Manchester. He was ordained at the Wesleyan Methodist Conference, 1930, and served as a Methodist minister, before 1932 as a Wesleyan. His first church was at Tipton, near Birmingham, and he took the opportunity ot study with Granville Bantock, Professor of Music at the...
FILITZ, Friedrich. b. Arnstadt, Thuringia, 16 March 1804; d. Bonn, 8 December 1876. Filitz graduated in philosophy and worked as a music critic and historian in Berlin (1843-47) before moving to Munich where he wrote Über einige Interessen der älteren Kirchenmusik (1853).
The hymn tunes associated with Filitz were originally published in two books. Together with Ludwig Erk, he published Vierstimmige Choralsätze der vornehmsten Meister des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts (Essen, 1845). He also compiled...
SLATER, Gordon Archbold. b. 1 March 1896; d. 26 January 1979. Born at Harrogate, Yorkshire, he studied the organ under Sir Edward Bairstow* at York, becoming FRCO in 1916 and taking the external BMus at the University of Durham (1915; DMus, 1923). After war service (1916-19) he became successively organist of Boston Parish Church, Lincolnshire (1919-27), Leicester Cathedral (1927-30) and Lincoln Cathedral (1930-66). He was remarkably active in all these posts, giving extra-mural lectures,...
LILLENAS, Haldor. b. Stord Island, near Bergen, Norway, 19 November 1885; d. Aspen, Colorado, 18 August 1959. Lillenas came to the USA as an infant with his family who eventually settled in Astoria, Oregon. After hearing a call to the ministry, he was educated at Deets Pacific Bible College in Los Angeles, and became an elder in the Church of the Nazarene. His formal musical training consisted of voice lessons at the Lyric School of Music, Los Angeles, and correspondence courses in theory and...
Hark! the gospel news is sounding. Hugh Bourne* (1772-1852) and William Sanders (1799-1882?).
This hymn was first published in the Large Hymn Book for the Use of the Primitive Methodists (Bemersley, 1824). It had four stanzas. It was designated as by 'W.S. & H.B.' Perhaps on the basis that Sanders's initials came first, John Flesher attributed it to him in the Primitive Methodist Hymn Book (1854), and this was followed by the Primitive Methodist Hymnal (1887, 1889):
Hark! the gospel news is...
VAN DYKE, Henry Jackson. b. Germantown, Pennsylvania, 10 November 1852; d. Princeton, New Jersey, 10 April 1933. The son of a Presbyterian minister, he was at school at Brooklyn, New York before studying at Princeton University (BA 1873, MA 1876). After a further period of study at Princeton Theological Seminary (1876-77) and in Berlin, he was ordained to the ministry, serving at a Congregational Church at Newport, Rhode Island (1878-82) and Brick Presbyterian Church, New York (1882-99). During...
Hey Now! Singing Hallelujah! ('Jesus loved people'). Linnea Good* (1962– ).
Linnea Good's writing is grounded in her involvement in a community's expression of its faith. 'Hey Now! Singing Hallelujah!' (1998) dates from her work at Ryerson United Church in Kerrisdale, Vancouver, and emerges from her work in encouraging young people to explore, question, and express their own faith. It was included in the United Church of Canada supplement to VU, More Voices (2007).
Using a refrain as a...
Hush, my soul, what Voice is pleading. John Henry Lester* (ca. 1845- ca. 1904).
The date of composition of this hymn is not known. It was published in the Lichfield Church Mission Hymn Book (1883), and later in the Mirfield Mission Hymn Book* (1907). It had four stanzas:
Hush, my soul, what Voice is pleading? Thou canst feel its silent power; Who is this that speaks so gently In this solemn evening hour? 'Stay, poor sinner; life is fleeting, And thy soul is dark within Wilt thou wait...
In the quiet consecration. Constance Coote* (1844-1936).
Written in 1910, and first published in Lady Coote's At His Table: Thoughts on the Supper of the Lord, or Holy Communion (1912). It was prefaced by quotations from John 6: 55 and John 6: 53:
'For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed'.
'Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.'
It had six stanzas:
In the quiet...
In the silent midnight watches. Arthur Cleveland Coxe* (1818-1896).
First published in the Second Edition of Coxe's poem, Athanasion (1842), where it was among the 'Several Poems, now first collected', further described as 'Miscellaneous Poems', that followed the main poem. It was called 'The Heart's Song' (it may well be considered alongside the words from the preface to Athanasion quoted in the entry on Coxe). It was printed by Philip Schaff * in Christ in Song (New York, 1869). It had three...
HUS, Jan. b. ca. 1370; d. 6 July 1415. Born at Husinec (or Hussinecz), southern Bohemia, he was educated at the University of Prague (BA 1393, Bachelor of Theology 1394, MA 1396). He taught at the University after graduation, and was Dean of the Faculty (1401) and Rector (1402-03, 1409-10). In 1402 he was appointed capellarius (chaplain and preacher) of the Bohemian chapel in Prague, a chapel founded to encourage preaching in the Bohemian language. Hus's preaching there, much influenced by the...
ROTHE, Johann Andreas. b. Lissa, near Görlitz, 12 May 1688; d. Thommendorf, near Bunzlau, 6 July 1758. He was the son of a Protestant priest. He studied theology in Leipzig, and in 1711 he was admitted to the preachers' college of the Church of the Holy Trinity at Görlitz. From 1719 to 1722 he was private tutor to Count von Schweinitz at Leuba near Görlitz, before Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf* called him to be priest at Bethelsdorf (in which parish 'Herrnhut' was situated). As a rousing...
ALLENDORF, Johann Ludwig Konrad. b. Josbach, near Marburg, 9 Feb 1693; d. Halle, 3 June 1773. He was the son of a pastor. He studied theology at the University of Giessen (1711-13) and then at Halle under August Hermann Francke*, where he was awakened to the power of religion by the force of the Pietist movement and its practical Christianity. His first appointment was as the private tutor of the family of Count Henckel in Oderberg, Upper Silesia (1717-23), followed by the same post with Count...
HOPKINS, John Henry, Jr. b. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 28 October 1820; d. Hudson, New York, 14 August 1891. The son of John Henry Hopkins (1792-1868), an Episcopal Church priest who became the first Bishop of Vermont, he was educated at the University of Vermont (AB, 1839, MA, 1845). He moved to New York City to work as a reporter, intending to prepare for a law career, but changed his mind and entered the General Theological Seminary in New York (BD, 1850). He became the first instructor of...
Joseph dearest, Joseph mine. German carol, 14th century.
This is a translation of a traditional German carol found in manuscripts of the 14th and 15th centuries, beginning 'Joseph, lieber Joseph mein'. As 'Josef lieber neve mein' it is attributed to the Monk of Salzburg. Early versions such as 'Joseph liber neve myn' are found in Wackernagel, Das Deutsche Kirchenlied II. 461-2. See the entry on 'Resonet in laudibus'*.
It is sung to the tune of 'Resonet in laudibus', and was used as an...
GRIGG, Joseph. b. ca. 1720; d Walthamstow, 29 October 1768. The son of poor parents, he left his trade in 1743 to become the Assistant Minister to Thomas Bures at the Presbyterian Chapel at Silver Street in London. In 1747, the year Bures died, he left the ministry. He married the wealthy widow of an Army officer and moved to St Albans in Hertfordshire. His health appears not to have been good and his neighbour Thomas Greene in his elegy on Grigg's death refers to 'his old complaint' of 'Alas,...
FINLAY, Kenneth George. b. London, 3 February 1882; d. Glasgow, 15 April 1974. He was brought up in Aberdeen, where his father was Professor of Medicine at the University. He was educated at Robert Gordon's College, Aberdeen and Merchiston Castle School, Edinburgh. He worked as a naval architect for the first half of his life. In 1928, aged 46, he decided to become a full-time musician. He studied at the Royal College of Music for a year under Ralph Vaughan Williams*, and then trained as a...
Lord, can a helpless worm like me. Susanna Harrison* (1752-1784).
From Harrison's Songs in the Night, by a young woman under deep afflictions, first published in 1780. In the Seventh American Edition (New York, 1847) it was no. LXIII. It was prefaced with a quotation: '“Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus.” - Heb. xii. 1,2.' It had five stanzas:
Lord, can a helpless worm like me Attempt to make her way to thee? Yes, let me raise thy praises high - In...
Lord, who throughout these forty days. Claudia Frances Hernaman* (1838-1898).
First published in Hernaman's The Child's Book of Verse: A Manual of Devotion in Simple Verse (1873). After being ignored by British hymn-book compilers for many years, it suddenly became popular in the mid-20th century: it was printed in BBCHB, Hymns for Church and School (1964), AHB (1965) and HP (1983). In Ireland it was in ICH4 (1960).
Lord, who throughout these forty days For us did fast and pray,Teach us with...
GOTTER, Ludwig Andreas. b. Gotha, 26 May 1661; d. Gotha, 19 Sept 1735. The son of a Lutheran Superintendent, he worked in his native town in local government, first as a secretary and then as a senior official (Hofrat). He is described in JJ as 'a pious, spiritually-minded man, with tendencies towards Pietism; and one of the best hymn-writers of the period' (p. 444). His hymns appeared in the Geistreiches Gesang-Buch (Halle, 1697); nine were in the important Pietist collection, Johann...
FERGUSON, Manie Payne. b. Carlow County, Ireland, 1850; d. Los Angeles, CA, 8 June 1932. Manie Ferguson was a pioneer of the Holiness Movement in the USA. In addition to her evangelistic work, she and her husband founded the Peniel Mission (after Genesis 32: 24–30) in Los Angeles in 1886. The influence of this interdenominational holiness rescue mission spread along the west coast of the United States and internationally to Africa, Asia, and South America, focusing, in later years, on a...
New Church Praise (1975). This was the title of the first book produced by the United Reformed Church in Britain, following the union in 1972 between the Congregational Church (then using CP, 1951) and the English Presbyterian Church (using CH3). In the 'Foreword', Erik Routley* maintained that a supplement, rather than a full hymnbook, was 'positively the right kind of book to produce', because of the fast-moving developments in hymnody. The book contained 109 hymns, with a Gloria*,...
Now is the accepted time. John Dobell* (1757-1840).
From Dobell's A New Selection of Seven Hundred Evangelical Hymns (1806). The original had five 4-line stanzas, preceded by the quotation 'Now is the accepted Time, 2 Cor. 6,2.':
Now is th' accepted time, - Now is the day of grace:Now, sinners, come without delay And seek the Saviour's face.
Now is th' accepted time The Saviour calls to-day; -Pardon and peace he freely gives; - Then why should you delay?
Now is th' accepted time The...
Numai harul ('Grace and mercy'). Nicolae Moldoveanu* (1922-2007).
This hymn, written in 1973, is the most familiar of Moldoveanu's compositions. It was written immediately after a severe trial, when he discovered that not even all he had done for the Lord could serve as groundwork for the people of faith. It is based on a famous excerpt from the Biblical Pauline letter to the church in Ephesus (Eph. 2: 8-9), and captures the message that Jesus' death on the cross alone is the foundational...
O God of truth, O Lord of might. Latin, school of Ambrose of Milan*, translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866).
This is a translation of the Latin 'Rector potens, verax Deus'*, long associated with the canonical hour of Sext, the time of the mid-day meal under the 'ignibus meridiem' ('noon-day's fiery beams'). Neale's translation appeared in The Hymnal Noted Part I (1851), and in a much altered form in the First Edition of A&M:
Neale, 1851A&M, 1861
O God of truth, O Lord of...
O happy land! O happy land! Elizabeth Parson* (1812-1873)
This hymn, which is dated 1836, exists in several forms. It was published in John Spencer Curwen*'s Child's Own Hymn Book (1840), in two 8-line stanzas:
O happy land! O happy land! Where saints and angels dwell; We long to join that glorious band, And all their anthems swell. But every voice in yonder throng On earth has breathed a prayer; No lips untaught may join that song, Or learn the music there.
Thou heavenly Friend! Thou...
O little one sweet, O little one mild. Valentin Thilo* (?) (1607-1662), translated by Percy Dearmer* (1867-1936).
Dearmer's translation in four stanzas was first published in The Oxford Book of Carols (1928). The German text, beginning 'O Jesulein süss, O Jesulein mild', was printed in the revised edition of OBC (1964), which uses a different translation for the first four stanzas, placing Dearmer's stanzas 3 and 4 at the end to make a six-stanza carol. In one version or another, it has made...
O thou my soul, forget no more. Joshua Marshman* (1768-1837), from the Bengali of Krishna Pal* (1764-1822), translated by William Carey (1761-1834).
Pal's hymn, 'Je Jone Apon Pan', must have been written shortly after his conversion in December 1800. It was later published in Quarterly Papers, for the use of the weekly and monthly contributors to the Baptist Missionary Society, January 1830). A 'free translation' was published in the same number (the author's name is not given, but the...
O word of pity, for our pardon pleading. Ada Rundall Greenaway* (1867-1931)
Hymns Ancient and Modern, Historical Edition (1909) notes, referring to A&M (1904), that this hymn 'is here published for the first time' (p. 183); but whether or not it was written for the 1904 edition is not clear (though the copyright, 1904, was held by the Proprietors of A&M).
It was given a remarkable tune by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry*, one of the members of the music committee. He called the tune,...
Over the river, faces I see. Judson W. Van De Venter* (1855-1939).
Published in Gospel Songs of Grace and Glory (New York, 1896), with the heading 'Looking This Way', originally in the form of a duet for Soprano and Tenor. It had five stanzas with a refrain:
Over the river, faces I see, Fair as the morning, looking for me; Free from their sorrow, grief, and despair, Waiting and watching patiently there.
Refrain: Looking this way, yes, looking this way; Loved ones are waiting, looking this...
NICOLAI, Philipp. b. Mengeringhausen, near Kassel, 10 August 1556, d. Hamburg, 26 October 1608. He was privately educated at Dortmund, Mühlhausen, and Korbach. From 1574 to 1579 he studied theology at Wittenberg and Erfurt. He completed his degree at Wittenberg in 1594 after studying with Aegidius Hunnius. He became pastor at Herdecke (Westphalia) in 1583, and later at Cologne (1586–7), Altwildungen (1588–96), Unna (1596–1601), and finally St. Katherinen, Hamburg.
Nicolai wrote numerous...
PALMER, Ray. b. Little Compton, Rhode Island, 12 November 1808; d. Newark, New Jersey, 9 March 1887. Palmer was educated at Phillips Andover Academy, and initially worked in a Boston dry goods store before studying at Yale College (graduated 1830). He was a teacher in schools in New York and New Haven, while studying theology part-time, before being ordained as a Congregational minister. He served churches in Bath, Maine (1835-50) and Albany, New York (1850-65); he then worked as secretary of...
FOUNDS, Rick Doyle. b. Idaho Falls, Idaho, December 1954. The son of Doyle and Lorraine Founds, Rick expressed an interest in music as a young child. By age ten, he had composed several songs for the Sunday School in his church. As a young person, he pursued guitar informally, continuing his study with music courses in college (Terry, 2008, p. 168).
Founds graduated from college with a focus on media technology, supplemented with music courses. With these skills he taught at Saddleback College...
Rise, my soul, adore thy Maker. John Cennick* (1718-55).
This hymn, in the same metre as the better known 'Ere I sleep, for every favour'*, was published in Cennick's Sacred Hymns for the Children of God, in the Days of their Pilgrimage, Second Edition, part 1 (1741). It was entitled 'Another', following 'A Morning Hymn'. It had seven 4-line stanzas:
Rise, my Soul, adore thy Maker; Angels praise, Join thy LaysWith them be Partaker.
Father, Lord of ev'ry Spirit, In thy...
BAYNES, Robert Hall. b. Wellington, Somerset, 10 March 1831; d. Headington, Oxford, 27 March 1895. He was educated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford (BA 1856, MA 1859). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1855, priest 1856), and was successively curate of Christ Church, Blackfriars, London (1855-58), perpetual curate of St Paul, Whitechapel (1858-62) and Holy Trinity, Maidstone (1862-66), and vicar of St Michael and All Angels, Coventry (1866-79). In 1870 he was made Bishop-Designate of Madagascar, but...
McDANIEL, Rufus Henry. b. near Ripley, Brown County, Ohio, 29 January 1850; d. Dayton, Ohio, 13 February 1940. McDaniel was a pastor, and author of over one hundred hymns. Born to Hiram McDaniel (1822–1891) and Caroline McDaniel, née Lawwill (1822-1905), he was one of seven siblings. Rufus received his early education in Bentonville, Ohio and at Parker's Academy, Claremont, Ohio. He was licensed to preach at the age of nineteen and ordained to the ministry of the Christian Church (Disciples of...
'Shalom' is the Hebrew word for peace, used at meeting, or at a farewell; it conveys the sense of a wish, to mean 'peace be with you'. It occurs in the Hebrew Bible in various places, as an individual greeting or referring more widely to a general sense of peace and justice. In the New Testament, when Jesus used the phrase 'peace be with you, or 'my peace I give to you', he was using the concept implied in the word Shalom. It occurs with other Hebrew words: thus 'Shalom Aleikhem' ('Peace be...
Sleep on, belovèd, sleep and take thy rest. Sarah Doudney* (1841-1926).
This deeply moving funeral hymn was written ca. 1870, and published in Doudney's Psalms of Life (1871). It had a note: 'The early Christians were accustomed to bid their dying friends “Good-night”, so sure were they of their awakening on the Resurrection morning':
Sleep on, belovèd, sleep, and take thy rest;Lay down thy head upon thy Saviour's breast:We love thee well; but Jesus loves thee best - Good night! Good night!...
Spirit of faith, come down. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns of Petition and Thanksgiving for the Promise of the Father (1746), in five 8-line stanzas. It was included by John Wesley* in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), in the 'Praying for a Blessing' section which concludes the Introductory Hymns. John Wesley omitted stanza 3, and the substituted 'the all-atoning Lamb' for 'My dear Atoning Lamb' in the original stanza 4. In this...
ORCHARD, Stephen Charles. b. Derby, 30 March 1942. He was educated at Derby School and Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1965, reading English for Part I of the Tripos and Theology for Part II). He trained for the Congregational ministry at Cheshunt College, Cambridge, while studying for a PhD (awarded 1969). He was ordained in 1968, serving as a Congregational (later URC) minister at Abercarn, Caerphilly, South Wales (1968-70), Sutton, Surrey (1970-77), and Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire...
SYNESIUS of Cyrene. b. Cyrene, ca. 370; d. Ptolemais, ca. 414. Born at Cyrene, of a distinguished family (Gibbon, in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ed. J.B. Bury, II. 324, has some amusement at their claim to have been descended from Hercules). He was educated at Alexandria as a pupil of the famous neo-Platonist Hypatia, whom he described as 'a mother, a sister, and a teacher'. After a period as a soldier, and studying at home, he was sent on a mission to plead for remission of taxes...
There is a Balm in Gilead. African American spiritual, 19th century.
This hymn is based on Jeremiah 8: 22: 'Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?' The answer that is given back is a robust affirmative:
There is a Balm in Gilead, To make the wounded whole, There is a Balm in Gilead, To heal the sin-sick soul.
This refrain is repeated, and then interwoven with three stanzas:
Sometimes I feel discouraged, And think my work's in vain, But then the Holy Spirit Revives my soul...
There is sunshine in my soul today. Eliza E. Hewitt* (1851-1920).
According to William J. Reynolds* (Companion to Baptist Hymnal [1975] (1976), p. 221, this hymn was written after a spinal injury caused by a violent boy whom she had reprimanded while she was teaching school in Philadelphia. The boy struck her with a heavy slate, and she was in a plaster cast for some months. This hymn was written after the doctor allowed her to take a walk in Fairmount Park on a warm spring day. The sunshine,...
There's a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place. Doris Akers* (1922-1995).
Written in 1962, when Akers was directing the Sky Pilot Choir. She has related that the choir was praying one Sunday morning before the service; Akers asked them to pray again, and the atmosphere became so charged that they delayed the start, but not before Akers herself had said that 'There is such a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place'. The song came to her on the Monday morning; it has since become the best known of many...
Walk in the light: so shalt thou know. Bernard Barton* (1784-1849).
From Devotional Verses; Founded on, and Illustrative of, Select Texts of Scripture (1826), where it was preceded by 1 John 1: 7: 'But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.'
It was entitled 'Walking in the Light'. The text in 1826 was as follows:
Walk in the light! so shalt thou know That fellowship of loveHis Spirit only can...
Weary of earth, and laden with my sin. Samuel John Stone* (1839-1900).
Written in 1866, and first published in Stone's Lyra Fidelium: Twelve Hymns on the Twelve Articles of the Apostles' Creed (Oxford and London, 1866). It was the hymn on 'Article X', entitled 'the forgiveness of sins', followed by a quotation: 'Her sins, which were many, are forgiven; for she loved much.' This refers to the woman who anointed Jesus's feet with ointment (Luke 7: 47), which was referred to in the final...
When Mary brought her treasure. Jan Struther* (1901-53).
Written for SofPE (1931), for Candlemas, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, recorded in Luke 2: 22-32. As in Struther's hymn entitled 'Treasure' ('Daisies are our silver'*), the child Jesus is Mary's silver and gold:
When Mary brought her treasure Unto the holy place,No eye of man could measure The joy upon her face. He was but six weeks old, Her plaything and her pleasure, Her silver and her gold..
Then Simeon, on...
DIX, William Chatterton. b. Bristol, 14 June 1837; d. Cheddar, Axbridge, Somerset, 9 September 1898. Dix's father was James Dix, a surgeon with literary interests, whose publications included a life of the poet Thomas Chatterton (1752-1770), after whom he named his son. William attended Bristol Grammar School: after a commercial training, he became the manager of a marine insurance firm in Glasgow. On retirement, he returned to south west England, where he lived at Cheddar.
A committed high...
SULLIVAN, (Sir) Arthur Seymour. b. London, 13 May 1842; d. London, 22 November 1900. Born in Lambeth, he was the son of an Irish bandmaster. He became a chorister in the Chapel Royal in 1854 and entered the Royal Academy of Music in 1856 where he studied under William Sterndale Bennett*. Between 1858 and 1861 he was a student at the Leipzig Conservatory where he gained notable approbation for his incidental music to The Tempest. After returning to England he made his living as an organist in...
Lead me, Lord. Samuel Sebastian Wesley* (1810–1876).
'Lead me, Lord' is a brief four-line response that appears in hymnals, mainly in the United States. It originated as the final movement of a verse-anthem (soloists alternating with chorus), 'Praise the Lord, O My Soul' (1861) for SSATB soloists, SSATB chorus, and organ. Wesley composed this extended work to celebrate the new organ at Holy Trinity Church, Winchester. The twelve-minute extended anthem explores a full range of chromatic...
Holiness hymnody refers to a body of song associated with the Holiness Movement that grew out of American Methodism in the late 1830s, associated with Phoebe Worrall Palmer and Walter C. Palmer (nda), Sarah Lankford (1806-96 ), Thomas Upham (1799-1872), William Boardman (1810-86), Hannah Tatum Whitehall Smith (1832-1911) and her husband, Robert Pearsall Smith (1827-98). Their collective teachings emphasized a second work of grace by the Holy Spirit in the believer's life to cleanse from sin and...
Ad regias Agni dapes. Latin, Roman Breviary, 1632.
This is the 1632 Roman Breviary version of an anonymous Ambrosian hymn, 'Ad cenam Agni providi'*. For the two texts, see Daniel, Thesaurus Hymnologicus I. 88.
A&M, from the First Edition onwards, included a translation of 'Ad regias Agni dapes' by Robert Campbell*, from his Hymns and Anthems for Use in the Holy Services of the Church within the United Diocese of St Andrews, Dunkeld, and Dunblane (Edinburgh, 1850), beginning 'At the Lamb's...
All hail the power of Jesu's name. Edward Perronet* (172?-1792).
First published in full in The Gospel Magazine (April 1780), in eight stanzas, with the title 'On the Resurrection, the Lord is King'. Before that, the opening stanza had appeared anonymously in the same magazine (November 1779) together with a tune, now known as MILES LANE.
The hymn was later printed in Perronet's Occasional Verses, Moral and Sacred (1785), entitled 'On the Resurrection'. The text was much altered, and shortened...
All things which live below the sky. Edward John Brailsford* (1841-1921).
First published in the Wesleyan Methodist School Hymnal (1911), and then in SofPE, with seven stanzas:
All things which live below the sky, Or move within the sea,Are creatures of the Lord most high, And brothers unto me.
I love to hear the robin sing, Perched on the highest bough;To see the rook with purple wing Follow the shining plough.
I love to watch the swallow skim The river in his flight;To mark, when day is...
LIGUORI, St Alphonsus (Alphonso Maria de'). b. Marianella, near Naples, 27 September 1696; d. Pagani, near Salerno, 1 August 1787. Born into an ancient and noble family, he studied law at a very young age at the University of Naples (1708-13). He became a lawyer at Naples, but following what he saw as unjust practice he left the law in 1723 to study theology. He was ordained in 1726, and became Bishop of Castellamare di Stabia in 1730. There he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Saviour...
Amid the splendour of the spring.Laura Ormiston Chant* (1848-1923).
This was published in several Methodist hymnals in the early years of the 20th century. It was also in the Fellowship Hymn Book (FHB, 1909). It was entitled 'A Temperance Hymn':
Amid the splendour of the spring, The glory of the flowers, The joyous songs the wild birds sing, One constant grief is ours: Grief for the homes no spring can reach, Hearts that no sun can cheer, Souls that no happy warblings teach The...
ADGATE, Andrew. b. Norwich, Connecticut, 22 March 1762; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 30 September 1793. Adgate, a pupil of Andrew Law*, prominent singing teacher, conductor, and concert organizer, was the son of Daniel Adgate (1734-1764) and Phebe Waterman Adgate (1738-1766). Adgate, who fell victim to an illness that swept through Philadelphia, was described as 'one of the most curious people in all the city. He earned a living as a card maker, but he was Philadelphia's premier music...
Awake, my soul, and with the sun. Thomas Ken* (1637-1711).
Ken's three hymns for morning, evening and midnight were included as an appendix to the 1695 edition of A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Scholars of Winchester College, having previously circulated in pamphlet form. The date and place of writing are uncertain. The 1674 edition of the Manual of Prayers contains the direction to the boys 'be sure to sing the Morning and Evening Hymn in your chamber devoutly'. It is possible that...
Awaked from sleep we fall. Greek, 8th Century, translated by Robert Maude Moorsom* (1831-1911).
First published in the Supplement (1889) to the Second Edition of A&M. It is a translation in three stanzas, of an 8th-century Horologion, or Book of Hours, which, as its name implies, was used for the fixed hours of Divine Service in the Eastern Church. This particular text comes from the midnight service: the word 'Awaked' (rather than the more common 'Awake') is particularly significant:...
Calm on the listening ear of night. Edmund Hamilton Sears* (1810-1876).
First published in the Boston Observer in 1834, and subsequently in the Christian Register (1835) (JJ, p. 1036). It was then revised by the author. According to Alfred P. Putnam, who published it in Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith (Boston, 1875), it reached its final form in the Monthly Magazine, vol xxxv.
Putnam entitled it 'Christmas Song', printing the full text of five 8-line stanzas:
Calm on the listening ear of...
Cantiga is Spanish for 'song', and there is a large tradition of secular lyric cantigas from the Iberian peninsula, most of which survive without music. The Cantigas de Santa Maria, the 'songs for the Blessed Virgin Mary', however, are approximately 450 religious songs with melodies, in Portuguese-Galician. The collection was created ca. 1270-90 under the supervision of King Alfonso X el Sabio (the wise, or learned) of Castile and León (1221-1284; ascended to the throne in 1252). It is...
KINGSLEY, Charles. b. Holne, on Dartmoor, Devon, 12 June 1819; d. Eversley, Hampshire, 23 January 1875. He was educated at a private school at Clifton, Bristol, and Helston Grammar School, Cornwall, followed by King's College, London for two years (1836-38) and then Magdalene College, Cambridge (BA 1842). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1842, priest 1843), and became rector of Eversley, Hampshire in 1844, a living which he held for the rest of his life, although he was also Canon of Chester...
Christ the Lord is risen again. Michael Weisse* (ca. 1480–1534), translated by Catherine Winkworth* (1827-1878).
Weisse's hymn, 'Christus ist erstanden'*, is found in Ein new Geseng büchlen (Jungbunzlau, Bohemia, 1531), an early hymn book of the Bohemian brethren. Winkworth's translation was printed in Lyra Germanica II (1858), as the first hymn in the Easter section, entitled 'The Song of Triumph'. It had seven stanzas, each followed by 'Hallelujah':
Christ the Lord is risen again!Christ...
Christ the Lord is risen today!/ Christians haste your vows to pay. Jane Eliza Leeson* (1808-1881).
This splendid version of 'Victimae Paschali'* was first published in Sir Henry Formby and J. Lambert's Collection of Catholic Hymns, for the use of Choirs and Congregations (1853) (JJ gives 1851 as the date, p. 1223). It had four 8-line stanzas. Three were included in the First Edition of A&M (1861), omitting Leeson's stanza 3:
Say, O wondering Mary, say, What thou sawest on the way. 'I...
Christians, to the Paschal Victim. Latin, sometimes attributed to Wipo of Burgundy* (ca. 995; d. after 1048); translator(s) unknown or composite.
This translation of the Easter sequence 'Victimae Paschali'*, exists in slightly different forms, though all retain the dramatic exchange between Mary and her interlocutors: 'Dic nobis, Maria, /Quid vidisti in via?', when she replies 'Sepulchrum Christus viventis' ('The tomb of Christ, who is living'). This retains the link with the Latin hymn's use...
ROSSETTI, Christina Georgina. b. London, 5 December 1830; d. London, 29 December 1894. She was the daughter of Italian parents: her father became Professor of Italian at King's College, London, and Christina was educated at home, growing up in a cultured and artistic family. Two of her brothers, Dante Gabriel and William Michael, became members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of seven painters in 1849, and she was associated with the movement, though never permitted to be a member of it...
SMART, Christopher. b. Shipbourne, near Maidstone, Kent, 11 April 1722; d. London, 20 May 1771. He was educated at Maidstone Grammar School to the age of 11, when his father died and he was sent to live with his uncle at Staindrop, County Durham. He continued his education at Durham School, and from 1739 at Pembroke College, Cambridge (BA, 1744). He won the prestigious Craven Scholarship in 1742, and was made a Fellow of Pembroke in 1745. His turbulent life there, and his predilection for...
TYE, Christopher. b. ca.1505; d. before 15 March 1573. Tye took the BMus degree at Cambridge in 1536 and became a lay clerk at King's College, Cambridge in 1537. Later he was Magister choristarum of Ely Cathedral and was awarded a DMus degree at Cambridge in 1545. Although evidence is scant, we know that Tye was introduced to the court of Henry VIII, most likely through his friendship with Dr Richard Cox, Archdeacon of Ely, and tutor to the young Prince Edward. Tye dedicated his metrical...
Clarendon Hymn Book (1936). This was the title given to a collection published in 1936 by Oxford University Press. It was compiled by an anonymous 'committee of Public School masters' (i.e., masters teaching in fee-paying Independent Schools: see 'Public School hymnody'*). The word 'Clarendon' in the title (presumably to associate the book with the distinguished imprint of the OUP) conceals its predominantly Charterhouse origins.
Although it was not a publication of the Headmasters' Conference,...
Commit thou all thy griefs. Paul Gerhardt* (1607-1676), translated by John Wesley* (1703-1791).
This is a free translation of Gerhardt's 'Befiehl du deine Wege'*. Gerhardt's hymn is a Lutheran acrostic, and Wesley makes no attempt to follow that (the omission of stanzas, and the change of language, would have made it impossible). The translation was first published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739), with the title 'Trust in Providence. From the German.' in four 8-line stanzas. Wesley himself...
Creator of the earth and sky. Ambrose of Milan* (339/340-397), translated by Charles Bigg* (1840-1908).
This translation of 'Deus Creator omnium'*, a hymn regarded as certainly by St Ambrose, was made by Bigg for EH (1906), where it had eight stanzas, the last of which was a doxology:
Creator of the earth and sky, Ruling the firmament on high, Clothing the day with robes of light, Blessing with gracious sleep the night.
That rest may comfort weary men, And brace to useful toil again, And...
Creator of the stars of night. Latin, 9th century, translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866).
This was Neale's translation of 'Conditor alme siderum'*, the hymn that appears in many different forms in medieval breviaries, normally associated with the season of Advent. The compilers of the first edition of A&M altered the first line to 'Creator of the starry height'*; in EH and NEH Neale's opening was preferred. There were considerable alterations in NEH from the earlier text, as...
ALINGTON, Cyril Argentine. b. Ipswich, Suffolk, 22 October 1872; d. St Weonard's, Herefordshire, 16 May 1955. He was the son of an Inspector of Schools. Alington was educated at Marlborough College and Trinity College, Oxford (BA 1895). He was a Fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford (1895-1904), Assistant Master at Marlborough College (1896-99), and at Eton College (1899-1908). He was Headmaster of Shrewsbury School (1908-16) and of Eton College (1917-33). He was Dean of Durham (1933-51), before...
Come, ye lofty! Come, ye lowly! Archer Thompson Gurney* (1820-1887).
This Christmas hymn is dated 1860 by Philip Schaff* in Christ in Song (New York, 1869). It was almost certainly in Gurney's A Book of Praise (1862), but this has not been verified. It had five stanzas, beginning with Gurney's characteristic exclamation marks (cf. 'Christ is risen! Christ is risen!'*). It had five stanzas:
Come, ye lofty! Come, ye lowly! Let your songs of gladness ring! In a stable lies the Holy, In a manger...
WASSON, Donald DeWitt. b. Orangeburg, New York, 20 February 1921; d. Cornwall Manor, Cornwall, Pennsylvania, 29 June 2009. An organist, choral conductor, and music educator, he was compiler of the authoritative three-volume work Hymntune Index and Related Hymn Materials* (Lanham, Maryland, 1998). He was the son of Rolla James Wasson (1896-1966) and Edith Jeanette Sherman Wasson (b. 1896). Wasson rarely used his first name and was known to his friends as 'DD'.
Wasson studied organ and piano...
Deus tuorum militum. Latin, probably 6th century.
This hymn was included in the Canterbury Hymnal* and the Winchester Hymnal*. In Milfull (1996, pp. 397-9) it was the second of two hymns commemorating an individual martyr. Following 'Ymnus de Uno Martyre', beginning 'Martyr Dei, qui unicum', was this 'Item Hymnus', beginning:
Deus, tuorum militumSors & corona, premium,Laudes canentes martyrisAbsolve nexu criminis.
('God, the portion and crown, the prize of your soldiers, absolve [those...
Dear Lord and Master mine. Thomas Hornblower Gill* (1819-1906).
This hymn is dated 1868 by JJ, p. 421, and 1859 in an American book (see below). It was published in The Golden Chain of Praise (1869), where it had the title 'Sweet Subjection'. JJ described it as being 'in somewhat extensive use both in G. Britain and America.' It had seven stanzas:
Dear Lord and Master mine, Thy happy servant see! My Conqueror! With what joy divine Thy captive clings to Thee!
I love thy yoke to wear, ...
Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott. Martin Luther* (1483-1546). The date of this metrical psalm is uncertain. The text is a commentary on Psalm 46 in Christological terms. The first printing given in Wackernagel, Das Deutsche Kirchenlied III. 20, is from Form und ordnung Gaystlicher Gesang und Psalmen (Augsburg, 1529), so it may date from that year, the year of the Diet of Speyer, in which the German princes made their formal 'protest', thus becoming 'Protestants'. Jenny, no 28, states that it is...
Es ist ein' Ros entsprungen. German, probably 15th century
The editors of The New Oxford Book of Carols, to whom this entry is much indebted, place this folk carol as originating in the diocese of Trier in the 15th or early 16th century. They note that it appears in many forms: as a folk carol it was a simple text, subject to many accretions. In its extended form it was what they describe as 'a catch-all narrative of the Annunciation, Conception, Visitation, Birth, shepherds, and magi' (p....
Eternal depth of Love Divine. Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf* (1700-1760), translated by John Wesley* (1703-1791).
Zinzendorf's 'Du ewiger Abgrund der seligen Liebe' was written in 1726 for the birthday of his friend Graf Henkel of Oberberg on 21 September. It was published in Zinzendorf's Sammlung geistlicher und lieblicher Lieder (Second Edition, 1728), and then in Das Gesang-Buch der Gemeine in Herrnhut (1735), where Wesley would have found it. His translation was first published in Hymns...
For thy mercy and thy grace. Henry Downton* (1818-1885).
This hymn for New Year was written in 1841, and published in the Church of England Magazine in the year that Downton was ordained deacon (1843). It later appeared in his Hymns and Verses, Original and Translated (1873). It had seven stanzas, five of which were printed in the First Edition of A&M (1861). The omitted stanzas were 2 and 3:
Lo, our sins on Thee we cast,
Thee, our perfect Sacrifice:
And, forgetting all the past,
...
Fortem virili pectore. Silvio Antoniano* (1540-1603), translated by various hands.
This was from the revision of the Roman Breviary, commissioned by Pope Clement VIII, and published in Venice in 1603, the year of Antoniano's death. It was included by John Henry Newman* in Hymni Ecclesiae (1838), for the many virtuous women, who were neither virgins nor martyrs ('Commune Sanctae Martyris Tantum, et nec Virginis nec Martyris') as a hymn for Vespers. It was translated by Edward Caswall* and...
BARTHÉLÉMON, François Hippolyte. b. Bordeaux, France, 27 July 1741; d. Southwark, London, 20 July 1808. The son of a wig-maker, he may have served briefly in the army as a young man, but this is not certain. A talented violinist, he went to Paris where he played in the orchestra of the Comédie Italienne, moving to London in 1764. In London his skill was much valued: he gave solo recitals, and became the leader of the orchestra at the King's Theatre. He wrote an opera, Pelopida (1766), and an...
From all the dark places. Mary Bridges Canedy Slade* (1826-1882).
This missionary hymn is called 'The kingdom is coming', from the opening of the refrain. It was published in Good News, or Songs and Tunes for Sunday Schools, Christian Associations, and Special Meetings (Boston, 1876), edited by Rigdon M. McIntosh* (http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/k/i/n/g/kingdomi.htm).
It had three stanzas and a refrain. The refrain was:
The kingdom is coming, O tell ye the story, God's banner exalted...
Forth in the peace of Christ we go.James Quinn* (1919-2010).
The Companion to ICH5 notes that this was written for St Joseph's School and Church, Sighthill, Edinburgh, and published in Quinn's first collection, New Hymns for All Seasons (1969). It was written under the strong influence of Vatican II: Fr Quinn is quoted as saying that it was 'in effect a poetic commentary on Chapter IV of the Constitution of the Church (Vatican II)', and that the final stanza shows the Church as 'the sacrament...
ELVEY, (Sir) George Job. b. Canterbury, 27 March 1816; d. Windlesham, Surrey, 9 December 1893. Born into a family with strong musical connections to the city, he was a chorister in Canterbury Cathedral under the organist Highmore Skeats. He studied under his brother Stephen Elvey* who was organist at New College, Oxford, and deputised as organist there, at Magdalen and at Christ Church. He took his B.Mus. in 1838 and D.Mus in 1840. He also studied under Cipriani Potter and William Crotch at the...
Glory to thee my God, this night. Thomas Ken* (1637-1711).
This evening hymn shares its origins with the morning hymn, 'Awake, my soul, and with the sun'*, and its early history is described under that heading. Like the morning hymn, it exists in a pamphlet, A Morning and Evening Hymn, Formerly made by a Reverend Bishop of 1692, as follows:
All Praise to thee, my God, this Night;
For all the blessings of the Light.
Keep me, O keep me, King of Kings
Under thine own Almighty...
God of mercy, God of grace. Henry Francis Lyte* (1793-1847).
First published in Lyte's The Spirit of the Psalms (1834), as a free paraphrase of Psalm 67, 'Deus misereatur' (Lyte wrote two versions of Psalm 67, of which this was the second). It was printed in the English Presbyterian book, Psalms and Hymns for Divine Worship (1867), with the tune HEATHLANDS by Henry Thomas Smart*. Smart was music editor of the book, and probably wrote this tune to fit Lyte's words:
God of mercy, God of...
Gude and Godlie Ballatis (ca. 1540). 'The Gude and Godlie Ballatis' is the title generally given to a collection of ballads and other songs, probably, from internal evidence, originating in Scotland in the 1540s. If this date is correct, it pre-dates the Scottish Psalter of 1564. However, the first extant edition, which lacks its title page, is normally dated 1567. There were further editions in 1578, 1600 and 1621, with a title page describing it as 'Ane Compendius Buik of Godly and Spirituall...
COOPERSMITH, Harry. b. Russia, 2 December 1902; d. Santa Barbara, California, 31 December 1975. Coopersmith was a pioneer in the dissemination of Jewish music in America. The hymn tune YISRAEL V'ORAITA (TORAH SONG)*, introduced by Coopersmith, is one of the most widely sung Jewish melodies published in Christian hymnals.
Harry Coopersmith immigrated with his parents, Max Coopersmith (1868? - ?) and Pauline (Liptzen) Coopersmith (1878? - ?) in 1911, and settled in New York, where Harry...
BEECHING, Henry Charles. b. London, 15 May 1859; d. Norwich, 25 February 1919. He was educated at the City of London School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he first showed a talent for writing verse. He was ordained (deacon, 1882), serving a curacy at St Matthew's, Mossley Hill, Liverpool (1882-85). He was rector of Yattendon, Berkshire (1885-1900), during which time he became closely associated with Robert Bridges* and the Yattendon Hymnal (he married Bridges's niece, Mary Plow). He was...
LEY, Henry George. b. Chagford, Devon, 30 December 1887; d. Feniton, Honiton, Devon, 24 August 1962. A gifted chorister at St George's Chapel, Windsor, where his teacher Walter Parratt* became his mentor, he gained an exhibition to the Royal College of Music in 1904 after two years at Uppingham School (1903-4). In 1906 he won an organ scholarship to Keble College, Oxford. After Basil Harwood*'s untimely resignation from Christ Church in 1909, Ley was appointed organist, even though he was only...
BRAMLEY, Henry Ramsden. b. 4 June 1833; d. 28 January 1917. The only son of Henry Alcock Bramley of Addingham, Yorkshire, he was educated at Blackheath School before matriculating at Oriel College, Oxford on 10 June 1852. He was then elected to a Freeston Exhibition (awards open only to Yorkshiremen) at University College, Oxford on 19 March 1853. His strong association with Oxford continued with his election as a Fellow of Magdalen College in 1857, where he held the position of tutor for the...
How happy is he born and taught. Sir Henry Wotton* (1568-1639).
According to Logan Pearsall Smith (1907) this was written during one of the times when Wotton, who led a hectic and adventurous life, was out of favour with King James I. It was published by Isaak Walton in Reliquiae Wottonianae (1651) with the title 'The character of a happy life'. It had six stanzas:
How happy is he born and taught, That serveth not another's will? Whose armour is his honest thought: And simple truth his utmost...
BOURNE, Hugh. b. Stoke-on-Trent, 3 April 1772; d. Bemersley, Staffordshire, 11 October 1852. Born at Fordhays Farm, his family moved to Bemersley, near Tunstall, Staffordshire, in 1788. He worked for his father, a farmer and wheelwright, and for his uncle, a millwright and engineer. He became a Methodist in 1799, and built a chapel at Harriseahead in 1802. Fired with enthusiasm, he enlisted the help of his brother James and his friend William Clowes (1780-1851) to hold a 'camp meeting' (on the...
I am not skilled to understand. Dora Greenwell* (1821-1882).
From Greenwell's Songs of Salvation, a small collection of evangelical hymns published in 1873. This was the second hymn, entitled 'Redemption'. It had ten stanzas. It is the only one of that collection to have become widely known. Its opening declaration is a reminder that Greenwell was living in a world in which the theology was made by men. The hymn can be taken as a straightforward concentration on Christ as Saviour, but it can...
I feel the winds of God to-day. Jessie Adams* (1863-1954) [and Frederick John Gillman* (1866-1949)].
The hymn began life as a poem by Adams in 1907 with nine 4-line stanzas. Stanzas 1, 2, 3 and 5 were taken by Gillman and made into two 8-line stanzas, to which he added a further 8-line stanza, printing this text in The Fellowship Hymn Book (1909 edition; Gillman was one of the Secretaries of the Committee). The hymn was printed anonymously (presumably at Adams's instruction) with a note (see...
MARSHALL, Jane Anne Manton. b. Dallas, Texas, 5 December 1924; d. Dallas, 29 May 2019. Jane Marshall attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas (BM 1945, MM 1968), where she later taught English in the University College; she taught choral arranging, music theory, and conducting in the Music Division, Meadows School of The Arts, and at Perkins School of Theology*. In the latter she directed the Church Music Summer School, 1975-2010. Her honors include the distinguished alumnae award from...
BOWRING, (Sir) John. b. Exeter, Devon, 17 October 1792; d. Exeter, 23 November 1872. He was educated at school in Exeter at an evening school run by the Unitarian divine, Dr Lant Carpenter. On leaving school he entered a business engaged in foreign trade, where he met many travellers and laid the foundations of his truly extraordinary linguistic acquisition, learning French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Dutch. He later became proficient in Swedish, Russian, Danish, Serbian, Polish...
BUNYAN, John. b. Elstow, Bedfordshire, November 1628 (baptized 30 November); d. London, 31 August 1688. He followed his father, Thomas, in the trade of tinsmith or tinker. His mother died in 1644, and his father quickly remarried: in anger at the rapidity of the new marriage, Bunyan enlisted in the Parliamentary army in 1644. At the siege of Leicester he narrowly escaped death, when a fellow soldier who had asked to take his place on sentry duty was shot and killed. Under the influence of his...
DOWLAND, John. b. 1563; d. London, between 20 January and 20 February 1626. Nothing is known about the first 17 years of Dowland's life, but it is thought that he underwent his musical apprenticeship in the service of courtiers such as Sir Henry Cobham (with whom he spent some four years in Paris), George Carey, and Henry Noel. In 1588 he was admitted to the degree of B.Mus at Oxford. In the same year John Case, in his Apologia musices, listed him among the most celebrated musicians of the day....
HARPER, John. b. 1947. John Harper was a chorister, King's College, Cambridge (1956-61), and a music scholar, Clifton College, Bristol (1961-66). He returned to Cambridge as organ scholar, Selwyn College (1966-70), followed by four years as a research student, University of Birmingham (1970-74). He was appointed as a lecturer in music, University of Birmingham (1974-75, 1976-81), and then at the University of Oxford (1981-90), where he was Fellow, Tutor in music, organist and informator...
BOYCE-TILLMAN, June. b. Lyndhurst, Hampshire, 30 June 1943. She was educated at St Hugh's College, Oxford and the London University Institute of Education, where she gained her PhD in Music Education for a thesis that has been widely used and translated, Towards a Model of the Musical Development of Children. She taught in London schools for many years before moving in 1996 to King Alfred's College of Education, Winchester (now the University of Winchester) where she has been Principal...
KHATCHATUR Tarōnetsi. fl. 13th century. Khatchatur of Tarōn was a poet and musician, and he occupies a special place among the authors of Armenian hymns. His best known hymn is 'Khorhurd khorin' ('Mystery profound') which is also called 'The Hymn of Vesting', sung at the beginning of Holy Mass. Successive 4-line quatrains spell out the author's name (KHATCHATUR). According to certain sources, Khatchatur composed it on the occasion of an open-air liturgy organised at the request of Prince...
Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us. James Edmeston* (1791-1867).
Published in Edmeston's Sacred Lyrics, Second Series (1821), entitled 'Hymn, Written for the Children of the London Orphan Asylum.' Edmeston took a great interest in the welfare of orphaned children, and it is significant that the metaphors he uses (stanza 1 line 3) to describe God's protection are those that might be used of an orphanage supervisor: 'Guard us, guide us, keep us, feed us'. If Charles Dickens is to be believed,...
Lord of our life, and God of our salvation. Matthäus Apelles von Löwenstern* (1594-1648), freely translated by Philip Pusey* (1799-1855).
This hymn, 'Christe, du Beistand deiner Kreuzgemeine' (literally, 'Christ, thou support of thy people of the Cross') is found in Geistliche Kirchen- und Haus-Musik (Breslau, 1644), in which Löwenstern's hymns were bound in with others. The date of their first publication is uncertain, but was probably 1643. It is a hymn that speaks for its time, praying for...
SMITH, Martin. b. Stoke On Trent, Staffordshire, England, 6 July 1970. He was raised in the north-east London suburb of Woodford Bridge where he grew up attending a small Brethren church. As a teenager, Smith moved to South London, where he first started playing guitar for a Brethren youth group directed by his father. In his autobiography, Smith specifically mentioned the transition from the Hymns of Faith hymnal to the praise choruses in Kingsway's Songs of Fellowship as an important turning...
SHEKLETON, Mary. b., place and date unknown, 1827; d. Dublin, 28 September 1883. She was born in England, but the place and exact date are unknown. After the death of her father when she was six months old, her mother returned to her family home in Ireland with her children. Shekleton was deeply influenced by her mother, who had experienced an evangelical conversion on the death of her husband, and who brought up her four daughters in a prayerful, scripture-centred household where an emphasis...
O Christ, our hope, our heart's desire. Latin, probably 7th or 8th century, translated by John Chandler* (1806-1876).
This anonymous Latin hymn begins 'Jesu nostra Redemptio'*. Frost notes that it was in the Sarum Use for Compline from the vigil of the Ascension to Whitsuntide (1962, p. 222). Chandler's translation was in Hymns of the Primitive Church (1837), as follows:
O Christ, our hope, our heart's desire, Redemption's only spring, Creator of the world art Thou, Its Saviour and its...
O come, Redeemer of mankind, appear. David Thomas Morgan* (1809-1886).
This is a version of 'Veni Redemptor gentium'*, a hymn by Ambrose of Milan*. It was not widely translated in Britain in the early part of the 19th century because of what JJ described as 'a somewhat unfortunate ecclesiastical prudery' (p. 1211). It is hard to see what this might have been, unless it was 'virili semine' in stanza 2. Morgan's translation appeared in his Hymns of the Latin Church. Translated by D.T. Morgan....
O God, my God, my All Thou art. Spanish, translated by John Wesley* (1703-1791).
This hymn is unusual among the translations of John Wesley because it comes from a Spanish original rather than a German one. It was printed in Wesley's 1738 Collection of Psalms and Hymns, the book published after his return to Britain from Georgia, with the title 'Psalm LXIII. From the Spanish.' In Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739) it was sandwiched between better known translations from the German: it was preceded...
O God, Thou art the Father. Attributed to St Columba* (521-597), translated by Duncan MacGregor* (1854-1923).
This is a translation of the hymn beginning 'In Te, Christe, credentium miserearis omnium'. Both sections were traditionally attributed to St Columba, but a note in the Trinity College MS casts doubt on his authorship of the first part. For details of the MS, the translation, its original, and its first publication, see the entry on 'Christ is the world's Redeemer'*. This translates...
O God, unseen yet ever near. Edward Osler* (1798-1863).
First published in Psalms and Hymns adapted to the Services of the Church of England (1836), known as 'The Mitre Hymn Book', which William John Hall* edited with Osler's assistance. It was headed 'Spiritual Food'. Osler reprinted many of his hymns in his short-lived periodical Church and King (1836-37), and this one appeared in March 1837. It had a minor alteration in stanza 4 line 1 from 'Thus may we all...' to 'Thus would we all...'....
O Lord of life, and love, and power. Ella Sophia Armitage* (1841-1931).
Written in 1875, and published in Armitage's The Garden of the Lord (1881). It was written at Waterhead, Oldham, for the opening of a new Sunday School (JJ, p. 1561). It had four strong stanzas, but three are normally printed. This text omits stanza 3, which is concerned specifically with Sunday-school matters:
In this new house our hands have raised Thy service to pursue,O may Thy Name henceforth be praised By work more...
O Lord, enlarge our scanty thought. Moravian authors, translated by John Wesley* (1703-1791).
This is a shortened version of selected stanzas from four Moravian hymns, found by Wesley in the 'Anhang' (Supplement) to Das Gesang-Buch der Gemeine in Herrnhut (1737/1738). The hymns are all in 6-line stanzas:
Stanzas 1-2 are from Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf*'s 'Ach! mein verwundter fürste ('I thirst, thou wounded Lamb of God'):
Stanzas 3-6 are from Johann Nitschmann*'s 'Du blutiger Versöhner'...
O sleep now, holy baby. Mexican carol, translated by John Donald Robb (1892-1989).
This carol, 'Duérmete, Niño lindo', was translated by Robb, a lawyer who changed career to become Professor of Music at the University of New Mexico, and printed in Hispanic Songs of New Mexico (Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1954). It is one of many 'lullaby carols'. It was used in a folk play, Los Pastores, sung in villages in New Mexico during the Christmas season. Originally from Mexico, it tells of sorrows to...
Once in royal David's city. Cecil Frances Alexander* (1818-1895).
First published in Hymns for Little Children (1848) in six stanzas. Alexander wrote hymns for the articles of the Apostles' Creed: this one is on 'was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary'. It was printed in the Appendix (1868) to the First Edition of A&M, together with the tune by Henry John Gauntlett* entitled IRBY; since that time it has featured in the Christmas section of almost every hymn book. It has...
GIBBONS, Orlando. b. Oxford, 1583; d. Canterbury, 5 June 1625. Born the son of a town wait, Gibbons served as a chorister at King's College, Cambridge (1596-99). He was admitted to the degree of MusB in 1606. From 1603 until his death he was a musician in the Chapel Royal. He was also court musician to Prince Charles as Prince of Wales, and from 1619 was virginalist in the royal privy chamber. In 1623 he was appointed joint organist and master of the choristers at Westminster Abbey. He died at...
Puer nobis nascitur. Latin, 14th century.
This is described in NOBC (1992) as 'one of the most charming of all medieval cantiones' (p. 67). It is found in a Gradual from the Augustinian College at Moosburg, Germany, dated 1355-60; a German text, 'Uns ist geborn ein Kindelein', also exists. In Wackernagel, Das Deutsche Kirchenlied I. 204-6, where it is dated '14th century' there are five versions of the text.
The Latin text is no 11 in Piae Cantiones (Greifswald, 1582), in the section 'Cantiones...
Remember, O thou man. English traditional carol, 16th or 17th century.
This carol or hymn was set to music in Thomas Ravenscroft*'s Melismata (1611), where it was entitled 'A Christmas Carroll':
Remember, O thou man, O thou man, O thou man, Remember, O thou man, Thy time is spent: Remember, O thou man, How thou cam'st to me then, And I did what I can, Therefore repent.
Six stanzas were printed in The Oxford Book of Carols (1928), from which the above text is taken. Stanzas 2-6 began:
2....
HERRICK, Robert. b. London, August 1591 (baptised 24 August); d. Dean Prior, Devonshire, October 1674 (buried 15 October). The son of a goldsmith, he was apprenticed to his uncle, Sir William Herrick, also a goldsmith; but he obtained release from the apprenticeship to be educated at Cambridge, first at St John's College (1613) and then at Trinity Hall (BA 1617, MA 1620). He was ordained (deacon and priest 1623), living in London until he went as chaplain to the Duke of Buckingham on the...
HAWKER, Robert Stephen. b. Plymouth, Devon, 3 December 1804; d. Stratton, Plymouth, 15 August 1875. The grandson of Robert Hawker*, he was (according to Sabine Baring-Gould*) a mischievous and exuberant child. After some years of rebellion he was educated at Cheltenham Grammar School; then at Pembroke College (1823) and Magdalen Hall, Oxford (after getting married in 1823; Magdalen Hall had been his grandfather's college). He gained the Newdigate Prize for a poem on Pompeii in 1827, and...
BARING-GOULD, Sabine. b. Dix's Field, Exeter, Devon, 28 January 1834; d. Lew Trenchard, Devon, 2 January 1924. Born the son of a country squire who had been an army officer, he was named after a great-uncle, General Sir Edward Sabine. The family travelled widely in Europe during his childhood, and he was educated very irregularly apart from two years at King's College, London, and one year at Warwick Grammar School, followed by Clare College, Cambridge. He became a schoolmaster, first in the...
Sois la semilla ('You are the seed'). Cesáreo Gabaráin*; translated by Raquel Gutiérrez-Achón* and Skinner Chávez-Melo*.
'Sois la semilla' is based on the Great Commission, Matthew 28: 19–20: 'Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world' (ASV). This is articulated in the...
Spirit of God, descend upon my heart. George Croly* (1780-1860).
From Croly's Scenes from Scripture with other Poems (1851), where it had six stanzas. It was shortened to five stanzas (omitting stanza 5) and found in Scottish books from RCH onwards (CH3, CH4) with minor alterations and set to Orlando Gibbons*'s SONG 22. The original six stanzas in 1851 were:
Spirit of God! descend upon my heart; Wean it from earth, through all its pulses move;Stoop to my weakness, mighty as Thou art, And...
The golden gates are lifted up. Cecil Frances Alexander* (1818-1895).
This hymn for Ascension-tide was first published in the SPCK's Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship (1852), where it began 'The eternal gates lift up their heads'. Alexander revised the first line for her Hymns Descriptive and Devotional (1858), and this has been adopted in most subsequent hymnals:
The golden gates are lifted up, The doors are open'd wide, The King of Glory is gone in Unto His Father's side.
Thou art gone...
The Lord bless you and keep you. Peter Lutkin* (1858–1931).
This text, the most enduring composition by Lutkin, is a rearrangement of Numbers 6: 24–26 by the composer. The Chicago publisher C.F. Summy (later Summy-Birchard) entitled it 'Farewell Anthem with Sevenfold Amen' in 1900 as a choral octavo, republishing it in several editions. Though printed with organ accompaniment, the instrument doubles the vocal parts and 'May be omitted, if desired', in keeping with Lutkin's preference for a...
There is a happy land. Andrew Young* (1807-1889).
This children's hymn was written in 1838, when Young was a headmaster at Niddry Street School, Edinburgh. There are two accounts of its composition. The first is that he was spending the evening with a Mrs Marshall, the mother of some of his pupils, when he heard her playing an Indian tune on the piano called 'Happy Land'; the other is that he heard it while on holiday at Rothesay, on the Isle of Bute.
The hymn was sung by the children at Niddry...
Thy kingdom come, on bended knee. Frederick Lucian Hosmer* (1840-1929).
Entitled 'The Day of God', this hymn was written in 1891 for the commencement exercises of the Unitarian Meadville Theological School, Meadville, Pennsylvania (now part of Meadville Lombard Theological School, Chicago) on 12 June. It was published in The Thought of God in Hymns and Poems (Boston, 1894 edition). It is based on the opening supplication of the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6: 9-13):
Thy Kingdom come! on bended knee ...
VICTORIA, Tomás Luis de. b. Ávila, Spain, ca. 1548; d. Madrid, 27 August 1611. Victoria was a choirboy at Ávila Cathedral. He studied from about 1565 at the Collegio Germanico in Rome, and taught there from 1571. In 1575 he was ordained to the priesthood. His clerical activities in Rome included a chaplain's position at S. Gerolamo della Carità (from probably 1582 until 1585) and charitable work for the Archconfraternity of the Resurrection, for which he also occasionally provided music. As a...
Total Praise ('Lord, I will lift mine eyes to the hills'). Richard Smallwood* (1948– ).
'Total Praise' was first heard on Smallwood's Adoration—Live in Atlanta album (1996). In print, it originated as a choral composition. The hymn's first appearance in hymnals was in the African American Heritage Hymnal (2001) and The New National Baptist Hymnal (21st Century Edition) (2001).
Few hymns have assumed an iconic status in the hearts of the African American worshiping community in such a brief...
Trumpet of God, sound high. Arnold Brooks* (1870-1933).
First published in the Foreign Mission Chronicle (October 1900), a magazine of the Scottish Episcopal Church, of which Brooks was a priest. It was written at the request of the editor, E.C. Dawson. It was revised for publication in A&M (1904), where it had three stanzas. Stanza 1 applies the trumpet image from the fall of Jericho (Joshua 6: 1-20) to the mission field, in which 'the fencèd cities' are to fall 'at the blast of the Gospel...
Wake, awake, for night is flying. Philipp Nicolai* (1556-1608), translated by Catherine Winkworth* (1827-1878).
From Winkworth's Lyra Germanica: Second Series (1858), where it was entitled 'The Final Joy'. It was the penultimate hymn in the book, celebrating Christ's coming in glory. It had three stanzas, following Nicolai's metre and rising to a wonderful climax at the beginning of stanza 3:
Wake, awake, for night is flying, The watchmen on the heights are crying; Awake, Jerusalem, at last!...
GREATOREX, Walter. b. Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, 30 March 1877; d. Bournemouth, 29 December 1949. He was a chorister at King's College, Cambridge, moving thence via Derby School to St John's College, Cambridge. After eleven years as an assistant music master at Uppingham School (1900-10) he was appointed Director of Music at Gresham's School, Holt in 1911, remaining there until his retirement in the summer of 1936. His pupils at Gresham's included W. H. Auden* (who admired him as a civilizing...
PARRATT, (Sir) Walter. b. Huddersfield, 10 February 1841; d. Windsor, 27 March 1924. The precocious son of a well-known Huddersfield organist, Thomas Parratt (1793-1862), he was steeped in organ-playing during childhood. In 1852 he became a chorister at the choir school of St Peter's, Pimlico where, besides playing the organ, he took lessons from George Cooper*, assistant organist of St Paul's Cathedral. Returning to Huddersfield in 1854 he became organist of St Paul's Church, before moving, in...
What child is this, who laid to rest. William Chatterton Dix* (1837-1898).
This carol was included in the influential collection Christmas Carols New and Old (1871), compiled by H.R. Bramley* and John Stainer*. The statement often made that it was originally part of a longer poem entitled 'The manger throne' is incorrect; 'The manger throne' is an alternative title for another carol by Dix, 'Like silver lamps in a distant shrine'. 'What child is this' is sung to the well-known 16th-century tune...
Who are these like stars appearing. Heinrich Theobald Schenk* (1656-1727), translated by Frances Elizabeth Cox* (1812-1897).
Schenk's hymn, 'Wer sind die vor Gottes Throne?', published in Neu-Vermehrtes Gesangbuchlein (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1719), is his only known contribution to hymnody. It is based on Revelation Chapters 4 and 7. Cox's translation is from her Sacred Hymns from the German (1841), with the German and English printed opposite one another:
Wer sind die vor Gottes Throne? ...
Why, impious Herod, shouldst thou fear. Sedulius* (fl. 425-450), translated by Percy Dearmer* (1867-1936).
The Latin text, beginning 'Hostis Herodes impie*/ Christum venire quid times?' is from Sedulius's Paean Alphabeticus de Christo ('a triumphal alphabetical song about Christ'), found in an 8th-century manuscript, and in editions of Sedulius's work. It had twenty-three 4-line stanzas: these are the source of two hymns, this one and 'A solis ortus cardine'*, translated by John Ellerton* as...
Ye choirs of new Jerusalem. Fulbert of Chartres* (ca. 960-1028), translated by Robert Campbell* (1814-1868).
The Latin hymn, 'Chorus novae Ierusalem'*, is thought to date from ca. 1000, and is attributed to St Fulbert. Robert Campbell's translation was made from the Sarum Breviary text and included in his Hymns and Anthems for Use in the Holy Services of the Church within the United Diocese of St Andrews, Dunkeld, and Dunblane (Edinburgh, 1850). It was included in the First Edition of A&M...
Accept, O Lord, our Alms, though small. Wilson Carlile* (1847-1942).
This was printed by Lady Victoria Carbery* in the Church Hymnal for the Christian Year (1917, retained in the 1920 edition). It was included in the 'Introduction', in a section 'Hymns for the Alms and Oblations'. It was preceded by a quotation from 1 Peter 2: 5: 'Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.' It also referred...
Ah, holy Jesu, how hast thou offended. Johann Heermann* (1585-1647), translated by Robert Bridges* (1844-1930).
From the Yattendon Hymnal, Part II (1897). This is Bridges's translation of 'Herzliebster Jesu, was hast du verbrochen'*, first published in Heermann's Devoti Musica Cordis (Leipzig and Breslau, 1630) together with its tune, HERZLIEBSTER JESU. This was itself a translation of a text at one time attributed to St Augustine* and then to St Anselm, but now thought to be by Jean de...
CLARK, Alexander. b. near Steubenville, Ohio, 10 March 1834; d. Atlanta, Georgia, 6 July 1879. Clark was a Methodist Episcopal Church minister. He was at some time at Union Chapel, Cincinnati, Ohio. He is referred to as 'DD' in Sacred Songs and Solos, in which two of his hymns appeared:
Heavenly Father, bless me now*
Make room for Jesus! room, sad heart!
He edited The Methodist Reporter, published in Pittsburgh, from 1870 to 1879. Among his several books were The Old Log School House;...
ACKLEY, Alfred Henry. b. Spring Hill, Pennsylvania, 21 January 1887; d. Whittier, California, 3 July 1960. Ackley received his early musical training from his father, and later studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and in New York City to become an accomplished cellist. He graduated from Westminster Theological Seminary, Westminster, Maryland, in 1914, and served Presbyterian churches in Wilkes-Barre and Elmhurst, Pennsylvania, and Escondido, California. Ackley claimed he wrote the...
'All my living fountains will spring up in you!' Nicolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig* (1783-1872), translated by Alan Gaunt* (1935-2023).
This hymn, 'Alle mine kilder skal vaere hos dig!', has its roots in Psalm 87: 'On the holy mountain stands the city God has founded; the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of you, O City of God.' A standard commentary speaks of this particular psalm as expressing the highest point of the universalism...
All the way my Savior leads me. Fanny Crosby* (1820-1915). Published in Brightest and Best (1875), one of many hymn books for the Sunday school edited by Robert Lowry* and William Howard Doane*. Lowry described the genesis of the hymn as follows:
One day, while [she] meditat[ed] on the leadings of Providence, a friend came into her room and gave her ten dollars. The unexpected gift awakened a train of thought that formulated itself in one of her best hymns, 'All the way my Savior leads me'...
And is it so! I shall be like Thy Son. John Nelson Darby* (1800-1882). Printed in a Brethren publication, A Voice to the Faithful, volume 6 (1872). It had seven verses, and was entitled in manuscript, 'The Hope of Day'. It is characteristic of Darby's work in its intensity and energy, caused in part by the inclusion of rhetorical questions and exclamation marks:
And is it so! I shall be like thy Son?Is this the grace which He for me hath won?Father of glory (thought beyond all thought!)In...
At the cross her station keeping. Latin, probably 13th century, translated by Edward Caswall* (1814-1878), Richard Mant* (1776-1848) and others.
This is a translation of 'Stabat Mater dolorosa'*, which in its Latin original is of unknown authorship. It has been attributed to Pope Innocent III (1161-1216), but recent editions of A&M and EH ascribe it to Jacopone da Todi* (died 1306). For the arguments about authorship, see JJ, p. 1082.
There are two versions of the Latin hymn: the full...
HAWKS, Annie Sherwood. b. Hoosick, New York, 25 or 28 May 1835 or 1836; d. Bennington, Vermont, 3 January 1918. According to Taylor (1989) there is uncertainty about her date of birth. Annie Sherwood married Charles Hawks; for many years she was a member of the Hanson Place Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York, where her pastor, Robert Lowry*, encouraged her to write verse. After her husband's death in 1888, she lived with her daughter in Vermont, though she was buried beside her husband in...
CHRISTIANSEN, Avis Burgeson. b. Chicago, 11 October 1895; d. 14 January 1985. She was a member of the Moody Church in Chicago, and married Ernest C. Christiansen, vice-president of the Moody Bible Institute. Her numerous hymns, the earliest in collaboration with Daniel B. Towner*, appeared in Tabernacle Praises (Chicago, 1916). They are characteristic of early 20th-century Gospel hymnody, with a concentration on the love of Jesus and the hope of heaven. She also wrote under pseudonyms: Avis...
'Are Ye Able', said the Master. Earl B. Marlatt* (1892-1976).
This hymn of self-dedication, entitled 'Challenge', was written for the 23 February 1926 consecration service of the School of Religious Education and Social Service at Boston University (it was relocated on Boston's Beacon Hill in 1921: http://www.bu.edu/sth-history/graduates/school-of-religious-education-and-social-service/). It was composed to an existing and familiar tune by Harry Mason (1881-1964), a student at the School, and...
Bei dir, Jesu, will ich bleiben. Karl Johann Philipp Spitta* (1801-1859).
From Spitta's Psalter und Harfe, First Series (Pirna, 1833), entitled 'Ich bleibe stets bei dir' ('I stay ever by thee'). It had six 8-line stanzas. It is found in EG in the 'Geborgen in Gottes Liebe' section, using all six stanzas (EG 406). It is based on Psalm 73: 23: 'Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand' and on John 15: 4: 'Abide in me, and I in you.' The reference to John 15...
Gillman, Robert (Bob). b. West Ham, London, 16 June 1946. Bob Gillman received his education in the Borough of West Ham, including the local Catholic Junior School followed by South West Ham Technical School, finishing his education at Abbs Cross Technical School in Hornchurch. Retired now, his career included performing, composing, and pursuing his interest in steam-driven trains while managing a printing company. After passing the qualifying exams, Gillman worked for the London Underground...
Christ upon the mountain-peak. Brian Arthur Wren* (1936- ).
Written in 1962 for the Feast of the Transfiguration, this hymn was published in EP (1975) and in MHfT and thus in A&MNS. It later appeared in Wren's Faith Looking Forward (1983). It was based on Mark 9: 2-9, with a reference to Revelation 1: 11 in verse 4 ('I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last'). It was given a tune by Peter Cutts*, SHILLINGFORD, but has also been set to other tunes such as FENITON by Sydney Nicholson*. It...
Christ, Who once amongst us. William St Hill Bourne* (1846-1929).
Written in 1868, before Bourne was ordained, this hymn was first published in the Second Edition of A&M (1875). It had five stanzas, meditating in simple terms on Christ as the Good Shepherd, as in the final stanza:
Jesus, our good Shepherd Laying down Thy life, Lest Thy sheep should perish In the cruel strife, Help us to remember All Thy love and care, Trust in Thee, and love Thee Always, everywhere.
In 1875 and...
IDLE, Christopher Martin. b. Bromley, Kent, 11 September 1938. He was educated at Eltham College and St Peter's College, Oxford (BA, 1962), going on to study Theology at Clifton Theological College, Bristol. Between school and university he spent three years working in an office, shop, and hospital; he was actively involved in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. He was ordained (deacon 1965, priest 1966), serving curacies at St Mark's, Barrow-in-Furness (1965-68) and Christ Church, Camberwell...
TAMBLING, Christopher. b. Clevedon, Bristol, 13 May 1964; d. Somerset, 3 October 2015. He was educated at Christ's Hospital, after which he became an organ scholar, first at Canterbury Cathedral and then at St Peter's College, Oxford. He taught at Sedbergh School (1986-89), and was Director of Music at Glenalmond College, Perthshire, Scotland (1989-97). He was Director of Music, Downside School, Bath (1997-2015). He took early retirement in order to devote more time to composition, but was...
Come, Saviour Jesu, from above. Antoinette Bourignon* (1616-1680), translated by John Wesley* (1703-1791).
Antoinette Bourignon's hymn began 'Venez, Jésus, mon salutaire'. It was translated, probably by John Wesley (the attribution to John Byrom* is unlikely), and published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739), in ten 4-line verses. For the 1780 Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists Wesley omitted verses 5 and 10:
To Thee my earnest soul aspires,
To Thee I offer all my...
Come ye sinners, poor and needy. Joseph Hart* (1712-1768). First published in Hart's Hymns Composed on Various Subjects, with the Author's Experience (1759) in seven 6-line stanzas, with the title 'Come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ'. The first line was 'Come ye sinners, poor and wretched', a line which is found in some books, such as those of the Presbyterian Church of England (see Presbyterian Church of England hymnody*) and MHB. It was included in hymn collections of a Calvinist persuasion...
PEACOCK, David. b. Bradford, Yorkshire, 8 September 1949. He was educated at Poole Grammar School, Dorset, and Birmingham University, where he read Music. He was Director of the Christian Arts Project (1971-74) and taught at Clarendon School (1974-85). H was Minister of Music at Upton Vale Baptist Church, Torquay, Devon (1985-99). He then became Head of the Department of Music and Worship (which he established in 1999) at the London Bible College (now London School of Theology). He joined...
Dost thou in a manger lie. Jean Mauburn* (ca 1460-1503), translated by Elizabeth Rundle Charles* (1828-1896). The Latin text was in Mauburn's Rosetum Exercitiorum Spiritualium (1491), a compilation for the laity associated with the Confraternity of the Rosary. It had 13 verses, of which Charles translated three (4, 5, 11) in The Voice of Christian Life in Song (1858). These had ten lines each. The first describes the Christ child in the manger: 'Heu quid jaces stabulo', beginning:
Dost thou in...
CHERRY, Edith Gilling. b. Plymouth, Devon, 9 February 1872; d. Plymouth, 29 August 1897. Edith Cherry's poems were published after her death as The Master's Touch: and other Poems, edited by her mother, Matilda S. Cherry, and published in London and Cheltenham (n.d.). Its title poem,'The Master's Touch', is based on Matthew 8: 15: 'He touched her hand, and the fever left her; and she arose and ministered unto Him.' This is given additional poignancy by the fact that Cherry was an invalid for...
CHARLES, Elizabeth Rundle (née Rundle). b. Tavistock, Devon, 2 January 1828; d. Hampstead, London, 28 March 1896. She was the daughter of a Member of Parliament; she married Andrew Paton Charles in 1851 (he died in 1868). She was a well-known writer on religious topics, becoming famous for The Chronicles of the Schönberg-Cotta Family (1862), which is a fictional account of the life of Martin Luther*, seen through the eyes of the family who were his friends, particularly the two narrators,...
Finita iam sunt proelia. Latin, of unknown origin.
This Latin hymn ('Now the battle is over') is found in a German Jesuit collection, Symphonia Sirenum Selectarum (Cologne, 1695), although it may be of a much earlier date. As the Companion to RS (1999) points out, 'it has the crisp, rough flavour of a characteristically mediaeval view of the Resurrection, seen as the victory of Jesus after a battle in which the Underworld had tried in vain to imprison him' (pp. 320-1).
It is an Easter hymn,...
FABER, Frederick William. b. Calverley, West Yorkshire, 28 June 1814; d. London, 26 September 1863. He was born at Calverley vicarage, the son of Thomas Henry Faber, who became secretary to Shute Barrington, Bishop of Durham (1734-1826). He was educated briefly at the grammar school in Bishop Auckland, then privately by the Revd John Gibson at Kirkby Stephen. He entered Shrewsbury School in 1826, and Harrow School in 1827. He matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford, in 1832, and was elected...
From the cross uplifted high. Thomas Haweis* (1734-1820).
First published in Haweis's Carmina Christo; or, Hymns to the Saviour (1792) in four 6-line stanzas. It is based on John 7: 37: 'In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink'. Stanza 2 was omitted in The Sabbath Hymn Book: for the Service of Song in the House of the Lord (New York and Boston, 1858):
Sprinkled now with blood the throne,Why beneath thy...
From the dead, on Sunday morning. Nicolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig* (1783-1872), translated by Alan Gaunt* (1935-2023).
This hymn, 'Sondag morgen fra de dode', is found in Volume 1 of the Sang Vaerk, in the context of one or two of Grundtvig's strongest translations of Sunday hymns from the Greek. It is full of the conviction that at the heart of Christianity is the triumph of life over death. In conversation with a distinguished German visitor who asked his views on the use of dialectical...
From the eastern mountains. Godfrey Thring* (1823-1903).
This is a hymn for Epiphany, written in 1873 and first published in the author's Hymns and Sacred Lyrics (1874). It is sung to many different tunes. The text has not been much altered, although modern hymnbooks sometimes make minor amendments, most notably the change from 'heathen' to 'peoples' in stanza three. The hymn stresses the distance travelled by the Wise Men and uses their visit to the infant Jesus as an image of the scattered...
JONES, Griffith Hugh ('Gutyn Arfon'). b. Ty Du, Llanberis, Caernarfonshire, January 1849; d. Rhiwddolion, Caernarfonshire, 26 July 1919. He attended music classes held by John Roberts* ('Ieuan Gwyllt') and worked as a teacher in Dolbadarn and Aberystwyth before becoming headmaster of Rhiwddolion primary school near Betws-y-coed. He founded a number of music classes in the area and encouraged instrumental music. His fame now rests on his hymn tune LLEF (the word means 'a cry'), a solemn yet...
WILLIAMS, Gwilym Owen. b. East Finchley, North London, 23 March 1913; d. Bangor, 23 December 1990. Although born in London he was brought up in the North Wales village of Penisarwaun, and educated there and at Brynrefall Grammar School, Llanberis. From there he went to Jesus College, Oxford, where he read English (BA 1933) and then Theology (BA 1935). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1937, priest 1938) in the Church in Wales, and became successively curate of Denbigh (1937-40), chaplain and...
ALLON, Henry. b. Welton, near Hull, 13 October 1818; d. London (? buried at Abney Park Cemetery)16 April 1892. He was apprenticed as a builder, but decided to become a minister of the Congregational Church. He was educated at Cheshunt College from 1839. He became assistant pastor of Union Chapel, Islington, in 1844, and sole pastor from 1852 to 1892.
His organists there were Henry John Gauntlett* from 1853 to 1861 and Ebenezer Prout* from 1861 to 1873. He wrote a hymn for Passion-tide, 'Low in...
Ho! my comrades, see the signal. Philip P. Bliss* (1838-1876).
The story of this hymn is famous in the annals of gospel hymnody. In 1870, Bliss heard Daniel Webster Whittle*, who had fought in the Civil War, give an account of a battle near Atlanta, where Sherman was preparing for his 'march to the sea' in 1864. The Confederate army under Hood attacked a fort at Altoona Pass which held valuable supplies. The attack was almost successful; the gallant defenders were making a last stand when they...
Holy Ghost, we bid thee welcome. Lelia Morris* (1862-1929).
First published in Songs of Redemption (Boston, Massachusetts, 1899), edited by Joshua Gill, Geo. A. McLaughlin, William J. Kirkpatrick*, and H.L. Gilmour. It had four stanzas which began:
'Holy Ghost, we bid thee welcome'
'Here, like empty earthen vessels'
'Come like dew from heaven falling'
'Hearts are open to receive thee'.
In some books there is a refrain:
Welcome, welcome, welcome, Holy Ghost, we welcome thee; Come in power and...
I have such a wonderful Savior. Carrie Breck* (1855-1934).
As with many of Breck's hymns, this appeared as the work of 'Mrs Frank A. Breck'. A reference to the evangelical weekly, the Christian Herald, when this hymn was printed in Priceless Pearls, a collection of new sacred songs for the Church, Sunday School, Young People's Societies, Evangelistic Societies and all religious meetings (Huntington, Indiana, 1904) points to a first publication in that newspaper. Other books print 'From C.H.',...
If Christ had not been raised from death. Christopher Martin Idle* (1938- ).
Written in May 1984 at Limehouse, East London, in response to some well-publicized doubts about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was first published in the Church of England Newspaper (a weekly), 29 March 1985, and subsequently in Anglican Praise (1987), Sing Glory (1999), and Praise! (2000). It has appeared in books in the USA, including Worship and Rejoice (2001), the Lutheran Service Book (2006), and Singing the...
In the Name of God the Father. John W. Hewett* (1824-1886).
This hymn was described by JJ, p. 520, as in 'C.U.' (Common Use). It was the first hymn in the Introduction section of The Church Hymnal for the Christian Year (1917), edited by Lady Victoria Carbery*, who dated it 1867:
In the Name of God the Father, In the Name of God the Son, In the Name of God the Spirit, One in Three and Three in One.
In the Name which highest Angels Speak not ere they veil their face, Crying “Holy,...
Iste confessor domini sacratus. Latin, ca. 8th century.
This hymn for the Common of a Confessor is found in many of the monastic breviaries (Sarum, York, Aberdeen, and the Mozarabic and Roman Breviaries). A text from the Moissac hymnal is found in Analecta Hymnica 2. 77 (no 101) (cf. AH 51. 134, no 118). Milfull (Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church, pp. 403-5) prints it with the title 'Ymnus de uno confessore', noting that it is anonymous and written in Sapphic metre. The text is given in Daniel,...
It is God who holds the nations in the hollow of his hand. Fred Pratt Green* (1903-2000).
This hymn, commissioned by the Dean and Chapter of Norwich Cathedral, became a hymn for the official order of service for the celebration of the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977, sung in churches throughout the UK and the Commonwealth. The original lines 1 and 2 of stanza 3 were:
When a thankful nation, looking back, unites to celebrate
Those who reign in our affection by their service to the state;
The...
CHADWICK, James. b. Drogheda, Ireland, 24 April, 1813; d. Newcastle upon Tyne, 14 May 1882. From an old Catholic family, he was educated at Ushaw College, near Durham, where he also studied for the priesthood (ordained 1836). After a period of teaching at Ushaw, he became one of a community of priests at Wooler, Northumberland, acting as a missioner, before returning to Ushaw in 1857. He was appointed as the second bishop of Hexham and Newcastle in 1866: during his tenure of office the diocese...
NICHOLSON, James L. b. Ireland, c. 1828; d. Washington, D.C., 6 November 1876. Nicholson was an immigrant from Ireland to the United States in the early 1850s. Settling in Philadelphia, he became involved in Sunday School and evangelism in the Wharton Street Methodist Episcopal Church. Moving to Washington, D.C. around 1871, where he was a clerk for the United States Post Office, he maintained leadership in a local congregation including teaching Sunday School, leading singing, and...
HUPTON, Job. b. near Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, March 1762; d. Claxton, Norfolk, 19 October 1849. His early life as a blacksmith followed the evangelical pattern of wickedness followed by conversion, after which he attached himself to one of the Countess of Huntingdon*'s chapels at Walsall. He became one of the Countess of Huntingdon's preachers, and was admitted to her college at Trevecca. He preached for her Connexion for some nine years, but in 1794 he left to join the Baptists,...
BARNETT, John. b. Vallejo, California, 4 October 1955. Barnett is a self-taught guitarist, songwriter, worship leader, mentor and teacher, who with his wife Marie (see Marie Barnett*) served Vineyard congregations in San Luis Obispo and Los Osos, California before moving to southern California where he was worship leader for the Mission Viejo Vineyard, and the Laguna Niguel Vineyard (see Christian popular music, USA*). Barnett has published and recorded 50 songs with Vineyard Music, including...
EDWARDS, John David. b. Penderlwyngoch, Gwnnws, Cardiganshire, 19 December 1805; d. Llanddoget, Rhosymedre, Denbighshire, 24 November 1885. He was educated at Jesus College, Oxford. He took Holy Orders (deacon 1832, priest 1833) and became vicar of Rhosymedre from 1843 until his death. He was a prolific musician, and much in demand as an Eisteddfod adjudicator. He published Original Sacred Music in two volumes (1839, 1843). He is chiefly known as the composer of the tune RHOSYMEDRE (sometimes...
GOWANS, John. b. Blantyre, Lanarkshire, 13 November 1934; d. South London, 8 December 2012. Gowans became a Salvation Army officer in 1955, after National Service in the Royal Army Educational Corps. At school he developed an interest in poetry and drama, and in 1966 was co-opted to write the lyrics for a Salvation Army youth musical, with the composer John Larsson. Alongside his appointments in Britain, France and USA, he went on to write ten musicals on Biblical and Salvation Army themes,...
WYSE, John. b. Dublin, 1825; d. Bristol, 22 May 1898. He became a Roman Catholic priest in 1851. Not much seems to be known of his life, but he was priest in charge at Tichborne, Hampshire in 1884. He died at Clifton Wood Convent, Bristol. He is chiefly remembered for 'I'll sing a hymn to Mary'*, but (according to JJ, p. 1696) he was the author of other hymns in Catholic books:
'From day to day, sing loud thy lay' (Dominican Hymn Book, 1881; Arundel Hymns, 1902)
'God comes to His altar' (Hymns...
Joys are flowing like a river (Blessed Quietness). Manie Payne Ferguson* (1850–1932).
Often known as 'Blessed Quietness', this is the most published hymn by Ferguson, and the most prominent hymn from the Holiness Movement. According to Donald P. Hustad*, this text first appeared with the tune now universally used in Pentecostal Hymns, No. 3 (Chicago, 1902) under the authorship of Mamie (sic.) Payne Ferguson (Hustad, 1978, p. 78). Hymnary.org. records an earlier pairing of this text and tune in...
Let the song go round the earth. Sarah Geraldina Stock* (1838-1898).
Written in 1898, and published after her death in the Church Missionary Hymn Book (1899). It was well thought of in the first half of the 20th century, appearing in some major books: A&MS , MHB, BHB, and the Anglican Hymn Book (1965). It was also found in The School Hymn Book of the Methodist Church (1950). The splendid first line, which is repeated in every verse, leads into a glorious vision of a Christian world:
Let the...
HARTSOUGH, Lewis. b. Ithaca, New York State, 31 August 1828; d. Mount Vernon, Iowa, 1 January 1919. He was educated at Cazenovia College, near Syracuse. He became a Methodist Episcopal Church minister, serving in New York State (Oneida, though presumably not the utopian community there). He then travelled to the west, becoming Superintendent of the Utah Mission, and then working in Wyoming. In 1872 he moved to Epworth, Iowa (a settlement named after the birthplace of the Wesley* brothers), and...
Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier,/ dich und dein Wort anzuhören. Tobias Clausnitzer* (1619-1684).
From Frommer Christen Betendes Hertz und Singender Mund: Oder Altdorffisches Bet- and Gesang-Büchlein (Altdorff, 1663). The title was 'Vor der Predig' ('before the sermon'). It had three 6-line stanzas, all of which are in EG in the 'Eingang und Ausgang' section, suggesting that the hymn may be used for the beginning of a service as well as the hymn before the sermon. In the Swedish-language book,...
Lord, we your church are deaf and dumb. Alan Luff* (1928-2020).
This was written in the early 1970s, when the author was vicar of Penmaenmawr, North Wales, in the Diocese of Bangor. It was written for a meeting of clergy in that Diocese, and remained unknown until it was included a decade later in the British Methodist HP. It had three stanzas. Stanza 2 begins 'Though deaf because we will not hear/ And dumb because we fear to speak', and stanza 3 'Then speak, Lord, in our deafened ear'. It is...
Love came down at Christmas. Christina Georgina Rossetti* (1830-1894). These verses appeared in Rossetti's Time Flies: A Reading Diary (1885), under the date 'December 29' (they were later given the title of 'Christmastide'):
Love came down at Christmas, Love all lovely, Love Divine,Love was born at Christmas, Star and angels gave the sign.
Worship we the Godhead, Love Incarnate, Love Divine,Worship we our Jesus, - But wherewith for sacred sign?
Love shall be our token, Love be yours and...
NYSTROM, Martin J. b. Seattle, Washington State, 1956. Following his graduation from Oral Roberts University, Tulsa, Oklahoma (BME, 1979) he became an evangelist and musician in New York with the 'Christ for the Nations' movement, and for Hosanna! Music, Mobile, Alabama, for whom he produced five Praise-Worship albums. He has composed over 250 songs, mostly one-stanza worship songs such as: 'Times of refreshing, here in your presence', 'Jesus I am thirsty' (with Don Harris), 'I will come and...
REDMAN, Matt. b. Watford, Hertfordshire, 14 February, 1974. He was raised in Chorleywood, attending St Andrew's Church, and being educated at Watford Grammar School until 1992.
He has been a full-time worship leader since the age of 20, helping to set up the 'Soul Survivor' movement in Watford, and developing an enthusiasm for Christian song-writing that reaches people normally outside the more established church circles. He has travelled internationally, settling twice in America (California...
Mortals, awake, with angels join. Samuel Medley* (1738-1799).
This attractive and original Christmas hymn is dated 1782 in JJ, p.722, where W.R. Stevenson mentions 'a Coll. For the use of All Denominations, pub. In London in 1782' (this has not been identified: it is not Richard Conyers*' Collection of Psalms and Hymns, from Various Authors: for the Use of Serious and Devout Christians of every denomination, 1780, many editions).
This hymn is Hymn LII in Medley's Hymns. The public worship and...
Nothing distress you. Colin Thompson* (1945- ), based on a prayer of St Teresa of Avila* (1515-1582).
This is a version of 'Nada te turbe'*, lines found in a breviary of St Teresa. The original nine lines are the basis of subsequent stanzas that develop the theme of trust in God. Thompson's translation turns the 9-line stanza into a more acceptable (to English-speaking hymn singers) 8-line stanzas.
Thompson follows the text as found in Santa Teresa de Jesus, Obras Completas, edited by Efren de...
O Christ the same, through all our story's pages. Timothy Dudley-Smith* (1926- ).
The occasion for this text, written to be useful at other events (cf. 'Lord, for the years your love has kept and guided'*), was the opening of new premises for the Cambridge University Mission in what was then Jamaica Road, South East London, in November 1972. Given plenty of notice, the words were written over a year earlier, at Sevenoaks, Kent, in September 1971. The author had lived in a small flat at the CUM,...
O God, Creation's secret Force. Latin, before 9th century, translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866).
Neale's translation of 'Rerum Deus tenax vigor'* was published in The Hymnal Noted Part I (1851). It was in two stanzas and a doxology, with variant doxologies supplied for the major seasons of the church year. Neale's text was as follows:
O God, Creation's secret Force,
Thyself, unmov'd, all motion's source,
Who from the morn till evening's ray
Throughout all changes guid'st the day:
Grant...
O lieber Herre Jesu Christ. Michael Weisse* (ca. 1480-1534).
The first known printing was in Ein new Geseng buchlen (Jungbunzlau, Bohemia, 1531). This is Weisse's version of a Czech Leise* of ca. 1400, 'Jezu Kriste, štĕdrý knĕž' ('Jesus Christ, gentle prince'), from a Latin hymn, 'Jesu, salvator optime', possibly by Jan Hus*. A revised version appeared in the first printed Czech hymn book of 1501 (title page missing; see JJ, p. 155), which Weisse translated into German. In 1531 it was entitled...
O selig Haus, wo man dich aufgenommen. Karl Johann Philipp Spitta* (1801-1859).
First published in Spitta's Psalter und Harfe (Pirna, 1833) in five 8-line stanzas, with the title 'Diesem Hause ist Heil widerfahren' ('Salvation is come again to this house', from Luke 19:9). It had five 8-line stanzas. Its celebration of the Christian home is echoed in another hymn from the same book, 'Ich und mein Haus, wir wollen dem Herrn dienen' ('I and my house, we will serve the Lord').
The hymn has been...
O sing a song of Bethlehem. Louis F. Benson* (1855-1930).
Written in 1899, and included in The School Hymnal of the Presbyterian Church of the USA (Philadelphia, 1899), which Benson edited, with the title 'Early life of Jesus'. The first line suggests that it is a Christmas hymn, but the three succeeding stanzas cover the life of Christ up to and including the crucifixion and the resurrection: 'O sing a song of Nazareth', 'O sing a song of Galilee', and 'O sing a song of Calvary'. It has been...
O soul, are you weary and troubled. Helen H. Lemmel* (1863-1961).
Words and music are found on an undated song sheet consisting of three stanzas and refrain in the British Library, published by the National Sunday School Union. The copyright of the words and music, both by Lemmel, is dated 1922; but it does not appear in Lemmel's Glad Songs, published in that year, which suggests that it was written too late for inclusion.
It was entitled 'The Heavenly Vision'. On the sheet Lemmel said that...
O suffering friend of human kind. Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch* (1809-1870).
This unusual hymn is from Bulfinch's Contemplations of the Saviour: a series of extracts from the Gospel history, with reflections and original and selected hymns (Boston, 1832). For the structure and arrangement of this book, see the entry on 'Hail to the Sabbath day'*. In Contemplations it was from Part VI, 'To the Departure of Jesus from Galilee': it forms section xxxv (the sections were numbered separately). The...
Portal of the world's salvation. Laurence Housman* (1865-1959).
This is a translation of a late medieval Latin hymn, 'Mundi salus affutura', on the visit of the Virgin Mary to St Elizabeth (Luke 1: 39-45), found in EH where it is associated with Plainchant* or with COLLAUDEMUS. It celebrates the Virgin Mary's part in the Incarnation, fulfilling Old Testament prophecy. The complicated stanzas 2 and 3 include a number of OT images of God's saving power: the bruising of the serpent's head (Genesis...
DUFFORD, Robert J. b. Chicago, Illinois, 1943. A member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), Dufford has served as a pastor in Iowa, campus minister at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, and retreat master in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He was a member of a group of composers that included John B. Foley*, Tim Manion (1951-), Roc O'Connor (1949-), and Daniel Schutte*, known as the St Louis Jesuits. Based out of St Louis University, St Louis, Missouri, a Jesuit institution, the group released a...
GREG, Samuel. b. Manchester, 6 September 1804; d. Bollington, near Macclesfield, 14 May 1876. His father was a prosperous Unitarian mill-owner at Styal, near Manchester. He was educated at Unitarian schools in Nottingham and Bristol and at Edinburgh University. He became a mill-owner at Bollington, near Macclesfield, Cheshire, where he was a good employer, creating a model village, and providing educational opportunities for his workers, such as flower shows and music classes; but they became...
Sing a happy hallelujah. Shirley Erena Murray* (1931-2020).
Written in 1989 and given its first performance at the World Council of Churches Assembly in Canberra, Australia, in the same year, this hymn is dedicated to the writer's son Alistair, and is one of a number of hymns expressing Shirley Murray's infectious sense of delight and joy. As she says, 'despite all, I know God must have a sense of humour'.
It was first published in Murray's American collection, In Every Corner, Sing: The Hymns...
Sing alleluia to the Lord. Linda Stassen* (1951- ).
Written in 1974 for a music composition class at Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California. It was taught to the congregation, and recorded for Maranatha! Music, and first appeared in Praise (Laguna Hills, 1975). It has subsequently appeared in the British Praise! (2000), the American Baptist Hymnal (1991, 2008) and in many other books. More than most modern hymns, it depends on repetition:
Sing alleluia to the Lord,
Sing alleluia to the...
CARTER, Sydney Bertram. b. Camden, London, 6 May 1915; d. 13 March 2004. He was educated at Montem Street London County Council School, Islington, Christ's Hospital and Balliol College, Oxford. He taught at Frensham Heights School, Surrey, and served during the Second World War with the Friends' Ambulance Unit in the Middle East and Greece, for which country he developed a lasting affection. The Greek music that he heard at that time influenced all that he did later. He taught and lectured for...
DAUERMANN, Stuart. b. Brooklyn, New York, 1944. Stuart Dauermann is a Messianic Jewish Rabbi. His education includes BA and MM degrees in music theory and music education, and MA and PhD degrees in Intercultural Studies. He has published several books on interreligious relations between Jews and Christians. He is Director of Interfaithfulness, an organisation dedicated to advancing interreligious relationships between Jews and Christians, and serves as Rabbi of Ahavat Zion Messianic Synagogue,...
The great love of God. Daniel Thambyrajah Niles* (1908-1970).
Published in the EACC Hymnal (1963), with the note 'the Thai original is a chorus, which here is the first verse'. That first verse was written by Charoen Vijaya, of Bangkok, and set to music by him to a tune that he called THAILAND. Niles translated the chorus and added three stanzas to make what has become his best known hymn outside East Asia. He entitled it 'The Love of God in Jesus'. In Australia it was in WOV (1977) and...
"The Kingdom is upon you". Robert Willis (1947- ).
Based on Matthew 12: 28 (Luke 11: 20), and entitled 'The Kingdom of God', this sturdy three-verse hymn appeared in MHfT (1980) and thus in A&MNS, set to WOLVERCOTE by W.H. Ferguson*. It is found in New English Praise (1986), in A&MCP and A&MRW. It was included by Geoff Weaver* in Lambeth Praise (1998). It uses contemporary language in a forceful yet elegant way:
'The Kingdom is upon you!' the voice of Jesus cries,fulfilling with...
There are some things I may not know (Yes, God is real). Kenneth Morris* (1917-1989).
Known by the title 'Yes, God is real', this is the most famous and best-selling song of the gospel song composer, Kenneth Morris. Composed in 1944, soon after he established his publishing company in Chicago with Sallie Martin, the text was written in what has been called the 'problem-resolution style' (Marovich, 2015, p. 175). In this approach, the writer states a problem or challenge in the first part of a...
ARMSTRONG, Thomas Barrett. b. Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, November, 1929; d. Toronto, 14 November 2009. Arriving as a student at St Michael's Choir School in 1942, Barrett Armstrong went on to study philosophy and theology at St. Augustine's Seminary in Toronto, was ordained in 1955, and completed licentiate degrees in Gregorian chant and sacred music at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome. He returned to St Michael's, where he taught from 1958 until his retirement in 2004,...
KELLY, Thomas. b. Kellyville, Queen's County [Co. Laois], Ireland, 13 July 1769; d. Dublin, 14 May 1855. He was the son of an Irish judge, Baron Kelly of Kellyville. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin (BA, 1789), and began studying for a legal career. Against the wishes of his family, however, he gave up the law and became ordained as a priest in the Church of England in Ireland (1792). He began preaching in Dublin in 1793: the emphasis on the doctrine of grace, and the unusual energy...
PARNELL, Thomas. b. Dublin, 1679 (baptized 14 September); d. Chester, 24 October 1718. He was educated at Trinity College (BA 1697, MA 1700), and was then ordained (deacon 1700, priest 1704). He became Archdeacon of Clogher (1706). He was a friend of Swift, but following the death of his wife in 1711 he became increasingly attached to London: he is said to have helped Alexander Pope with his translations of Homer. He returned to Ireland in 1714, and became rector of Finglas, near Dublin, in...
Thou hidden source of calm repose. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Volume I of Hymns and Sacred Poems (Bristol, 1749), published under Charles Wesley's name alone, but with his brother's approval to assist with Charles's marriage. It was in 'Part II', entitled 'Hymns for Believers', where it was Hymn XXXI. It was in four stanzas:
Thou hidden Source of calm Repose, Thou all-sufficient Love Divine, My Help, and Refuge from my Foes, Secure I am, if Thou art mine, And lo! from Sin, and...
MONOD, Théodore. b. Paris, 6 November 1836; d. Paris, 26 February 1921. The son of a pastor in the French Reformed Church, he was educated at the University of Paris, where he studied law (1855-58). In order to train as a Protestant minister, he went to the USA, to Western Theological Seminary, Pennsylvania. He became a pastor to a French Canadian congregation at Kankakee, Illinois, south of Chicago (1861-63). During these years he published Regardant Jésus (1862, translated as Looking unto...
Today I awake. John Lamberton Bell* (1949- ) and Graham Maule* (1958-2019).
From Love from Below (Wild Goose Songs 3) (1989). This begins 'Today I awake/and God is before me'. It is a morning hymn in Trinitarian form, affirming Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with a final stanza on the Holy Trinity. It has something in common with the Celtic hymnody found in Carmina Gadelica*: see the 'Morning Prayer' quoted in that entry:
Thanks be to Thee, Jesus Christ, Who brought'st me up from last night, To...
Tú has venido a la orilla (Pescador de Hombres) (Lord, you have come to the lakeshore). Cesáreo Gabaráin* (1936–1991).
'Pescador de Hombres' ('Fisher of Men'), the original Spanish title, is the most published of Gabaráin's hymns. In translation, the first line is 'Lord, you have come to the lakeshore'. The hymn first appeared in the composer's Dios con nosotros: cantos de la iglesia (Madrid, 1974). The most used English translation in Protestant collections is by Raquel Gutiérrez-Achón*,...
BOWIE, (Walter) Russell. b. Richmond, Virginia, 8 October 1882; d. Alexandria, Virginia, 23 April 1969. Bowie was educated at Harvard University (BA 1904, MA, 1905), and Virginia Theological Seminary (BD 1909, DD 1919). He was ordained an Episcopal priest in 1909 and served Emmanuel Church, Greenwood, Virginia (1909-11); St Paul's Church, Richmond, Virginia (1911-23, with hospital chaplaincy in France during World War I); and Grace Church, New York City (1923-39). He became Professor of...
We have come at Christ's own bidding. Carl P. Daw, Jr.* (1944- ).
Written at the request of the Church of the Transfiguration, Dallas, Texas, this hymn is found in the 'Epiphany' section of Daw's A Year of Grace (1990). It is in the well established metre of 8.7.8.7. D, and can be sung to any of the tunes in that metre (Daw suggests ABBOT'S LEIGH, HYFRYDOL, or IN BABILONE). It compares the 'hope and longing' as Christians come to worship with the account of the Transfiguration (Matthew 17: 1-9;...
We praise and bless thee, gracious Lord. Karl Johann Philipp Spitta* (1801-1859), translated by Jane Laurie Borthwick* (1813-1897). This is a translation of 'O treuer Heiland Jesu Christ' ('O Faithful Saviour, Jesus Christ') published in the Second Series of Spitta's Psalter und Harfe (Leipzig, 1843). The translation appeared in Hymns from the Land of Luther, Second Series (Edinburgh, 1855). It was entitled 'Praise and Prayer', with a heading: '“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature;...
HAMMOND, William. b. Battle, Sussex, 6 January 1719; d. London, 19 August 1793. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge. He joined the Calvinistic Methodists in 1743, and became a Moravian in 1745: his career parallels that of John Cennick*. He wrote an autobiography in Greek, and translated Latin hymns. He published a book with the revealing title Psalms, Hymns & Spiritual Songs. To which is prefix'd a Preface, giving some Account of a Weak Faith, and a Full Assurance of Faith;...
DOANE, William Howard. b. Preston, New London County, Connecticut, 3 February 1832; d. South Orange, New Jersey, 24 December 1915. Doane was an American businessman, investor, philanthropist, composer, and hymnbook compiler best known for his collaborations with Robert Lowry* on numerous Sunday School collections and his frequent partnering with Fanny Crosby* in providing over 1,000 hymn tunes for her Gospel texts. Approximately 30 of his over 2,200 tunes remain in common use.
Born to Joseph...
Wunderbarer König, Herrscher von uns allen. Joachim Neander* (1650-1680).
First published in A und Ω. Joachimi Neandri Glaub- und Liebesübung: auffgemuntert durch einfältige Bundes Lieder und Danck-Psalmen (Bremen, 1680). It is found in the 'Loben und Danken' section of EG in four 9-line verses (EG 327). In 1680 it was entitled 'Inciting oneself to the praise of God'.
The Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal points out that verse 1 line 4 was originally 'Deine Vaters Güte' ('thy fatherly goodness'),...
Zeuch uns nach dir. Friedrich Funcke* (1642-1699).
This hymn, beginning 'Zeuch uns nach dir,/ so kommen wir', was published in the Lüneberger Gesangbuch (1686), edited by Funcke. It was translated by Catherine Winkworth* as 'Draw us to Thee, Lord Jesus' in The Chorale Book for England (1863). Winkworth attributed the hymn to Ludämilia Elisabeth Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt*, but it had the initials 'F.F.' in the 1686 Lüneburg book (see JJ, p. 701, p. 401).
A hymn by Arthur Tozer Russell*, 'Draw us to...
Alone with none but thee, my God. St Columba* (521-597), translated by Duncan MacGregor* (1854-1923).
This was first published in Saint Columba. A Record and a Tribute. To which are added the Altus and some other remains, with offices for the thirteen hundredth anniversary of his death (from ancient sources)(Edinburgh and Aberdeen, 1897), one of the first fruits of MacGregor's scholarly interest in the early Celtic church.It had four stanzas:
Alone with none but thee, my God, I journey on...
HOY, Matilda T. (née Durham). b. Spartanburg County, South Carolina, 17 January 1815; d. Hoy's Crossing, Cobb County, Georgia, 30 July 1901. Miss Durham composed or arranged three tunes published by William Walker* in Southern Harmony and Musical Companion during 1835-1840. It appears likely that Matilda Durham knew Walker, who had moved to the Spartanburg area before 1830. Other residents of the area whose tunes appeared in Southern Harmony* were B. F. White* and the Rev. John Gill Landrum...
O Lord our God, Thy mighty hand. Henry van Dyke* (1852-1933).
This stirring piece of pride and hope in the nation was written at some time before 1912, when (according to Hymnary.org.) it was published in Songs of the Christian Life. It was characteristic of van Dyke's work in the skill of its versification, and the ability to convey exactly what the author was trying to celebrate, from the beauty of the American landscape (a favourite theme for van Dyke) to the hope of a better society. It...
Rodeheaver Hall-Mack Co.
Homer A. Rodeheaver* formed the Rodeheaver-Ackley Co. in 1910, partnering with B.D. Ackley* to produce songbooks for tabernacle revival meetings. Rodeheaver had just joined the Billy Sunday revival team as songleader; Ackley played piano and served as Sunday's secretary. Early projects used the printing services of Edwin O. Excell* and rented offices from him in Chicago's Lakeside Building.
Though Rodeheaver and Ackley worked together for the rest of their lives, their...
PARIS, Twila. b. Fort Worth, Texas, 28 December 1958.Twila Paris is a contemporary Christian singer, songwriter, and author. She has released over twenty albums since 1980 and garnered several awards from the contemporary Christian music industry, including the Gospel Music Association (GMA) Female Vocalist of the Year Award three years in a row (1993, 1994, 1995) and induction into the GMA Hall of Fame in May 2015. In over thirty of her single recordings, she attained a number-one status on...
BOATNER, Edward Hammond. b. New Orleans, Louisiana, 13 November 1898; d. New York City, 16 June 1981. Edward Boatner was a multi-talented musician recognized as a composer, choral conductor, and singer as well as author of plays, stories, and music education materials. He was especially noted for essays in African American history and his concertized arrangements of African American spirituals*.
He was the son of an itinerant Methodist minister Dr. Daniel Webster Boatner (?1854— ). His surname...
Here, O Lord, your servants gather. Tokuo Yamaguchi* (1900-1995), translated by Everett M. Stowe (1897-1979).
This hymn was composed for the 14th World Council of Christian Education Convention, held in 1958 in Japan. It was first published in the convention's program booklet, Christian Shimpo (Christian Faith, 1958), and included in the section on the church's 'Nature and Unity'. It then appeared in Hymns of the Church (Tokyo, 1963) published by the United Church of Christ in Japan. The...
Nobody knows the trouble I see. African American spiritual*.
This is found in the a post-Civil War book, immediately following Emancipation, entitled Slave Songs of the United States (1867), edited by the abolitionists William Francis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison. It began 'Nobody knows de trouble I've had'. It was described as 'a favourite in the colored schools of Charleston in 1865' (p. 55). A variant to 'I've had' is noted as 'I see', which has become better known....
MALGAS, Daniel. b. Eastern Cape, South Africa, ca.1853; d. Fort Beaufort, South Africa, March 1936. Malgas was an ordained Anglican priest, whose career was based in the eastern part of the Cape Colony near Kwa Maqoma (formerly Fort Beaufort). An official record of his exact birth date has not been found. It is possible that his birth was not registered because his parents converted to Christianity when Malgas was in his late teens. He began formal education in 1872 at St Luke's Mission....
We shall walk through the valley in peace. African American spiritual*.
Variations of this song run deeply in African American tradition. The earliest print version appears in the post-Civil War collection Slave Songs of the United States* (Boston, 1867, no. 95), the first collection of American folk music. Many of the songs gathered by the originators for this source were notated from the formerly enslaved soldiers under the command of Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson* (1823–1911), a...
A few more years shall roll. Horatius Bonar* (1808-1889).
This was one of Bonar's earliest hymns, written when he was minister of North Parish Church, Kelso. It was printed as a leaflet and sung at Kelso on New Year's Day, 1843. It was published in Bonar's Songs of the Wilderness, No 2 (1844). It had six 8-line stanzas. A five-stanza text, omitting Bonar's stanza 5, was printed in the Appendix (1868) to the First Edition of A&M, and that remained the standard A&M version until the hymn...
All ye who seek for sure relief. Latin, probably 18th century, translated by Edward Caswall* (1814-1878).
This is an alternative to 'All ye that seek a comfort sure'*, a variant on Caswall's translation of 'Quicunque certum quaeritis' in his Lyra Catholica (1849). It was set for Vespers and Matins in 'Another Office of the same Feast', referring to 'Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi', the 'Feast of the most sacred heart of Jesus'. It had six stanzas:
All ye who seek a...
Away in a manger, no crib for a bed. USA, 19th century, author unknown.
Stanzas 1 and 2 of this Christmas hymn were published in Little Children's Book for Schools and Families (Philadelphia, 1885) published by the Lutheran Church in America. Stanza 3, 'Be near me, Lord Jesus', was added in Gabriel's Vineyard Songs (Louisville, Kentucky, 1892), edited by the Lutheran pastor Charles Hutchinson Gabriel*.
For various reasons, summarized below, it has been attributed to Martin Luther*; but in the...
Antiphons are short chants with prose texts and generally simple melodies. They were sung by a soloist or the choir before and after the psalms of the medieval daily Office, which were sung by the ecclesiastical community. The medieval repertoire of antiphons is huge; most medieval Antiphoners contain in the region of 1500. The choral portions of the Introit chants of the Mass are also known as antiphons, and they alternate with a solo psalm verse (antiphon-psalm verse-antiphon).
Psalms can be...
As Jacob with travel was weary one day. Anonymous, perhaps 18th- or 19th-century American or British.
This carol, based on Genesis 28: 10-19, was published in Bramley* and Stainer*'s Christmas Carols New and Old (1871) with the title 'Jacob's Ladder'. It was printed in the Oxford Book of Carols (OBC, 1928), and the University Carol Book (1961). It was also included in Miles Mark Fisher's Negro Slave Songs in the United States (1953), which suggests an alternative origin.
It came into British...
Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side. Katharina Amalia Dorothea von Schlegel* (1697-?), translated by Jane Laurie Borthwick* (1813-1897).
This is a translation of the German text, 'Stille, mein Wille; dein Jesus hilft siegen', published in Neue Sammlung geistlicher Lieder ('A New Collection of Spiritual Songs') (Wernigerode, 1752). It was published in Hymns from the Land of Luther, Second Series (Edinburgh, 1855), where it was entitled 'Submission', followed by the quotation '“In your...
Behold a Stranger at the door. Joseph Grigg* (ca. 1720-1768).
From Grigg's Four Hymns on Divine Subjects; Wherein the Patience and Love of our divine Saviour is displayed (1765), where it was a hymn of eleven 4-line stanzas:
Behold a Stranger at the door! He gently knocks, has knocked before, Has waited long, is waiting still; You treat no other friend so ill.
But will He prove a friend indeed? He will; the very Friend you need; The Friend of sinners--yes 'tis He, With garments dyed on...
Buried beneath the yielding wave. Benjamin Beddome* (1717-1795).
This was published in the Baptism section of Beddome's Hymns Adapted to Public Worship (1817, 1818), compiled by Robert Hall twenty years after Beddome's death. It was entitled 'The Redeemer's Example'. It had five stanzas:
Buried beneath the yielding wave, The dear Redeemer lies; Faith views him in the watery grave, And thence beholds him rise.
Thus it becomes his saints to-day, Their ardent zeal t'express;And in the...
Cast thy burden on the Lord. Rowland Hill* (1744-1833).
The original version of this hymn, based on Psalm 55: 22, first appeared in Hill's A Collection of Psalms and Hymns, chiefly Intended for Public Worship (1783), entitled 'Encouragement for the Weak': the hymn is anonymous, as are all the hymns in Hill's collections, but is generally ascribed to Hill's own hand. JJ (p. 214) notes that in 1853 a version of the hymn, rewritten by George Rawson*, appeared in Psalms, Hymns, and Passages of...
CONVERSE, Charles Crozat. b. Warren, Massachusetts, 7 October 1832; d. Highwood, New Jersey, 18 October 1918. He was educated at Elmira Free Academy, Chemung County, New York State, and showed early promise as a musician. He played the organ at the Broadway Tabernacle Church, and taught languages and music, earning enough to enable him to study music in Leipzig, Germany, from 1855 onwards. There he met Lizst and Spohr before returning to the USA to study law. He graduated from Albany Law...
BARNARD, Charlotte Alington (née Pye). b. Louth, Lincolnshire, 23 December 1830; d. Dover, Kent, 30 January 1869. She was the daughter of Henry Alington Pye, a local solicitor and speculator who became Warden of Louth and County Treasurer. Charlotte's mother, Charlotte Yerburgh, died in 1848. As a child she had ambitions to write poetry, and by 1847, aged 16, she was well enough known and admired (and the daughter of a local dignitary), to be chosen to lay the foundation stone of Louth railway...
Christ in Song (1869). This was the title of a major anthology by Philip Schaff*, published in New York in 1869, with the preface dated 5 October 1868. The full title was ΙΧΘΥΣ. Christ in Song. Hymns of Immanuel: Selected from all ages, with notes. Another page has the Chi/Rho symbol/ 'Christo Sacrum'/ Φριστòς τà πáντα εν πασιν ('Christ is all in all')/ a verse from F.W.H. Myers*' poem 'St Paul':
Thro' life and death, thro' sorrow and thro' sinning
Christ shall suffice me, for He hath...
Clement of Alexandria (Titus Flavius Clemens). b. Athens, ca. 150; d. Caesarea, Cappadocia, ca. 215/220. What little is known of Clement's life is found in the writings of Eusebius of Caesarea (ca. 260/265- ca. 339/340). Clement was born at Athens and educated there, becoming familiar with Greek literature and culture. He acquired a remarkable knowledge of Plato and of other philosophers such as Philo of Alexandria. After some travelling he settled in Alexandria, where he became a renowned...
Come in, O come! The door stands open now. Handley Moule* (1841-1920).
This hymn was published in Hymns of Consecration and Faith 2 (1890), edited by James Mountain*. This was the Second Edition of the 1876 hymnbook of the Keswick Convention*. This was the first hymn in the section, 'Longings for Holiness'. It is an original and attractive variation on the text from Revelation 3: 20, a favourite with evangelicals ('Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the...
Come, sinners, to the Gospel feast. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns for those that seek and those that have Redemption in the Blood of Jesus Christ (1747) in twenty-four 4-line stanzas, entitled 'The Great Supper, Luke xiv.16-24'. Stanzas 1, 2, 12, 14, 19-22 and 24 were included in John Wesley*'s A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), in the opening section, 'Exhorting sinners to return to God', and in the 1831 and 1876 editions of the...
Crown him with many crowns. Matthew Bridges* (1800-94).
From Bridges's Hymns of the Heart, second (enlarged) edition, 1851, and used as a congregational hymn in The People's Hymnal (1867). It had six stanzas. A five-stanza text was printed in the Appendix (1868) to the first edition of A&M, together with the splendid tune DIADEMATA ('Crowns') written for it by (Sir) George Job Elvey*. In that version, Bridges's verse 5a (the first four lines) was linked to his 6b:
Crown Him the Lord of...
POSTON, Elizabeth. b. Highfield, Hertfordshire, 24 October 1905; d. Stevenage, Hertfordshire, 18 March 1987. A student at the Royal Academy of Music from 1924, she began to make a name for herself as a composer from 1925 when some of her solo songs were published and the BBC broadcast her prize-winning violin sonata. Working abroad during the 1930s, she returned to England to work for the BBC's European Service at Bush House, while also appearing as a pianist at Dame Myra Hess's National...
GREEN, Fred(erick) Pratt. b. Roby, near Liverpool, 2 September 1903; d. Norwich, 22 October 2000. He was educated at Huyton High School, Wallasey Grammar School and Rydal School, before training for the Methodist ministry at Didsbury College, Manchester. It was here that he wrote Farley Goes Out, a missionary play performed widely, and the forerunner of twelve further plays both secular and religious. Ordained in 1928, Pratt Green wrote his first hymn, 'God lit a flame in Bethlehem' and a...
FULLERTON, (Lady) Georgiana Charlotte (née Leveson-Gower). b. Tixhall Hall, Staffordshire, 23 September 1812; d. Bournemouth, Hampshire, 19 January 1885. The Leveson-Gower family was a distinguished one: her father later became Earl Granville; her mother was Lady Harriet Cavendish. Her father was appointed Ambassador to Paris in 1824. She married Alexander George Fullerton, an attaché at the embassy, in 1833. In 1843 he became a Roman Catholic; she followed in 1846, after her father's...
Go to dark Gethsemane. James Montgomery* (1771-1854). This first appeared in the Ninth Edition of Thomas Cotterill*'s A Selection of Psalms and Hymns for Public and Private Use (1820) in four 6-line verses headed 'The last sufferings of Christ'. Montgomery included a revised text, again in four 6-line verses but entitled 'Christ our example in suffering', in his Christian Psalmist (Glasgow, 1825):
1820 1825
Go...
Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore. Thomas Aquinas* (ca. 1224/5-1274), translated by Gerard Manley Hopkins* (1844-1889).
One version of this translation was published in the Irish Monthly in 1903. It was a rendering of a variant of Aquinas's 'Adoro te devote, latens Deitas'*, beginning 'Adoro te supplex, latens deitas', found in editions of the Paris Breviary and in a Paris Processionale of 1697 (Milgate, 1982, p. 204). This was the text printed in John Henry Newman*'s Hymni Ecclesiae...
Golden Bells: Hymns for our Children (ca. 1890); Second Edition, 1925/26; Facsimile with Supplement, ca. 1960; Hymns of Faith, 1974.
'Golden Bells' is the title of a succession of hymnbooks for young people published by the Children's Special Service Mission. The CSSM itself was part of the Scripture Union, founded in 1867 by Josiah Spiers and Thomas Hughes to be an alternative to more formal Sunday Schools: in 1868, for example, it began 'beach missions' for children on holiday, and the...
Great Shepherd of thy people, hear. John Newton* (1725-1807).
This hymn first appeared in Olney Hymns Book II, 'On Occasional Subjects', with a first stanza beginning 'O Lord, our languid souls inspire' (Hymn XLIII) . It was followed by William Cowper*'s 'Jesus, where'er thy people meet'*. Both were written for the same occasion, the opening of a new meeting room for public worship in the Great House at Olney in 1769. Newton's was given the title 'On opening a Place for social Prayer', and...
Heavenly Father, bless me now. Alexander Clark* (1834-1879).
This hymn was popular in the 19th century, and is found in a number of books, including two from the Methodist meetings for Sunday-school teachers at Lake Chautauqua, The Chautauqua Collection (1875) and Chautauqua Carols (1878). It is found in Sacred Songs and Solos, in a more intense and urgent evangelical form, with a tune by Robert Lowry*, given a refrain: 'Bless me now! bless me now! Heavenly Father, bless me now!' In view of...
IRONS, Herbert Stephen. b. Canterbury, 19 January 1834; d. Nottingham, 29 June 1905. The son of a lay clerk, John Irons, of Canterbury Cathedral, and a nephew of both Sir George Job Elvey* and Stephen Elvey*, he was a chorister at Canterbury before studying with his uncle, George Elvey. He moved to Ireland to become organist and precentor at St Columba College, Rathfarnham, before returning to England to take up the appointment of organist at Southwell Minster in the diocese of York. He was the...
I come with joy, a child of God. Brian Wren* (1936- ).
This hymn for Holy Communion was written in 1968 as 'I come with joy to meet my Lord', when Wren was a minister of Hockley and Hawkwell Congregational Church, and first published in The Hymn Book (1971) of the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada. It has since gone through two changes.
The original text, in which stanza 2 line 3 was 'man's true community of love' and stanza 3 line 1 was 'As Christ breaks bread for men...
I have heard of a Saviour's love. Anne Shepherd* (1809-1857).
According to Taylor, this was first published in Shepherd's Hymns, adapted to the comprehension of young minds (Second Edition,1836). It had four stanzas, originally beginning 'I have read…', preceded by 'Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation' (Psalm 35: 3). The hymn is remarkable for the number of questions it poses:
I have heard of a Saviour's love, And a wonderful love it must be; But did he come down from above Out of love and...
I think, when I read that sweet story of old. Jemima Luke* (1813-1906).
Two verses of this hymn, based on Mark 10: 14, were written during a journey between Wellington and Taunton, Somerset, by stage-coach in 1841 to match a Greek tune named ATHENS (see below) that she had heard in a school, the Normal Infants' School, in London. They were intended for use at a village school, and were published in The Sunday School Teachers' Magazine, and Journal of Education in 1841, entitled 'The Child's...
In the bleak mid-winter. Christina Georgina Rossetti* (1830-1894).
First published in Scribner's Monthly, 3/3 (January 1872, p. 278), and then in The Poetical Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti (1904), edited by her brother, William Michael, who dated it 'Before 1872'. In The Poetical Works it was entitled 'A Christmas Carol':
In the bleak mid-winter, Frosty wind made moan,Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone;Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow,In the bleak mid-winter, ...
In the rifted rock I'm resting. Mary Dagworthy James* (1810-1883).
This is one of several hymns by James that were derived from earlier texts. In this case the obvious predecessor was Augustus Montague Toplady*'s 'Rock of Ages, cleft for me'*. It may be compared with another Gospel hymn, 'O safe to the rock that is higher than I'* by William Orcutt Cushing* (all three hymns, of course, could claim to have been inspired by a Biblical verse, such as The Song of Solomon 2: 14, or 1 Corinthians 4:...
MARASCHIN, Jaci C. b. Bagé, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, 12 December 1929; d. São Paulo, 29 June 2009. At the end of his career Maraschin was Emeritus Professor at the São Paulo Methodist University and an ordained priest of the São Paulo Anglican Diocese of the Brazilian Episcopal Anglican Church, part of the Anglican Communion. He started his musical education early in life with private tutors for music theory and piano. He held a Diploma from the Instituto Musical de Porto Alegre, Brazil, and...
Jesu, in thy dying woes. Thomas Benson Pollock* (1836-1896).
This is said by most authorities to have been published in Pollock's pamphlet Metrical Litanies for Special Services and General Use (Oxford, 1870), but this has not been verified. It was certainly in his Litany Appendix (1871). It was entitled 'Of the Seven Words of Christ from the Cross'. It was written in seven sections, each containing three 3-line stanzas, preceded by the words themselves:
'Father, forgive them, for they know...
Jesu, Lord of life and glory. John James Cummins* (1795-1867).
First published in Cummins's Seals of the Covenant Opened or the Sacraments of the Church considered in their Connexion with the Great Doctrines of the Gospel (1839), a book prepared for his family. It was entitled 'Litany'. It was described by JJ as 'a sweet and musical Litany' (p. 600).
It had seven 4-line stanzas, each with the refrain added, 'By Thy mercy,/ O deliver us, Good Lord'. It was included in the Appendix (1868) to the...
SWERTNER, John. b. Haarlem, the Netherlands, 1746; d. Bristol, 11 March 1813. As a young man he came to England, where he married Elizabeth, the daughter of John Cennick*. He was the minister of the Moravian church at Dublin, and for ten years minister of the Fairfield Moravian Settlement, Droylsden, Manchester (1790-1800).
He was the editor of the British Moravian hymnbook, A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the Protestant Church of the United Brethren (1789) and of its enlarged edition,...
TAULER, John (Johannes). b. Strasbourg, ca. 1300; d. Strasbourg or Cologne, 15 June 1361. Tauler became a Dominican monk. He studied under the great teacher Meister Eckhart, and became renowned as a teacher and preacher, first at Strasbourg and then at Basle. His place of death is uncertain. He is normally thought of as one of the 'Friends of God', a name for some 14th-century mystics: Catherine Winkworth* described him as one of those who 'spoke often of a mystical or hidden life of God in the...
Lord and Saviour, true and kind. Handley Moule* (1841-1920).
This was published as 'Jesus the Guide of Youth' in The Council School Hymn-Book (1905) (Telford, 1934, p. 395). A 'Council School' at that time was a school run by the local council of a town or district, and not affiliated to any church (unlike a Church of England School or a Catholic School). It would be entirely in keeping with Handley Moule's exemplary conduct in the See of Durham that he should have first published the hymn in...
SPOHR, Louis. b. Braunschweig, 5 April 1784; d. Kassel, 22 October 1859. Though his middle-class family initially opposed a career for him in music, his talent as a violinist established employment for him, first in the Brunswick (Braunschweig) court (from 1799), then as a touring performer in Germany and later as Konzertmeister in Gotha. Indeed, throughout his life he was to enjoy an enviable reputation as a violin virtuoso, as composer of 15 violin concertos (the eighth being a highly...
Let me be Thine for ever. Nikolaus Selnecker* (1530/32- 1592), translated by Matthias Loy (1828-1915).
This is based on Loy's translation of 'Laß mich dein sein und bleiben'*, from Selnecker's 'Passio', entitled Passio. Das Leiden und Sterben unsers Herrn Jesu Christi, aus den Vier Evangelisten (Wolfenbüttel, 1572). According to the Companion to the Hymns of LSB (Herl et al., 2019, p. 928, note to Hymn 659) Loy's translation dates from 1863 in the Fourth Edition of A Collection of Hymns for...
Mille voix pour Te chanter/ A Thousand Tongues to Sing to You (2006)
This hymnal was the first French-language hymnal for United Methodists in Europe and Africa. It was edited by S T Kimbrough Jr.*, with Carlton R. Young* as music editor. They were assisted by Jane-Marie Nussbaumer, Claire-Lise Meissner-Schmidt, Abraham Arpellet, Nkemba Ndjungu, and Wesley Macgruder. It was published in the USA by the General Board of Global Ministries, New York, and in France in La Bégarde de Mazenc,...
Now all the woods are sleeping. Paul Gerhardt* (1607-1676), translated by Catherine Winkworth* (1827-1878).
From Lyra Germanica I (Second Edition, 1856), where it replaces the translation 'Now rest the woods again' in the First Edition of LG I (1855). It is perhaps the most faithful and beautiful of the many translations of Gerhardt's much-loved 'Nun ruhen alle Wälder'*. It was the second of the 'Evening Hymns' in LG II, following Nikolaus Herman*'s 'The happy sunshine all is gone'. It had nine...
O Son of God, in Galilee. Anna Hoppe* (1889-1941).
This hymn is often printed with the first line as 'O thou who once in Galilee'. It was published in The Northwestern Lutheran (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1928), with the title 'Jesus, the Great Physician'. It also appeared in Hoppe's Songs for the Church Year (Rock Island, Illinois, 1928), and in an altered version in the American Lutheran Hymnal (Columbus, Ohio, 1930), headed 'For the Deaf Mute' (Companion to LSB, 2019, Volume 1, pp. 1287-89,...
Open the eyes of my heart. Paul Baloche* (1962– ).
'Open the eyes of my heart' (1997) is the most recorded and sung congregational song by Paul Baloche. Disseminated primarily through recordings, it appears in Spanish ('Abre mis ojos, oh Cristo') and English in more than ten hymnals and supplements. Baloche included the song on the album Open the Eyes of My Heart (2000).
The composer participated in the spiritual discipline of journaling. Though not considering himself a songwriter in his...
Once more, before we part. Joseph Hart* (1712-1768).
From the Second Edition, with Supplement of Hart's Hymns, &c. composed on Various Subjects, by J. Hart (1762). We have used the Third Edition (1763). Like the hymn that preceded it, 'Dismiss us with thy blessing, Lord'*, this was not in the first edition of 1759 (JJ, p. 493). It was a two-stanza hymn, the second of five hymns under the heading 'At Dismission':
Once more, before we part, We'll bless the Saviour's Name. Record his...
CLAYTON, Philip Thomas Byard ('Tubby'). b. Maryborough, Queensland, Australia, 12 December 1885; d. 16 December 1972. Both parents, who were first cousins, had 'Byard' in their name: his father managed a sugar plantation. Clayton sailed as an infant with his family to England, where he grew up and gained an education at St Paul's School, London, and Exeter College, Oxford (BA 1907, BA in Theology, First Class, 1909). Following graduation, he received ordination in the Church of England...
KNAPP, Phoebe Palmer. b. New York City, 8 March 1839; d. Poland Springs, Maine, 10 July 1908. She was the daughter of Phoebe Worrall Palmer (1807-1874), evangelist, lay leader, hymn writer, and Walter C. Palmer (1804-1883). Both parents were active in the Methodist Holiness Movement. In 1855 Knapp married wealthy insurance executive Joseph Fairchild Knapp (1832-1891). They lived in the Knapp Mansion, Bedford Ave., Brooklyn, which included a pipe organ; and were active members of St. John's...
Prayer is the soul's sincere desire. James Montgomery* (1771-1854).
Written in 1818, and included in Montgomery's The Christian Psalmist (1825) under the heading 'What is prayer?' It was written at the request of Edward Bickersteth* for his Treatise on Prayer (1818), although it was earlier printed on a broadsheet in 1818 with three other hymns by Montgomery (including 'Lord, teach us how to pray aright'*) for the use of Sunday schools in Sheffield. It was included in the Eighth Edition of...
Rejoice for a brother deceased. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
This is from Wesley's Funeral Hymns (1746). The original text was as follows:
Rejoice for a Brother deceas'd, (Our Loss is his infinite Gain)A Soul out of Prison releas'd, And freed from its bodily Chain:With Songs let us follow his Flight And mount with his Spirit above,Escap'd to the Mansions of Light, And lodg'd in the Eden of Love.
Our Brother the Haven hath gain'd, Out-flying the Tempest and Wind, His Rest He hath...
Return, O wanderer, return. William Bengo Collyer* (1782-1854).
First published in the Evangelical Magazine (May 1806), in six LM stanzas. It had the heading 'Is Ephraim my dear son? &c' (from Jeremiah 31: 18-20), referred to movingly in the final stanza ('Regain thy long-sought rest'), which is hardly ever used. It subsequently appeared in Collyer's Hymns partly collected and partly original (1812), entitled 'The Backslider', signed 'W.B.C.'
Most books print five stanzas. The Plymouth...
SMITH, Rodney ('Gipsy' Smith). b. Epping Forest, near London, 31 March 1860; d. at sea 4 August 1947). He was born in a Romany tent, the fourth of six children of Cornelius Smith (1831-1922) and Mary Welch (ca. 1831-1865). His family made a living selling baskets, clothes pegs, tinware, and through horse-dealing; neither of his parents could read. He grew up 'as wild as the birds, frolicsome as the lambs, and as difficult to catch as the rabbits' (Smith, 1901, Chapter 1). His mother died of...
PRICHARD, Rowland Huw. b. Y Graienyn, Bala, Meirionnydd (Merioneth), 14 January 1811; d. Holywell, Flintshire, 25 January 1887 ('Prichard was the usage in publications of his own time. 'Pritchard' has been used in the 20th century). Prichard worked at Bala as a weaver for most of his life, but moved in 1880 to Holywell in Flintshire to a post with the Welsh Flannel Manufacturing Company, where he remained. He was one of the minor figures working for the improvement of Welsh hymn singing in the...
TREGELLES, Samuel Prideaux. b. Falmouth, Cornwall, 30 January 1813; d. Plymouth, Devon, 24 April 1875. Educated at Falmouth Grammar School, he was employed at the Neath Abbey ironworks in Glamorgan, South Wales from 1829 to 1835. During that time he taught himself Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic, and also learned Welsh, a language in which he sometimes preached. He was brought up as a Quaker, but joined the Plymouth Brethren. His hymns were published in their Hymns for the Poor of the Flock...
Savior, I follow on. Charles S. Robinson* (1829-1899).
This hymn of discipleship bears the inscription fom Isaiah 42: 16: 'And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them'(KJV). Written from the perspective of first person singular, the four stanzas are composed in 6.4.6.4.6.6.6.4 (or 10.10.12.10). The second...
Sing with all the saints in glory. William Josiah Irons* (1812-1883).
With the first line as 'Sing with all the sons of glory', this sustained exercised in magnificence was published in Irons's Psalms and Hymns for the Church (1875), the enlarged edition of Hymns for the Church (1873). According to Young it has been used by American Methodists since 1878 (Young, 1993, p. 599); and it was included in Laudes Domini, edited by Charles S. Robinson* (New York, 1884), and also in the Hymnal (1892) of...
So rest, my Rest. Salomo Franck* (1659-1725), translated by Richard Massie* (1800-1887).
The German text of this hymn was in Franck's Geistliche Poesie (Weimar, 1685). Massie's translation was included in the 1857 edition of William Mercer*'s Church Psalter and Hymn Book (JJ, p. 387-8). It was a valuable hymn for Easter Eve, a profound meditation on the dead body of Christ on the day before his Resurrection:
So rest, my Rest! Thou ever blest! Thy grave with sinners making: By thy precious...
Stay, thou insulted Spirit, stay. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), Volume I, the last of nine 'Penitential Hymns' (see also 'O Jesus my hope'*; the two 1749 volumes have many such hymns of penitence). It had seven stanzas:
Stay, Thou insulted Spirit, stay, Tho' I have done Thee such Despite,Nor cast the Sinner quite away, Nor take thine everlasting Flight.
Tho' I have steel'd my stubborn Heart, And still shook off my guilty Fears,And vex'd, and urg'd Thee...
Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place. Lanny Wolfe* (1942– ).
This song is representative of many coming from Pentecostal and Charismatic congregations during the 1970s, including 'O may the Son of God enfold you'* ('Spirit Song') (1979) by John Wimber*. Wolfe wrote the words of the refrain in Columbus, Mississippi for a dedication service of a new church in 1977. Recounting this moment, Wolfe says that he remembered Jacob's recounting of his dream of a ladder with angels going up...
The hand that was nailed to the cross of woe. Harriet (Hattie) Pierson* (1865-1921).
This dramatic hymn by the writer usually known as 'Hattie H. Pierson' was published in a number of Revival hymnbooks in the early 20th century and after. It is frequently known by its title, 'The hand that was wounded for me' from lines 2 and 4 of the refrain.
By concentrating on the hand and the nails, Pierson brings the agony and suffering of Christ on the Cross vividly to life. The earliest printing in...
The Saviour calls; let every ear. Anne Steele* (1716-1778).
Published in Steele's Poems on Subjects Chiefly Devotional (1760). In the 1780 edition it was entitled 'The Saviour's Invitation', with a reference to 'John VII. 37' ('In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.'). It had five stanzas:
The Saviour calls – let every ear Attend the heavenly sound; Ye doubting souls dismiss your fear, Hope smiles...
The Spirit sends us forth to serve. Delores Dufner* (OSB) (1939- ).
One of the most published hymns by Sr. Dufner, 'The Spirit sends' was written in 1993 and initially published in her first collection, Sing a New Church (Portland, Oregon, 1994). Following the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), one of the places in the liturgy available for congregational singing was at the point of the dismissal (Ite, missa est / Go, the mass is ended) following the Eucharist. 'The...
PARKER, Theodore. b. Lexington, Massachusetts, 24 August 1810; d. Florence, Italy, 10 May 1860. Born into a farming family, he enrolled at Harvard College, but was unable to take up a place there. He taught in a school at nearby Watertown, Massachusetts, from 1832 to 1834, while studying the Harvard curriculum. Although he passed the examinations, as a non-resident he received no degree; but he then proceeded to the Harvard Divinity School, graduating in 1836. He was ordained as a...
There in God's garden stands the Tree of Wisdom. Erik Routley* (1917-1982). Routley wrote this hymn, which is entitled 'The Tree of Life' as part of his editorial work on Cantate Domino (1974, full music 1980), the World Council of Churches' hymnal. The Hungarian hymn 'Paradicsomnak te szép élö Fája' ('You beautiful living tree of Paradise') by Pécselyi Király Imre (c.1585-c.1641) was at that time, in Routley's own words, 'just about all that is yet available from Hungarian Protestantism' (A...
To our Redeemer's glorious name. Anne Steele* (1717-1778).
From Steele's Poems on Subjects chiefly Devotional (1760), where it was entitled 'Praise to the Redeemer'. It had six stanzas, showing Steele at her most enthusiastic:
To our Redeemer's glorious name, Awake the sacred song! O may his love, (immortal flame!) Tune every heart and tongue.
His love, what mortal thought can reach? What mortal tongue display? Imagination's utmost stretch In wonder dies away.
Let wonder still with love...
COLES, Vincent Stuckey Stratton. b. Shepton Beauchamp, Somerset, 27 March 1845; d. Shepton Beauchamp, 9 June 1929. He was the son of the rector of Shepton Beauchamp. He was educated at Eton College, where he befriended Digby Mackworth Dolben, who died young, and Robert Bridges*, and Archibald Philip Primrose, fifth Earl of Rosebery (later Prime Minister). He entered Balliol College in 1864, and graduated with a third-class degree in 1868. He then went to Cuddesdon Theological College in...
JUDE, William Herbert. b. Westleton, near Aldeburgh, Suffolk, September 1852; d. Willesden, Middlesex, 8 August 1922. His family moved to Norfolk when he was a child, and he went to school at Wisbech Grammar School, where he was a precocious musician, composing incidental music for Shakespeare's plays. Realising his talent, his parents sent him to Liverpool, where he was looked after by an uncle, D.C. Browne, himself a composer and organist. At the age of 14 he became the organist of a church...
We pray thee, heavenly Father. Vincent Stuckey Stratton Coles* (1845-1929).
According to JJ, this was 'written for a Communicants' class' (p. 242). In a letter to W.H. Frere, dated 30 Dec 1909, Coles said that it was written before his ordination in 1869 (see Maurice Frost, Historical Companion to Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1962, p. 351). The two statements are not necessarily contradictory. It was published in the SPCK Church Hymns (1871) and in the Second Edition of A&M (1875). It is a...
LLEWELLYN, William Benjamin James. b. Farnworth, near Widnes, Lancashire 6 May 1925. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he read Natural Sciences, and (after National Service) the Royal Academy of Music (1948). At the RAM he ran the madrigal group, becoming co-founder and conductor of the 'Linden Singers', which performed regularly on the BBC and elsewhere during the 1950s. In 1950 he was appointed as assistant music master to John Wilson* at Charterhouse School; he succeeded...
GANNETT, William Channing. b. Boston, Massachusetts, 13 March 1840; d. Rochester, New York State, 15 December 1923. He was a member of a great Unitarian dynasty of the 19th century in the United States: he was the son of Ezra Stiles Gannett (1801-1871), a friend of the notable preacher and scholar William Ellery Channing (1780-1842, after whom William Channing Gannett was named, and by whom he was baptized); and the daughter of Anna Linzee Tilden (d. 1846: see Wider, 1997).
William Channing...
MERRILL, William Pierson. b. East Orange, New Jersey, 10 January 1867; d. New York, 19 June 1954. Merrill was educated at Rutgers College in New Brunswick, New Jersey (BA 1887, MA 1890), and Union Theological Seminary in New York City (BD 1890), where he also served as organist. He was bass soloist in the professional quartet at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, and a music consultant for the Presbyterian Hymnal (1895) to which he contributed four tunes. Merrill was pastor of Presbyterian...
Workman of God! O lose not heart. Frederick William Faber* (1814-1863).
The hymn that begins with this line is a selection of verses from a hymn of 19 stanzas in Faber's Jesus and Mary: or, Catholic Hymns for Singing and Reading (1849). The hymn was entitled 'The Right Must Win'. It began 'Oh it is hard to work for God', and this has been used as the first line of the hymn in some books (with 'O' rather than 'Oh'), such as the Scottish Church Hymnary (1898) and BCH (1933).
Most modern books...
Almost persuaded now to believe. Philip P. Bliss* (1838-1876)
According to Taylor (1989, p. 7) this was first published in The Charm: A Collection of Sunday School Music (Chicago, 1871). JJ, p. 150, quotes a source to the effect that it was inspired by a sermon from a Revd Brundage, who said, 'He who is almost persuaded is almost saved, but to be almost saved is to be entirely lost.'
The hymn is in three stanzas, sometimes printed with an abundance of quotation marks, which increases the drama....
Away with our fears,/ the glad morning appears. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), where it had fourteen stanzas. It was entitled 'On his Birth-day', and began with the personal 'Away with my Fears'. In the 1780 Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists it appeared in the section 'For Believers Rejoicing', shortened to 12 stanzas. The omitted ones were 2 and 8:
2. No grievous Alloy
Shall diminish the Joy
I to Day from my Maker...
BIANCO da Siena. b. date unknown; d. 1434. Little is known of his life. He was born at Anciolina, a small village north-west of Arezzo, Tuscany. In 1367 he joined an Order of Lay Brothers, the Jesuates, established by the Blessed John Colombinus of Siena (the Order was abolished by Pope Clement IX in 1668). He is said to have lived in Venice for some years, and to have died there.
His hymns remained in manuscript until they were published by Telesforo Bini, entitled Laudi Spirituali del Bianco...
TAMBLYN, Bill. b. Birmingham, 5 December 1941. He was educated at University College, Durham, during which time he began to study plainchant with Fr Laurence Hollis at Ushaw College and converted to Roman Catholicism. On leaving university, he became, first, cantor and then for ten years, director of music at Our Lady of Grace and St Edward, Chiswick, West London. Tamblyn edited Church Music until 1974, and during the late 1960s he travelled with John Michael East (director of the Church Music...
GARVE, Carl Bernhard. b. Jeinsen near Hannover, 24 January 1763; d. 21 June 1841. He was educated at a school of the Moravian Brotherhood, becoming a teacher in a secondary school at Niesky (1784) and a lecturer in the theological college of the Brotherhood (1789). There he was introduced to the idealist and romantic spirit, which saw the influence of the Enlightenment as pernicious. He was transferred to work in the archives of the Unitas Fratrum in 1797. He became a preacher in Amsterdam...
Come all whoe'er have set. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788)
From Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), the two volumes issued by Charles Wesley in his own name, though with his brother's approval. This was headed 'Another'; it was one of three poems entitled 'On a Journey'. The first prays for guidance, but the other two are confident expressions of a progress towards the promised land, 'the New Jerusalem above,/ The seat of everlasting love' (stanza 2 lines 5-6).
The hymn had five 6-line stanzas, marking...
FOX, David. b. Pontypool, Glamorgan, 23 January 1956; d. ca. 21 June 2008. He was educated at University College, London, and Westminster College, Oxford (PGCE). After a short time as a teacher of Chemistry, he became a minister of the United Reformed Church in 1983 (Certificate of Theology, Mansfield College, Oxford), and became a much-loved minister in North Wales, followed by seven years at Elfed Avenue United Church, Penarth, South Wales. He published Thy Various Praise (1986, with 26...
MEECE, David. b. Humble, Texas, 26 May 1952. Meece, a contemporary Christian musician with more than thirty singles topping the CCM Top 10 charts, has performed throughout Australia, Canada, Asia, Europe, and South Africa, and as guest musician in Billy Graham Crusades, and other Christian television broadcasts. By his own account, Meece turned to music at an early age as a distraction from his abusive, alcoholic father, distinguished himself as a child prodigy and began touring as a concert...
Dear Master, in whose life I see. John Hunter* (1848-1917).
This was published in his Hymns of Faith and Life (1896), having previously appeared in 'The Monthly Calendar', the magazine of Trinity Congregational Church, Glasgow, where Hunter was minister from to 1887 to 1901 (and again later). It is a short and pithy two-stanza hymn, which has appealed to many hymnbook compilers:
Dear Master, in whose life I seeAll that I would, but fail to be,Let Thy clear light for ever shine,To shame and...
Deep in our hearts. John Wesley Oldham* (1945– ).
Though John Wesley Oldham (b. 1945) has written more than eight thousand hymns and songs, 'Deep in our hearts' is his most popular and beloved. Written in 1994 while walking in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the text came to Oldham over the course of about an hour and a half. He subsequently sent it to composer Ronald Klusmeier* to be set to music, which did not occur until 1996, just prior to its performance in concert. It was subsequently published with...
Didache.
This is a short Greek text, Didache kyriou dia ton dodeka apostolon ethesin ('The teaching of the Lord through the twelve apostles'), of uncertain date, but thought to be one of the earliest instructive manuals of the Christian church, perhaps originating from Syria. It has sixteen sections, beginning with 'the two ways and the first commandment', and ending with 'Watchfulness; the coming of the Lord'. It is a brief introduction to the Christian life, beginning with the two ways, 'one...
Du hast uns, Herr, gerufen. Kurt Rommel* (1926-2011).
Written in 1967 at Schwenningen am Neckar (Villingen-Schwenningen), and first sung there. It was originally in two separate parts of three stanzas each (1-3, 4-6). It was published in a local collection for family worship at the Pauluskirche in 1968, and then in Gott schenkt Freiheit. Neue Lieder im Gottesdienst (Berlin, 1968) and 111 Kinderlieder zur Bibel. Neue Lieder für Schule, Kirche und Haus, edited by Gerd Watkinson (Freiburg im...
Erschienen ist der herrlich Tag. Nikolaus Herman* (ca. 1500-1561). This Easter hymn was first published in Herman's Die Sontags Evangelia uber des gantze Jar, in Gesenge verfasset, für die Kinder und christlichen Haussvetter (Wittenberg, 1560). It had fourteen 4-line stanzas, and was entitled 'Ein new Geistlich Lied, von der frölichen osterstehung unsers Heilands Jhesu Christi, für die Jungfrewlein in der Megdlein schul im Joachimsthal' ('A new Spiritual Song of the Joyful Resurrection of our...
Father, behold us here. John Murray* (ca. 1740-1815).
This is the third of five hymns, all first published in the 1782 edition of Christian Hymns, Poems and Sacred Songs, Sacred to the Praise of God, Our Saviour, compiled by English Universalist James Relly and his brother John Relly. The book was first published in London in 1754, and the 1782 edition was published in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for Noah Parker (1734-1787), a convert of Murray's and preacher in Portsmouth (Brewster, pp....
For your holy book we thank you. Ruth Carter* (1900-1982).
This is believed to be the only hymn that Ruth Carter wrote (Milgate, 1982, p. 140). Certainly it is the only one that is known to hymnbooks. It has the immense benefit of a simple but instantly memorable first line, and it is unusual, and perhaps unique, in giving thanks for translators.
Written for a Sunday school class at Buckhurst Hill, ca. 1932, it was sent to the Sunday School Union and appeared in the Graded Schools Intermediate...
MATHESON, George. b. Glasgow, 27 March 1842; d. North Berwick, 28 August 1906. The son of a Glasgow merchant, he was educated at Glasgow Academy and the University of Glasgow, where he won several prizes. He graduated in 1866 and was licensed by the Presbytery of Glasgow in the same year. After serving a probationary year at Trinity Church, Sandyford, he was ordained and inducted as minister of Innellan in 1868. In 1886 he moved to Edinburgh to be minister of St Bernard's Church. He died in...
God be with you till we meet again. Jeremiah Eames Rankin* (1828-1904).
Written in 1880 as a four-stanza exercise on 'Goodbye' ('God be with ye'), and published in Gospel Bells (Chicago, 1880), edited by Rankin, J.W. Bischoff (1850-1909) and Otis F. Presbrey (1820-1900). This was during Rankin's pastorate at First Congregational Church, Washington, DC, and the hymn was first sung there. Rankin gave the words to two musicians, and chose the one by William Gould Tomer (1832-1896) now called GOD...
God is love, his the care. Percy Dearmer* (1867-1936).
Written for SofP (1925) and placed there in the section 'For Children', with a note 'Also for adults'. It was attributed to 'S.P.', one of Dearmer's many coded pseudonyms (in SofPE it appears with another, 'A.F.', and in the 'General' section). It was printed in Songs of Praise for Boys and Girls (1929), and in many other hymn books for children. Dearmer said that it was 'devised to convey if possible some fundamental theology in a simple...
Good Christian men, rejoice. Latin, possibly by Heinrich Suso* (1295-1366), translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866).
This translation of one of the many texts of 'In dulci iubilo'* was made by Neale for his Carols for Christmastide (1853). It contains an extra line in each verse because Thomas Helmore*, who transcribed the tune from Piae Cantiones (1582), misread the notation and added two long notes, for which Neale supplied repeated words in line 4:
Good Christian men, rejoice,With heart,...
Good Joseph had a garden. Alda Marguerite Milner-Barry* (1875-1940).
This delightful Easter hymn was first published in the Church & School Hymnal (1926), which included six of Milner-Barry's hymns. This one is unusual in its mention of Joseph of Arimathea, who is the 'good Joseph' of the opening:
Good Joseph had a garden, Close by that sad green hillWhere Jesus died a bitter death To save mankind from ill.
One evening in that garden, Their faces dark with gloom,They laid the Saviour's...
Heavenly Father, may thy blessing. William Charter Piggott* (1872-1943).
This was written to be sung to the American tune SALTASH, also called PLEADING SAVIOUR because it was set to the hymn beginning 'Now the Saviour stands a pleading'*. The tune was printed in EH (1906) to a hymn by Christopher Wordsworth* beginning 'Heavenly Father, send thy blessing'*, on which this hymn is clearly modelled. Piggott takes Wordsworth's three stanzas, rich in the traditional imagery of Father, Son, and Holy...
BUTLER, Henry Montagu. b. Gayton, Northamptonshire, 2 July 1833; d. Cambridge, 14 January 1918. The son of a former headmaster of Harrow School and Dean of Peterborough, he was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1855, MA 1858). He was a tutor and Fellow of Trinity College (1855-60), taking Holy Orders (deacon and priest, 1859). At the age of 26 he was appointed headmaster of Harrow School, where he remained for more than 25 years (1859-85), becoming one of the great headmasters of the...
Hymns of the City (1989). This is the title of a collection edited by John J. Vincent, a Methodist minister, and published by the Urban Theology Unit at Sheffield (1989, revised 1998). It is a collection of 31 texts (32 in the second edition), attempting to give voice to Christians living in cities, providing hymns for and from small congregations in inner city and housing estate churches. The preface claims that such hymns are about people's real experience and not 'the endless praise for no...
I am Thine, O Lord. Fanny Crosby* (1820-1915).
Written in 1874 at the home of William Howard Doane* in Cincinnati, Ohio. After a conversation one evening, Crosby recited the words to Doane the following morning. Doane wrote them down, and composed the tune to fit them. The hymn was published in Brightest and Best (1875), one of many hymnals for Sunday schools edited by Robert Lowry* and Doane, with a reference to Hebrews 10: 22: 'Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,...
I give my heart to Thee. Ray Palmer* (1808-1887).
This is a translation of a Latin text, 'Cor meum tibi dedo, Jesu dulcissime', of unknown authorship. It was printed in Psalteriolum cantionum Catholicarum (Cologne, 1722). Palmer took his text from Hermann Adalbert Daniel*, Thesaurus Hymnologicus II. 370. His translation was made in August 1868, and published in Christ in Song (New York, 1869), edited by Philip Schaff*. Schaff's note on this 'charming Latin poem…freely and happily reproduced by...
I hunger and I thirst. John Samuel Bewley Monsell* (1811-1875).
This is from Monsell's Hymns of Love and Praise for the Church's Year (Second Edition, 1866), and then included in The Parish Hymnal after the Order of The Book of Common Prayer (1873). It is designated for Septuagesima. It is a deceptively simple hymn, with a fine use of biblical typology in stanza 1 (from 1 Corinthians 10: 4, depending on Exodus 17: 1-6; and from Exodus 16: 12-18):
I hunger and I thirst, Jesus, my manna be;Ye...
I stand amazed in the presence. Charles Hutchinson Gabriel* (1856-1932).
First published in Praises, edited by Edwin O. Excell* (Chicago, 1905), one of the many collections pouring from the Chicago evangelical presses in the early years of the 20th century. Although it does not have one of Gabriel's ringing choruses, it has lasted well, and is found in many books including editions of the Baptist Hymnal (1956, 1975, 1991, 2008) and UMH. In an early form, the text was as follows:
I stand amazed...
I will make the darkness light. Charles Price Jones* (1865-1949).
'I will make the darkness light' is one of Jones's best-known hymns both inside Church of Christ (Holiness) USA (COCHUSA) congregations and beyond. Often sung as a solo, the text of this hymn reassures the hearer and singer that regardless of the circumstance, victory and provision are the only outcomes with Christ.
The hymn was written ca. 1907 (Jones [1935], 1988, p. 70). In addition to the denomination's hymnals, it has...
Ich steh an deiner Krippen hier. Paul Gerhardt* (1607-1676).
This touching Christmas hymn was first published in Johann Crüger* and Christoph Runge*, D.M. Luthers und andere vornehmen geistreichen und gelehrten Männer geistliche Lieder und Psalmen (Berlin, 1653) (the 'Crüger-Runge Gesangbuch'). It had fifteen 7-line stanzas, 9 of which are found in EG (EG 37). The omitted stanzas were 2 ('Du hast mit deiner Lieb erfüllt/ Mein Adern und Geblüte'), 6 ('Vergönne mir, o Jesulein,/ Daß ich dein...
HUBER, Jane McAfee Parker (née Parker). b. Jinan, China, 24 October 1926; d. Hanover, Indiana, 15 November 2008. Born to Presbyterian missionary parents, Jane Parker spent her youth in Hanover, Indiana. She attended Wellesley College in Massachusetts, married William A. Huber in 1947, and graduated from Hanover College (BA, 1948). An active Presbyterian, Huber emphasized peacemaking, justice, and inclusiveness in her ministry and her hymn texts. For many years she ran a feature, 'Ask Jane', in...
Jesu, meine Freude. Johann Franck* (1618-1677).
First published in 1653 in the book published by Christoph Runge* and Johann Crüger* (sometimes called 'the Crüger-Runge Gesangbuch'), D.M. Luthers und anderer vornehmen geistreichen und gelehrten Männer Geistliche Lieder und Psalmen. It had six 9-line stanzas, all of which are found in EG, where it appears in the 'Geborgen in Gottes Liebe' section (EG 396). According to JJ, p. 591, it was also in Christoph Peter's Andachts Zymbeln, Oder...
Jesu, thy boundless love to me. Paul Gerhardt* (1607-1676), translated by John Wesley* (1703-1791).
This is a translation of Gerhardt's 'O Jesu Christ, mein schönstes Licht'*, a very beautiful hymn of 16 verses based on a prayer in Johann Arndt*'s Paradiesgärtlein (1612). Wesley translated all 16 stanzas, turning Gerhardt's 9-line stanzas into 6-line ones. He found the hymn in the Moravian Das Gesang-Buch der Gemeine in Herrnhut (1735), and translated it on the way home from Georgia, saying...
BRUN, Johan Nordahl. b. 21 March 1745; 26 July 1816. Born at Byneset (now in Norway), he was educated at the University of Trondheim. He became a private tutor, and accompanied his pupil to Soro in Denmark (where, according to the Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal, 1942, p. 488, he took the theological examination after only three months' study and was placed in the lowest possible grade; he re-took the examination at Copenhagen in 1767, after more study, and did better). After periods as a...
BLUMHARDT, Johann Christoph (the elder). b. Stuttgart, 16 July 1805; d. Bad Boll, Württemberg, 25 February 1880. Born the son of a master baker, he studied theology at the Protestant Stift at Tübingen. After a curacy at Dürmenz he was appointed lecturer at the Mission Institute at Basel, led by his uncle Christian Gottlieb Blumhardt. In his year as auxiliary preacher, 1837, he took up the post of priest at Möttlingen as assistant to Christian Gottlob Barth*, where he helped a sick believer,...
KRAUSE, Jonathan. b. Hirschberg, 5 April 1701; d. Liegnitz, 13 December 1762. According to JJ, from which the following biographical facts are taken, he was from a prosperous family, and educated at the Universities of Leipzig and Wittenberg. After a period as a private tutor he was ordained on 20 August 1732 as Diaconus of Probsthayn, near Liegnitz, and in 1739 he became chief pastor of the Church of St Peter and St Paul at Liegnitz. He edited a Liegnitz Gesang Buch (1745).
In JJ James Mearns*...
JULIAN of Norwich. b. 1342; d. ca. 1416. Her anchorite cell was at the Parish Church of St Julian, Conisford, Norwich, and this may be the origin of her name. Little is known for certain about her life, although she became an anchoress before 1394.
She wrote The Revelations of Divine Love, reflections on sixteen visions of Christ crucified which she received in May 1373. A short version was written at some point in the years following the vision; the longer version (on which her reputation...
Dseesmu Grahmata Biskapu Metodistu baznizai Latwija (Rigâ, 1924) [The Latvian Methodist Episcopal Hymnal].
The Latvian Methodist Episcopal hymnal (cited as LAMEH 1924) has some similarities with that of the Lithuanian Methodist Episcopal Hymnal (cited as LIMEH 1923, see 'Lithuanian Methodist hymnody'*). Both hymnals included a preface by George Albert Simons*, the Methodist Episcopal Superintendent of the Baltic States; both were heavily dependent on the Gesangbuch der Bischöflichen Methodisten...
SOWERBY, Leo. b. Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1 May 1895; d. Fort Clinton, Ohio, 7 July 1968. Sowerby came to Chicago, Illinois, at the age of 18 to study music and spent most of the rest of his life in that city. Although largely self-taught as an organist, he mastered that instrument and held important posts as a church organist. In 1918 he received a master of music degree from the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, and in 1921 he was awarded the first American Prix de Rome, spending the...
Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier,/ deinem Worte nachzuleben. Benjamin Schmolck* (1672-1737). First published in Schmolck's Heilige Flammen der himmlisch-gesinnter Seele (1704), in seven 6-line stanzas. It was entitled 'Gute Gedanken der Paten, welche mit einem Kinde zur Tauffe reisen' ('Good Reflections of the Godparents, who are on their way to Baptism with the child'). It is found in EG in the 'Taufe und Konfirmation' ('Baptism and Confirmation') section (EG 206). The omitted verses were 4 ('Wach...
ADEY, Lionel. b. Wednesbury, near Birmingham, UK, 4 January 1925; d. Cadboro Bay, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, 17 September 2009. Adey took his undergraduate degrees at Birmingham University, and his PhD in English at the University of Leicester. He taught in grammar schools at Sheffield and Leicester until he accepted a teaching post at the University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, in the Canadian centennial year, 1967.
Adey wrote two ground-breaking studies on the function of hymns in...
Love is the key of life and death. Christina Georgina Rossetti* (1830-1894).
The date of composition of this poem is not known. It was first published in Rossetti's The Face of the Deep: a devotional commentary on the Apocalypse (New York: SPCK, 1892). In this edition it was entitled 'The Feast of All Saints'. In the Second Edition (London and New York, 1893), it was entitled 'The Least of All Saints', and this is the title retained in The Poetical Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti, edited...
COCKBURN-CAMPBELL, Margaret (née Malcolm). b. 1808; d. Alphington, near Exeter, Devonshire, 6 February 1841. She was the daughter of a General, Sir John Malcolm, GCB, who was a friend of the Duke of Wellington. She married her cousin, Sir Alexander Thomas Cockburn-Campbell, in 1827. He was one of the founders of the Plymouth Brethren, and he and his wife must have been closely associated with them in their early years during her short life-time. One year after her death, some of her hymns were...
BRIDGES, Matthew. b. Maldon, Essex, 14 July 1800; d. Sidmouth, Devon, 6 October 1894. He was brought up in the Church of England, but converted to Roman Catholicism in 1848. He lived in Quebec, Canada, for a time, but died in England at Convent Villa, a guest house of the Convent of the Assumption at Sidmouth. He wrote Jerusalem Regained, a poem (1825), The Roman Empire under Constantine the Great (1828), and another book of poems, Babbicombe; or, Visions of memory. With other poems (1842). The...
BEVAN, Maurice Guy Smalman. b. probably Shropshire, 10 March 1921; d. London, 20 June 2006. Bevan came from a line of Anglican clergymen. He was brought up in Shropshire, and educated at Shrewsbury School and Magdalen College, Oxford, which he left after a year to do military service in World War II. After the war he became a member of the St Paul's Cathedral choir as a bass baritone. A colleague in the choir, the counter-tenor Alfred Deller, founded the Deller Consort in 1950, of which Bevan...
Mit Freuden zart zu dieser Fahrt. Georg Vetter* (ca. 1536- 1599).
This hymn, 'with tender joy on this journey' (the interpretation of the first line is problematic), is found in EG in the Ostern (Easter) section (EG 108). It is a hymn on the resurrection, 'Von der aufferstehung Christi'. It is found in Wackernagel, Das Deutsche Kirchenlied IV. 459-61, in 13 verses of 11 lines (the internal rhymes in the EG text, lines 1, 5, 6, are separate lines in DDK: the EG text therefore has 7-line...
My soul is now united. ?Hugh Bourne* (1771-1852) and ?William Sanders (1799- 1882?). First published in the General Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs for Camp Meetings, Revivals, &c. This first appeared in 1809, but no copy has been found in a British library. In a later edition of 1824 it appears as two successive hymns of three verses each, suggesting that it was originally a single hymn of six verses. Each hymn was signed 'W.S. & H.B.', for William Sanders and Hugh...
Now every child that dwells on earth. Eleanor Farjeon* (1881-1965).
In The Oxford Book of Carols (OBC, 1928) this was printed in 'Part V, Carols by Modern Writers and Composers', with the note 'Copyright, 1925, by Oxford University Press'. Thus suggests that it was first published in Farjeon's Nuts and May, though this has not been verified. It is a delightful Christmas poem, in five stanzas, each ending with the refrain, 'Little Christ Jesus/ Our brother is born.' In OBC it was printed, with...
O happy band of pilgrims. John Mason Neale* (1818-1866), based on a Greek text.
First published in Neale's Hymns of the Eastern Church (1862) as representative of the 'Third Period' of Greek hymnody (no dates given, but after 820). It was in a section ascribed to St Joseph of the Studium, but according to JJ (p. 606) this was an error.
This hymn was entitled 'The Pilgrims of Jesus' and described as 'merely a Cento from the Canon on SS. Chrysanthus and Daria (March 19.)'. In the Third Edition of...
O happy land of Paradise. John Henry Lester* (ca. 1845-ca. 1904).
First published in the Lichfield Church Mission Hymn Book (1883). The date of composition is not known. The hymn was subsequently printed in the Mirfield Mission Hymn Book* (1907). It had four stanzas, each beginning 'O happy land of Paradise!/ Sweet…'.
O happy land of Paradise! Sweet home of rest above, Where faithful souls are satisfied In God's eternal love, For Jesus' sake they laboured on, And in their toil were...
O Jesu Christ, mein schönstes Licht. Paul Gerhardt* (1607-1676).
First published in Johann Crüger* and Christoph Runge*, D.M. Luthers und andere vornehmen geistreichen und gelehrten Männer geistliche Lieder und Psalmen (Berlin, 1653) (the 'Crüger-Runge Gesangbuch') in sixteen 8-line stanzas. It was headed 'Nach Johann Arnds “Paradiesgärtlein”, Goslar 1621, II, 5: “Gebet um die Liebe Christi”'. Johann Arndt* (1555-1621) was a devotional writer whose work had a wide influence on Lutheran piety,...
EBER, Paul. b. Kitzingen-am-Main, Bavaria, 8 November 1511; d. Wittenberg, 10 December 1569. The son of a tailor, he was educated at Ansbach and at Nürnberg, where he was taught by the Latin hymn-writer Joachim Kammermeister/Camerarius, and later at the University of Wittenberg (1532-36), then at the height of its Lutheran influence. He became a prominent member of the Wittenberg community, and a special friend of Philipp Melanchthon*, whom he succeeded as leader of the Lutherans in 1560. He...
BAELZ, Peter Richard. b. London, 17 July 1923; d. Llandrindod Wells, Wales, 15 March 2000. The son of non-church-going Lutheran parents, he was educated at Dulwich College and Christ's College, Cambridge (BA 1944, MA 1948), where he won a tennis blue; followed by Westcott House, Cambridge and ordination (deacon 1947, priest 1950, the delay caused by ill-health). He served two curacies (Bournville, Birmingham, 1947-50, Sherborne with Castleton and Lillington, diocese of Salisbury, 1950-52)...
'Proclaim,' saith Christ, 'my wondrous grace. James Newton* (1732-1790).
This hymn appeared in three stanzas in Ash and Evans*'s Collection of Hymns for Public Worship (Bristol, 1769), in John Rippon*'s Selection of Hymns, from the best authors (1787), and in other early Baptist books. In 1769 it was entitled 'A Baptismal Hymn'; in 1787 'After Baptism. Mark xvi. 16'. The 1769 text was:
'PROCLAIM,' saith Christ, 'my wonderous Grace 'To all the Sons of Men;'He that believes, and is baptiz'd, ...
Rachel's voice from Ramah, weeping. Rosalind Brown* (1953- ).
This hymn was written in March 1996, following the news of the massacre at Dunblane, Scotland, when sixteen children and their teacher were killed. It begins with a reference to Jeremiah 31: 15: 'a voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children ...', in which Rachel, the beloved wife of Jacob, weeps for her descendants, her 'children', who, as a result of historical events, are no more....
Rejoice, O people, in the mounting years. Albert Frederick Bayly* (1901-1984).
This was Albert Bayly's first attempt at hymn writing. Requested in 1945 for the Triple Jubilee of the London Missionary Society, it was published in five 6-line stanzas with a tune by Eric Shave in Faith's Transcendent Dower, the Northumbrian Triple Jubilee booklet. A copy in leaflet form was seen by Cyril Taylor*, who asked Bayly to revise it for BBCHB. An additional stanza was written for the 750th anniversary...
CONYERS, Richard. b. Lastingham, Yorkshire, February 1725; d. Deptford, south-east London, 23 April 1786. He was educated at the Free Grammar School, Coxwold, and Jesus College, Cambridge (BA 1745, MA 1749). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1745, priest 1755), serving as curate of Kirby Misperton, Yorkshire, 1745-50; rector of Helmsley, Yorkshire, 1756-75 (also curate of Kirkdale, 1756-62, and rector of Kirby Misperton, 1763-68). He moved from his native Yorkshire to St Paul's, Deptford, in 1775,...
Salve caput cruentatum. Latin, probably by Arnulf von Löwen* (ca. 1200- ca. 1251). This is the final hymn in a series of seven Passion-tide hymns, 'Ad singula membra Christi patientis rhythmus', addressed to the body of Christ hanging on the Cross, as follows:
Salve mundi salutare (to the feet)
Salve Jesu, Rex sanctorum (to the knees)
Salve Jesu, pastor bone (to the hands)
Salve Jesus, summe bonus (to the side)
Salve salus mea, Deus (to the breast)
Summi Regis cor aveto (to the heart)
Salve...
JOHNSON, Samuel. b. Salem, Massachusetts, 10 October 1822; d. North Andover, Massachusetts, 19 February 1882. Johnson graduated from Harvard College (AB, 1842) and Harvard Divinity School (1846). Always a Unitarian and a free thinker even by the liberal standards of Unitarianism, he formed and served the Free Church at Lynn, Massachusetts (1853-70). He 'looked with distaste upon all parties, sects, lodges, and other organized forms of social groups… and never allowed it to affiliate with the...
Shall we not love thee, Mother dear. Sir Henry Williams Baker* (1821-1877).
This was written by Baker for the Appendix (1868) of the First Edition of A&M. It had eight stanzas, and was set for 'The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary', with a note that it could be used 'on other Festivals of St Mary'. It began with two rhetorical questions:
Shall we not love thee, Mother dear, Whom Jesus loves so well? And in His Temple year by year Thy joy and honour tell?
The third line, which...
Silence! Frenzied, unclean spirit. Thomas Troeger* (1945-2022).
From Troeger's New Hymns for the Lectionary: to Glorify the Maker's Name (New York and Oxford, 1986), reprinted in Borrowed Light (1994). It is based on the account of the man with the unclean spirit in the synagogue (Mark 1: 21-28). The first verse is highly dramatic, followed by a salutary reflection:
Lord, the demons still are thriving
In the grey cells of the mind…
Here the phrase 'grey cells', from Agatha Christie's Monsieur...
Sing them over again to me. Philip P. Bliss* (1838-1876).
First published in the first number of a Sunday-school newspaper, Words of Life, edited by Fleming H. Revell (New York, 1874), with the tune by Bliss himself. The hymn may have been the inspiration for Revell's title: it is sometimes known as 'Wonderful Words of Life'. That phrase is like a bell sounding the message of salvation throughout the hymn:
Sing them over again to me, Wonderful words of Life,Let me more of their beauty see ...
The daylight fades, The evening shades. Thomas O. Summers* (1812-1882).
This is a companion piece to 'The morning bright, with rosy light.'*. It was written, Summers recorded, 'about 1849' (JJ, p. 1102). It was written for his second daughter, born in 1847. Following the example of the first hymn, it was written in the same metre, and had three stanzas:
The daylight fades, The evening shades, Are gathering round my head; Father above I praise that love, Which nightly guards my bed.
...
There is no sorrow, Lord, too light. Jane Crewdson* (1809-1863).
This is from 'A Little While', and Other Poems, (Manchester, 1864), where is began 'There is no grief, however light', placed under the quotation '“Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you.” - 1 Peter v.vii.'. However, like Crewdson's 'Oh, for the peace that floweth as a river'*, this may have been known earlier, because it was printed in Benjamin Hall Kennedy*'s Hymnologia Christiana (1863).With the changed first...
There's a friend for little children. Albert Midlane* (1825-1909).
Written in February 1859, and first published in December 1859, in the magazine Good News for the Little Ones. This popular children's hymn illustrates the companionship of Jesus and the rewards of heaven with simplicity and vitality. Its short lines, unadorned language and simple rhymes feature positive images, such as 'the bright blue sky' (repeated in every stanza), domestic cheerfulness and pleasure ('a home of peace and...
Thou art my life; if thou but turn away. Francis Quarles* (1592-1644). This hymn is an extract, consisting of verses 3-5 and 16, from a longer poem, 'Why dost thou shade thy lovely face?', which appeared as no.vii in book 3 of Quarles's Emblemes (1635). The poem was accompanied by a quotation from Job 13:24 'Wherefore hidest thou thy face and holdest me for thine enemy?'. The extract was included in MHB and was selected for SofPE by Percy Dearmer* , who considered it a better hymn on John...
To Thee, O Comforter divine. Frances Ridley Havergal* (1836-1879).
Written 11 August 1872, at Perry Barr, Birmingham, and published in Under the Surface (1874) with the title 'The Faithful Comforter' and the quotation '“The Holy Ghost – He is faithful.” – HEB. ix. 15, 23.' (this seems to be a mistake for Hebrews 10: 15, 23). It had eight three-line stanzas:
To Thee, O Comforter Divine,For all thy grace and power benign, Sing we Alleluia!
To Thee, Whose faithful love had placeIn God's great...
HERBERGER, Valerius. b. Fraustadt, Silesia (now Wschowa, Poland), 21 April 1562; d. Fraustadt, 18 May 1627. He was educated at Fraustadt and Freystadt (Kożuchów), before university study at Frankfurt-an-der-Oder and Leipzig. He returned to Fraustadt as a Latin teacher (1584), and was appointed deacon of the town church (1590). Sometime before 1599 he became 'Oberpfarrer' (chief pastor) of the town church, but in 1604 the Roman Catholics succeeded in evicting the Lutherans from it: Herberger...
HIGHAM, (William) Vernon. b. Caernarfon, Gwynedd, North Wales, 1926; d. 14 September 2016. His bilingual family moved to Lancashire in 1939 after years of widespread poverty, and with them he attended the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Chapel in Bolton. When aged 14 he was asked to write about the 1859 Welsh revival, and during his research a quest for authentic revival was born. After training at Trinity College (Coleg y Drindod), Carmarthen, he taught in Cardiff and Bolton; then in 1953, while...
Vom Himmel kam der Engel Schar. Martin Luther* (1483-1546).
Written in 1543, to the same metre as 'Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her'*, and also for the Christmas season, although this is a very different kind of hymn from 'Vom Himmel hoch'. This one, beginning with the heavenly host ('der Engel Schar') is not only much shorter; but also, instead of the child-like delight in the story, it concentrates on the significance of the Incarnation, in which we become God's kindred ('nun worden Gotts...
SMITH, Walter Chalmers. b. Aberdeen, 5 December 1824; d. Kinbuck, near Dunblane, 19 September 1908. He was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and the University of Aberdeen (MA 1841), followed by training for the ministry at New College, Edinburgh. He was ordained as pastor of the Free Church of Scotland, Chadwell Street, Islington, London, in 1850, subsequently serving as minister of Orwell Free Church, Milnathort, Kinross-shire (1854-58), Roxburgh Free Church, Edinburgh (1858-62) and the...
Well worth the long ascent. Constance Coote* (1844-1936).
This hymn for the feast of the Transfiguration was dated 1907 in Lady Victoria Carbery*'s Church Hymnal for the Christian Year (1917), in which it was one of two hymns by Lady Coote. It was republished in the 1920 edition. It had seven stanzas:
Well worth the long ascent, Up to the lonely height, -Where Jesus led His chosen three To share that wondrous night.
There - where the glory streamed From that belovèd Face,There -...
Where is this stupendous stranger. Christopher Smart* (1722-1771).
This hymn is from Smart's Hymns and Spiritual Songs for the Fasts and Festivals of the Church of England, published with A Translation of the Psalms of David in 1765. The hymn was entitled 'The Nativity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ'. It had nine verses, of which four (1, 2, 3, 9) are usually selected to make the hymn in modern books. The first verse has been altered from the original line 2: 'Swains of Solyma, advise'...
ARENDS, Wilhelm Erasmus. b. Langenstein, near Halberstadt, 5 February 1677; d. Halberstadt, 16 May 1721. He was born at into a clerical family: his father died when he was two years old, and he was brought up by an uncle, also a pastor. He studied under August Hermann Francke* in Halle before becoming pastor at Krottorf (Halberstadt), and then pastor of St Peter and St Paul in Halberstadt, where he died in office. In the Deutsches Evangelisches Kirchen-Gesangbuch, and in earlier books, his hymn...
HYDE, William DeWitt. b. Winchendon, Massachusetts, 23 September 1858; d. Brunswick, Maine, 29 June 1917. Hyde was educated at Phillips Academy and Harvard College (BA 1879), followed by a year at Union Theological Seminary, and then two years at Andover Theological Seminary (BD 1882). He was ordained as a Congregational minister in 1883 to a church at Paterson, New Jersey; but in 1885 he became president and professor of philosophy at Bowdoin College, then a small institution, which Hyde...
STOREY, William George. b. Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, 23 April 1923; d. South Bend, Indiana, 16 January 2014. He was educated in public schools before entering the Capuchin Franciscan Order in 1942. He proceeded to Assumption College, the University of Western Ontario, Windsor, Ontario (BA, MA), and Notre Dame University, near South Bend, Indiana (PhD, 1959). In 1951 he married Elaine Curry (d. 1999); they had seven children but divorced in 1977. He was a Professor of History and an adjunct...
GROSER, William Howse. b. Clerkenwell, London, 1 June 1834; d. Crouch End, Hornsey, London, 15 September 1925. He was the son of William Groser, secretary of the London Sunday School Union, and he inherited his father's interest in Sunday schools. He was educated at University College, London (BSc 1862). A prosperous businessman with scientific interests, he also edited Songs by the Way: a Hymnal for Young Christians and Enquirers (London: Sunday School Union, 1875). According to JJ, p. 472, he...
WILLIAM II, Duke of Saxe-Weimar (by another reckoning, Wilhelm IV). b. Altenburg, 11 April 1598; d. Weimar, 17 May 1662. Born at Altenburg Castle, he studied music, mathematics, geometry and architecture at the University of Jena. He was engaged in the Thirty Years' War, allied with Frederick V of the Palatinate against the Catholic League. He fought at the battle of Weisse Berg (the White Mountain, 1620), in which the Protestants were defeated; and he was taken prisoner after the battle of...
CUSHING, William Orcutt. b. Hingham Center, Massachusetts, 31 December 1823; d. Lisbon, New York, 19 October 1902. Cushing was raised by Unitarian parents. He became a minister of the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, and served his first pastorate at Searsburg, New York. He married in 1854, and went on to serve in Auburn, Brooklyn, Buffalo, and Sparta, all in New York State. After his wife died in 1870 and his own health declined (including the loss of his voice) he retired from the...
Wir glauben all an einen Gott. Martin Luther* (1483-1546).
This is Luther's free rendering of the Creed, divided into three stanzas, to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost (EG 183). It was first published in Geystliche gesangk Buchleyn (Wittenberg, 1524) in three 10-line stanzas, with the title 'Das deudsche Patrem', referring to the first words of the Credal response ('Patrem omnipotentem…'), following the priest's 'Credo in unum Deum'. The first two lines are based on an earlier text in...
You, Lord, are both lamb and shepherd. Sylvia Dunstan* (1955-1993).
Sylvia Dunstan titled this text Christus Paradox, and says 'Drafted on a commuter bus after a particularly bad day at the jail (she was chaplain at a high security prison), this hymn owes much to my longstanding relationship with Søren Kierkegaard.' It was chosen as a theme hymn for the work of the 1984 General Council of the United Church of Canada on 'the Saving Significance of Jesus Christ'.
First published in 1987 in Songs...
Your words to me are life and health. George Currie Martin* (1865-1937).
First published in four stanzas, in The Fellowship Hymn Book Supplement (1920), with the title 'The Words of Jesus'. It appeared in the 'thy' form in CP, but more recent books, beginning with WOV, have modernized to the 'you' form, and this seems to be an example of the 'you' form as an improvement. WOV made other changes to stanzas 1 and 2, which have been used, with further minor variations, in other books (HP,...
As when the weary traveller gains. John Newton* (1725-1807).
From Olney Hymns (1779), Book III, 'On the Rise, Progress, Changes, and Comforts of the Spiritual Life'. It is found in Section IV ('Comfort') of Book III as hymn 58, entitled 'Home in view'. The text in 1779 had six stanzas, as follows:
As when the weary travell'r gains The height of some o'erlooking hill; His heart revives, if cross the plains He eyes his home, tho' distant still.
While he surveys the much-lov'd spot, He...
Because you live, O Christ. Shirley Erena Murray* (1931–2020).
The author described the impetus for this hymn: 'The creative irritant to write this came from the outdated words in our parish hymnbook and my love of this great tune. I wanted a fresh expression of community joyfulness, with light, color and the vision of the covenant rainbow through the Resurrection' (Murray, 1992, Notes).
The tune is the buoyant 17th-century Dutch melody VRUECHTEN, music usually associated with Easter, most...
'By and by'
The phrase 'by and by', meaning 'in a little while' or 'at some time in the future' has been common in American English parlance since the 19th century. In spite of its simplicity, it is a haunting phrase, much more powerful than any alternatives such as the two above.
'By and by' is the title given to an African American spiritual of unknown origin. It was printed in Folk Song of the American Negro (Nashville, Tennessee: Fisk University, 1907), an account written and edited by...
GREGOR, Christian. b. Dirsdorf, Silesia, 1 January 1723; d. Berthelsdorf, Herrnhut, 6 November 1801. Born the son of a humble peasant farmer, he associated with the Brethren at Herrnhut from 1742, serving as organist. In 1748 he moved to Herrnhaag as director of music, and in 1749 to Zeist, returning to Herrnhut in 1753. From 1764 he was a member of the directing board of the Unitas Fratrum and was given the task of editing a hymnal which would collect and preserve what was valuable of the vast...
HAMILTON, Eliza H. b. Glasgow, 3 October 1807; d. Bridge of Allan, Stirling, 14 April 1868. Hamilton's Hymns for the Weary was published at some time before 1869. In that year the Third Edition was advertised in an Edinburgh newspaper, the Daily Review (British Newspaper Archive, 3, 10 and 17 February), together with several other publications by Eliza H. Hamilton, such as The Destroyer, a Temperance Tale, price 1s 6d, The Convent: or, Paths of Danger, price 2d, The Hurricane: a Touching Story,...
Expand thy wings, celestial Dove. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
This hymn is made up of five stanzas taken from Charles Wesley's Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures (Bristol, 1762). Two are from Genesis 1 and three from II Chronicles 6. They are reproduced here from the 1762 text to show the 'select passage' in each case:
Genesis: 'The Spirit of GOD moved upon the face of the waters. - i. 2.'
Expand thy wings, celestial Dove, And brooding o'er my nature's night, Call...
STEBBINS, George Coles. b. East Carlton, New York, 26 February 1846; d. Catskill, New York, 6 October 1945. Stebbins was a prominent and abiding northern Baptist composer, compiler, soloist, and song leader of 19th- and early 20th-century urban revivals in the UK and the USA. Following his education in an academy in Albany, and early experiences in singing schools (see USA hymnody, music*), he studied music in Buffalo, New York City, and Rochester, where he sang tenor in a church solo quartet....
Go tell it on the mountain. African American spiritual*, verses by John Wesley Work (II)* (1872?-1925).
The several versions of this spiritual are based on settings in two collections. The first appeared with the caption 'Christmas Plantation Song' in Religious Folk Songs of The Negro, as Sung on The Plantations, new edition (Hampton, Virginia, 1909):
When I was a seekerI sought both night and day.I ask de Lord to help me,An' He show me de way.
He made me a watchmanUpon the city wall,An' if I...
How can I say thanks (My tribute). Andraé Crouch* (1942–2015).
'My tribute', composed in 1971, is one of the signature songs by Andraé Crouch. The final chapter of Crouch's autobiography, entitled 'To God be the glory', is from the song's refrain, which is an allusion to the hymn 'To God be the glory, great things He hath done'* by Fanny Crosby*. In the language of his African American Pentecostal heritage in the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) tradition, the composer offers his own Soli Deo...
How happy are they. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Volume I of Charles Wesley's Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), the work that he published with his brother's approval to demonstrate Charles's financial fitness to marry. It was Hymn XV, in two parts, the first in seven stanzas, the second of nine (stanzas 8 to 16). The hymn as it is usually printed is taken from Part I of the 1749 text, which is an amazing expression of the joy of conversion and assurance, and of an emotional...
How happy is the pilgrim's lot. ?Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
This was hymn 51 in Hymns for those that seek, and those that have Redemption in the Blood of Jesus Christ (Bristol, 1747). It was entitled 'The Pilgrim'. It had nine 6-line stanzas:
How happy is the Pilgrim's Lot, How free from every anxious Thought, From Worldly Hope and Fear!Confin'd to neither Court nor Cell,His Soul disdains on Earth to dwell, He only sojourns here.
His Happiness in Part is mine,Already sav'd from...
I want to be an angel. Sidney P. Gill (19th century, dates unknown).
Sidney P. Gill is (unusually) the name of a woman. Information about her comes solely from JJ, p. 559, where a letter is quoted from her sister dated 6 February 1873. The letter dates the hymn at ca. 1854, when Sidney Gill was 'then a very young lady', which would make her date of birth ca. 1834. According to her sister, the composition of the hymn was as follows:
She had been teaching a lesson [in the Sunday School] on...
SPITTA, Karl Johann Philipp. b. Hannover, 1 August 1801; d. Burgdorf, 28 September 1859. He was born into a Huguenot family; his father was a teacher of French. He was apprenticed to a watchmaker, but left the craft in 1818 to study at the Gymnasium at Hannover and then at the University of Göttingen (1821-24). He became a private tutor to the family of a judge at Lüne (1824-28), before being ordained as a Lutheran pastor at Südwald in the Grafschaft (County) of Hoya (1828-30). He became a...
My Saviour, Thou hast offered rest. Eliza H. Hamilton*, (1807/8- 1868).
While not as popular as the author's 'Jesus, my Lord, to Thee I cry ('O take me as I am')'*, this hymn appeared in some significant hymnals of the late 19th and early 20th century in Britain and America. It was included in Hamilton's Hymns for the Weary (Edinburgh and London, 1878) of which the only extant copy seems to be the Sixth Edition.
It was entitled 'Rest'. In the 1878 book it was preceded by a quotation from...
Because it is natural for human beings to use poetry at times of great emotion, it is not surprising that there are places in the New Testament (as in the Old Testament) in which people break forth into song. Probably the most famous examples occur in the first and second chapters of the Gospel of Luke. Following the Annunciation, Mary sings the Magnificat* (Luke 1: 46-55), with its message of God's recognition of those that are humble and meek; Zacharias is filled with the Holy Spirit at the...
ZINZENDORF, Nikolaus Ludwig von. b. Dresden, 26 May 1700; d. Herrnhut, 9 May 1760. He was raised in the home of his Pietist maternal grandmother, Henriette von Gersdorf and educated at the Pietist School (Paedagogium) at Halle and the University of Wittenberg. Although forced to study law, his true vocation was theology, and his association with the Bohemian Brethren beginning in 1722 led him to ordination in the Lutheran Church and consecration as a Moravian bishop in 1737. He was of noble...
O young and fearless Prophet. Samuel Ralph Harlow* (1885-1972).
To appreciate this prophetic text more fully, it is helpful to explore the writings of S. Ralph Harlow, a tireless advocate for social justice, world peace, race relations, and human rights in the context of his day. He was a pedagogical revolutionary in his biblical courses with young people, insisting that the Bible should speak directly to the realities of his current age:
The only religion with which [young people] seem...
O Thou whom once they flocked to hear. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Volume 1 of Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), the two-volume book published by Charles Wesley with his brother's approval to assist Charles's marriage. It was 'Hymn IV' of a number of hymns under the heading 'Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.' Hymn II of this section was the better-known 'Jesus, thy far-extended Fame'*. The present hymn had ten stanzas in 1749:
O Thou, whom once They flock'd...
HILLER, Philipp Friedrich. b. Mühlhausen-an-der-Enz, 6 January 1699; d. Steinheim, near Heidenheim, 24 April 1769. He was educated at school at the Protestant monastery school of Denkendorf, where the great Swabian Pietist Johann Albrecht Bengel* was a preceptor and preacher. This was followed by three years at the monastery school at Maulbronn (1716-19), after which he studied at the Stift (seminary) of the University of Tübingen. He became assistant pastor at Brettach (1724-27) and Hessigheim...
BRACKENBURY, Robert Carr. b. Panton House, Panton, Lincolnshire, 1752; d. Raithby Hall, near Spilsby, Lincolnshire, 11 August 1818. Born into a wealthy Lincolnshire family, he was educated at Felsted School and St Catharine's College, Cambridge. At Cambridge he was 'convinced of sin, though not by any outward means, and soon after justified.' He met with a Methodist preacher in Hull, and became 'clearly convinced that it was his duty to be joined with the people called Methodists' (Smith, 1859,...
Speak, O Lord, Thy servant heareth. Anna Sophia*, Countess of Hesse-Darmstadt (1638-1683), translated by George Alfred Taylor Rygh* (1860-1942).
The German original began 'Rede, liebster Jesu, rede'. It was printed in the Countess's Der treue Seelen-Freund Christus Jesus (Jena, 1658). The full text is available in Polack (1942, Revised 1958, p. 213). Rygh translated four stanzas of the German five, dated 1909, printed in the Lutheran Hymnary (Minneapolis, 1913) of the Norwegian Churches in...
We've a story to tell to the nations. Henry Ernest Nichol* (1862–1926)
This hymn was first published in the UK in The Sunday School Hymnary (London, 1896) and in the USA in Hymns and Tunes for Schools (New York, 1907), edited by Herbert B. Turner. Nichols gave the name MESSAGE (1894) to the tune that he composed. Some early collections assign the name 'Colin Sterne', a near anagram of Nichol's middle and last names (Reynolds, 1976, p. 237). This hymn is by far the most published work by...
Where shall my wond'ring soul begin? Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739), where it opened Part II of the collection under the heading 'Christ the Friend of Sinners'. The title page states that the book was on sale at 'MR. BRAY'S, a Brazier in Little Britain'. It was in the house of John Bray, a 'poor, ignorant mechanic', that on 21 May 1738 (Whitsunday) Charles Wesley found the passages of scripture that gave him hope and enabled him to put his trust...
What shall I do my God to love, My loving God to praise. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
This hymn has the same opening line as 'What shall I do my God to love, My Saviour, and the World's, to praise'. It consists of stanzas 11 to 15 and stanza 17 of an 18-stanza hymn from Volume I of Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), published by Charles Wesley alone but with his brother's approval, in order to further Charles's marriage to Sarah Gwynne. It was Hymn V of a set entitled 'After a Recovery', from the...
“A little while,” - our Lord shall come. James George Deck* (1807-1884).
This hymn was first published in the Appendix to the 1841 edition of the Brethren book, Hymns for the Poor of the Flock (JJ, p. 3). It was prefaced by ' “A little while, and ye shall see me.” – John xvi. 16.' It had four 6-line stanzas:
“A little while,” – our Lord shall come, And we shall wander here no more;He'll take us to our Father's Home, Where He, for us, has gone before,To dwell with Him, to see his...
In the Nordic countries, the Lutheran reformation is often recognised as marking the dawn of hymn writing in the native language. In spite of their remote location in the North Atlantic the Faroe Islands are a part of what was then known as the Kingdom of Denmark and Norway, and the small and scattered population had a Nordic language of its own. But the Reformation made Danish — the king's language — the official language in matters of state and administration, church and faith. Therefore the...
The Genevan Psalter, 1539-1562
The singing of psalms was regarded by Jean Calvin* as an essential part of congregational worship, and it was a distinctive feature of the reformed church at Geneva in the 16th century. Unlike Luther*, Calvin was cautious about using hymns, because they were of human composition. In the words of Louis F. Benson*, 'He would have nothing in the cultus which could not claim the express authority of Scripture' (1915, p. 23). Psalms, however, were seen as inspired by...
The Virgin Mary had a baby boy. West Indian carol.
This carol, sometimes called a spiritual, reflects one of the varied experiences and cultures encountered by enslaved Africans when they came to the Americas. Since it does not find its origins in the continental United States, 'The Virgin Mary' does not appear in the historical collections of African American spirituals* such as the monumental Slave Songs of the United States* (New York: 1867), the first extensive collection of African...
This little light of mine. African American spiritual*.
This has many characteristics of an African American spiritual, and is sometimes designated as such in hymnals. Some authorities assign it to Harry Dixon Loes (1892/95-1965), a composer from Kalamazoo, Michigan, who studied and then taught at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. He wrote 'Friends all around us are trying to find', with the refrain 'All that I want is in Jesus'. Another possibility is that Loes heard the spiritual and...
LUTHER, Martin. b. Eisleben, Thuringia, probably 10 November 1483; d. Eisleben, 18 February 1546. Born the son of a miner who later became a mine-owner, he was educated at schools at Mansfeld, Magdeburg and Eisenach, before entering the University of Erfurt in 1501 (BA 1501, MA 1505). After a very brief period studying law, he decided to become an Augustinian friar, entering the cloister at Erfurt in July 1505. He entered the Order formally in 1506, becoming a priest in 1507 and saying his...
PILSBURY, Amos. b. Newbury, Massachusetts, 15 October 1772; d. Charleston, South Carolina, 19 October 1812. Pilsbury was a tunebook compiler, composer, and schoolmaster. He is known in hymnology primarily for his compilation The United States' Sacred Harmony (Boston: Isaiah Thomas and Ebenezer T. Andrews, 1799), the earliest tunebook known to include the tunes KEDRON and CHARLESTON. Pilsbury also published a collection of hymn texts, The Sacred Songster (Charleston: G. M. Bounetheau,...
CROUCH, Andraé Edward. b. San Francisco, California, 1 July 1942; d. Los Angeles, California, 8 January 2015. Andraé Crouch began performing as a teenager in his church, directed a choir at a Teen Challenge drug rehabilitation center, and in 1960 formed a singing group, the COGICS, for his Church of God in Christ denomination (Holiness/Pentecostal). He studied at the L.I.F.E. Bible College and Valley Junior College in Los Angeles where in 1965 he founded the 'Andraé Crouch and the Disciples'...
LAW, Andrew. b. Milford, Connecticut, 21 March 1749; d. Cheshire, Connecticut, 13 July 1821. Law, a grandson of Jonathan Law (1674-1750), Governor of the Colony of Connecticut (1741-1750), was a tunebook compiler, clergyman, and composer. His Select Harmony: containing in a plain and concise manner, the rules of singing, together with a collection of psalm tunes, hymns and anthems (Cheshire, Connecticut, 1779) became a major influence among many subsequent collections used by singing masters...
Angelus ad virginem. Latin, probably 13th Century, author unknown, possibly Philip the Chancellor* (d. 1236; see under Goliards*).
This carol is best discussed in two sections: the medieval and the modern.
The Medieval Carol
This was sung by Nicholas, the student in Chaucer's 'The Miller's Tale' (Nicholas is a very unpleasant character, whose seduction of his landlord's wife is a grotesque parody of the angel's visit to the Virgin Mary). The carol is first recorded in a fourteenth-century...
Awake, our drowsy souls. Elizabeth Scott* (1708–1776)
This appears in the manuscript collection, Hymns and Poems by Elizabeth Scott*. In a modern numbering of those 90 hymns and poems, this one is indexed as H39. A transcription of H39 showing Scott's heading, spelling (some of which are idiosyncratic), punctuation, and capitalizations follows below.
Possibly H39 was included in Scott's Collection as early as 1740, as this date appears in her letter to her father that accompanied some of her...
LLOYD, Charles Harford. b.Thornbury, Gloucestershire, 16 October 1849; d. Eton, 16 October 1919. He was educated at the local grammar school, and at Rossall School, Lancashire. He showed early promise as a musician, and was playing the organ in a local church at the age of ten. He studied at Magdalen Hall (now Hertford College), Oxford (BA 1872), during which time he became friendly with C.H.H. Parry* and John Stainer*, and founded the Oxford Musical Club (Dibble, 1992, p. 50). He became a...
Throughout the centuries the cherubikon ('Οἱ τὰ χερουβίμ'; 'Hoi ta cherubim'), also called the 'mystical hymn', has been set to music by a great number of composers, because its text as well as its theme is particularly well suited for choral music. The cherubikon was first mentioned by the historian Georgios Kedrenos (11th-12th century), who states that it was sung during mass from 573/74 onwards. Kedrenos goes on to tell that it was emperor Iustinos II (565-578) who decreed that the...
Cuando el pobre nada tiene. José Antonio Olivar* (1939–2019)
'Cuando el pobre' (©1971) was written in the wake of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962–65). Peruvian Catholic theologian Gustavo Gutierrez (1928–2024) published Teología de la liberación (A Theology of Liberation) in 1971, the same year that this hymn was copyrighted, spreading Liberation Theology throughout Latin America and beyond. Carlton R. Young* notes:
The central teaching is the classic liberation motif that God...
Far from these narrow scenes of night. Anne Steele* (1716-1778).
This was published in Steele's Poems on Subjects, chiefly Devotional (1760), in 11 stanzas. It was preceded by 'The Promised Land. Isaiah XXXIII. 17.' This refers to the visionary verse which must have inspired Steele: 'Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off.' The text in the 1780 Edition of Poems..., chiefly Devotional was:
Far from these narrow scenes of night Unbounded...
KLOPSTOCK, Friedrich Gottlieb. b. Quedlinburg, 2 July 1724; d. Ottensen, near Hamburg, 14 March 1803. He was educated at Quedlinburg until winning a scholarship to the Prince's School at Schulpforta, near Naumburg, followed by studies in philosophy and theology at the Universities of Jena (1745-46) and Leipzig (1746-48). He became a private tutor until 1750, when he accepted an invitation from the Swiss poet Johann Jakob Bodmer (1698-1783) to visit Zürich. Bodmer had translated Milton*'s...
WOODWARD, George Ratcliffe. b. Birkenhead, 27 December 1848; d. Highgate, London, 3 March 1934. He was born in Birkenhead and educated in Elstree, Hertfordshire, then Harrow School and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (BA 1872). During his time at Cambridge he encountered Anglo-Catholicism, and became an admirer of the works of John Mason Neale*. He took Holy Orders (deacon 1874, priest 1875), and became Assistant Curate at St Barnabas', Pimlico. It had been built as an Anglo-Catholic...
BURLEIGH, Harry [Henry] Thacker. b. Erie, Pennsylvania, 2 December 1866; d. Stamford, Connecticut, 12 September 1949. Distinguished singer, composer, and arranger, Burleigh made important contributions to American music through his many timeless vocal solo settings of African-American spirituals scored for classically trained singers. His earliest musical influence was his grandfather, former slave Hamilton Waters, who taught Burleigh and his siblings the songs of the plantation. Racial...
CUTLER, Henry Stephen. b. Boston, Massachusetts, 13 October 1825; d. Swampscott, Massachusetts, 5 December 1902. Cutler was an organist, choirmaster, and composer, known especially for his hymn tune, ALL SAINTS (also called ALL SAINTS NEW). The place of Cutler's death is sometimes given as Boston; however, he died at home in Swampscott, about 12 miles north of the city. Cutler's parents were Roland Cutler (1798-1873) and Martha Richardson Cutler (1803-?) (see Josiah Adams, The Genealogy of...
SMART, Henry Thomas. b. London, 26 October 1813; d. London, 6 July 1879. He was the son of a professional violinist, Henry Smart (brother to the conductor, organist and composer (Sir) George Smart*), was educated in Highgate and articled to a solicitor before deciding to make music his career. He served as organist of Blackburn Parish Church (1832-38); St Giles, Cripplegate (1836-38); St Philip's, Regent Street (1838-44?); St Luke's Old Street (1844-64) and St Pancras Parish Church (1865-79)....
Hosanna to the living Lord. Reginald Heber* (1783-1826).
This was first printed in the Christian Observer in October 1811 (JJ, p. 535). It was revised for Heber's Hymns written and adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year (1827), published after his untimely death by his widow Amelia. It was the first of two hymns for Advent Sunday, and thus the first hymn in the book. It had five stanzas in 1827:
Hosanna to the living Lord! Hosanna to the incarnate Word! To Christ, Creator, Saviour,...
Hungarian Hymnody
This entry is in two parts. The first, on the medieval period, is by Judit Fehér. The second, from the 16th century to the 20th century is by Ilona Ferenczi.
Medieval hymns and hymnals
Medieval Hungary consisted of two archbishoprics (Esztergom and Kalocsa), and a regional unit covering the eastern part of the medieval country (today mostly Transylvania). Each of these three regions had its own liturgical rite.
The Use of Esztergom
Esztergom, founded in 1001 by King St...
Hymn festivals
A hymn festival is a planned musical event where the singing of hymns is the primary activity used by a gathered community to worship and/or sing together. The selected hymns usually follow a designated theme and are interspersed with related readings, reflections, or prayers. Past hymn festival designs have been inspired by many topics, including the introduction of a new hymnal, a celebration of the Church's song, recognition of a hymn writer or church musician, an historic...
I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above. Cecil Spring Rice* (1859-1918).
This hymn is an expression of Christian patriotism. It is sometimes given the title 'The two fatherlands', as the first stanza concerns duty to one's country and the second concerns duty to the heavenly kingdom. The original version (now the second stanza) was written in 1912, while the author was on diplomatic service in Sweden, with the title 'Urbs Dei'. On 12 January 1918, after three and a half years of...
In grief and fear to Thee, O Lord. William Bullock* (1798-1874).
According to JJ, p. 564, this appeared in Bullock's Songs of the Church (Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1854), with the title 'The Church in Plague or Pestilence'. It had five stanzas:
In grief and fear, to Thee, O Lord, We now for succour fly,Thine awful judgments are abroad, O shield us, lest we die!
The fell disease on every side, Walks forth with tainted breath;And Pestilence, with rapid stride, Bestrews the land with death.
Our...
RIST, Johann. b. Ottensen, near Hamburg, 8 March 1607; d. Wedel, 31 August 1667. The son of a pastor, Rist was educated at the Johanneum at Hamburg and the 'Gymnasium illustre' (academic gymnasium) at Bremen. He entered the University of Rinteln, where he was influenced by the hymn writer Josua Stegmann*, and (according to Catherine Winkworth*) he also studied at Leipzig, Utrecht and Leiden (Winkworth, 1869, p. 189), though he may have only visited those places. He became a tutor to the family...
TUCKER, John Ireland. b. Brooklyn, New York, 26 November, 1819; d. Albany, New York, 17 August 1895. Tucker was an Episcopal priest and editor of several music editions of nineteenth-century Episcopal hymnals and related materials (see Episcopal Church, USA, hymnody*).
Tucker's parents, Fanning Cobham Tucker (1782-1856) and Ann Moore Sands (1781-1833), were born to well-established New York families. Fanning's father, Robert Tucker (1746-1792), was the first to receive the degree Doctor of...
Labour Church Hymn and Tune Book. The Labour Church was founded in 1891 at Chorlton in Lancashire by a Unitarian minister, John Trevor (1855-1930), who was concerned at the perceived alienation of the churches from the working classes of Britain. It flourished for some years in the industrial towns, linking the need for reform with a liberal religion, and attracted sufficient support to justify the production of a hymnbook. This was edited by Trevor and his wife Eliza, and published at the...
OPITZ, Martin. b. Bunzlau, Silesia (Boleslawiec, Poland), 23 December 1597; d. Danzig (Gdansk, Poland), 20 August 1639. The son of a master butcher, he was educated at Bunzlau, the Magdalene-Gymnasium at Breslau, and the University at Frankfurt-an-der-Oder. He studied at Heidelberg for a year (1619-20) before travelling as a tutor to a young Danish nobleman in Holland and Jutland. He was briefly professor of poetry at the Gymnasium at Weissenberg, Transylvania (1622-23), before being employed...
OYER, Mary Kathryn. b. Hesston, Kansas, 5 April 1923; d. Goshen, Indiana, 11 January 2024. Distinguished teacher, music historian, and global hymnologist, Oyer attended Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana (BA, 1944), and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan (MM, 1947), her DMA (1958) was the first given in cello performance by that institution. She taught music history and theory, led an advanced college choir, and played cello in regional orchestra and chamber groups. At Goshen...
TEMPERLEY, Nicholas. b. Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, 7 August 1932; d. Urbana, Illinois, 8 April 2020. He was the son of Major General Arthur Cecil Temperley (1877–1940), sometime military attaché at the League of Nations and author of The Whispering Gallery of Europe (1938). He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge. He first came to the University of Illinois in 1959 as a postdoctoral fellow. He then taught in the music departments of Cambridge and Yale, and joined the...
COKE-JEPHCOTT, Norman. b. Coventry, Warwickshire, England, 17 March 1893; d. New York City, 14 March 1962. Coke-Jephcott was an organist, choral director, and composer. His main contribution to hymnic bibliography is The Saint Thomas Church Descant Book.
Norman Coke-Jephcott's parents were Edwin Coke Jephcott (1857-1927) and Annie May (Clarke) Jephcott (1855-1922). Edwin was a music teacher and organist in Coventry, where, in Holy Trinity Church, Norman was baptized on 20 April 1893. On 29...
On this day earth shall ring. Medieval Carol, translated by Jane Marian Joseph* (1894-1929).
Thw first stanza is as follows:
On this day earth shall ringwith the song children singto the Lord, Christ our King,born on earth to save us,him the Father gave us.Ideo. Gloria in excelsis Deo!
This is a macaronic carol based on the medieval Latin Cantio*, 'Personent hodie'*. This is the most commonly used English-language version of the Latin text taken from the collection Piae Cantiones* (1582)...
Order my steps. Glenn E. Burleigh* (1947–2007).
'Order my steps' was written in 1991. It has become one of the best-known gospel songs of the late 20th century, transcending the Black Church experience. It has become popular with numerous grade school, community, and college choirs. Several arrangements have been published in various choral voicings, including SATB, TTBB, SAB, and SSA. Though a congregational form of the original anthem appears primarily in African American hymnals in the USA,...
TERRY, (Sir) Richard Runciman. b. Ellington, Northumberland, 3 January 1864; d. Kensington, London, 18 April 1938. Educated at various schools in South Shields, Co. Durham, St Albans and London, Terry then spent a year at Oxford (1887-88) and two years at Cambridge (1888-90), where he went as a non-collegiate student but became a choral scholar at King's College under A.H. Mann*, whose work greatly impressed him. Leaving without a degree, he taught at Elstow School, Bedfordshire, before being...
MOORSOM, Robert Maude. b. Cosgrove Priory, Buckinghamshire, 2 February 1831; d. Winchester, 9 August 1911. He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, and Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1854, MA 1858). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1857, priest 1859), serving curacies at Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire (1857-59) and Barnham Broom, Norfolk (1861). He was rector of Sadberge, near Darlington, County Durham from 1861 to 1881. He became blind, and never held another living. Thereafter he lived...
In the Roman rite, these were cycles of chants composed for the celebration of the Divine Office on the feast days of saints in the Middle Ages. They typically comprise the following items: the Magnificat* antiphon* of First Vespers* (sometimes one or more antiphons for the Vesper psalms); the invitatory antiphon and the antiphons and responsories of the Nocturns of the Night Office (Vigils, or Matins); the antiphons for the psalms and Benedictus of Lauds; and the Magnificat antiphon of Second...
Salve, festa dies. Venantius Fortunatus* (ca. 540- early 7th century).
This is part of a poem by Fortunatus (Venanti Fortunati Carmina, III. No. 9) beginning 'Tempora florigero rutilant distincta sereno', celebrating the coming of spring and addressed to Felix, Bishop of Nantes (d. 582). It was written between 567 and 576, in honour of the baptism of the newly converted by the bishop (for dating, see The H82 Companion, 1994, IIIA, hymn 175). The selection beginning 'Salve, festa dies' (verse 20...
OULD, Dom Samuel Gregory, OSB. b. London, 8 December 1864; d. Exton, Rutland, 10 February 1939. The son of Wesleyan Methodist parents, he was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1879, and entered Fort Augustus Abbey in 1884 (Clothed 21 September). Fort Augustus had become celebrated for its renewal of plainsong, and for its leaving the English Bendictine Congregation to become more austere and encouraging the development of a liturgical life inspired by the example of Solesmes.
Ould...
Wesley, Samuel, Jr. b. London, 10 February 1691; d. Tiverton, Devon, 6 November 1739. He was the first child of Samuel Wesley (I)* (1660-1735) and Susanna, née Annesley, and elder brother of John* and Charles*. He was educated at Westminster School (1704, King's Scholar, 1707), and Christ Church, Oxford (1711- ). Probably before leaving school, he joined his family in exchanging new poems. While still an undergraduate, he began working on 'charity hymns' (not yet identified), for the causes...
Standing by a purpose true (Dare to be a Daniel). Philip P. Bliss* (1838-1876).
This rousing gospel hymn was published in Sunshine for Sunday Schools (1873) with a note 'Dedicated to “Daniel's Band” of the First Congregational Church, Chicago' (Taylor, 1989, p. 173). Hymnary.org notes its appearance in the following year in Gospel Songs: a choice collection of hymns and tunes, new and old, for gospel meetings, prayer meetings, Sunday schools, etc. (Cincinnati, 1874), where it was entitled...
WATSON, Sydney. b. Denton, near Manchester, 3 September 1903; d. 17 February 1991. He was educated at Warwick School and then studied the organ at the Royal College of Music for a year (1921-22) before going on to Oxford to be organ scholar at Keble College (1922-25, BA 1925, BMus 1926, DMus 1932). In 1933 he won the Lafontaine Prize for his FRCO diploma. After leaving Keble in 1925 he began a career in school teaching, first at Stowe School (1925-8) and then as precentor at Radley College...
NOBLE, Thomas Tertius. b. Bath, England, 5 May 1867; d. Rockport, Massachusetts, 4 May 1953. Supported by an old family friend, the Rev. Charles Everitt, a minor canon of Gloucester Cathedral, Noble was educated by Everitt who, as rector of All Saints', Colchester, gave him his first appointment as organist at the church in 1881. After receiving further organ lessons from Edwin Nunn of Ipswich, he entered the Royal College of Music in 1886, coming to London twice a week for lessons in harmony...
The roseate hues of early dawn. Cecil Frances Alexander* (1818-1895).
This was first published in the SPCK Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship (1852), in three stanzas:
The roseate hues of early dawn, The brightness of the day, The crimson of the sunset sky, How fast they fade away! Oh, for the pearly gates of Heav'n, Oh, for the golden floor, Oh, for the Sun of righteousness That setteth nevermore!
The highest hopes we cherish here, How fast they tire and faint; How many a spot defiles...
This is my Father's world. Maltbie Davenport Babcock* (1858-1901).
This hymn consists of stanzas from a poem of sixteen 4-line stanzas, normally shortened to three 8-line ones. The most usual text is that of stanzas 2-5, 14, 16 of the poem. It appeared in Alleluia (Philadelphia, 1915), a supplement to The Presbyterian Hymnal (1911), edited by Franklin L. Sheppard, who provided a tune, TERRA BEATA ('BLESSED EARTH'), apparently arranged from the traditional English melody RUSPER (see EH, 379). In...
STERNHOLD, Thomas. b. date unknown; d. 23 August 1549. Little is known of Sternhold's early life. He may have originated in Gloucestershire, and been educated at Christ Church, Oxford. He entered the service of Henry VIII and by ca. 1540 he was 'groom of the robes' to the king. In 1543 he was imprisoned for his Protestant beliefs, but he later became Member of Parliament for Plymouth (1545-47) and he flourished at the Reformation, benefiting from the dissolution of the monasteries and the...
Thy life was given for me. Frances Ridley Havergal* (1836-1879).
Written in 1858, with a dramatic first line, 'I gave My life for thee' (Christ is speaking). It was published in leaflet form in 1859 and in Good Words (February 1860). In The Ministry of Song (1869) it had the title 'I did this for thee! What hast thou done for Me?', followed by a parenthesis: '(Motto placed under a picture of our Saviour in the study of a German divine)'. JJ (p.555) quotes from a manuscript by Maria Havergal:
On...
BÈZE, Théodore de (BEZA) (Latin surname: Deodatus). b. Vézelay, France, 24 June 1519; d. 13 October 1605. De Bèze (Beza) was a French theologian, a pastor, a humanist, a poet (the author of 101 Huguenot Psalm paraphrases in French), a jurist and a diplomat. Condemned by the Parliament after having published his collection Poemata juvenilia, he left Paris on 24 October 1548 and took refuge in Switzerland. He was a professor of Greek in Lausanne from 1549 to 1559, then Rector of the Academy of...
BRYANT, William Cullen. b. Cummington, Massachusetts, 3 November 1794; d. New York City, 12 June 1878. Educated at Williams College, Massachusetts, but only for one year, he then studied law with local firms, and practised law for ten years. He was interested in poetry from childhood, and published a celebrated poem, 'Thanatopsis', in the North American Review in 1817. In 1825 Bryant left his law practice to become a full-time writer and editor. He moved to New York City to edit a literary...
One there is, above all others. John Newton* (1725-1807).
From Olney Hymns (1779), Book I, 'On select Passages of Scripture', Hymn LIII, with the title 'A friend that sticketh closer than a brother' and a reference to Proverbs 18: 24. Later editions make two minor corrections, and JJ gives it the title 'Jesus the Friend':
One there is, above all others,
Well deserves the name of friend;
His is love beyond a brother's,
Costly, free, and knows no end:
They who once his kindness prove,
...
Good people all, this Christmas time. Irish traditional.
'The Wexford Carol', sometimes called 'The Enniscorthy Christmas Carol' ('Carúl Loch Garman, Carúl Inis Córthaidh'), originates from Enniscorthy, County Wexford, in the north-eastern corner of Ireland. The precise origins are unknown, though some commentaters suggest that its roots extend to the 12th century. Though the only carol known by this name, several carols come from Wexford (Costello, 2016). The Wexford Carol is often confused...
SPAETH, Harriet Reynolds Krauth (Harriet Krauth). b. Baltimore, Maryland, 21 September 1845; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 5 May 1925. Spaeth was an author and translator of hymn texts and composer of hymn tunes, and a music editor. Her best known translations are 'As each happy Christmas' and verses 3 and 4 of 'Lo, how a rose e'er blooming' (see 'Es ist ein' Ros entsprungen'*). She was the daughter of Charles Porterfield Krauth (1823-1883) and Susan Reynolds Krauth (1821-1853). C. P. Krauth,...
I love to tell the story. Arabella Catherine Hankey* (1834-1911).
It is widely believed that this hymn ' is from the second part of the author's poem, 'The Old, Old Story', but that is not correct. It was written later, as a separate poem, 'complete in itself', as a 'postscript' to the author's earlier two-part poem. It appeared in Sunday at Home: a family magazine for Sabbath reading (1869), with the following note by the author:
Few of our readers but must be familiar with 'The Old Old...
My love colours outside the lines. Gordon S. Light* (1944– ).
'When I became a man, I put away childish things', St Paul wrote to the immature, fractious Corinthian church (1 Corinthians 13: 11, KJV). This call to maturity from the apostle has both stimulated and limited the spiritual imagination of the 'holy and apostolic' Christian church ever since. Its metaphor compels the church to ask: If the life of faith is serious, adult business, where is the place for child-like behavior? Is there...
LOBWASSER, Ambrosius. b. Schneeberg, Saxony, 4 April 1515; d. Königsberg, 27 November 1585. He studied at Leipzig, and became a tutor at the university there. He received a doctorate from the University of Bologna; he was appointed Professor of Law at Königsberg in 1563, remaining in post until 1580.
Lobwasser is chiefly known for his translation into German of the metrical psalms of Théodore de Bèze* and Clément Marot*, Der Psalter dess Königlichen Propheten Davids, In deutsche Reymen...
And now this holy day. Edward Harland* (1810-1890).
Published in the Supplement (1876) to Harland's Church Psalter and Hymnal (1855). It was included in the Supplement (1889) to the Second Edition of A&M, and thus in A&MS, after which it was omitted from A&MR. It is a hymn for Sunday evening, designated 'For the Young' in both books: its simplicity is appealing, although it expresses an idea of a kind of Sunday that has disappeared, and one that was probably never very popular with...
Another Sabbath ended. T. Vincent Tymms* (1842-1921).
According to JJ, p. 1190, this was one of the hymns by Tymms printed in the 1880 Supplement to the Baptist Psalms and Hymns of 1858, and in the Baptist Psalms and Hymns for School and Home (n.d.). It was included in the Baptist Church Hymnal (1900), preceded by a quotation: 'The shadows of the evening are stretched out – Jeremiah vi. 4.' It had four graceful stanzas, expressing the ideal of a Sunday that has now disappeared from British...
Around the throne a glorious band. Rowland Hill* (1744-1833).
Part of this hymn is from Hill's A Collection of Psalms and Hymns, Chiefly Intended for Public Worship (1783). It was originally in the form of a dialogue. The stanzas were labelled alternately 'Q' and 'A', and the hymn was entitled 'The Same', referring to the previous hymn entitled 'A Dialogue'. The present one followed Revelation 7: 12-17, in which the interlocutor asks 'What are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence...
Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve. Philip Doddridge* (1702-1751).
This was hymn CCXCVI in Doddridge's Hymns Founded on Various Texts in the Holy Scriptures (1755). This was headed 'Pressing on in the Christian Race. Phil. iii. 12-14.' It was a variant on the common 'Awake, my soul' theme', distinguished from other examples by its exhortation to zeal and vigour:
Awake, my Soul, stretch ev'ry Nerve And press with Vigour on: A heav'nly Race demands thy Zeal, And an immortal Crown.
While...
NOEL, The Hon. Baptist Wriothesley. b. Edinburgh, 10 July 1799; d. Stanmore, Middlesex, 19 January 1873. Born into a noble family (see Burke's Peerage, 1939, p. 1055; the name 'Baptist' was common in the family), he was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge (MA 1821). He studied law, and entered Lincoln's Inn, but against the wishes of his family he became an Anglican priest, curate of Cossington, Leicestershire, and then minister of a proprietary chapel in London (St...
MATHEWS, Basil Joseph. b. Oxford, 28 August 1879; d. Oxford, 29 March 1951. Educated at the City of Oxford High School, he worked at the Bodleian Library and the City Library before becoming private secretary to A.M. Fairbairn, principal of Mansfield College, Oxford. Fairbairn arranged for Mathews to enter the University to read history (BA 1904) after which he became a journalist for the Christian World, which sent him to Edinburgh to cover the World Missionary Conference of 1910. The...
Because thou hast said. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
This hymn arose from a theological controversy. It was published in a pamphlet entitled A Short View of the Difference between the Moravian Brethren, Lately in England, and the Reverend Mr John and Charles Wesley (1745), consisting of 14 pages of John Wesley*'s prose, with six metrical contributions from Charles Wesley appended. Some of these are better described as polemical verses than as hymns.
The controversy centred on the doctrine of...
Begone my worldly cares, away. Susanna Harrison* (1752-1784).
This hymn that looks forward to Sunday was Hymn V in Songs of the Night (1780). It was entitled 'Saturday Night'. It is an original meditation on the holy joys of a religious Sunday. It had six stanzas:
Begone my worldly cares, away! Nor dare to tempt my sight;Let me begin th'ensuing day Before I end this night.
Yes, let the work of prayer and praise Employ my heart and tongue; Begin my soul! - Thy sabbath days Can never be...
Born in the night. Geoffrey Jackson Ainger* (1925-2013).
This is a simple but effective carol, with a slight cutting edge in stanza 1, emphasising the Christ child as 'A long way from your home', presumably heaven, but also containing the suggestion of a travelling family in winter: that Bethlehem is a long way from Nazareth and the earthly home of the family. The child Jesus is 'born in a borrowed room', which emphasises the sense of the family being temporarily homeless. The last two stanzas...
By the cross, sad vigil keeping. ? Jacopone da Todi (ca, 1236-1306), translated by Richard Mant* (1776-1848).
This was Mant's translation of 'Stabat Mater dolorosa'*, printed in the Anglo-Catholic British Magazine (October 1833) and then in Mant's Ancient Hymns from the Roman Breviary (1837), where it wss the 'Hymn for Good Friday, (2)'. It is one of the texts that has been used by compilers to make the customary English version, together with 'At the cross her station keeping'* by Edward...
Captains of the saintly band. Jean-Baptiste de Santeuil* (1630-1697), translated by Sir Henry Williams Baker* (1821-1877).
This is a free translation of de Santeuil's Latin hymn, 'Caelestis (sometimes 'Coelestis') aulae principes' ('leaders of the heavenly courts'), found in the Cluniac Breviary of 1686, in de Santeuil's Hymni Sacri et Novi (1689). It became known in Britain in the 19th century through translation as 'Hail! Princes of the host of heaven' in John Chandler*'s Hymns of the...
Cast thy bread upon the waters (Anon).
This is a hymn with the same first line, and in the same metre, as 'Cast thy bread upon the waters'* by Phebe Ann Hanaford*. It is based, like hers, on Ecclesiastes 11: 1, but it is so different from her hymn that it requires a separate entry. It is found in many revival hymnals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Gospel Hymns 5 and 6 Combined (1892) and in editions of Sacred Songs and Solos, where (in both books) the tune is attributed to...
Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam. Martin Luther* (1483-1546).
This is one of the later hymns of Luther, dating probably from 1541. It is printed in Wackernagel, Das Deutsche Kirchenlied III. 25, from Geistliche Lieder (1544), although a Low German version had appeared in a Magdeburg Gesang Buch in 1542. It was entitled 'Ein Geistlich Lied, Von unser heiligen Tauffe, Darin sein kurtz gefasset, Was sie sey? Wer sie gestifftet habe? Was sie nütze? etc.' ('A hymn on our Holy Baptism, in which it is...
DAVID, Christian. b. Senftleben (Zenklava), Moravia, 17 February 1691; d. 3 February 1751. He was brought up as a Catholic, learning the trade of a carpenter (ca. 1713). He came to know the Bible well, and discussed its contents with the Jews. Intending to become a Protestant, he sought out the Lutherans in Hungary, in Leipzig and finally in Prussia. Working as a kitchen-boy, he took part in the operations to regain Stralsund. In Berlin he converted to the Protestant faith. In 1717 at Görlitz,...
WILLCOCK, Christopher John. b. Sydney, 8 February 1947. He attended De La Salle College, Armidale (1960-63), then studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, becoming an Associate in Music in theory and piano. At the University of Sydney he completed a BMus with honours in composition (1974), and took a BD at the Melbourne College of Divinity, followed by a Master's degree in Sacramental Theology at the Catholic Institute, Paris (1982). He then completed doctoral studies in liturgical and...
Come, though we can truly sing. John Murray* (ca. 1740-1815).
This is one of five hymns by Murray, all first published in the 1782 edition of Christian Hymns, Poems and Sacred Songs, Sacred to the Praise of God, Our Saviour, compiled by the English Universalist James Relly* and his brother John Relly. The book was first published in London in 1754, and the 1782 edition was published in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for Noah Parker (1734-1787), a convert of Murray's and preacher in Portsmouth...
LUNDY, Michael (monastic name: Damian) FSC. b. Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, 21 March 1944; d. Oxford, 9 December 1996. The son of a master baker, he was educated at West Vale Catholic Primary School, then at the De Salle (Christian Brothers) Grammar School, Sheffield. He joined the De Salle Religious Order in 1960, and trained at St Cassian's Juniorate, Kintbury, Berkshire; then at Inglewood Novitiate, and at various establishments in Germany and France. He then read English at Magdalene...
Day by day we magnify thee. John Ellerton* (1826-1893).
This was written in 1855, when Ellerton was a curate in Brighton, and published in his Hymns for Schools and Bible Classes (1859). It had seven stanzas. It was written for the opening of a National School (governed by the Church of England), and is eminently suitable for children because of the repetition of the first line in each stanza except the last. It was included in Church Hymns (1871, Church Hymns with Tunes, 1874), of which...
RIMAUD, Didier. b. Carnac, Morbihan, Brittany, 6 August 1922; d. Lyon, 24 December 2003. Rimaud was educated at l'Externat St Joseph and the Lycée St Marc at Lyon. He entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus in 1941, and after studying classics and philosophy in addition to his training as a Jesuit, he was ordained priest in 1955. He taught in colleges in France before being appointed to the Centre National de Pastorale Liturgique in 1950. This institution was engaged in producing a modern...
Day is done, but love unfailing. James Quinn* (1919-2010).
This hymn was published in Quinn's New Hymns for All Seasons (1969) and in his Praise for All Seasons (1994). It was almost certainly written with the Welsh tune AR HYD Y NOS ('All through the night') in mind. The sequel to 'love unfailing' is 'dwells ever near' in line 2, and the hymn ends very peacefully with 'This eventide'. Throughout, the words follow the tune with consummate skill. There are three 8-line stanzas, with a variation...
SMITH, Elizabeth Joyce. b. Stawell, Victoria, Australia, 27 February 1956. The daughter of Churches of Christ parents, she was educated at Euroa High School and Monash and Melbourne Universities (1974-78); Trinity College Theological School (the Anglican member of Melbourne's United Faculty of Theology), where she took a BD (1986); and the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California. There she completed her PhD in 1995; it was published as Bearing Fruit in Due Season: Feminist Hermeneutics...
HOMBURG, Ernst Christoph. b. Mihla, near Eisenach, 1 March 1607; d. Naumburg, June 1681 (buried 27 June). The son of a pastor, Homburg studied law at Wittenberg (ca. 1632). After his 'Wanderjahre' in the Netherlands, Hamburg, Dresden and Jena, he became a lawyer in Naumburg in 1642. His career was disrupted by ill-health: he suffered from depression and from domestic problems, seeking refuge in writing. He was admired by his contemporaries for his secular work, including Schimpff- und...
Far round the world thy children sing their song. Basil Mathews* (1879-1951). Written in 1909 for a Sunday-School Anniversary at Bowes Park, London. It had three verses, verses 1 and 2 of the hymn as usually printed ('Far round the world thy children sing their song' and 'Guide of the pilgrim clambering to the height') and a final verse:
Smile on our work, our laughter, and our play ;
Lift us at eve to slumber on thy breast;
Shine on the praise and worship of thy day;
Breathe on our sleep the...
Father, we thank thee who hast planted. F. Bland Tucker* (1895-1984).
Written in 1939, and published in H40, this hymn has been published throughout the world. It is a paraphrase of the Didache*, consisting of the supposed teaching of the twelve apostles: it provides 'rules for baptism, fasting, prayer, visiting teachers and apostles, and the Lord's Supper, and containing the fine prayers which F. Bland Tucker has effectively paraphrased' (Young, 1993, p 332).
Stanza 1 corresponds to 10: 2 of...
From every stormy wind that blows. Hugh Stowell* (1799-1865).
First published in Stowell's collection The Winter's Wreath (London and Liverpool, 1828) and then, re-written, in his Selection of Psalms & Hymns Suited to the Services of the Church of England (1831) and his The Pleasures of Religion; with other poems (1832). It was entitled 'The Mercy Seat': every stanza ends with that phrase. It had six stanzas:
From every stormy wind that blows, From every swelling tide of woes, There is a...
DEARMER, Geoffrey. b. London, 21 March 1893; d. Birchington, Kent, 18 August 1996. He was the son of Percy Dearmer* and his first wife, Mabel. After education at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, he served in the London Regiment during the Great War of 1914-1918, in which his younger brother Christopher was killed at Gallipoli, and during which his mother died. Geoffrey himself served at Gallipoli and on the Western Front. From the Gallipoli experience came his best known war poem,...
Lee, Geonyong. b. Daedong, South Pyongan Province, Korea (now North Korea), 30 September 1947. He was ths son of a minister, who moved with his family to South Korea at the end of the Korean War (1950-53). Geonyong Lee attended Seoul Arts High School (majored in composition, 1965), the College of Music, Seoul National University (BM, 1974; MM, 1976), the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany (diploma in composition, 1978), and was a doctoral student in...
BUCHANAN, George. b. Killearn, near Glasgow, February 1506; d. Edinburgh, 28 September 1582. He was educated at the University of Paris (1520-22), the University of St Andrews (BA 1525), and the Scots College in Paris (BA 1527, MA 1528). After a successful early career in Paris, he returned to Scotland in 1537, where he wrote Somnium, a satire on the Franciscans. At this time he was still a Catholic, but a critical one. Imprisoned in 1539 during a persecution of Lutheran sympathisers, he...
Gloriosi Salvatoris nominis praeconia. Latin, author unknown. John Mason Neale*, who translated this hymn for his Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences (1851), described it as 'A German Hymn on the Festival of the Holy Name of Jesus', adding 'all that can be said of its date is, that it is clearly posterior to the Pange lingua of S. Thomas, which it imitates'. He was referring to 'Pange lingua gloriosi Corporis mysterium'*, by St Thomas Aquinas* (which he had translated as 'Of the glorious body...
God of pity, God of grace. Eliza F. Morris* (1821-1874).
This Litany hymn comes from Part II of Morris's The Voice and the Reply (1858: JJ says published at Worcester; the Bodleian Library gives London). According to JJ, p. 770, quoting from another source, it was written on 4 September 1857. It was published in the New Congregational Hymn Book (1859). It was entitled 'The Prayer in the Temple'. It subsequently appeared in the English Presbyterian Church Praise (1884), the Scottish Church...
God of the prophets, bless the prophets' sons. Denis Wortman* (1835-1922).
Written in 1860 to celebrate the centenary of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, New Jersey, when Wortman was a student there. It was written on behalf of the graduating class of 1860. It was included in the Protestant Episcopal Church Hymnal (1892), in all six stanzas, with the Scottish tune OLD 124th, in a section entitled 'Divinity Schools'. It has remained in successive editions of the Hymnal, though with...
Guter Hirt, du hast gestillt. Johann Wilhelm Meinhold* (1797-1851).
Written by Meinhold on the death of his 15 month-old son, Joannes Ladislaus, in 1833. It was published in his Gedichte ('Poems') in 1835. It was translated by Catherine Winkworth* in Lyra Germanica II (1858) as 'Gentle Shepherd, thou hast still'd'*, and headed 'The Death of a little Child'. It was included in the Appendix (1868) to the First Edition of A&M. In the days when infant mortality was common, it must have been a...
Hail, glorious Saint Patrick, dear Saint of our isle. Sister Agnes, 19th century.
Published in Henri Friedrich Hemy*'s Easy Hymn Tunes with the words in full, adapted for Catholic Schools (1851), where it attributed to Sister Agnes, 'of the Convent of Charleville, Co. Cork'. This was the Convent of the Sisters of Mercy, founded in 1831. The hymn appeared in Suffield and Palmer's Crown of Jesus (1862), and in many later books, including Albert Edmonds Tozer*'s Catholic Hymns: original and...
Hail, Queen of Heaven, the ocean Star. John Lingard* (1771-1851).
This is Lingard's translation of 'Salve, regina'* (sometimes 'Salve, regina (mater) misericordiae'). According to Milgate (1982, p. 209) it was published in The Catholic Magazine V (1834) and signed 'Pros'. It was included in Lingard's Manual of Prayers (York, 1840), and in Suffield and Palmer's Crown of Jesus* (1862). Milgate notes its publication in the USA in The Sacred Wreath 1867, 'and in innumerable others to the present...
He whose confession God of old accepted. Laurence Housman* (1865-1959).
This is a translation of 'Iste confessor domini sacratus'*, a Latin hymn of unknown origin but probably written in the 8th century. The original was widely used: it was written for the feast of a confessor, that is, one who avowed the Christian faith in the face of danger, but did not suffer martyrdom. The translation appeared in EH, to be sung to plainsong or to the tune ISTE CONFESSOR:
He whose confession God of old...
BOOTH, Herbert H. b. Penzance, Cornwall, 26 August 1862; d. Yonkers, New York, 25 September 1926. Herbert was the youngest son of William Booth* and his wife Catherine, their fifth child in a family of eight. In early 1880s he began writing songs in French while helping his sister Catherine (Kate) to pioneer Salvation Army work in Paris, and in 1883 the Army's first music department was established under his leadership. He formed groups of Salvation singers among cadets training for...
Herzliebster Jesu, was hast du verbrochen. Johann Heermann* (1585-1647).
First published in Heermann's Devoti Musica Cordis (Breslau and Leipzig, 1630), in fifteen 4-line stanzas, with the title 'Ursache des bittern Leidens Jesu Christi, und Trost aus seiner Lieb und Gnade. Aus Augustino' ('The cause of the bitter sufferings of Jesus Christ, and consolation from his love and grace. From Augustine'). Like other hymns by Heermann, this is indebted to the writings of the Church Fathers, but the...
HAWEIS, Hugh Reginald. b. Egham, Surrey, 3 April 1838; d. London, 29 January 1901. The grandson of Thomas Haweis*, he was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1860, MA 1864). He then travelled to Italy, where in 1860 he met up with the campaign of Garibaldi for the liberation of Italy. It is sometimes said that he served under Garibaldi, but this seems unlikely; although according to a memoir, 'he took an active interest and ran no small personal risk, being present at the siege of Capua'...
Hymn Society in Japan
Influenced by the Hymn Explosion in English-speaking countries, many denominations in Japan began revising their existing hymnals and producing new ones in the late 20th century. Growing out of this development, the Hymn Society in Japan was founded in 2001 with the aim of fostering ecumenical studies, sharing new hymns and research both domestically and internationally, and promoting exchanges for further developments in Japanese hymnody.
Consisting of 150 members in 20...
He is arisen! Glorious word! Birgitte Katerine Boye*(1742-1824), translated by George Alfred Taylor Rygh* (1860-1942).
Boye's one-stanza hymn began 'Han er opstanden! Store Bud!' from Psalme-bog eller En Samling af gamle og nye Psalmer (Copenhagen, 1778), edited by Ove Høeg Guldberg. Rygh's translation was dated 1909 (Polack, 1942, 1958, p. 144). The single stanza was written in the metre of Philipp Nicolai*'s 'Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern'*, and sung to his tune.
The Companion to...
I know that my Redeemer liveth. Jessie Brown Pounds* (1861-1921).
Based on Job 19: 25, this was written for an Easter Cantata by James H. Fillmore, Hope's Messenger, published by the Fillmore Music House (Cincinnati, 1893). Its first appearance in a hymnal was in The Praise Hymnal: a collection of hymns and tunes, edited by Fillmore and Gilbert J. Ellis (Cincinnati and New York, 1896). This is one of several hymns on this verse (see, for example, I know that my Redeemer lives* by Samuel...
I wandered in the shades of night. Judson W. Van De Venter* (1855-1939).
This is dated 1897, so that it was too late for Gospel Songs of Grace and Glory (New York, 1896). It was published in Songs of Grace and Truth: for use in religious meetings (Philadelphia, 1899) and in Songs of Redemption (Boston, 1899). It became well known throughout the 20th century: it was sufficiently popular by 1906 to be included in Familiar Songs of the Gospel, and it was found in hymnals such as the Church of the...
I wonder as I wander. John Jacob Niles* (1892-1980).
Niles's song provides an example of the working relationship between Niles and Carl Engel (1883-1944) of the New York publisher G. Schirmer. It was published in Songs of the Hill Folk - Twelve Ballads from Kentucky, Virginia, and North Carolina, Collected and Simply Arranged for the Piano [and solo voice] (1934).
According to Niles's notebook, he had collected a fragment from Annie Morgan (nda) while spending some time in Murphy, North...
I worship Thee, sweet will of God. Frederick William Faber* (1814-1863).
First published in Jesus and Mary: or Catholic Hymns (1849), where it was entitled 'The Will of God'. It was then published in Faber's Hymns (1962). It had fourteen 4-line stanzas. Hymnbooks have normally shortened the hymn, normally to five or six stanzas. It was in six stanzas in the Plymouth Collection of Hymns and Tunes (New York, 1855), edited by Henry Ward Beecher*, which began with two stanzas identical to those in...
Iesu dulcedo cordium. Latin, probably 12th century.
This is part of the Latin poem in 48 stanzas beginning 'Iesu dulcis memoria'* attributed at one time to Bernard of Clairvaux*, and known as the Iubilus rhythmicus de nomine Iesu ('The joyful poem on the Name of Jesus'). The text is formed from stanzas 4, 3, 16, 24 and 10 of the Bodleian Library copy of the poem. The translation was by Ray Palmer*, beginning 'Jesu, thou joy of loving hearts'*, published in The Sabbath Hymn Book: for the...
Ist Gott für mich, so trete. Paul Gerhardt* (1607-1676).
First published in Johann Crüger* and Christoph Runge*, D.M. Luthers und andere vornehmen geistreichen und gelehrten Männer geistliche Lieder und Psalmen (Berlin, 1653) (the Crüger-Runge Gesangbuch) based on Romans 8: 31-39. It had fifteen 8-line stanzas. EG prints 13 verses, omitting verses 11 and 12:
GerhardtRichard Massie, 1857
11. Wer sich mit dem verbindet, Den Satan fleucht und haßt, Der wird verfolgt und findet Ein hohe...
BERTHIER, Jacques. b. Auxerre, France, 27 June 1923; d. Paris, 27 June 1994. Berthier was the son of the organist of Auxerre Cathedral. After initial encouragement and training in Auxerre, he went to the César Franck School in Paris. One of his teachers there was Guy de Lioncourt, whose daughter Germaine he later married. He was organist of the Jesuit church in Paris, St Ignace (named after Ignatius of Loyola), where he worked until his death on his 71st birthday.
In 1955 he was asked by the...
Jesu, our Lenten fast to Thee. John W. Hewett* (1824-1886).
This is a translation of the Latin hymn, 'Jesu, quadrigenariae' ('Jesus, of the forty days…'). The translation was printed in Hewett's Verses by a Country Curate (Ashby-de-la-Zouche, 1859), where it was entitled 'A Morning Hymn for Lent'. Hewett attributed the Latin hymn to Hilary of Poitiers* ('S. Hilarius') but this is doubtful.
The Latin hymn was found in most Monastic Breviaries, normally for Lent at Vespers or Lauds. The...
Jesu, priceless treasure. Johann Franck* (1618-1677), translated by Catherine Winkworth* (1827-1878).
The German text, beginning 'Jesu, meine Freude'*, was published in Christoph Runge* and Johann Crüger*'s 1653 book (sometimes called 'the Crüger-Runge Gesangbuch'), D.M. Luthers und anderer vornehmen geistreichen und gelehrten Männer Geistliche Lieder und Psalmen; then in C. Peter's Andachts Zymbeln ('Sounds of Worship', Freiburg, 1655); and then in Johann Crüger*'s Praxis Pietatis Melica...
Jesu, Son of Mary. Edmund Stuart Palmer* (1856-1931).
This touching funeral hymn was originally written in Swahili sometime before 1901, during Palmer's first period in Africa. It was written for the Requiem of a colleague in the UMCA (Universities' Mission to Central Africa). According to Frost (1962, p. 381) it was included in the Mission's Swahili Hymn Book, but it is not in Kitabu cha Sala za Kanuni ilivyo desturi ya kanisa la unguja (Swahili Zanzibar prayer and hymns) (SPCK, 1950).
The...
Jesu, the very thought is sweet. Latin, probably 12th century, translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866).
The Latin text begins 'Iesu dulcis memoria'*. Neale's translation is from the text in the Sarum Use, sometimes given the name of 'the rosy sequence', as in NEH. It was printed in The Hymnal Noted Part I (1851), and (with alterations) in the First Edition of A&M, where Edward Caswall*'s translation, 'Jesu! the very thought of Thee'*, is also to be found. Neale is closer to the Latin...
HERBST, Johannes. b. Kempten, Swabia, 23 July 1735; d. Salem, North Carolina, USA, 15 January 1812. Herbst was educated at the Moravian Church school in Herrnhut, Saxony. He served the church in various non-ministerial capacities in the Moravian communities of Gnadenfrey, Gnadenberg, and Kleinwelke (in Germany) and Fulneck (in England). After his ordination as a minister in the Moravian Church in 1774, he was superintendent of the communities of Neudietendorf and Gnadenfrey. In 1786 Herbst and...
SKRINE, John Huntley. b. Warleigh, near Bath, 3 April 1848; d. 8 May 1923. He was educated at Uppingham School and Corpus Christi College, Oxford (BA 1871, MA 1874). He won the Newdigate Prize for English Poetry (1870), and became a Fellow of Merton College (1871-79). Retaining his Fellowship he returned to Uppingham under Edward Thring as an assistant master (1873-87), taking Holy Orders (deacon 1874, priest 1876). He was Warden of Trinity College, Glenalmond from 1888 to 1902). The College...
MACLEOD, John. b. Morvern (part of Argyll), 22 June 1840; d. Govan, Glasgow, 4 August 1898. He was educated at the University of Glasgow. He was ordained to the parish of Newton-on Ayr, Ayrshire in 1861, and was minister of Duns, Berwickshire (1861-75) and of Govan, Glasgow (1875-98). He was a liturgical expert, who was one of the founders of the Scottish Church Society, and who contributed papers to its conferences on the ordering of public worship. His many publications included sermons,...
OLIVAR, José Antonio. b. Lastres, Spain, 1939; d. Madrid, Spain, March 2019.
José Antonio Olivar Cubiella was the son of a sailor and a dressmaker. After his parents and four siblings died of tuberculosis, his grandmother raised him. He entered Covadonga Seminary at age thirteen, and then attended the Metropolitan Seminary of Oviedo (Prau Picón), where he continued to nurture his love of poetry. After serving as a priest in Villaviciosa for four years, he left the priesthood.
Olivar devoted the...
WOLFE, Lanny. b. Columbus, Ohio; 2 February 1942. A songwriter and music publisher, Wolfe has written over 700 songs. He is credited with influencing the movement of music in Pentecostal and Charismatic churches from traditional hymns and folk-style singing during the 1970s and 1980s to more recent gospel and popular styles. In addition to song writing and performing, he taught at Gateway College of Evangelism, Florissant, Missouri (1968–1974), and Jackson College of Ministries in Jackson,...
Liebe, die du mich zum Bilde. Johannes Scheffler ('Angelus Silesius')* (1624-1677).
First published in Scheffler's Heiligen Seelen-lust, oder Geistliche Hirten-Lieder (Breslau, 1657), Book III, where it is 'Das Hundert und Siebende' (the 107th hymn), headed 'Sie ergibet sich der ewigen Liebe' ('She [the Soul] gives herself up to eternal love'). It had six 6-line stanzas; a further stanza (4) was added in the Geistreiches Gesang-Buch (Halle, 1697). This stanza has remained in use: in EG the hymn...
Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim. George William Kitchin* (1827-1912) and Michael Robert Newbolt* (1874-1956).
The original version of this hymn was written for a Festival of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Winchester Cathedral, 15-16 June 1887, during Kitchin's time as Dean. In keeping with the occasion, it has a strong missionary element:
Lift high the cross! The Love of Christ proclaim,
Till all the world repeat His sacred Name.
Come, brethren, follow where...
GOOD, Linnea. b. Boston, Massachusetts, 24 March 1962. Born in Boston, Linnea Good was raised in Fredericton, New Brunswick. From an early age she was steeped in music. Her father, Frank Good (1938–2015), was well known in the provinces of eastern Canada as a hilarious and engaging performer in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. At age 12, 'at an age when other kids were leaving the church', Good notes, she was invited to sing in the choir of the local Anglican church.
Good pondered a vocation as...
Long ago the lilies faded. William George Tarrant* (1853-1928).
Tarrant was one of the editors of the Essex Hall Hymnal (1890), a book for the use of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, and named after Essex Hall in London, the headquarters of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association. None of his hymns was found in that book, but in the Revised Edition of 1902 this hymn, with its beautiful first line, was included. It was entitled 'The Constant Presence'. It was loosely based on the...
Lord Jesu Christ, by Whom alone. Thomas George Crippen* (1841-1929).
In the Congregational Church Hymnal (1887) this was the single hymn in the section 'Election of Deacons' part 4 of 'The Church of Christ'. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, 'In congregational (independent) churches the diaconate is usually an elective body of lay officers in a local congregation responsible for financial and administrative affairs and the distribution of the elements at Communion. Such deacons are, in...
Lord of the harvest, it is right and meet. Samuel John Stone* (1839-1900).
Written for the Second Day of Intercession for Foreign Missions in 1871 (cf. 'Through midnight gloom from Macedon'*). It was published in Stone's The Knight of Intercession (1872), with twelve two-line stanzas and a refrain. It was entitled 'The Same' [i.e. 'Hymns for the Day of Intercession'], 'III. Hymn of Thanksgiving'. It was preceded by a quotation from Psalm 72: '“Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, Who...
Lord, through this Holy Week of our salvation. William Henry Draper* (1855-1933).
First published in Hymns for Holy Week: being translations from Hymns from the Greek Church. With original hymns, and a hymn by Bishop Ken, edited by Draper with John Varley Roberts, of Magdalen College, Oxford (London and New York, 1898). It was included in A&M (1904), and in A&MS; it was retained in A&MR, but omitted from A&MNS . It had five stanzas:
Lord, through this Holy Week of our...
STEAD, Louisa M.R. b. Dover, England, 1 February 1846; d. Penkridge (now Mutare), near Umtali, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), 18 January 1917. Louisa immigrated to the United States as a young woman, ca. 1871, where she resided with friends in Cincinnati, Ohio. At a camp meeting revival in Urbana, Ohio, Louisa committed herself to missionary service, but was unable to fulfill her vow owing to poor health. After marrying George Stead in 1873, she gave birth to their only child, Louise...
Loving Shepherd of Thy sheep. Jane Eliza Leeson* (1807/8-1881).
First published in Leeson's Hymns and Scenes from Childhood (1842) in three 8-line stanzas. It was included in the Second Edition of A&M (1875), and has remained in A&M books through to A&MCP and A&MRW. It is found in many other books, including EH, RCH, BBCHB and CH3. In Ireland it is still in use in ICH5 (2000), and it was well known in Canada from its use in editions of The Book of Common Praise, from 1909...
BAUGHEN, Michael Alfred. b. Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, 7 June 1930. He was educated at Bromley County Grammar School and (after briefly working in a bank) Oak Hill Theological College, London (BD 1955). He was ordained (deacon 1956, priest 1957), serving curacies at Hyson Green, Nottinghamshire (1956-59) and Reigate, Surrey (1959-61). He was Candidates' Secretary, Church Pastoral Aid Society (1961-64); Rector of Holy Trinity, Rusholme, Manchester (1964-70), then Incumbent of All Souls',...
LITTLEFIELD, Milton Smith, Jr. b. New York, New York, 21 August 1864; d. New York, 11 June 1934. His parents were Anna Elizabeth Schull (1836–1904) and Milton Smith Littlefield Sr. (1830–1899). His father was an ally of Abraham Lincoln, superintendent of recruitment of Black troops in the South for the Union during the Civil War, and an opportunistic businessman in North Carolina during Reconstruction.
Littlefield graduated from Johns Hopkins University (BA, 1889) and Union Theological...
My God! how wonderful thou art. Frederick William Faber* (1814-1863).
First published in Faber's Jesus and Mary; or, Catholic Hymns for Singing and Reading (1849), and again in his Hymns (1862), in nine stanzas, with the title 'Our Heavenly Father'. Seven stanzas were included in the First Edition of A&M (1861), and this has remained the usual length of the hymn. A&M altered the affecting repetition at the beginning of stanza 3 from 'How beautiful, how beautiful' to 'How wonderful, how...
My God, since I can call thee mine. John Murray* (ca. 1740-1815).
This is the fourth of five hymns, published in the 1782 edition of Christian Hymns, Poems and Sacred Songs, Sacred to the Praise of God, Our Saviour, compiled by English Universalist James Relly* and his brother John Relly. The book was first published in London in 1754, and the 1782 edition was published in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for Noah Parker (1734-1787), a convert of Murray's and preacher in Portsmouth (Brewster, pp....
My song is love unknown. Samuel Crossman* (1625-1684).
This wonderfully moving Passion-tide hymn was published in Crossman's The Young Mans Meditation, or some few sacred poems upon select subjects, and scriptures (1664). This was a small collection of nine hymns, bound in at the end of The Young Mans Monitor. Or, A modest Offer toward the Pious, and Vertuous Composure of Life from Youth to Riper Years (1664). It was written in Crossman's favourite metre, that of the 148th Psalm in the 'Old...
Nearer, my God, to thee. Sarah Flower Adams* (1805-48).
Written in 1840, and published in Hymns and Anthems (1841), a book for the use of the Unitarian congregation of William Johnson Fox* at South Place Chapel, Finsbury, London (available online: https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/614). The hymn was included in the SPCK Hymns for Public Worship (1852); and in the First Edition of A&M (1861), in four stanzas, omitting the last ('Or if on joyful wing'). It is based on the story of Jacob's...
Now cheer our hearts this eventide. Robert Bridges* (1844-1930).
This two-stanza hymn was first published in 1895, among the 25 hymns that formed Part I of the Yattendon Hymnal, published as a whole in 1899. The first stanza was based loosely on a stanza of Nikolaus Selnecker*, 'Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ'* (EG 246), from a hymn in Geistliche Psalmen (Nürnberg, 1611) of nine stanzas, of which EG prints seven.
Now cheer our hearts this eventide, Lord Jesus Christ, and with us...
Now I have found the ground wherein. Johann Andreas Rothe* (1688-1758), translated by John Wesley* (1703-1791).
Rothe's hymn, 'Ich habe nun den Grund gefunden'*, was first published in Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf's Christ-Catholisches Singe- und Bet-Büchlein (1727), and then in the Moravian book that John Wesley would have encountered on his voyage to Georgia, Das Gesang-buch der Gemeine in Herrnhut (1735). It had ten stanzas, of which Wesley translated six. Rothe's magnificent hymn is...
Nunc Sancte nobis Spiritus.
Since the 9th-century New Hymnal (see 'Medieval hymns and hymnals'*), this has been the ferial hymn for Tierce, the Third Hour; as such, it appears in most medieval hymn collections (cf. 'Iam lucis orto sidere'* for Prime and 'Rector potens, verax Deus'* for Sext). Its reference to the Holy Spirit is clearly appropriate to the 'Third Hour' (see Acts 2). It was ascribed to Ambrose of Milan* by Hincmar of Rheims*, but is now thought not to be by him (see Analecta...
O brother man, fold to thy heart thy brother. John Greenleaf Whittier* (1807-1892).
This is taken from Whittier's poem, 'Worship', first published in The Opal: A Pure Gift for the Holy Days, edited by John Keese and John Chapman (New York, 1848). The first line of the poem is 'The Pagan's myths through marble lips are spoken', and the poem is dated 1848. In fifteen 4-line stanzas, it was written during the disquiet felt by many at the American-Mexican War of 1846-48 (Rogal, 2010, pp. 57-60)....
O Christ, the Healer, we have come. Fred Pratt Green* (1903-2000).
This was written in 1967, when Pratt Green was a member of the committee for Hymns and Songs (1969). The committee needed a hymn on mental health and healing, and Pratt Green wrote this hymn overnight, entitling it 'A Prayer for Wholeness'. Following discussion, the last line of stanza 3, 'Unconscious pride resists or shelves', was provided by Brian Frost (then Director of the Notting Hill Ecumenical centre, London). The last...
O gladsome light, O grace. Robert Bridges* (1844-1930).
From the Yattendon Hymnal, Part IV (1899), prefaced with the words, 'Fr. the Greek. 7th Cent. by R.B. for this tune'. The tune was the setting by Loys Bourgeois* for the Genevan Psalter* version of the 'Nunc dimittis'*, while the text was from the Greek 'Candlelighting Hymn', thought to be one of the earliest hymns of the Christian church (see 'Phos hilaron'*). It was translated, more sparingly and less regularly, by John Keble*, as 'Hail,...
O Jesu, Blessèd Lord, to Thee. Thomas Hansen Kingo* (1634-1703), translated by Arthur James Mason* (1851-1928).
Kingo's text, beginning ' O Jesu, søde Jesu, dig', was published in his Danmarks og Norges Kirkes Forordnede Salme-Bog. Vinter-Parten (1689) ('The Ordained Hymnal for the Churches of Denmark and Norway. The Winter Part'). It was entitled 'Thanksgiving after the Lord's Supper'. Its two stanzas were translated into English by Mason and included in the 1889 Supplement to the Second...
O Love, who formedst me to wear. Johannes Scheffler* (1624-1677), translated by Catherine Winkworth* (1827-1878).
The German text, 'Liebe, die du mich zum Bilde'*, was published in Scheffler's Heilige Seelen-lust, oder Geistliche Hirten-Lieder ('Holy soul-longing, or spiritual pastoral songs', Breslau, 1657), in six 6-line stanzas. Another stanza (4, 'Liebe die du Kraft und Leben') was added in a Geistreiches Gesangbuch published in Halle in 1697. Winkworth's translation of all seven stanzas...
O sacred Head, sore wounded. Paul Gerhardt* (1607-1676), translated by Robert Bridges* (1844-1930). This is a translation of a German hymn which in turn is based on a Latin one. Gerhardt's 'O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden'*, printed in Christoph Runge and Johann Crüger*'s D.M. Luthers und anderer vornehmen geistreichen und gelehrten Männer geistliche Lieder und Psalmen (Berlin, 1653), from a Latin hymn, 'Salve caput cruentatum'*, at one time ascribed to St Bernard of Clairvaux* but now thought to...
O Son of Man, our hero strong and tender*. Frank Fletcher* (1870-1954).
Written for the chapel at Charterhouse School, where Fletcher was headmaster from 1911 to 1935. This is the best known of the hymns that appeared in the Clarendon Hymn Book* (1936), a book with a strong Charterhouse element. It had been written ca. 1924 and had appeared before The Clarendon Hymn Book in SofP, SofPE, and RCH. It continued to be popular, perhaps because it was written to correct the portrayal of Jesus as meek...
O Thou from whom all goodness flows. Thomas Haweis* (1734-1820).
According to Maurice Frost, Hymnal Companion to Hymns Ancient & Modern (1962), p. 202, this was first published in a tract, The Reality and Power of the Religion of Jesus Christ Exemplified in the Dying Experience of Mr Williams [sic.] Browne of Bristol, who departed this Life October 16, 1791, aged 70. Browne may have known Haweis personally, or the hymn may have been published, or used in a service at Bath or Bristol,...
O thou who gavest power to love. Mandell Creighton* (1843-1901).
This is thought to be Creighton's only hymn. It was sung at the wedding of Sarah Lyttelton and J.C. Bailey on 26 April 1900 at St Margaret's Westminster:
O thou who gavest power to love That we might fix our hearts on thee,Preparing us for joys above By that which heaven on earth we see:
Thy Spirit trains our souls to know The growing purpose of thy will,And gives to love the power to show That purpose growing larger...
O Traurigkeit, O Herzeleid. Friedrich Spee von Langenfeld* (1591-1635) and Johann Rist* (1600-1667). This Easter Eve lament, in five verses, is in the 'Passion' section of EG (EG 80). It was printed in eight 5-line verses in Johannes Risten himlischer Lieder ('Das Erste Zehen', the 1st part, Lüneburg, 1641). The omitted verses were 4 ('Dein Bräutigam/ Das Gottes Lamm'), 5 ('O süsser Mund!/ O Glaubens-Grund') and 6 ('O lieblichs Bild,/ Schön zart und mild'). The full text is printed in The...
O Zion, haste, thy mission high fulfilling. Mary Ann Thomson* (1834-1923).
Written in 1868, while Thomson was nursing a sick child, to the tune PILGRIMS by Henry Smart*, used for 'Hark! hark! my soul! Angelic songs are swelling'* by Frederick William Faber*. Thus the refrain, added three years after the six stanzas, runs as follows:
Publish glad tidings, tidings of peace,
Tidings of Jesus, redemption and release.
It became part of the Episcopal Church's hymn repertoire in the Hymnal (1892),...
O help us Lord! Each hour of need. Henry Hart Milman* (1791-1868).
First published in Reginald Heber*'s Hymns written and adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year (1827), set for the Second Sunday in Lent. It had six stanzas:
O help us Lord! each hour of need Thy heavenly succour give:Help us in thought, and word, and deed, Each hour on earth we live.
O help us when our spirits bleed, With contrite anguish sore;And when our hearts are cold and dead, O help us, Lord, the more.
O help...
SHIPLEY, Orby. b. Twyford, Hampshire, 1 July 1832; d. Lyme Regis, Dorset, 5 July 1916. He came from a distinguished clerical and military family: his grandfather, William Davies Shipley, was the Dean of St Asaph in whose house Reginald Heber* wrote 'From Greenland's icy mountains'*. Educated at Jesus College, Cambridge (BA 1854, MA 1857), he took Holy Orders (deacon 1855, priest 1858), becoming curate of the high-church St Thomas the Martyr, Oxford, and then of St Alban the Martyr, Holborn,...
CAMPOS DE OLIVEIRA Jr, Oziel. b. Recife, Pernanbuco, Northeast Brazil, 26 July 1946. He studied theology at the Escola Superior de Teologia in São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and later at Luther Theological Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. Oziel has served as pastor of the Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB, Igreja Evangélica de Confissão Luterano no Brasil) since 1973. Despite not having any formal training in music, Oziel has always maintained an...
Partners in Praise (1979). This is the title of a collection published in 1979 by Stainer and Bell Ltd, in conjunction with the Division of Education and Youth of the British Methodist Church. An edition appeared in the USA in 1982 (Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press). The explicit aim was to provide material that could be used in worship by adults and children together (the 'partners' of the title), and to use contemporary hymns and tunes. The editors were Fred Pratt Green* and Bernard...
Press on, press on! ye sons of light. William Gaskell* (1805-1884).
According to JJ, p. 406, this was one of the many hymns by Gaskell that appeared in John Relly Beard*'s A Collection of Hymns for Public and Private Worship (London and Manchester, 1837). It was not in either of the two principal collections by James Martineau*, Hymns for the Christian Church and Home (1840) and Hymns of Praise and Prayer (1873). However, it became one of the best known of Gaskell's hymns in the USA. It had...
The Rivulet Controversy
This is the name given to the unedifying debate that arose after the publication in 1856 (Preface dated November 1855) of The Rivulet. Hymns for Heart and Voice by Thomas Toke Lynch*. It was a controversy that almost destroyed the Congregational Union that had been founded as recently as 1831.
The book contained hymns that are still sung today, such as 'Dismiss me not thy service, Lord'*, 'Gracious Spirit, dwell with me'*, and 'My faith, it is an oaken staff'*. Many of...
EDDISON, (Robert) John (Buchanan). b. Derbyshire, 1916; d. Lingfield, Surrey, 2011. Educated at Wellington College and Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1938, MA 1942), he trained for the priesthood at Ridley Hall, Cambridge (deacon 1939, priest 1940). He was curate of St John's, Tunbridge Wells (1939-43), honorary chaplain for many years to the Bishop of Rochester, Christopher Chavasse, and, for most of his career, a staff member of the Scripture Union (1942-1980). He was Travelling Secretary for...
ROBINSON, Robert. b. Swaffham, Norofolk, 27 September 1735; d. Showell Green, Warwickshire, 9 June 1790. The son of a Scottish exciseman, Robinson was educated at the grammar school of the small market-town of Swaffham; he continued his studies under a private tutor. Poverty obliged him to abandon aspirations to enter the Anglican ministry, and he was apprenticed to a London hairdresser. In 1752 he experienced George Whitefield*'s preaching, describing himself as 'Renatus Sabbati die, Maii 24,...
PALMER, Roland Ford. b. London, England, 12 December 1891; d. Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, 24 August 1985. He was educated in London at the Skinners' Company School, and (after leaving for Canada in 1905) at the Grove School, Lakefield, Ontario. He studied at Peterborough Collegiate Institute and Trinity College, Toronto (LTh, 1914, BA 1916). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1916, priest 1917). After serving in two parishes in Ontario, Engelhart and Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay), he left for...
Saviour, blessed Saviour. Godfrey Thring* (1823-1903).
Written in 1862 and first published in Thring's Hymns Congregational and Others (1866), with the title 'Praise', in eight stanzas. When it was included in the Appendix (1868) to the First Edition of A&M several alterations were made by the author and the compilers, including a rewriting of the first four lines of the last stanza; and it was accompanied by the tune EDINA, written for it by H.S. Oakeley*. A later version appeared...
Saviour, while my heart is tender. John Burton (II)* (1803-1877).
Published in Burton's One Hundred Original Hymns for the Young (1850), where it was entitled 'Youthful Consecration' (it may have appeared previously in one of the children's magazines that Burton wrote for). It had three 8-line stanzas in the metre 8.7.8.7.D:
Saviour, while my heart is tender, I would yield that heart to Thee,All my powers to Thee surrender, Thine, and only Thine, to be.Take me now, Lord Jesus, take me; Let...
DACH, Simon. b. Memel, near Königsberg, 29 July 1605; d. Königsberg, 15 April 1659. He was educated at Königsberg, Wittenberg and Magdeburg. He returned to Königsberg in 1633 as a master at the cathedral school, becoming assistant rector there in 1636. He was appointed professor of poetry at Königsberg in 1639 through the influence of his friend Robert Roberthin (1600-1648), the Court Clerk of Königsberg. The sudden death of Roberthin made Dach's poetry more religious than it had been...
This refers to the print products of The Stamps-Baxter Music and Printing Company, comprising mostly gospel songbooks and hymnals, a monthly periodical, and instruction books. The core product in Stamps-Baxter publications was the gospel song or, more specifically, the southern gospel song. (Note: The term 'southern gospel' was an industry invention ca. 1976, and was not contemporaneous with most Stamps-Baxter publications.) Poets and songwriters from throughout the southern and midwestern...
Stay, Master, stay upon this heavenly hill. Samuel Greg* (1804-1876).
First published in Greg's Scenes from the Life of Jesus (1854), a book written for Sunday school teachers. It was printed at the end of a chapter on the Transfiguration. It had four stanzas. It was later reprinted in Macmillan's Magazine (1870), and included in W. Garrett Horder*'s Congregational Hymns: A Hymnal for the Free Churches (1884) and in his Worship-Song (1905). It became popular with Methodists, but with no other...
Sunset to sunrise changes now. Clement of Alexandria* (ca. 150- ca. 215/220), translated by Howard Chandler Robbins* (1876-1952).
This is described in The H40 Companion (p. 61)as 'a paraphrase and expansion' of a passage in Clement's Exhortation to the Greeks, or the Protreptikos. The original occurs in Chapter XI:
The universe has become sleepless light, and the setting has turned into a rising. For He who rides over the universe, 'the sun of righteousness', visits mankind impartially,...
Sweet Sacrament divine. Francis Stanfield* (1835-1914).
Published in Stanfield's Catholic Hymns (Part I 1858, Part II 1860), for Holy Communion. It had four stanzas:
Sweet Sacrament divine! Hid in Thine earthly home,Lo! round Thy lowly shrine, With suppliant hearts we come,Jesus, to Thee our voice we raise,In songs of love and heartfelt praise, Sweet Sacrament divine!
Sweet Sacrament of Peace! Dear home for every heart,Where restless yearnings cease And sorrows all depart.There in Thine...
Take our bread. Joe Wise* (1939– ).
'Take our bread' was written in 1966 as a song to prepare worshippers to receive the Eucharist. It was published in Wise's folk mass, 'Gonna sing, my Lord' (1966), appearing as the offertory in the album, Gonna Sing My Lord: Music for Worship (1966). This folk mass and 'Christ has died, Alleluia' (1971) are examples of this movement that dominated Roman Catholic music composition in the 1960s and 1970s.
Similar to early Pentecostal praise choruses of the...
Tell me the old, old story. Arabella Catherine Hankey* (1834-1911).
This is Part I of a two-part poem entitled 'The Old, Old Story', written (according to JJ, p. 483) on 29 January 1866 when Hankey was recovering from illness. Part I, 'The Story Wanted', is dated 29 January 1866, and Part II, 'The Story Told', 18 November 1866. Part II, a metrical version of the Gospel from creation to resurrection, was not intended to be sung, and has never been used as a hymn. The two-part poem was...
The church in her militant state. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
This is formed of two single and consecutive stanzas, numbered 863 and 864 in Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures (Bristol, 1762) on Revelation 22: 17. The first was headed 'The Spirit and the bride say, Come. - xxii. 17.'; the second 'And let him that heareth say, Come. - xxii. 17.' The two stanzas were brought into one hymn by John Wesley* in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists...
The morning bright, with rosy light. Thomas O. Summers* (1812-1882).
According to Summers himself, this was written in 1846 on a steamer on the Tombigbee River in Alabama. It was written for his daughter, then aged one, and sent to her at Tuscaloosa, where Summers was a pastor at the time. It had three stanzas:
The morning bright, With rosy light Hath waked me from my sleep; Father, I own Thy love alone Thy little one doth keep.
All through the day, I humbly pray, Be Thou my Guard...
The one thing needful, that good part. Benjamin Ingham* (1712-1772).
This unusual hymn was published in The Gospel Magazine (July 1768), and was included in A Collection of Hymns sung in the Countess of Huntingdon's Chapels, Bath (Bristol, ca. 1774). It is based on the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10: 38-42, in which Martha was 'cumbered about much serving', but 'one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.' It had six stanzas:
The one...
The people that in darkness sat. The compilers of A&M (1861), based on John Morison* (1750-1798).
This is an extreme example of the tendency of the compilers of the First Edition of A&M to take over a text and adapt it to their own purposes. In this case the original was 'The race that long in darkness pin'd'*, the paraphrase of Isaiah 9: 2-7 by John Morison*, printed in the Scottish Translations and Paraphrases of 1781.
Presumably the compilers wished to simplify Morison's version, and...
There's a Stranger at the door. Jonathan Burtch Atchinson* (1840-1882).
First published, after Atchinson's death, in The Gospel Choir (New York, 1885), edited by Ira D. Sankey*. It had four stanzas:
There's a Stranger at the door, Let Him in; He has been there oft before, Let Him in; Let Him in, ere He is gone, Let Him in, the Holy One, Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, Let Him in.
Open now to Him your heart, Let Him in; If you wait He will depart, Let Him in; Let Him in, He is your Friend;...
Thy holy wings, O Savior. Lina Sandell-Berg* (1832-1903), translated by Ernest E. Ryden* and Gracia Grindal* (1943- ).
Like Sandell Berg's beloved Swedish hymn, 'Children of the Heavenly Father'*, this hymn (sometimes 'Thy holy wings, dear Savior') is also sung to a Swedish folk song, in this case, BRED DINA VIDA VINGAR. The relationship between this text and tune extends back to 1889 in a hymnal compiled in part by Sandell-Berg, Sionstoner ('Melodies of Zion'). See Swedish hymnody*. The text...
Thy home is with the humble, Lord. Frederick William Faber* (1814-1863).
This hymn is taken from one first published in Faber's Jesus and Mary: or Catholic Hymns (1849), and then in his Hymns (1862). This was a twelve-stanza 4-line hymn entitled 'Sweetness in Prayer', beginning 'Why dost thou beat so quick, my heart?' It had twelve 4-line stanzas. Stanzas from 1 to 7 began as follows:
'Why dost thou beat so quick, my heart?'
'What spell is this come over thee,'
'How are my passions laid to...
The Greek word 'Trisagion' means 'Thrice holy'. It is used to indicate three attributes of the deity: 'God holy, God mighty, God immortal' (Latin 'Sanctus Deus, Sanctus Fortis, Sanctus Immortalis'). It is said to have originated during an earthquake in Constantinople when a child was carried up into the air. The people cried 'Kyrie eleison'; the child came down to earth and exhorted them to pray in the words of the Trisagion prayer: 'God Holy, God Mighty, God Immortal, have mercy upon us'. It...
CHAO, Tzu Chen (Zhao Zichen). b. Deqing, Chekiang, China, 1888; d. Beijing, 21 November 1979. From a Buddhist family, he was educated by Christian missionaries at the Methodist Dongwu University, Soochow. He was baptized in 1908. He undertook further study at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee (1914-17; MA, BD). Returning to China, he taught at his old university before moving to Peking (now Beijing) in 1926 as Professor of Theology at Yenching University. He was Dean of the School of...
Under his wings I am safely abiding. William Orcutt Cushing* (1823-1902).
This is a late hymn by Cushing, written in 1896, and published in editions after that date of Ira D. Sankey*'s Sacred Songs and Solos, where it is designated as 'Solo or Duet'. It is preceded by a quotation from Psalm 17: 8: 'Hide me under the shadow of Thy wings'. It had three stanzas and a chorus:
Under his wings I am safely abiding;Tho' the night deepens and tempests are wild,Still I can trust Him - I know he will...
We hail thy Presence glorious. Richard Godfrey Parsons* (1882-1948).
Bishop Richard Parsons was a notable churchman of the first half of the 20th century. This hymn for Holy Communion appeared in A&MR just after his death. It had five stanzas. Stanzas 3 and 4 deal mellifluously with the Prayer of Consecration:
O Living bread from heaven, Jesus, our Saviour good,Who thine own self hast given To be our souls' true food;For us thy body broken Hung on the Cross of shame:This Bread its...
When the Lord of love was here. Stopford Augustus Brooke* (1832-1916). This is taken from Brooke's Christian Hymns (1881). It is a hymn in the unusual metre of 7 7.5.D, dealing gracefully with the life of Jesus on earth in its gladness and its sorrow, and in its care for the suffering:
When the Lord of love was here,Happy hearts to Him were dear, Though His heart was sad;Worn and lonely for our sake,Yet He turned aside to make All the weary glad.
Meek and lowly were His ways;From His loving...
When we walk with the Lord. John H. Sammis* (1846-1919).
This is frequently known by the repeated phrase in the refrain, 'Trust and obey'. Its message is a simple one, and completely in accord with what is known of Sammis's strict belief and teaching. This may have been the reason that Daniel B. Towner* sent the account to Sammis that was the origin of the hymn. At a testimony meeting conducted by Dwight L. Moody* at Brockton, Massachusetts, probably in 1886, a young man gave a brief but...
Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern. Philipp Nicolai* (1556-1608).
First published in an appendix to Nicolai's Der Frewden-Spiegel dess ewigen Lebens ('the joyful mirror of eternal life', Frankfurt-am-Main, 1599). It had seven 10-line stanzas. It was entitled 'Ein Geistlich Bräut-Lied der gläubigen Seelen, von Jesu Christo irem himlischen Bräutgam. Gestellet uber den 45. Psalm dess Propheten Davids' ('a spiritual bridal-song of the believing soul concerning Jesus Christ, her heavenly Bridegroom,...
WORDSWORTH, William. b. Cockermouth, Cumberland (now Cumbria), 7 April 1770; d. Rydal, Westmorland (now Cumbria), 23 April 1850. Following the early death of his parents, he was educated at Hawkshead Grammar School and St John's College, Cambridge (1787-90). After periods of living in London, France, and the West Country, he moved in December 1799 to Grasmere, Westmorland, living there and at Rydal, the next village, for the remainder of his life. He was appointed Poet Laureate in...
Wir glauben all' an einen Gott. Tobias Clausnitzer* (1619-1684).
According to James Mearns*, this hymn for Trinity Sunday first appeared in a Gesang-Buch published at Culmbach-Bayreuth in 1668, where it had the initials 'C.A.D.' (JJ, p. 238). It appeared with Clausnitzer's name in a Nürnberg Gesang-Buch (1676) in three stanzas, corresponding to the three persons of the Holy Trinity:
Wir glauben all' an einen Gott, We all believe in One true God, Vater, Sohn, heiligen...
DESSLER, Wolfgang Christoph. b. Nürnberg, 11 February 1660; d. Nürnberg, 11 March 1722. He studied theology at the University of Altdorf, but was forced to leave through poverty and ill-health before taking a degree. He returned to Nürnberg, where he earned a living as a proof-reader, and was employed as a translator and secretary by Erasmus Finx (1627-1694; JJ, p. 377). Dessler was appointed Con-rector of the Schule zum Heiligen Geist at Nürnberg in 1705, a post that he held until he had a...
Ye Christian heralds, go, proclaim. Bourne Hall Draper* (1775-1843).
Written in 1803 by 'a Bristol student', this comes from a poem beginning 'Ruler of worlds, display Thy power' (see the entry under 'Sovereign of worlds! display Thy power'*). It consisted of lines 13-16 and 21-28 of the original poem:
Ye Christian heralds, go, proclaim Salvation in Immanuel's name; To distant climes the tidings bear, And plant the Rose of Sharon there.
He'll shield you with a wall of fire, With holy zeal your...
“Remember me,” the Savior said. Nathaniel Langdon Frothingham* (1793-1870).
This was entitled 'Communion Hymn'. Its first publications recorded in Hymnary.org were in the American Unitarian Association's Hymns for the Sanctuary (Boston, 1849) and its Hymn Book for Christian Worship (1854), the latter edited by Howard Chandler Robbins*. In Frothingham's Metrical Pieces, Original and Translated (Boston, 1855) it was Hymn XIV, preceded by two quotations, 'Do this in remembrance of me' and 'How...
Sound the Bamboo: CCA Hymnal (2000). The CCA Hymnal was published in 1963 by the East Asia Christian Conference, hence the original title EACC Hymnal. The text editor was Dr Daniel Thambyrajah Niles*, one of the founding fathers of the EACC and then the General Secretary, a famous theologian, a prolific writer and poet. The music editor was Professor John Kelly, then an American Missionary in Japan. The EACC Hymnal contained 200 hymns, among which 97 were written by Asians and 103 were...
STANFORD, (Sir) Charles Villiers. b. Dublin, 30 September 1852; d. London, 29 March 1924. The son of an Irish Protestant lawyer (who was himself a talented bass singer and cellist), he studied principally with Robert Prescott Stewart*, Richard M. Levey, and Michael Quarry, and Arthur O'Leary in London, before entering Queens' College, Cambridge in 1870 as organ scholar. He became conductor of the Cambridge University Musical Society in 1873, and migrated the same year to Trinity College, being...
The Christian Social Union, and its hymns
The Christian Social Union was founded in 1889. However, its concerns had been exercising thoughtful church people, and many others, throughout the 19th century: movements such as those of the Chartists in the 1840s, and the writings of such thinkers as Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-1872) and Charles Kingsley* provided a background to the practical experience of clergy such as Percy Dearmer* in the East End of London. The Salvation Army was founded...
ARNATT, Ronald Kent. b. Wandsworth, London, 12 January 1930; d. Fredericksburg, Virginia, 23 August 2018. Arnatt was an organist, composer, conductor, and editor. He composed several hymn tunes and organ pieces based on hymn tunes.
His parents were Josiah Henry Arnatt (1891-1958) and Elizabeth Christina (Kent) Arnatt (1903-1986). As early as 1937, Ronald's name appeared in lists of prize winners for singing and playing piano. In 1938 he was featured as 'Boy Musical Prodigy'. 'The remarkable...
Ah Jesu Christ, my Lord most dear. Heinrich von Laufenburg* (ca. 1390- ca. 1460), translated by Catherine Winkworth* (1827-1878).
This tender German hymn is from a Strasbourg MS, dated 1429 in Wackernagel, Das Deutsche Kirchenlied, II. p. 534 (modern books date it 1430).
Winkworth translated the five 6-line stanzas, as follows:
Ah Jesu Christ, my Lord most dear, As Thou wast once an infant here,So give this little child, I pray,Thy grace and blessing day by day: Ah Jesu, Lord Divine, ...
All glory to God in the sky. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns for the Nativity of our Lord (1744), in five 8-line stanzas, and reprinted in full in John Wesley*'s A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), in the Section 'For Believers Rejoicing'; and in subsequent Wesleyan Methodist hymnbooks. The text in 1744 was as follows:
All Glory to God in the Sky, And Peace upon Earth be restor'd!O Jesus, exalted on high, Appear our omnipotent...
All things are possible to him. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), Book II, where it was entitled 'All things are possible to him that believeth' (from Mark 9: 23), one of a sub-section entitled 'Hymns for those that wait for full Redemption'. It had eight complex stanzas:
All Things are possible to Him, That can in Jesu's Name believe:Lord, I no more thy Truth blaspheme, Thy Truth I lovingly receive;I can, I do believe in Thee,All Things are possible to me.
The...
Beams of heaven as I go ('Some Day'). Charles Albert Tindley* (1851-1933).
'Some Day' is an evocative and emotional title which connects with other hymns, such as 'We shall overcome'* of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s (a development of Tindley's 'I shall overcome someday'), and with many 'By and by'* hymns, including Tindley's 'We'll understand it better by and by'*. Early printings, such as the one in Soul Echoes (Philadelphia, 1909) mark the hymn as 'copyright, 1906'. The title is...
Behold the throne of grace. John Newton* (1725-1807).
In Book I of Olney Hymns (1779), 'On select Passages of Scripture', this was hymn XXXIII, supposedly on II Samuel 3: 5, one of three hymns of which the first was 'Come, my soul, thy suit prepare'. The verse on which the three hymns were based was given as 'Ask what I shall give thee', which is from I Kings 3: 5. The section on I Kings follows that of II Samuel, but the printer in 1779 misplaced the division between the Old Testament...
Behold us, Lord, before Thee met. William Bright* (1824-1901).
JJ, p. 182, noted that this hymn was published in The Monthly Packet (November 1867). This periodical was intended by members of the Church of England to counter Anglo-Catholic extremism. It was published from 1851 to 1869. Its first editor was Charlotte Yonge, the novelist of the Oxford Movement. Extracts from it were the basis of English Hymnology (1873) by Louis Coutier Biggs*, an early commentator on behalf of hymns. Bright's...
Blest be the dear uniting love. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in eight stanzas in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1742), where it was entitled 'At Parting':
Blest be the dear, Uniting Love That will not let us part:Our Bodies may far off remove, We still are join'd in heart.
Join'd in One Spirit to our Head, Where He appoints we go,And still in Jesu's Footsteps tread, And do His Work below.
O let us ever walk in Him, And Nothing know beside,Nothing desire, Nothing esteem But...
Cantate Domino (1924-1980). The phrase 'Cantate Domino' is from Psalm 96: 1, 'Sing to the Lord a new song'. Its opening Latin words were used as an extra-territorial title by the World's Student Christian Federation for a succession of books published during the 20th century for Christian students from all countries. The editions were as follows:
1. Geneva: World Student Christian Federation (1924)
No date, but given as 1924 in the Second Edition. Many translations are dated 1924. The...
ALEXANDER, Cecil Frances. b. Dublin, April 1818, exact date unknown; d. Derry, 12 October 1895. She was the daughter of Major John Humphreys, a distinguished former soldier who had served in the Napoleonic Wars, and his wife Elizabeth. Her father became agent to the Earl of Wicklow in 1825, and the family were closely associated with the Protestant aristocracy of Ireland. Fanny, as she was known to her family, was well educated and religious, much influenced by figures such as John Keble* and...
WOOD, Charles. b. Armagh, Ireland, 15 June 1866; d. Cambridge, 12 July 1926. One of the first scholarship students at the Royal College of Music, he studied with Charles Villiers Stanford* (1883-87). In 1888 he was appointed to the teaching staff of the College; he continued to be associated with the institution for the rest of his life as an instructor in harmony and composition. After winning an organ scholarship to Selwyn College, Cambridge, he migrated to Gonville and Caius College in 1889...
DERRICKS, Cleavant. b. Chattanooga, Tennessee, 13 May 1910; d. Nashville, Tennessee, 14 April 1977.
Lister Cleavant Derricks was a Baptist pastor, a choral director, and a gospel song composer. He and his older brother Thomas Clinton Derricks, two younger sisters, Gwendoline and Ruth, and a younger brother, Van D., were born to John Thomas (Dick) and Ora Mae Derricks (née Kinamore). Though his parents were raised in Alabama and Georgia, they moved to East Chattanooga, where his father was a...
Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life. George Herbert* (1593-1633).
From Herbert's collection The Temple (Cambridge, 1633), published just after his death. This poem was first used as a hymn in an altered form in Select Hymns Taken out of Mr Herbert's Temple and Turned into Common Metre (1697). A much altered version beginning 'Come, O my Way, my Truth, my Life!' was also in John* and Charles Wesley*'s Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739), together with other poems by Herbert. In the USA it appeared in the...
BROWNING, Elizabeth Barrett Moulton (née Barrett). b. Coxhoe, near Durham, 6 March 1806; d. Florence, 30 June 1861. She was the daughter of a wealthy merchant family whose money had been made in the West Indies. The family moved to an estate at Ledbury, Herefordshire, in 1810. She was a precocious poet, whose first verses were published in the New Monthly Magazine in 1821, and whose first book, An Essay on Mind, with Other Poems, appeared in 1826. In 1832 the family moved to Sidmouth, Devon,...
BERSIER, Eugène. b. Morges, Switzerland, 5 February 1831; d. Paris, 18 November 1889. He was a French Evangelical Reformed Pastor, liturgist, preacher, historian and hymnwriter. His Swiss parents, Jacques Bersier and Louise Coindet (she was born in England), were of French Huguenot descent. So Eugène was naturalised French in 1855. His grandmother, on his mother's side, taught him English. He lived in Geneva with his widowed mother from 1838 to 1848. She prayed the 'Prayer-Book' services with...
Fountain of good, to own Thy love. Edward Osler* (1798-1863), based on two hymns by Philip Doddridge* (1702-1751).
The first line of this hymn was based on the opening line of no 271 in Doddridge's Hymns founded on Various texts in the Holy Scriptures (1755), beginning 'Fountain of Comfort and of Love'. The remainder of the hymn was based on 'Jesus, my Lord, how rich thy grace'*, no 188 in Doddridge's book. It was written by Osler for Psalms and Hymns adapted to the Services of the Church of...
From north and south, from east and west. David Gambrell* (1972– ).
The opening line of his hymn recalls 'In Christ there is no east or west'* by John Oxenham* (1852–1941). Whereas Oxenham's hymn is a call for worldwide Christian unity, Gambrell's text is based on the Great Thanksgiving (Eucharistic Prayer), highlighting his desire to understand the connection and collaboration in the body of Christ. Indeed, the title of the hymn recalls the Sursum Corda, 'We Lift Our Hearts, O Lord Our God',...
SIMONS, George Albert. b. LaPorte, Indiana, 19 March 1874; d. Brooklyn, New York, 2 August 1952. Son of a Methodist pastor, George Henry Simons and his wife Ottilie Schulz, Simons attended Adelphi Academy, Brooklyn, New York; German-Wallace College (now Baldwin-Wallace College), Berea, Ohio (AB, 1899; DD, 1908); New York University (AB, 1903); the Theological School of Drew University, Madison, New Jersey (BD, 1905). In 1899, after finishing theological studies, he was ordained in the Methodist...
ALLEN, George Nelson. b. near Mansfield, Massachusetts, 7 September 1812; d. Cincinnati, Ohio, 9 December 1877. Allen is primarily remembered in hymnody as the probable composer of the hymn tune MAITLAND.
Allen studied music in Boston under Lowell Mason* before leaving Boston in 1832 to follow the famous Boston preacher Lyman Beecher (1775-1863) to Cincinnati, Ohio, when Beecher became president of Lane Seminary. However, because of illness, Allen stayed in northern Ohio, where he attended...
God who madest earth and heaven. Heinrich Albert* (1604-1651), translated by Catherine Winkworth* (1827-1878).
Winkworth's translation of Albert's 'Gott des Himmels und der Erden'* was printed as the first of the 'Morning Hymns' in Lyra Germanica I (1855). For the popularity of this hymn in Germany, see the entry on 'Gott des Himmels'. Winkworth translated all seven stanzas of Albert's text very faithfully:
Gott des Himmels und der Erden, God who madest earth and...
Help us to help each other, Lord. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
These are stanzas from a hymn first published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1742), where it began 'Try us, O God, and search the Ground'. It was entitled 'A Prayer for Persons join'd in Fellowship', and had four parts. The text beginning 'Help us...', which is the normal selection, was from Part I, beginning
Try us, O God, and search the Ground
Of Every Sinful Heart,
Whate'er of Sin in Us is found
O bid it All...
Heut triumphieret Gottes Sohn. Kaspar Stolzhagen* (1550-1594).
This joyful Easter hymn, filled with double 'Halleluja's, comes from Stolzhagen's Kinderspiegel, oder Hauszucht und Tischbüchlein. Wie die Eltern mit den Kindern vor und nach Essens Abendes und Morgens singen und beten sollen (Eisleben, 1591), a hymnbook for children and adults to use daily. In JJ, p. 1648, James Mearns* thought the hymn 'may possibly be' by Stolzhagen, but he is given as the author in EG (109).
It was entitled...
How tedious and tasteless the hours. John Newton* (1725-1807).
From Olney Hymns (1779), Book I, 'On select Texts of Scripture', headed ' None upon earth I desire besides thee. Psal. lxxiii. 25.' It had four stanzas:
How tedious and tasteless the hours, When Jesus no longer I see; Sweet prospects, sweet birds, and sweet flow'rs, Have lost all their sweetness with me: That mid-summer sun shines but dim, The fields strive in vain to look gay; But when I am happy in him, December's as...
I was there to hear your borning cry ('Borning Cry'). John Ylvisaker* (1937-2017).
Ylvisaker was the author of the text and composer of the music. The following narrative from the author's website described the circumstances surrounding the composition of this song:
During 1985, the ALC [American Lutheran Church] was doing a series on baptism called 'Reflections'. John began work on the song before any footage for the video had been shot. When the media team met to put the music with the video...
MOUNTAIN, James. b. Leeds, Yorkshire, 16 July 1844; d. Tunbridge Wells, Kent, 27 June 1933. He was educated at Gainford, County Durham, and then at Rotherham College, Nottingham Institute, and Cheshunt College (Trevecca College in Wales, set up by Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon*, moved to Cheshunt in 1790). He was ordained as a minister of the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, and served at Great Marlow. After a breakdown in health, he resigned his charge, and went to study in...
Jesu, if still the same Thou art. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First printed in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1740), with the title 'Mathew [sic.] v. 3, 4, 6.' It is a remarkably dramatic development of the Sermon on the Mount, beginning with verse 3 ('Blessed are the poor in spirit', stanza 1 line 4), and continuing with verse 4 ('Blessed are they that mourn', stanza 2 lines 1-2) and verse 6 ('Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness', stanza 3). They are summed up neatly in...
BELL, John Lamberton. b. Kilmarnock, 20 November 1949. He was educated at the University of Glasgow 1968-71 (MA), 1972-74 and 1977-78 (BD). During the intervening periods he served as President of the Students Representative Council (1974-75) and as Associate Pastor for the English Reformed Church in the Netherlands (1975-77). While a student he was elected Rector of the University of Glasgow (1977-80).
His subsequent career was as follows: Youth Advisor, Presbytery of Glasgow (1978-83); Youth...
SWENEY, John Robson. b. West Chester, Pennsylvania, 31 December 1837; d. Chester, 10 April 1899. Sweney was a composer of tunes for many gospel hymns (see 'Gospel songs and hymns, USA'*), who collaborated with others, notably William J. Kirkpatrick*, in the production of many Gospel hymnbooks.
He showed musical talent as a child, and became celebrated locally as a choir singer and director. By 1859, aged 21, he was a teacher of music at a school in Dover, Delaware. At the outbreak of the...
Jesu, thy far-extended fame. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Volume 1 of Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), the two-volume collection that Charles Wesley published with his brother's approval, to further Charles's marriage. It had twelve stanzas. In A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780) John Wesley* printed eight of them, omitting stanzas 2, 4, 9, 10. His text was as follows:
Jesu, thy far-extended fame My drooping soul exults to hear: Thy...
HAUGEN, Marty. b. Zumbrota, Minnesota, 30 December 1950. He was one of five children of the marriage of Milton and Gwen (née Prestemon) Haugen. The family often gathered to sing around the piano accompanied by his mother. Haugen studied piano, violin, trombone and organ lessons through high school, and played organ in the local Lutheran church which his family attended. Following his father's sudden death, his mother, an English major from St Olaf College, became the editor of the local...
TIPPETT, (Sir) Michael Kemp. b. London, 2 January 1905; d. Isleworth, Middlesex, 8 January1998. Tippett was a man of exceptionally strong views and convictions, which emerged when he was a schoolboy. He left Fettes College in Edinburgh after trying to break the endemic cycle of bullying there and after admitting to a homosexual involvement. Then as a boarder at Stamford Grammar School, Lincolnshire, his lodgings in the town were put out-of-bounds to other boys because of his attempts to convert...
My God, I know, I feel Thee mine. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Hymns and Sacred Poems (1740), Part II, where it was entitled 'Against Hope, believing in Hope (Rom. 4: 18)'. It was reprinted in Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1753) with the title 'In Doubt', and beginning 'My God, I humbly call Thee mine'. In the 1780 Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists it was included in the section, 'For Believers Groaning for Full Redemption'. It had 12 stanzas. Printings in the...
O Jesu, Lord of light and grace. Ambrose of Milan* (339/340- 397), translated by John Chandler* (1806-1876).
This translation of the magnificent 'Splendor paternae gloriae'* was published in Chandler's Hymns of the Primitive Church (1837), where it was designated as 'Morning Hymn'. The first line was 'O Jesu, Lord of heavenly grace'. The hymn was the third hymn in the First Edition of A&M (1861), in the 'Morning' section, where it was altered by the Compilers. The alterations have the...
Phos hilaron.
'Phos hilaron' ('joyful light') is an ancient hymn originating in the early church and sung daily at Vespers (hesperinos) in the Byzantine liturgy of the hours. It is still sung today. St. Basil the Great (d. 379) described it as ancient, in fact so old that he did not know who wrote it, and he equated it with thanksgiving for the light. The origin of the hymn, as well as the name of the hymnographer, is unknown, though there is a reference to a martyr Athenogenes in the modern...
Saviour, breathe an evening blessing. James Edmeston* (1791-1867).
From Edmeston's Sacred Lyrics (1820). It was prefaced by an anecdote: 'At night their short evening hymn, “Jesu Mahaxaroo,” – “Jesus forgive us,” stole through the camp'. SALTE'S TRAVELS IN ABYSSINIA.' The description of this simple event in an account of an early exploration must have moved Edmeston to write his hymn, although he was careless about the reference, which is to Henry Salt's Voyage to Abyssinia, and travels into...
She comes sailing on the wind ('She flies on'). Gordon S. Light* (1944- )
'She comes sailing on the wind' ('She flies on') is a folk-style hymn in verse-chorus format often sung during Pentecost and other liturgical celebrations of the Holy Spirit. Gordon Light's ballad of the Spirit portrays the Holy Spirit as one who plays her part in the different biblical stories and then flies on, caught and challenged the imagination of the singing church. From its appearance in Songs for a Gospel...
Summoned by the God who made us (Sing a new Church). Delores Dufner* (OSB) (1939— ).
'Sing a new church', the title by which this hymn is most commonly known, is one of the author's most prominent texts. The National Association of Pastoral Musicians (USA)* commissioned the hymn in 1991 for its Convention in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on the theme 'Singing a New Church'. The hymn was first published in Sing a New Church (Portland, Oregon, 1994). This, Dufner's first collection, was named after...
HARRISON, Susanna. b. 1752; d. Ipswich, 3 August 1784. Little is known of Harrison's early years. It is probable that she was born in Ipswich, where she lived and died. Her father died when she was young, and she became responsible for the younger children. She took up a post as a domestic servant, ca. 1768, when she was 16 years old. She remained in service for four years, but became ill, remaining an invalid for the rest of her life. Her hymns were published anonymously as Songs in the Night,...
O'DRISCOLL, Thomas Herbert. b. Cork, Ireland, 17 October 1928; d. Victoria, British Columbia, 25 July 2024. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, 1951 and ordained in 1952. He became assistant rector at Christ Church Cathedral, Ottawa, Canada, in 1954. He served for three years as chaplain with the Royal Canadian Navy at Shearwater, Nova Scotia, before returning to Ontario (1960-67). He was Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver, British Columbia (1968-1982), Warden of the College...
Christian mission in Taiwan began in 1865; the early missionaries brought with them hymns in a collection from Amoy China, entitled Iong-Sim Sin Si, which were either translation of Western hymns or written by anonymous Amoy Christians or missionaries. The first Taiwanese hymnal of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT) was edited by William Campbell in 1900, but without music, and without any Taiwanese contributions. The Taiwanese hymn known to the world today 'Chin Chu Siong-te cho thi-toe'...
There were ninety and nine that safely lay. Elizabeth Cecilia Douglas Clephane* (1830-1869).
This was one of eight hymns by Clephane printed after her death in The Family Treasury, a Scottish religious magazine, in 1874 under the general heading of 'Breathings on the Border' (she had lived in the Border town of Melrose). According to James Mearns* in JJ, p. 1162, it was written in 1868, and had been published in a small magazine for children, The Children's Hour in the same year.
It became very...
This God is the God we adore. Joseph Hart* (1712-1768).
This hymn began life as seven 8-line stanzas, opening with the line 'No prophet nor dreamer of dreams', in Hart's Hymns &c. Composed on Various Subjects. With a Preface, containing a brief and summary account of the Author's Experience, and the great things God hath done for his soul (1759). Although this is a long text, it is so extraordinary that it needs to be printed it entire, with its title:
If there arise among you a Prophet, or...
POLLOCK, Thomas Benson. b. Strathallan House, Isle of Man, 28 May 1836; d. Bordesley, Birmingham, 15 December 1896. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1859, MA 1863), and took Holy Orders (deacon 1861, priest 1862). He was curate of St Luke's Church, Leek, Staffordshire (1861-63) and of St Thomas', Stamford Hill, Middlesex (1863-65) before moving to Holy Trinity, Bordesley, Birmingham, where his brother, James Samuel Pollock (1834-1895, Trinity College, Dublin; deacon 1858, priest...
SOGA, Tiyo. b. 1829; d. 12 August 1871. Soga was born in Gwali, Tyumie Valley, South Africa and died in Tutura, South Africa. JJ noted that 'The Rev. Tiyo Soga, a gifted Kafir missionary educated by the United Presbyterian Church, and early removed by death, compiled a book of hymns, which was printed in Scotland' (p.757). A more recent account by J. A. Millard indicates that Soga was the first Xhosa ordained in the United Presbyterian Church. Though his training at the Lovedale Mission was...
To the Name of our Salvation. Latin, perhaps 15th century, translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866).
First published in Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences (1851). Neale attributed this Latin text, 'Gloriosi Salvatoris nominis praeconia'*, to a German source. It is found in an Antwerp breviary of 1496. The translation was included, with alterations, in the First Edition of A&M, as follows:
NealeA&M
To the Name that brings Salvation Honour, worship, laud we pay: That for many a...
NIX, Verolga. b. Cleveland, Ohio, 6 April 1933; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 9 December 2014. The daughter of Rev. Andrew W. Nix Sr. and Ida A. Nix, Verolga Nix was a noted pianist, choral conductor, composer, arranger of gospel songs and African American spirituals*, and co-editor of the influential Songs of Zion (Nashville, 1981) with Judge Jefferson Cleveland*.
Her musical education began with voice and piano study at age six. She became organist at Mount Zion Baptist Church (Holmesburg,...
Were you there when they crucified my Lord. African American spiritual*, perhaps late 19th century.
This dramatic spiritual is, like most African American spirituals, of unknown origin and authorship, and it is found in many forms. The most commonly found text is of five stanzas:
'Were you there when they crucified my Lord?'
'Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?'
'Were you there when they pierced him in the side?'
'Were you there when the sun refused to shine?'
'Were you there when...
What cheering words are these. John Kent* (1766-1843).
This was published in Kent's Collection of Original Gospel Hymns (Dock [Plymouth Dock],1803) (JJ, p. 623). In the 6th edition (1826) the twelve stanzas were headed 'Say ye to the Righteous, It shall go well with him':
What cheering words are these! Their sweetness who can tell? In time, and to eternal days, 'Tis with the righteous well.
In ev'ry state secure, Kept as Jehovah's eye, 'Tis well with them while life endure, And...
When this passing world is done. Robert Murray McCheyne* (1813-1843).
First published in the Scottish Christian Herald (20 May 1837) (JJ, p. 1272), and then in Songs of Zion to cheer and guide Pilgrims on their way to the Heavenly Jerusalem (Edinburgh, 1841), and, with these words added, 'By the late Rev. R.M. McCheyne' (Dundee, 1843); and then in Memoir and Remains of the Rev Robert Murray McCheyne, Minister of St Peter's Church, Dundee, edited by his friend Andrew A. Bonar (Dundee and...
MACLAGAN, William Dalrymple. b. Edinburgh, 18 June 1826; d. London, 19 September 1910. The son of a surgeon who had served in the Peninsular War, he was educated at the High School and Edinburgh University, where he read law. In 1847 he decided that he needed more excitement than working as a lawyer in Edinburgh could provide, and joined the Madras Cavalry of the Indian army. Having been wounded, he retired as a Lieutenant in 1849. In 1852 he matriculated at Peterhouse, Cambridge (BA 1857, MA...
Who will man the Life-Boat. Carrie Breck* (1855-1934).
This was first published in The Gospel Choir No. 2 (New York, 1895), edited by Ira D. Sankey*, James McGranahan* and George C. Stebbins*. It was printed in Britain in The Christian Choir one year later (possibly a British imprint of the same book?). It is not listed as appearing thereafter in the USA by Hymnary.org, but it was taken up by Sankey for Sacred Songs and Solos (1903) and included in very successful Sunday School Hymnary*...
When languor and disease invade. Augustus Montague Toplady* (1740-1778).
This may be found in A Select Collection of Hymns, to be universally sung in all the Countess of Huntingdon's Chapels. Collected by her Ladyship (1780). It was entitled 'Meditation on God's love'. It had eight stanzas:
When languor and disease invade This trembling house of clay,'Tis sweet to look beyond our cage, And long to fly away.
Sweet to look inward, and attend The whispers of his love; Sweet to look upward to...
JOHNSON, Artemas Nixon. b. Middlebury, Vermont, 22 June 1817; d. New Milford, Connecticut, 1 January 1892. A. N. Johnson and his brother James C. Johnson (1820-1895) were musicians, teachers, composers, and publishers of church music. A. N. Johnson's hymn tune MENDOTA (SPEAK GENTLY), with text by Frederick George Lee (1832-1902), appears in several 20th-century hymnals.
Johnson's parents, James Johnson, Sr. (nda) and Anna Ward Johnson (nda) attended the Congregational Church in Middlebury. ...
HODGES, Edward. b. Bristol, England, 20 July 1796; d. Clifton, Bristol, 1 September 1867. Hodges was an organist, composer, and father of Faustina H. Hodges* and John Sebastian Bach Hodges*. Many hymnals include Edward Hodges's tune HYMN TO JOY, arranged from a melody in the finale of Beethoven's 9th symphony [Opus 125, 1824] as the setting for Henry van Dyke*'s 'Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee'*.
Edward's father, Archelaus Hodges (1767-1811), and mother, Elizabeth (Stephens) Hodges...
Great is our redeeming Lord. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
This hymn was not published in Wesley's lifetime. It appeared in the Arminian Magazine (1797), with a text of ten 8-line stanzas. It is a paraphrase, with many significant modifications, of Psalm 48. The most important of these occurs at the very beginning, when the Psalmist's 'Great is the Lord' is turned into 'Great is our redeeming Lord': the hymn thereafter becomes one of Charles Wesley's greatest hymns on the theme of redeeming...
I am far frae my hame, an' I'm weary aftenwhiles. Mary Lee Demarest* (1838-1888).
This poem was written in 1860 (Hymnary.org) or 1861 (JJ, p. 1628) and published in The New York Observer. According to Ira D. Sankey* (1906, pp. 163-5), it was based on the story of John Macduff, who emigrated to the United States and settled in the west. His wife became homesick, and they moved to the east coast, where she could see the ships leaving for Scotland. She continued to pine for Scotland, so the...
ELLERTON, John. b. London, 16 December 1826; d. Torquay, 15 June 1893. He was educated at King William's College, Isle of Man, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was president of the Addison Society (BA 1849, MA 1854). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1850, priest 1851) and during the next ten years served as curate at Easebourne, Sussex (1850-52) and St Nicholas', Brighton, where he was also 'Evening Lecturer' at St Peter's (1852-60). In 1860 he became Vicar of Crewe Green, Cheshire and...
CHAPIN, Lucius. b. Springfield, Massachusetts, 25 April 1760; d. Glendale homestead, northern Hamilton County, Ohio, 24 December 1842. Lucius Chapin (pronounced Chay'pin) and his younger brother Amzi Chapin* composed or arranged tunes included in present-day hymnals and other songbooks. They were descendants of Samuel Chapin (1598-1675), an English Puritan who settled in Springfield, Massachusetts during the winter of 1642-43 and is memorialized by a statue in Merrick Park, Springfield. ...
O Faith of England, taught of old. Thomas Alexander Lacey* (1853-1931).
This remarkable hymn was written for EH (1906). It had four 12-line stanzas. It opened the section entitled 'Church and People', under the sub-heading 'The Church'. Unusually for a British book, the words were printed between the staves, with stanzas 1 and 2 to be sung in harmony, and 3 and 4 in unison:
O Faith of England, taught of oldBy faithful shepherds of the fold, The hallowing of our nation;Thou wast through many...
Sacred Latin Poetry, 1849. Richard Chenevix Trench* (1807-1886).
The full title of this major anthology was Sacred Latin Poetry, Chiefly Lyrical, selected and arranged for use; with notes and introduction: by Richard Chenevix Trench, M.A., vicar of Itchenstoke, Hants, and late Hulsean Lecturer. It was published in 1849. It contained 71 Latin hymns, with useful and detailed notes. There was a Preface of 14 pages and a substantial introduction of 60 pages. The Preface began with a complicated...
Sarum Hymnal, The (1868). This hymnbook was a successor to The Salisbury Hymn Book (1857), edited by Horatio Bolton Nelson*. In The Sarum Hymnal the editors were Earl Nelson, James Russell Woodford* and Edward Arthur Dayman*. Woodford was rector of Kempsford, Gloucestershire, and subsequently Bishop of Ely. He had previously edited The Parish Hymn Book (1863) with Hyde Wyndham Beadon* and Greville Phillimore*. Woodford included three of his own hymns:
'Lamb of God, for sinners slain'
'Not by...
Temperance is one of the four cardinal virtues, and it is recorded as one of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5: 23). St Paul preached to Felix about temperance (Acts 24: 25) and the Second Epistle General of Peter includes temperance as part of the divine nature to which Christians are to aspire (2 Peter 1: 6). It was assimilated into the Christian order of moral thought from the 'nothing too much' of Greek philosophy, and it has remained an important constituent of the Christian life,...
PAVLECHKO, Thomas John. b. Youngstown, Ohio, 7 March 1962. Raised in a family of Slovak organists and Ukrainian singers and dancers, Pavlechko began his career on 1 January 1978. At the age of 15, encouraged by hearing eight other organists in his family, Pavlechko followed his ancestral musical heritage – which is now over 150 years of combined service – and became a church organist. He served at St John Lutheran, his home church in Youngstown, where the services that he played for were...
TUCKEY, William. b. Somerset, England, 1708; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 14 September 1781. Tuckey was a composer, singer, and choirmaster, associated with Trinity Church, New York City, from 1753 to about 1773. The most widely disseminated hymn tune attributed to Tuckey is PSALM 33, also known as TRENTON.
The names of Tuckey's parents, descriptions of his early years musical education, and marriage records appear to be lost. Documentation of his arrival in New York, probably during 1752,...
I am weak but Thou art strong. Anonymous.
This traditional hymn is frequently known as 'Just a closer walk with Thee' from the first line of the refrain. Its precise origins are unknown. It seems to have gained popularity, both in print and in recordings, during the 1940s. During this era and in the musical cultures that generated this song, it was common to for a musician to take a commonly known song, make a musical arrangement including adding a stanza or refrain, and then claim ownership....
TWIT, Kevin John. b. Omaha, Nebraska, 4 August 1964.
Kevin Twit is a church musician, composer, lecturer, and performer of Christian music. His musical journey began in Baltimore, Maryland, where he was raised in the Episcopal Church. One of Kenneth and Karen Twit's three children, Kevin's musical talent emerged early: he picked up the guitar at the age of thirteen. His formative years were marked by his conversion to Christianity through the ministry of Young Life, a Christian...
The Iona Community was founded in Scotland in 1938 by the Revd George MacLeod, later Lord MacLeod of Fiunary. It rebuilt the ancient monastic buildings on the island of Iona, from which St Columba* sent out missionaries such as St Aidan to convert Scotland and the north of England in the 6th century. With the rebuilding of the abbey of Iona, the Community has sought also the 'rebuilding of the common life', bringing together (in the words of its website) 'work and worship, prayer and politics,...
Japanese Hymnody.
The Legacy of Roman Catholic Missionaries.
The Dawn of Christian hymnody in Japan goes back to 1549 when the Jesuit priest St Francis Xavier* came to Kagoshima to teach Christianity: there is some evidence that the Mass was celebrated with music in the next decade. Music was one of the major emphases in seminary education, and the students celebrated Mass every Sunday with plainchant accompanied by the organ, cravo, viola, and other string instruments. The political leaders of...
Lietuviška Giesmių Knyga (Kaunas, 1923) [The Lithuanian Methodist Episcopal Hymnal]. This hymnbook (cited as LIMEH 1923) was published in 1923 with Lithuanian Methodist Episcopal pastors Karlas Metas and Jonas Tautoraitis as editors. Like the other Methodist hymnbooks of the Baltic states (see 'Estonian Methodist hymnody'*and 'Latvian Methodist hymnody'*) it was heavily dependent on the Gesangbuch der Bischöflichen Methodisten Kirche in Deutschland und der Schweiz ('Hymnbook of the German...
Somos uno en Cristo ('We are one in Christ Jesus'). Author unknown.
This anonymous Spanish-language scripture chorus (corito) focuses on Ephesians 4:4–6. It was undoubtedly transmitted via oral/aural tradition before being included in Celebremos su gloria (Dallas, 1992), a collection produced by an association of evangelical churches in Central America. Philip Blycker* (1939-2023), the music editor of the collection, arranged the music under his Spanish name Felipe Blycker J. Most collections...
Swing low, sweet chariot. African American spiritual*.
In A Collection of Revival Hymns and Plantation Melodies (Cincinnati, 1883), edited by Marshall W. Taylor, this has six stanzas, with a tune attributed to Jesse Munday. One source attributes it to Wallis Willis, a Choctaw freedman in what is now Oklahoma, whose singing was written down by Alexander Reid, a minister. It has a strong element of the 'revival' tradition, with an emphasis on salvation:
The brightest day that ever I saw,Coming...
A man there lived in Galilee. Somerset Lowry* (1855-1932).
According to Wesley Milgate* this hymn 'was apparently first published in School Worship (1926), set to FOREST GREEN' (Milgate, 1982, p. 88). In that version it had a refrain, which has been omitted in most subsequent books, though not in CP:
O Son of Man, O more than man,
Canst Thou our comrade be?
Then help us all, who hear Thy call,
To rise and follow Thee.
It had three stanzas, neatly celebrating the life, death and...
HABERSHON, Ada Ruth. b. Marylebone, London, 8 January 1861; d. London, 1 February 1918. She came from a religious family: she was the daughter of a physician, Dr Samuel Habershon, and his wife Grace. She was educated at a boarding school at Dover. She was steeped in evangelical culture: she was a friend of Charles Haddon Spurgeon*, and an enthusiastic supporter of the 1884 London Mission of Dwight L. Moody* and Ira D. Sankey*. Her autobiography and memoir, A Gatherer of Fresh Spoil, compiled by...
The singing practices and repertoire of any Christian congregation offer a site of aesthetics and theology. The act of singing itself is always culturally embodied and embedded, thus revealing complex relations between the musical 'sounding' of the poetry and the received theology of texts. What we learn to sing together in public worship and in devotion is at once experiential and formative of belief. Hymns, psalms and spiritual songs are central to every congregation's faith experience over...
GAUNT, Alan. b. Manchester, 26 May 1935; d. The Wirral, Merseyside, 19 July 2023. He was educated at Silcoates School, Lancashire Independent College, and Manchester University. He was ordained in the Congregational (later United Reformed Church) ministry in 1958, and served churches at Clitheroe and Barrow, Lancashire; Keighley, Yorkshire; Sunderland; Heswall; the South-West Manchester group of Baptist and United Reformed churches; and Windermere.
He published books of prayers, including New...
Alcuin of York. b. 730-740; d. 804. Alcuin entered the religious community associated with York Minster as a small boy and remained there, first as a pupil and then as a teacher and librarian, until 781. In 781, returning from Rome where he had been collecting the pallium for the new Archbishop of York, Alcuin met Charlemagne at Parma, and was invited to join the royal court as a teacher. From then on, he spent most of his time in Francia, his visits to Northumbria ceasing after the Viking sack...
FROSTENSON, Anders. b. Loshult, Kristianstad, Sweden, 23 April 1906; d. 4 February 2006. Frostenson studied history of literature and theology at the University of Lund. He served in Stockholm from 1933, first as a curate in Gustav Vasa, a big city parish, and then as a parish clergyman in Lovö parish, near to Drottningholm, one of the castles of the royal family, where he served as a preacher from 1955. In 1969 he became a member of the Swedish official hymn committee and in 1981 he was...
Author of life divine. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns on the Lord's Supper (1745), in two 6-line stanzas, in section II, 'As it is a Sign and a Means of Grace'. It was included in the Second Edition of A&M (1875). It has been included in subsequent editions of A&M, and in many Anglican hymnbooks (EH/NEH, SofP, SofPE) as well as those of Congregationalists, the United Reformed Church and others. After a long period of neglect by Methodists, it was included in MHB...
Arise, my soul, arise. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
This was first published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1742), in five 6-line stanzas, entitled, in italics, Behold the Man!:
Arise, my soul, arise, Shake off thy guilty Fears; The Bleeding Sacrifice In my Behalf appears;Before the Throne my Surety stands;My Name is written on His Hands.
He ever lives above, For me to interceed; His All-redeeming Love. His pretious Blood to plead;His Blood aton'd for All our Race,And sprinkles...
At Thy feet, our God and Father. James Drummond Burns* (1823-1864).
According to JJ, p. 1551, this was first published in The Family Treasury, presumably a Christian periodical, in 1861 (Gordon Bell notes 'July'). It later appeared in the Presbyterian Church of England's Psalms and Hymns for Divine Worship (1867), and in James Hamilton's Memoir and Remains of the Rev James D. Burns (1869). The text in 1869 was entitled 'New Year's Hymn', and was preceded by '“Thou crownest the year with thy...
All who believe and are baptized. Thomas Hansen Kingo* (1634-1703), translated by George Alfred Taylor Rygh* (1860-1942).
Kingo's hymn began 'Enhver som tror og bliver døbt', in his Danmarks og Norges Kirkes forordnede Salmebog (1689) (Milgate, p. 158: this hymnal was not approved by the church authorities, but Kingo's hymn was found in the official book that succeeded it, Den forordnede ny Kirke-Psalme-Bog, 1699, 'The authorized hymn book'). It was translated from the Danish by Rygh as 'He...
Beloved, “it is well !”. George Washington Doane* (1799-1859).
In Songs by the Way: the poetical writings of the Right Rev. George Washington Doane, DD., LL.D., arranged and edited by his son, William Crosswell Doane (Third Edition, Albany, 1875) this hymn is dated 'March 2, 1833' (JJ has 'Mar. 12', in error, p. 304). It was entitled 'To my wife'. The text was as follows:
Beloved, “It is well! - ” God's ways are always right; And love is o'er them all, Though far above our sight.
...
BLUMHOFER, Edith Lydia (née Waldvogel). b. New York, 24 April 1950; d. Naperville, Illinois, 5 March 2020. A church historian, biographer, and researcher on the role of hymns in American religious culture and thought, Edith Blumhofer was born the oldest child of three to Edwin and Edith Waldvogel. She was raised in Woodhaven, New York, then a municipality of Queens. Her father was pastor of Ridgewood Pentecostal Church, Brooklyn. She married Edwin Blumhofer on 13 September 1975: they were the...
Breathe on me, Breath of God. Edwin Hatch* (1835-1889).
This hymn began life as a poem in Hatch's privately printed volume, Between Doubt and Prayer (1878). It was later published by his widow in Towards Fields of Light (1890), entitled 'Spiritus Dei'; it had earlier been included in Henry Allon*'s The Congregational Psalmist Hymnal (1886). It was not in EH: it became widely known in Britain after its inclusion in A&M (1904). It has remained in A&M books since that time. It had four...
Brich an, du schönes Morgenlicht. Johann Rist* (1607-1667).
This Christmas or Epiphany hymn is in three stanzas in EG. It was first published in Johann Risten himlischer Lieder ('Das Erste Zehn', or First Part, Lüneburg, 1641), where it formed part of a longer hymn of twelve 8-line stanzas, 'Ermuntre dich mein schwacher Geist' ('Courage, my weak spirit'). It was entitled 'Lob-Gesang. Von der frewdenreichen Geburt und Menschwerdung unsers… Seylandes Jesu Christi' ('Song of praise, for the birth,...
Brother, sister, let me serve you. Richard Gillard* (1953-). Written in 1976/7 by New Zealand author and composer Richard Gillard when he was a member of St Paul's Church, Auckland, and known as 'The Servant Song', this hymn began as a verse (now the third verse) and a tune jotted down in 1976, then further developed in 1977. The author says,
In the back of my mind was the passage in John's Gospel [John 13: 2-9] where Jesus washes the disciples' feet, and the re-enactments of that moment I...
DØVING, Carl. b. Norddalen, Sunnmøre, Norway, 1 March 1867; d. Chicago, Illinois, 2 October 1937. Døving left Norway as a young man and lived in South Africa (1883-90), where he taught at a mission school, the Schreuder Mission in Natal, founded by the Norwegian missionary Hans Schreuder (1817-1882). Døving emigrated to the USA in 1890 and attended Luther College, Decorah, Iowa (AB, 1893) and Luther Seminary of the Norwegian Synod, St Paul, Minnesota (CT [Candidatus theologiae], 1896). He was a...
Christ has risen while earth slumbers. John Bell (b. 1949) and Graham Maule* (1958-2019).
'Christ has risen' first appeared in the collection Enemy of Apathy: Songs of the Passion and the Resurrection, and the Coming of the Holy Spirit (1988), the second of three early volumes of songs developed with over a dozen dialogue partners in the Wild Goose Worship Group (WGWG). The collaborative creative process with the WGWG was evident in the production of the early volumes: they sought to prepare a...
Christ is coming! Let creation. John Ross Macduff* (1818-1895).
Based on Revelation 22: 20, this Advent hymn is from Macduff's Altar Stones (1853), published when he was minister of St Madoes, Perthshire (Barkley, 1979, p. 141). It became Macduff's best known hymn. It had four stanzas:
Christ is coming! Let creation From her groans and travail cease; Let the glorious proclamation Hope restore and faith increase: Christ is coming! Come, Thou blessèd Prince of Peace.
Earth can now but...
BATEMAN, Christian Henry. b. Wyke, Yorkshire, England, 9 August 1813; d. Carlisle, Cumberland, 27 July 1889. Bateman was the son of John Frederick Bateman (1772–1851), a mostly unsuccessful inventor, and Mary Agnes Bateman (née La Trobe) (1772–1848), and the fourth of six siblings (his older brother, the eminent civil engineer John Frederick La Trobe Bateman (1810–1889), was - unlike his father - one of the most successful innovators of his era, supervising reservoirs and waterworks in Ireland...
Come on, my partners in distress. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), Volume II, the book published with Charles Wesley's name but with his brother's approval, where it was hymn XXII:
Come on, my Partners in Distress,My Comrades thro' the Wilderness, Who still your Bodies feel,A while forget your Griefs, and Fears,And look beyond the Vale of Tears To that celestial Hill.
Beyond the Bounds of Time, and Space,Look forward to that happy Place, The Saints...
Come, Holy Ghost, Who ever One. Latin, before 9th century, translated by John Henry Newman* (1801-1890).
The Latin text, 'Nunc Sancte nobis Spiritus'*, was the traditional hymn for the Third Hour. Newman's translation, two verses and a doxology, was printed in Tracts for the Times, 75 (1836), 'On the Roman Breviary as embodying the Substance of the Devotional Services of the Church Catholic': it was one of many translations of the Latin text, and is probably the best known, because it was used...
Come, join the dance of Trinity. Richard Leach* (1953- ).
This is Richard Leach's most published hymn. The author states that he desires to write hymn texts that are 'biblically and theologically accurate and sound' (Leach, 2007, p. 7). He accomplishes this goal in in this this by engaging the singer in an imaginative, multi-sensory celebration of the Trinity.
Leach notes that 'Dancing has a very long association with the Trinity, going back to the eighth-century theologians who used the word...
Come, sinner, to the gospel feast. Nineteenth century, author unknown.
This hymn is annotated under Charles Wesley*'s 'Come, sinners, to the Gospel feast'* in JJ, p. 251. It is attributed in some books, such as Henry Ward Beecher*'s Plymouth Collection*, to 'Huntingdon' (see 'Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon'*). There were many variants of hymns in editions of the Countess of Huntingdon's hymnals, and the first line obviously derives from Wesley's hymn: but this hymn is exceptional in...
Command thy blessing from above. James Montgomery* (1771-1854).
Written for a Whitsuntide Festival of the Sheffield Sunday School Union, 3 June 1816; first printed on that occasion, and then in the Evangelical Magazine (September 1816). It was then published in the Eighth Edition of Thomas Cotterill*'s Selection of Psalms and Hymns for Public and Private Use (1819), with the title 'For God's blessing on His assembled people'.
Montgomery revised it for The Christian Psalmist (1825), calling it...
Conquering kings their titles take. Latin, 18th century, translated by John Chandler* (1806-1876).
According to Frost (1962) the Latin text, 'Victis sibi cognomina', is from the Paris Breviary (1736), set 'Aux II Vesp' [Vespers] for the Feast of the Circumcision. Frost also notes that it was in a Nevers Breviary of 1727. Chandler translated it in Hymns of the Primitive Church (1837), following the Breviary in assigning it to Evensong on the Feast of the Circumcision (cf. his other hymn on the...
TILLMAN, Charles Davis. b. Tallassee, Alabama, 20 March 1861; d. Atlanta, Georgia, 2 September 1943. Charlie Tillman was a gospel songwriter and publisher. He was the youngest of five children born to James Lafayette Tillman (1829–1904), a Baptist preacher and evangelist, and Mary Fletcher Tillman (née Davis) (1827–1904), who was active in her husband's evangelistic efforts. He married Anna Tillman (née Killingsworth) (1869–1949) in 1889, and they had five children. As a child, he traveled with...
Christ is risen! Christ is risen! Archer Thompson Gurney* (1820-1887).
This Easter hymn is from Gurney's A Book of Praise (1862), one of several books by him (see JJ, p. 474). One of the earliest books to use it was Church Hymns with Tunes (1874), in which it was given a tune, RESURREXIT, by the music editor, Arthur Sullivan*, to fit the unusual metre of 8.7.8.7.7.5.7.5.8.7.8.7. It had three stanzas, with a refrain:
Christ is risen! Christ is risen! He hath burst His bonds in twain! Christ is...
Day of Arising. Susan Palo Cherwien* (1953– )
This hymn was commissioned for the 1996 annual assembly of the Minneapolis Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The opening line recalls Christ's encounter with those traveling on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24: 13–35) on the afternoon of Easter Day. Carl P. Daw, Jr.* comments:
Because our liturgical calendar has traditionally separated the reading of this story from the other Resurrection narratives, we usually do not hear about...
POTTER, Ethel Olive Doreen (née Cousins). b. Panama, 1925; d. Geneva, 24 June 1980. She was a Jamaican citizen, born in Panama, but growing up in Jamaica, where she studied piano and violin at school. She moved to England and trained as a teacher of music at St Katherine's College, Liverpool. In 1957, she gained her Licentiate of Music degree at Trinity College, London, and was violinist for a number of orchestras.
She married Philip Potter, the General Secretary of the World Council of...
Dismiss us with thy blessing, Lord. Joseph Hart* (1712-1768).
This was not in Hart's 1759 hymnbook, but 'from his Supplement, 1762' JJ, (p. 493), referring to the Second Edition, with Supplement, of Hymns, &c. composed on Various Subjects, by J. Hart (1762). We have used the Third Edition (1763):
Dismiss us with thy Blessing, Lord. Help us to feed upon thy Word. All that has been amiss, forgive: And let thy Truth within us live,
Tho' we are guilty, thou art good. Wash all our Works in...
HARPER, Earl Enyeart. b. Coffey, Missouri, 28 March 1895; d. St Petersburg, Florida, 1 March 1967. Pastor, hymnist, educator, author, director of hymn festivals, arts curator, Harper attended Nebraska Wesleyan University, Lincoln, Nebraska (BA, 1918) and Boston University School of Theology, Boston, Massachusetts (STB, 1921), with additional study at Harvard and the University of Chicago. Harper began his professional career as the pastor of Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church, Auburndale,...
WHITE, (Elizabeth) Estelle. b. South Shields, County Durham (now in Tyne and Wear), 4 December 1925; d. Dewsbury, Yorkshire, 9 February 2011. Born into a musical family, she learned to play the guitar and saxophone in her youth. She joined the army in 1943, and was based at Fenham Barracks, Newcastle upon Tyne, until she was moved to London with an army band to play the saxophone. After coming out of the army, she trained as a physiotherapist. She worked with children with cerebral palsy for...
Father most holy, merciful and tender. Latin, 10th century, translated by Percy Dearmer* (1867-1936). This is a translation of 'O pater sancte, mitis atque pie', a hymn of the 10th century on the Holy Trinity (see 'Trinity hymns'*), written for EH. It appeared in EH and SofP, and was retained in NEH:
Father most holy, merciful and tender;Jesus our Saviour, with the Father reigning;Spirit all-kindly, Advocate, Defender, Light never waning;
Trinity sacred, Unity unshaken;Deity perfect, giving...
Father, in whom we live. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns for those that seek, and those that have Redemption in the Blood of Jesus Christ (1747), where it was entitled 'To the Trinity'. It was not included by John Wesley* in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), but it was added in an early supplement of 1796. The original text began:
Father, in whom we live, In whom we are, and move, The Glory, Power, and Praise receive Of thy...
The Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts (now the Fellowship of Worship Artists)
The Fellowship is in part the successor to the National Fellowship of Methodist Musicians (NaFOMM), whose founding in the mid 1950s was prompted by that denomination's educational leaders' and curriculum editors' articulation of the theological discrepancies and inadequacies, the pedagogical practices of children's choir directors, and the texts of songs in the denomination's Sunday school...
BOTTOME, Francis ('Frank'). b. Belper, Derbyshire, 26 May 1823; d. Tavistock, Devon, 29 June 1894. As a young man he was greatly influenced by the Methodists in his native town, and was called upon to preach to them. After training under Thomas Jackson and obtaining a local preacher's license, serving the Belper Circuit, he went to Guelph, Canada, as a missionary to the Native Americans. His health broke down, and he went to New York en route for England. In New York he recovered in the hands...
LEHMAN, Frederick Martin. b. Mecklenburg, Schwerin, Germany, 7 August 1868; d. Pasadena, California, 20 February 1953. Lehman's family emigrated to America when he was a child, aged four. The family settled in Iowa, where he lived for most of his childhood years. At the age of eleven he had a vision, which he related in after years, and which he regarded as having shaped his later life:
One glad morning about eleven o'clock while walking up the country lane, skirted by a wild crab-apple grove...
From heaven above to earth I come. Martin Luther* (1483-1546), translated by Catherine Winkworth* (1827-1878).
Luther's 'cradle hymn', as it is sometimes called, began 'Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her'*. It was almost certainly written for his children, to be sung at a Christmas-Eve entertainment, sometime before 1535. It was based on a secular song, 'Ich komm aus fremden Landen her', and has a folk-song-like simplicity. It was published in Geistliche Lieder (Wittenberg, 1535), with the title...
Full in the panting heart of Rome. Nicholas Wiseman* (1802-1865).
This remarkable hymn, notable for its devotion to the supreme head of the Roman Catholic Church, was published in Britain in Crown of Jesus: a complete Catholic manual of devotion, doctrine, and instruction (1862), edited by R.R. Suffield and C.F.R. Palmer. It was included in Catholic Hymns, Original and Translated, edited by Albert Edmonds Tozer* with the assistance of Richard Runciman Terry*, and in many others (JJ, p. 1728)....
Gentle Shepherd, thou hast still'd. Johann Wilhelm Meinhold* (1797-1851), translated by Catherine Winkworth* (1827-1878).
This deeply touching hymn, 'Guter Hirt, du hast gestillt'*, was written by Meinhold on the death of his 15-month-old son, Joannes Ladislaus, in 1833. It was published in Meinhold's Gedichte ('Poems') in 1835. Winkworth's translation, headed 'The Death of a little Child', was made for Lyra Germanica II:
Gentle Shepherd, Thou hast still'd Now Thy little lamb's long weeping;Ah...
SHEA, George Beverly. b. Winchester, Ontario, 1 February 1909; d. Montreat, North Carolina, 16 April 2013. Shea was a celebrated vocalist, hymn writer, and composer. His long tenure with the Billy Graham Crusades, five decades of concerts, appearances on radio and television, and 70 recordings, brought him many accolades, including 'America's beloved gospel singer', and 'the first international singing star of the gospel world'. Shea was the fourth of eight children born of the union of Adam...
WHITE, George Leonard. b. Cadiz, New York, September 1838; d. 9 November 1895. Son of a village blacksmith, White received a public school education through the age of fourteen and became a school teacher. He received no specific musical instruction but had a great love for music and encouraged music making by his students. Prior to the Civil War, White taught in schools and churches in Ohio where he organized a Sunday school for black people. Despite being threatened, he continued this work....
Give me a clean heart. Margaret Pleasant Douroux* (1941- ).
This was Douroux's first song, written in 1970. It caught on after Thurston G. Frazier (1930-1974), founder of the 'Voices of Hope' choir, who was Douroux's mentor and predecessor at the Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church, Los Angeles, introduced it at a national gospel convention (Gordon, 2006).
Douroux composed the song when encouraged by her grandmother to pray for the people of Mount Mariah Baptist Church, where her father...
Glorious things of thee are spoken. John Newton* (1725-1807).
Written for Easter Day 1775, this was first published in Olney Hymns (1779) in five 8-line stanzas. It is from Book I, 'On select Passages of Scripture', with the title 'Zion, or the city of God', and a reference to Isaiah 33: 27, 28 (since there are only 24 verses in Isaiah 33, this is a printer's error, probably for Isaiah 33: 20, 21). From early times editors have tried different selections and ordering of stanzas, with verbal...
Go forth and tell! O church of God awake. James Edward Seddon* (1915-1983).
This hymn of mission dates from 1964, when the author was living in Sidcup, Kent. He had returned from service with the Bible Churchmen's Missionary Society (now Crosslinks) in Morocco and was then the society's Home Secretary. It was published in the 1966 Youth Praise 1, set to the tune for which it was written, then recently composed by the compiler Michael Baughen* for 'Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord'*...
God be with you. Thomas A. Dorsey* (1899-1993), Artelia W. Hutchins, and Jeremiah Eames Rankin* (1828-1904).
This hymn of benediction by gospel legend Thomas A. Dorsey (1899-1993), often labeled as 'The Father of Gospel Music' in the African American context, is second its popularity following 'Precious Lord, take my hand'* (1932) in the composer's gospel compositions (Kemp, n.p.).
The text of this hymn is similar to 'God be with you till we meet again'* (1880) by American congregational...
Great God, to thee my evening song. Anne Steele* (1716-1778).
In Steele's Poems on Subjects Chiefly Devotional (1760) this was entitled 'An Evening Hymn'. It had nine stanzas:
Great God, to thee my ev'ning song With humble gratitude I raise:O let thy mercy tune my tongue, And fill my heart with lively praise.
Mercy, that rich unbounded shore, Does my unnumber'd wants relieve;Among thy daily, craving poor, On thy all-bounteous hand I live.
My days unclouded, as they pass, And ev'ry...
NAREKATSI, Grigor (St Gregory of Narek), b. ca. 951; d. 1003. Grigor Narekatsi is the author of Matean voghbergut'ean ('Book of Lamentations'), the most recognised work in Armenian literature. This is a book of devotion and spiritual consolation second only to the Bible. Mischa Kudian, in his foreword to his English translation of the first 25 elegies from Matean voghbergut'ean calls Narekatsi 'the most outstanding figure in the whole of Armenian literature', and he deserves to be known as one...
Happy Soul, thy Days are ended. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
This is from Part I of Volume II of Hymns and Sacred Poems (Bristol, 1749). This volume contains a section entitled 'Desiring Death' (Hymns XLIV-LIII), followed by a mixture of individual examples and general instances (Hymns LIV-LX). This hymn was Hymn LV, numbered Hymn XII in the 'Desiring Death' section. It was entitled 'For One Departing'. It had two 8-line stanzas:
Happy Soul, thy Days are ended, All thy mourning Days below:...
Happy the man that finds the grace. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns for those that seek, and those that have Redemption in the Blood of Jesus Christ (1747) in nine stanzas of 4 lines. It was entitled 'Prov. iii. 13, &c.', followed by instructions for the tune, 'To-------- Sinners, obey the Gospel-Word.' ('Sinners, obey the gospel word'* is the first line of one of Charles Wesley's earlier hymns, from Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1749). The text in 1747 was as follows:
Happy...
Hark, my soul! it is the Lord. William Cowper* (1731-1800).
First published in Thomas Maxfield's New Appendix (1768) to his Collection of Psalms and Hymns Extracted from Various Authors (1766); then in the Gospel Magazine (August 1771), where it was mistakenly attributed to John Newton*; then in Richard Conyers*'s Collection of Psalms and Hymns (1774); and then in Book I of Olney Hymns (1779). In Olney Hymns it was entitled 'Lovest thou me? Chap. xxi. 16' [of St John's Gospel]. It became widely...
NICHOL, Henry Ernest. b. Hull, 10 December 1862; d. Aldborough, Yorkshire, 30 August 1926. Nichol described himself as 'Mus. Bac. Oxon' on the pamphlets that he printed for Sunday school anniversaries, which had a Hull address (H.E. Nichol, Kirkella, Hull). According to Henderson (2019) he began life as a Civil Engineer, but became a music master at Hull Grammar School, and organist of St Andrew's Church, Kirk Ella. Henderson describes him as 'probably the most prolific' of the...
BEECHER, Henry Ward. b. Litchfield, Connecticut, 24 June 1813; d. New York, 8 March 1887. He was the son of Lyman Beecher, a celebrated Presbyterian minister; one of his sisters was Harriet Beecher Stowe*, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Henry was educated at Amherst College, Massachusetts (graduating in 1834), and Lane Theological Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio, where his father had become Principal. In 1837 he was ordained to First Presbyterian Church in the small town of Lawrenceburg, Indiana,...
Here is love, vast as the ocean. William Rees* (1802-1883), translated by William Edwards (1848-1929) and Howell Elvet Lewis* (1860-1953).
This is Rees's best known and finest hymn, dating from some time in the 1840s. In the manner of earlier Moravian and Methodist hymns, there is an intense focus on the shedding of Christ's blood, which Rees explores through a series of water-inspired metaphors in the second stanza. Though Edwards' translation is somewhat free, he faithfully preserves this...
How high Thou art! our songs can own. Elizabeth Barrett Browning* (1806-1861).
This is one of the four hymns printed by Elizabeth Barrett (as she then was) in The Seraphim, and other poems (1838) (cf. 'God named Love, whose fount Thou art'*). This was 'Hymn II', entitled 'The Mediator'. It was prefaced by 'As the greatest of all sacrifices was required, we may be assured that no other would have sufficed.' - BOYD's Essay on the Atonement.' This refers to Hugh Stuart Boyd's An Essay on the...
STOWELL, Hugh. b. Douglas, Isle of Man, 3 December 1799; d. Pendleton, Lancashire, 8 October 1865. He was the son of the rector of Ballaugh, near Ramsey, Isle of Man, educated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford (BA 1822, MA 1826). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1823, priest 1824), serving curacies at Sheepscombe, Gloucestershire and Huddersfield, Yorkshire. He was curate-in-charge of St Stephen's, Salford, before becoming rector of Christ Church, Salford (1831-65). He was an Honorary Canon of Chester...
I am the church (We are the church). Richard Avery * (1934-2020) and Donald S. Marsh* (1923-2010).
This child-like song has been embraced by all generations as a clear description of the nature of the Christian church. First published in the composers' Songs for an Easter People (1972), the music reflects the growing use of informal folk styles influenced by the Vietnam era protest song, and the folk masses of the post-Vatican II (1962-1965) era. The text succinctly expresses a no-nonsense...
I hear thy welcome voice. Lewis Hartsough* (1828-1919).
Written at Epworth, Iowa, where Hartsough was a Methodist minister, and published in the revised edition of The Revivalist (1872), of which Hartsough was music editor, and then in a monthly periodical, Guide to Holiness (1873), where it was found by Ira D. Sankey*. Sankey described it as 'this beautiful hymn' which 'proved to be one of the most helpful of the revival hymns' (Sankey, 1906, p. 116). It was subsequently used by Sankey and...
I will come to you in the silence ('You are mine'). David Robert Haas* (1957- ).
In 2017 The National Association of Pastoral Musicians (USA)* (NPM) conducted a hymn survey in which 3,000 participants ranked hymns. Known popularly by its title, David Haas' 'You Are Mine' was number four on the list. The hymn first appeared in the composer's collection Who Calls You by Name: Music for Christian Initiation (Chicago, 1988-1991).
The words are based on texts from Psalm 46: 10, 'Be still and...
FRASER, Ian Masson. b. Forres, 15 Dec 1917; d. Alva, near Stirling, 10 April 2018. He was the son of a butcher whose family were required to become involved from an early age in the business. Educated at Forres Academy and the University of Edinburgh (MA, BD, PhD). He was one of the earliest members of the newly-founded Iona Community and, in tune with its emphasis on the importance of witnessing to the Gospel within the political and industrial life of society, became a 'pastor-labourer' in a...
In God's most holy presence. Ernest James Dodgshun* (1876-1944).
This was published in the Fellowship Hymn-Book (1909). It was one of the earliest hymns by Dodgshun, who had joined the Society of Friends in 1908, and who later gave up work as a businessman to join the National Adult School Union, of which he became Secretary in 1924. It remained in the 1933 revision of FHB, published by the NASU and The Brotherhood Movement, Incorporated. Dodgshun and his wife Mary were members of the...
In the secret of His presence how my soul delights to hide. Ellen Lakshmi Goreh* (1853-1937).
First published in Goreh's 'From India's Coral Strand': Hymns of Christian Faith (1883). It was entitled 'My Refuge', and was based on a text from Psalm 31: 20. Ira D. Sankey* introduced it to the British public during the London Winter Mission of 1883-4:
The hymn at once came into general favor, and the deeply spiritual tone of the words brought blessing to many. The song was afterwards published in...
In unity we lift our song. Ken Medema* (1943 – ).
This hymn was composed in 1983 and premiered by Medema at a Southern Baptist Women in Ministry Conference held at Wilshire Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas, on 8 June 1985. It was also sung at the first convocation of the Alliance of Baptists, a reforming offshoot of the Southern Baptist Convention, in March 1987 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Set to the tune of Martin Luther*'s EIN FESTE BURG, the music combines with the text to invoke a Reformation...
I'll sing a hymn to Mary. John Wyse* (1825-1898).
Published in Crown of Jesus: a complete Catholic manual of devotion, doctrine, and instruction (1862), edited by R.R. Suffield and C.F.R. Palmer. It was also in Catholic Hymns: Original and Translated, with accompanying tunes (1898), edited by Albert Edmonds Tozer* with the help of Richard Runciman Terry*. It was the only hymn by Fr Wyse to be included in the Westminster Hymnal (1912, revised 1940), but its inclusion in those books ensured that...
It is not death to die.George Washington Bethune* (1805-1862).
In JJ, p.139, this was noted by F.M. Bird as a translation from a hymn by Caesar Malan*, 'Non, ce n'est pas mourir', but W. G. Polack, in the Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal (1942, Third revised edition, 1958) points out that between Malan and Bethune there was a translation of Malan's hymn by Albert Knapp*, 'Nein, nein, das ist kein Sterben'. It was first published in Bethune's Lays of Love and Faith. With other fugitive poems...
VAUGHAN, James David. b. Giles County, Tennessee, 14 December 1864; d. Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, 9 February 1941. Known as 'the father of southern gospel music', Vaughan grew up in Middle Tennessee and attended his first shape note singing school as a teenager (see Shape-note hymnody*). By the age of eighteen he was already teaching singing classes, and he formed a gospel quartet with his brothers. In 1890 he married and moved to Texas where he was influenced by Ephraim T. (E. T.) Hildebrand...
McAULEY, James Phillip. b. Lakemba, Sydney, 12 October 1917; d. Hobert, Tasmania, 15 October 1976. McAuley was educated at Fort Street Boys' High School, Sydney, and went on to complete an MA at the University of Sydney and a Dip Ed at the Sydney Teachers' College. He taught for a time in state secondary schools, then served in the Army Directorate of Research and Civil Affairs, mainly in New Guinea, during the Second World War. He held the position of Lecturer in Government at the Australian...
JOSEPH, Jane Marian. b. Kensington, London, 31 May 1894; d. Kensington, London, 9 March 1929. Born into a Jewish family, her father encouraged his children to pursue musical instruments. A pupil at St Paul's Girls' School in London, she encountered Gustav Holst*, who occasionally conducted the school orchestra where Jane, a tall girl, played the double bass. She was also recognized as a good pianist during her years at St Paul's (1909-13). Under Holst's tutelage she performed, in addition to...
Jesu, meek and gentle. George Rundle Prynne* (1818-1903).
This hymn is dated 1856 (JJ, p. 591). It was published in Prynne's Hymnal suited for the services of the Church, together with some introits (Plymouth, 1858), and then in the First Edition of A&M (1861). The 1861 text was preceded by the words, 'Lord, save us' (from Matthew 8: 25):
Jesu, meek and gentle, Son of God most high, Pitying, loving Saviour, Hear Thy children's cry.
Pardon our offences, Loose our captive chains, Break down...
Jesu, Name all names above. Theoctistus of the Studium* (d. ca. 890), translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866).
Neale wrote of this hymn, 'Iesou glukutate', and its writer: 'He is said to have been a friend of S. Joseph; but is known to us by the “Suppliant Canon to Jesus,” to be found at the end of the Paracletice. The following is a Cento formed from it.' The 'cento', or selection, comprised six 8-line stanzas, printed in Hymns of the Eastern Church (1862). A&M (1904) printed a...
Jesu, to Thee our Hearts we lift. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Book II of Charles Wesley's Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), published in his own name, with his brother's approval. It was number 45 of a large section entitled 'Hymns for Christian Friends'. It had six stanzas in 1749:
Jesu, to Thee our Hearts we lift, Our Hearts which now with Love o'erflow, With Thanks for thy continued Gift, That still thy pretious Name we know, Retain the Sense of Sin forgiven, And wait for all our...
ARNDT, Johann. b. Ederitz, Anhalt, 27 December 1555; d. Celle, Hannover, 11 May 1621. He studied at Helmstedt (1576), Wittenberg (1577), Strasbourg (1578) and Basel (1579-80). In 1581 he returned to north Germany, where he was a teacher and deacon at Ballenstedt (where his father had been 'Hofprediger', or Senior Preacher), and in 1583 priest at Badeborn in his native Anhalt. His opposition to the Calvinist views of the local prince, Johann Georg von Anhalt, led to his departure for Quedlinburg...
ZWICK, Johannes. b. Konstanz, ca. 1496; d. Bischofszell in Thurgau, 23 October 1542. He was the cousin of Ambrosius* and Thomas Blarer*. Little is known of his early life: his year of birth is deduced from his matriculation at the University of Freiburg-im-Breisgau in 1509; in 1518 he was ordained to the priesthood, and in the same year he travelled to Italy for further study at Bologna and Padua. He was awarded a doctorate at Siena in 1520. For a short time he was a professor at Basel, but in...
GRANADE, John Adam. b. Jones County, North Carolina, 9 May 1763; d. Lebanon, Tennessee, 6 December 1807. Nothing of substance is known of Granade's youth, nor of his education, though he had some; by 1799 he was a private schoolmaster on Barton's Creek in rural Wilson County, Tennessee. He experienced conversion at one of the first camp meetings, in nearby Sumner County, in August 1800; and he began to compose his popular 'Pilgrim's' songs that same day. Some of these were immediately...
OXENHAM, John. b. Manchester, 12 November 1852; d. Worthing, Sussex, 23 January 1941. 'John Oxenham' was the pseudonym of William Arthur Dunkerley, the name taken from a character in Charles Kingsley's* novel Westward Ho! (1855). Dunkerley was educated at Old Trafford School and the University of Manchester. He worked in his father's business as a wholesale provision merchant, with periods in France and the USA.
His interest in writing was stimulated by a friendship with Jerome K. Jerome,...
PEACEY, John Raphael. b. Hove, Sussex, 16 July 1896; d. Brighton, Sussex, 31 October 1971. He was educated at St Edmund's School, Canterbury. From school he joined the army: during the Great War (1914-1918) he was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Sussex Royal Garrison Artillery, serving in France from 1915 to 1918, after which he was awarded the Military Cross.
On demobilisation he entered Selwyn College, Cambridge as a Scholar, graduating with First Class Honours in the Theological Tripos...
MONSELL, John Samuel Bewley. b. Londonderry, Ireland 2 March 1811; d. Guildford, 9 April 1875. He was the son of an archdeacon of Derry, and brother of the politician William Monsell, first Baron Emly (1812-94). He entered Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1832). He was ordained (deacon 1834, priest 1835), and was successively chaplain to Bishop Richard Mant*; Chancellor of the diocese of Connor; rector of Ramoan, Co. Antrim; vicar of Egham, Surrey (1853-70); and rector of St Nicolas, Guildford...
HEWETT, John William. b. 1824; d. Claybrooke, near Lutterworth, Leicestershire, 20 April 1886. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1849, MA 1852). He was a precocious author: even during his time as an undergraduate he published A Brief History and Description of the Conventual and Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, Ely and The Arrangement of Parish Churches considered, a paper (both Cambridge, 1848). From 1849 to 1852 he was Fellow of the newly-founded St Nicolas College,...
WIMBER, John. b. Kirksville, Missouri, 25 February 1934; d. Orange County, California, 17 November 1997. One of the 20th century's leading charismatic pastors, Wimber is known primarily as a founder of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship. While still in high school, he began a professional career in music, winning first place in an international Jazz festival in 1953. His ability as a pianist and vocalist led to performances with several Rock and Roll musical groups. Experiencing a conversion in...
Just as I am, Thine own to be. Marianne Farningham* (1834-1909).
This hymn by Mary Ann Hearn (Marianne Farningham) was a rewriting of the famous hymn by Charlotte Elliott*, 'Just as I am, without one plea'*. It was published in a book for children produced by the Sunday School Union, The Voice of Praise: for Sunday School and Home (1887). It later appeared in The Sunday School Hymnary (1905), edited by Carey Bonner* and in many other books (RCH, MHB, CP, AHB and others), as well as the Baptist...
Laß mich dein sein und bleiben. Nikolaus Selnecker* (1530/32- 1592), stanza 1, stanzas 2 and 3, author unknown.
Stanza 1 of this very beautiful 'Gebetlein' or 'little prayer', is used for the close of a service, and is found in EG in the 'Eingang und Ausgang' section (EG 157). It was published in Selnecker's 'Passio', written when he was at Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, entitled Passio. Das Leiden und Sterben unsers Herrn Jesu Christi, aus den Vier Evangelisten ('the sorrows and death of our Lord...
Les anges dans nos campagnes. French carol, perhaps from Lorraine, perhaps 18 century.
This is the original French carol from which several translations have been made into English. They include 'The angels we have heard on high' by James Chadwick* ('Angels we have heard on high'* in The Holy Family Hymns, 1860, and Crown of Jesus, 1862) , 'Bright angel hosts are heard on high' by R.R. Chope*, 'Angels, we have heard your voices' by Richard Runciman Terry*. There are variations in the text, both...
Lo, round the throne, a glorious band. Rowland Hill* (1744-1833) and others.
This hymn is based on a hymn published in Hill's A Collection of Psalms and Hymns, chiefly Intended for Public Worship (1783). It began 'Join, ye redeemed heirs of grace', headed 'Rev. v. 9, &c':
Join ye redeemed heirs of grace In a new song of lofty praise; Jesus is worthy to receive The utmost glories ye can give.
Stanza 2 is the original of the modern stanza 4 (in the Appendix to the First Edition...
Lord, we believe to us and ours. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1742), as part of a hymn beginning 'Rejoice, rejoice, ye fallen race'. It had the title 'Hymn for the Day of Pentecost':
Rejoice, rejoice, ye fallen race, The Day of Pentecost is come! Expect the Sure-descending Grace, Open your Hearts to make him Room.
It was not included by John Wesley* in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), no doubt because...
Lord, teach a little child to pray. John Ryland* (1753-1825).
This hymn is dated 1756 (JJ, p. 983). A note by Ryland's son in Daniel Sedgwick*'s Hymns and Verses on Sacred Subjects by the Late John Ryland (1862) indicates that it was written at the request of Ann Fuller, second wife of the Revd Andrew Fuller, Secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society and a close friend. It was written for their daughter Sarah, who died in 1789, aged six. It had five stanzas:
Lord, teach a little child to...
Make me a captive, Lord. George Matheson* (1842-1906).
This was written in 1890 at Rhu, near Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire. It was first published in Matheson's Sacred Songs (Edinburgh and London, 1890), with a title, 'Christian Freedom. It was preceded by a quotation: '“Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ” - EPHES iii. 1.'. The four stanzas dealt with the paradox of captivity/weakness becoming freedom/strength when applied to the soul in relation to God:
Make me a captive, Lord, And then I shall...
CLARKSON, (Edith) Margaret. b. Melville, Saskatchewan, Canada, 8 June 1915; d. Toronto, 17 March 2008. Margaret Clarkson moved with her family to Toronto at the age of four. As a child she attended St John's Presbyterian Church in Toronto where she would study a hymnbook during the sermons, beginning her lifelong engagement with hymnody. She wrote her first hymn texts at twelve. Educated in Toronto, she taught elementary school for 38 years, starting in lumber and mining communities in northern...
RIZZA, Margaret (née Lensky). b. 19 August 1929. She studied at the Royal College of Music, London, and the National School of Opera, and completed her opera training in Italy (Siena and Rome). For two decades she sang, as Margaret Lensky, at such prestigious venues as Glyndebourne, La Scala, and Sadler's Wells, and worked with celebrated composers including Igor Stravinsky, Benjamin Britten*, and Leonard Bernstein. After marriage to George Rizza, a music publisher, and the birth of a daughter,...
EDDY, Mary Baker (née Mary Morse Baker). b. Bow, New Hampshire, 16 July 1821; d. Newton, Massachusetts, 3 December 1910. Mary Morse Baker was born and raised in New Hampshire, one of six children. She was raised a Congregationalist but in childhood questioned her parents' faith. She was chronically ill as a child but at a young age had already garnered a reputation for healing. She married George Washington Glover in 1843, but was widowed six months later. A second marriage in 1853 to Daniel...
Morgenglanz der Ewigkeit. Christian Knorr von Rosenroth* (1636-1689).
First published in Knorr von Rosenroth's Neuer Helicon mit seinen Neun Musen Das ist: Geistliche Sitten-Lieder Von Erkäntniß der wahren Glückseligkeit (Nürnberg, 1684), a collection of seventy hymns. It was entitled 'Morgen-Andacht' ('morning devotion'). It is based on a hymn by Martin Opitz*, 'O Liecht, gebohren aus dem Liechte' (see Polack, 1942, p. 382).
In The Lutheran Hymnal (1941) and in EG stanzas 2 and 5 are...
My God, and is thy table spread. Philip Doddridge* (1702-1751).
Published posthumously as no. 171 in Hymns Founded on Various Texts in the Holy Scriptures (1755) under the heading 'God's Name profaned, when his Table is treated with Contempt. Malachi i: 12', and a sub-title 'Applied to the Lord's Supper'. It is no. 192 in Scriptural Hymns (1839), edited by John Doddridge Humphreys.
The sub-title reveals a typological interpretation of Scripture that was not uncommon in Doddridge's day. The...
Mary, woman weeping. Delores Dufner*, OSB (1939– ).
Adam Tice* (1979– ) commissioned Sister Delores to write 'Mary, woman weeping' for the Mennonite hymnal Voices Together (2020). She offers the following context for the hymn's composition:
When Adam Tice invited me to write a hymn based on the Stabat Mater for the new Mennonite hymnal, I was pleasantly surprised. Although devotion to Mary has been traditionally characteristic of Roman Catholicism, it has not featured prominently in most...
Nun freut euch lieben Christengemein. Martin Luther* (1483-1546).
This has some claim to be thought of as Luther's first congregational hymn, for the poem that preceded it, written in the same year (1523), 'Ein neues Lied wir heben an', is more of a ballad than a hymn. This text was for the 'Christengemein', the Christian society or congregation. It was first published in Etlich christlich lider Lobgesang un[d] Psalm (the 'Achtliederbuch', Wittenberg, 1524), with the title 'Ein Christenlichs...
O blest Creator of the light. Latin, author unknown, 8th Century or earlier, translated by John Mason Neale*. (1818-1866).
This translation of 'Lucis Creator optime'* is from The Hymnal Noted, Part 1 (1851). It may be helpfully compared with the translation by the compilers of the First Edition of A&M (1861):
Neale A&M
O blest Creator of the light, Blest Creator of the...
O gift of gifts! O grace of faith! Frederick William Faber* (1814-1863).
This hymn consists of stanzas taken from Faber's hymn of twelve stanzas beginning 'O Faith! thou workest miracles', published in Faber's Jesus and Mary: or Catholic Hymns (1849), and then in Faber's Hymns (1862). It was entitled 'Conversion'. Its early stanzas contain a meditation on the mystery of faith, why it appeals to some and not to others:
To one thy grave unearthly truths A heavenly vision seem; While to...
O God of good the unfathomed sea. Johannes Scheffler* (1624-1677), translated by John Wesley* (1703-1791).
This was not one of the German hymns in Wesley's first hymnbook, the Collection of Psalms and Hymns published in Charles-town in 1737. It was probably translated either at the end of the time at Georgia, or on the return voyage, or shortly after: it was printed in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739), where it was entitled 'God's Love to Mankind. From the same'. [Its immediate predecessor in the...
O happy home, where thou art loved the dearest. Karl Johann Philipp Spitta* (1801-1859), translated by Sarah Laurie Findlater* (1823-1907).
This is a translation of Spitta's hymn, 'O selig Haus, wo man dich aufgenommen'*, first published in his Psalter und Harfe (Pirna, 1833), and reprinted in the Württemberg Gesang-Buch (1842). Sarah Findlater's translation appeared in Hymns from the Land of Luther, Third Series (Edinburgh, 1858), with the first line 'O happy house! Where Thou art loved the...
O Jesu, Thou art standing. William Walsham How* (1823-1897).
Written in 1867, this was first published in the supplement of the same year to How and Morrell's Psalms and Hymns (1854; enlarged edition, 1864, with Supplement, 1867) in three 8-line stanzas. It was then included in the Appendix (1868) to the First Edition of A&M, in Church Hymns (1871, Church Hymns with Tunes, 1874), and in many subsequent hymn books, in three stanzas of 8 lines. 'Jesu' in line 1 is normally changed to 'Jesus'....
O sacred head! now wounded. Paul Gerhardt* (1607-1676), translated by James Waddell Alexander* (1804-1859).
This free translation was first published in eight stanzas in The Christian Lyre, edited by Joshua Leavitt (New York, 1830). Later it was extended to ten stanzas. It was the second hymn in Alexander's The Breaking Crucible; and other translations from German hymns (New York, 1861), published after his death in 1859. It was entitled 'O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden. A Passion Hymn by Paul...
O salutaris Hostia. Thomas Aquinas* ( ca. 1224/5-1274); English translation by Edward Caswall* (1814 -1878).
The Latin text of this hymn is from Aquinas's 'Verbum supernum prodiens, nec Patris linquens dexteram'*. It forms the last two stanzas of that hymn. These stanzas are widely known as a devotional text in both Latin and English.
O salutaris Hostia, quae caeli pandis ostium, bella premunt hostilia, da robur, fer auxilium.
Uni trinoque Domino sit sempiterna gloria, qui vitam sine...
O Strength and Stay upholding all creation. John Ellerton* (1826-1893).
Of the three stanzas of this hymn, the first two are a translation by Ellerton and his friend F.J.A. Hort* from the Latin hymn 'Rerum Deus tenax vigor'*. This has been attributed to Ambrose of Milan* (339/340-397) although it is not one of the 14 reckoned authentic by Fontaine. Although it consists of two strophes rather than the eight strophes characteristic of Ambrose's authentic hymns, 'Rerum Deus tenax vigor' has an...
Only-begotten, Word of God eternal. Latin, 11th century, translated by Maxwell Julius Blacker* (1822-1888).
Written in 1884 for St Barnabas', Pimlico, this hymn is found in BBCHB, the Irish CH4 (1960) and NEH. It is a translation of 'Christe cunctorum Dominator alme', an anonymous hymn. Its usefulness as a hymn for a Dedication Festival (especially as a Processional hymn) has ensured its survival. All seven stanzas are printed in NEH:
Only-begotten, Word of God eternal,Lord of Creation,...
Pan de vida (Bread of life). Bob Hurd* (1950– ) and Pia Moriarty (1948– ).
This eucharistic hymn is the best-known composition by Bob Hurd and his wife Pia Moriarty. Composed in 1988, it appeared initially in the first edition of Flor y Canto* (Portland, Oregon, 1989) and subsequently in most Catholic hymnals published in the United States.
The song, one of the first bilingual worship songs, was composed while Bob Hurd was living in Guatemala. During this time, he was searching for songs that...
BALOCHE, Paul Joseph. b. Camden, New Jersey; 4 June 1962. Paul Baloche is a composer, producer, and worship leader. As a young person, he served as an altar boy and expressed a desire to become a Catholic priest. In his late teens, he became a rock musician, playing in clubs in nearby Atlantic City and Philadelphia. His wife, Rita, is also a songwriter.
Baloche attended a conference for the marketing company Amway one weekend to learn how to run his own business. The conference leaders were...
Remember all the people. Percy Dearmer* (1867-1936). First published in The Round World (1929), a magazine for children published by the Church Missionary Society, who had commissioned the hymn:
Remember all the peopleWho live in far off landsIn strange and lovely citiesOr roam the desert sands,Or farm the mountain pasturesOr till the endless plainsWhere children wade through rice fieldsAnd watch the camel trains.
Some work in sultry forestsWhere apes swing to and fro,Some fish in mighty...
DAVIS, Richard. b. Cardiganshire, Wales, 1658; d. Rothwell, Northamptonshire, 1714. WRS (W.R. Stevenson) in JJ, p. 281 notes that he was well educated, and a person who was for some years master of a school in London. He must have become an Independent Church minister at some point, because he was invited by the congregation at Rothwell to become their pastor. He remained there for 24 years, which indicates a pastorate from 1690 onwards.
Stevenson described him as 'a remarkable man', who...
WALKER, Robert Ernest. b. Northampton, 18 March 1946. His first musical education was at St Matthew's Parish Church, Northampton, famous during the time of its incumbent, the Revd Walter Hussey, for its commissioned artistic works from Finzi, Benjamin Britten* and Kenneth Leighton*, as well as sculpture and art by Henry Moore and Graham Sutherland. Walker studied at Jesus College, Cambridge (1965-68) where he was both a choral scholar and organ scholar. After Cambridge he was Director of Music...
Revised English Hymnal (2023).
The English Hymnal* tradition began in 1906 with the publication of the first green-covered hymn book. Revisions were made in the 1933 edition. Subsequent members of the 'English Hymnal family' included The English Hymnal Service Book (1962), English Praise* (1977), The New English Hymnal* (1986) and New English Praise* (2006). At each stage of the tradition the compilers have sought to reflect liturgical developments in the Church of England and to provide a...
WILLIAMS, Rowan Douglas. b. Swansea, 14 June 1950. Born into a Welsh-speaking family, he was educated at Dynevor School, Swansea, Christ's College, Cambridge, and Wadham College, Oxford. After training for ordination and teaching at the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield, he was ordained in the Church of England (deacon, 1977; priest, 1978) while serving as tutor and Director of Studies at Westcott House, Cambridge. After further appointments at Cambridge as Lecturer in Divinity (1983) and...
HARLOW, Samuel Ralph. b. Boston, Massachusetts, 20 July 1885; d. Northampton, Massachusetts, 21 August 1972. Harlow was ordained in the Congregational Church. He received his education at Harvard (BA) and Columbia (M.A.) Universities as well as Hartford Theological Seminary (PhD). Early in his career, Harlow served as a teacher and chaplain at the International College, Smyrna, Turkey. During World War I he was the religious director of the YMCA in France as a part of the American Expeditionary...
See how great a flame aspires. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749) in four 8-line stanzas, with the title 'After Preaching to the Newcastle Colliers'. It was dated 1746 in JJ, p. 1037, based on Thomas Jackson's Memoirs of the Rev. Charles Wesley. Though it has often been supposed that the title was a reference to Newcastle upon Tyne, manuscript evidence indicates that the hymn was written 'at Leaving ye Staffordshire Colliers', thus referring to...
Servant of all, to toil for man. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739), with the title 'To be sung at WORK'. It was part of a hymn of five stanzas:
Son of the Carpenter, receive This humble Work of mine; Worth to my meanest Labour give, By joining it to thine.
Servant of all, to toil for Man Thou would'st not, Lord, refuse: Thy Majesty did not disdain To be employ'd for us.
Thy bright Example I pursue To thee in all things rise, And all I...
Sing of Mary, pure and lowly. Roland Ford Palmer* (1891-1985).
Written for the revised edition of the Canadian Book of Common Praise (Toronto, 1938), to which it was submitted anonymously (Palmer was a member of the committee). According to the H82 Companion, Volume 3A, p. 537, it was based on a poem of unknown authorship found in a pamphlet at Ilkeston, Derbyshire, ca. 1914, written for the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary. After the Canadian publication, the first two stanzas were printed in...
Sing to the great Jehovah's praise. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in a pamphlet, Hymns for New Year's Day (1749/50), in three 8-line stanzas. It was not included in John Wesley*'s Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), but it appeared in the 1831 edition with Supplement, divided into six 4-line stanzas, and in this form it has been included in all subsequent Methodist hymnbooks in Britain. In MHB and some other books in Britain the final four...
Sing to the Lord the children's hymn. Robert Stephen Hawker* (1804-1875).
This hymn was written for the children of Morwenstow, the Cornish village where Hawker spent most of his life. It was dated 1840 and entitled 'The Song of the School; St Mark's, Morwenstow'. It was published in Hawker's Reeds shaken with the Wind (1843) and then in The Poetical Works of Robert Stephen Hawker (1879), edited by J.G. Godwin. It had seven stanzas in 1879:
Sing to the Lord the children's hymn, His gentle...
Softly now the light of day. George Washington Doane* (1799-1859).
First published in Doane's Songs by the Way, Chiefly Devotional (1824). It is based on Psalm 141: 2, 'Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.' It is notable for its superb simplicity:
Softly now the light of dayFades upon my sight away;Free from care, from labour free,Lord, I would commune with Thee.
Thou, Whose all-pervading eyeNought escapes, without,...
Soldiers, who are Christ's below. Latin, 18th century, translated by John Haldenby Clark* (1839-1888).
This is a translation of the Latin 'Pugnate, Christi milites', found in French Breviaries of the 18th century, beginning with the Bourges Breviary of 1734. It was written in 1865 on Palm Sunday at Marston Montgomery, Derbyshire (not Marston, Montgomery, as in JJ, p. 941), where Clark was curate from 1864 to 1867.
It has five stanzas, encouraging the faithful with the promise of those who...
OSBORNE, Stanley Llewellyn. b. Clarke Township on a farm near Bowmanville, close to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 6 January 1907; d. Oshawa, Ontario, 7 December 2000. He graduated (BA 1929, BD 1932) from Victoria University, Toronto. After ordination in The United Church of Canada in 1932, he served as minister in Alberta at Paradise Valley, and in Ontario at Core Hill, Hay Bay, Timothy Eaton Memorial Church in Toronto, and First United Church in Port Credit. In 1948, he became principal of Ontario...
Sunday's palms are Wednesday's ashes. Rae E. Whitney* (1927- ).
This was published initially in the first of four collections of hymns, With Joy Our Spirits Sing: The Hymns of Rae E. Whitney (Pittsburgh, 1995). It begins:
Sunday's palms are Wednesday's ashesas another Lent begins;thus we kneel before our Makerin contrition for our sins.
We have marred baptismal pledges, in rebellion gone astray; now, returning, seek forgiveness; grant us pardon, God, this day!
(Words © 1991 Selah Publishing...
The morning light is breaking. Samuel F. Smith* (1808-1895).
Written in 1832, the same year as 'My country, 'tis of thee'*, when Smith was still a student at Andover Seminary. It was published in Thomas Hastings*' Spiritual Songs for Social Worship (Utica, New York, 1834).
Smith had been reading the letters of the Baptist missionary in Burma (now Myanmar), Adoniram Judson (1788-1850), who compiled the first Burmese-English dictionary and who translated the Bible into Burmese. Judson, the son of...
The Saviour died, but rose again. John Logan*.
This hymn is part of Paraphrase 48 in the Scottish Translations and Paraphrases (1781), on Romans 8: 31-39. For the Biblical text, see the entry under 'Let Christian faith and hope dispel (Logan)'*. It is one of the paraphrases that was claimed by William Cameron* for Logan, a claim that, according to JJ, has 'never been seriously disputed' (p. 188).
The text beginning as above forms stanzas 5-9 of 'Let Christian faith and hope dispel'. The 1745...
The Son of God goes forth to war. Reginald Heber* (1783-1826).
First published with the title 'St Stephen's Day' (the day after Christmas Day) in Heber's Hymns written and adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year (1827) in eight 4-line stanzas. Stanzas 3 and 4 refer specifically to the martyrdom of Stephen (Acts 7), followed by other Christian martyrs:
The Son of God goes forth to war, A kingly crown to gain:His blood-red banner streams afar! Who follows in his train?Who best can...
Thou great mysterious God unknown. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Hymns for those that seek, and those that have Redemption in the Blood of Jesus Christ (Bristol, 1747), where it had eight 6-line stanzas. It was not included by John Wesley* in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780) but a text of six stanzas was added to one of the Supplements before 1831. The omitted stanzas were 5 and 6 of the 1747 text:
Ah never let thy Servant rest, Till of my part in...
To-day, O Lord, a holier work. Charles Coffin* (1676-1749, translated by John Chandler* (1806-76).
This is a translation of the hymn 'Jam sanctius moves opus', from the Paris Breviary of 1736, also found in Coffin's Hymni Sacri (1736). In the Paris Breviary it was set for Fridays at Matins after Whitsuntide, and the First Edition of A&M followed the Breviary in printing it for Friday in the series for the days of the week, following the account of the creation in Genesis 1. The Latin hymn...
Veni creator spiritus. Latin, possibly by Hrabanus Maurus* (ca. 780-856).
This hymn is a rich tapestry of allusion to other hymn texts, liturgical prose texts, biblical texts, and texts relating to the 'filioque' controversy (see below). Modern attributions to Charlemagne, St Ambrose* and Gregory the Great* seem to have little foundation.
'Veni creator spiritus' may have been composed for the 809 Aachen synod, at which the Carolingians concluded that the belief that the Holy Spirit proceeds...
We all believe in One true God. Tobias Clausnitzer* (1619-1684), translated by Catherine Winkworth* (1827-1878).
This is Winkworth's translation of Clausnitzer's hymn for Trinity Sunday, 'Wir glauben all' an einen Gott'*, made for The Chorale Book for England (1863):
We all believe in One true God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,Strong Deliv'rer in our need, Praised by all the heav'nly host,By whose mighty power alone All is made, and wrought, and done.
And we believe in Jesus Christ, Son of...
We love the place, O Lord. William Bullock* (1798-1874).
This hymn was written in 1827, according to Percy Dearmer*, who described the circumstances of it composition in dramatic terms:
A young naval officer, ordered to survey the coast of Newfoundland, is so horrified at the condition of the settlers that he resigns his commission, and returns to Newfoundland as a missionary. At a small place called Trinity Bay he builds a humble mission chapel, and for its consecration he writes this little...
Wer weiß, wie nahe mir mein Ende. Ämelie Juliane Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt* (1637-1706).
This hymn was written on 17 September 1686, according to a note in the manuscript, preserved in the Church Library at Gera. It was published in an Appendix of 1688 to a hymnbook for the Rudolstadt community, the Rudolstadt Gesang Buch (1682). Almost two hundred years later, Catherine Winkworth* translated it into English as 'Who knows how near my end may be'*.
According to James Mearns*, who gave the...
When blooming youth is snatched away. Anne Steele* (1716-1778).
Published in Steele's Poems on Subjects Chiefly Devotional (1760), by 'Theodosia'. In the 1780 edition it was entitled 'At the Funeral of a Young Person'. It had six stanzas:
When blooming youth is snatch'd away By death's resistless hand,Our hearts the mournful tribute pay, Which pity must demand.
While pity prompts the rising sigh, O may this truth, imprestWith awful power – I too must die - Sink deep in every breast.
Let...
When my love to Christ grows weak. John Reynell Wreford* (1800-1881).
First published in A Collection of Hymns for Public and Private Worship (1837), edited by John Relly Beard*. It was entitled 'Christ's Agony and Crucifixion'. When Beard's book crossed the Atlantic, the Unitarian Samuel Longfellow* rewrote the hymn with the first line as 'When my love to God grows weak', publishing it in a supplement (1848) to A Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion (Boston, 1846). It was included in...
When our heads are bowed with woe. Henry Hart Milman* (1791-1868).
First published in Reginald Heber*'s Hymns written and adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year (1827), set as the second hymn for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity. As JJ points out, it deals with the Gospel on the day, the raising of the widow's son at Nain, but 'only with the sad side of that event' (p. 1271). It was not included by Milman in his Selection of Psalms and Hymns (1837), but it became very popular in...
Who at my door is standing. Mary Bridges Canedy Slade* (1826-1882).
This hymn had four stanzas and a refrain. The refrain was:
Sweetly the tones are falling; 'Open the door for Me!' If thou wilt hear My calling, I will abide with thee.
The stanzas were:
Who at my door is standing, Patiently drawing near, Entrance within demanding? Whose is the voice I hear?
Refrain:
Lonely without He's staying; Lonely within am I; While I am still delaying, Will He not pass me...
REYNOLDS, William Jensen. b. Atlantic, Iowa, 2 April 1920; d. Nashville, Tennessee, 28 March 2009. Educated at Oklahoma Baptist University (1937-39), Southwest Missouri State Teachers' College (1940-42, BA), Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (1942-43, 1945, MCM), North Texas State College (1945-46, MM), George Peabody College for Teachers (1955-61, EdD). Minister of Music and Youth, First Baptist Church, Ardmore, Oklahoma (1946-47); Minister of Music, First Baptist Church, Oklahoma...
IRONS, William Josiah. b. Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, 12 September 1812; d. St Pancras, London, 18 June 1883. He was the son of Joseph Irons (1785-1852), an itinerant preacher and hymn writer, who was a friend and assistant of John Newton* when Newton was rector of St Mary Woolnoth, in the City of London. Three of Joseph Irons's hymns are found in some modern Evangelical books: 'Hark! how the choirs around the throne', 'Jesus, the glories of thy face', and 'What sacred fountain yonder...
We shall meet beyond the river. John Atkinson* (1835-1897).
According to the entry in JJ, p. 89 (the 1892 edition, when Atkinson was still alive) this hymn was written in January 1867. It was first published in Bright Jewels for the Sunday School (New York, 1869) with a tune by Hubert P. Main (1839-1925). It had four stanzas:
We shall meet beyond the river, By and by, by and by; And the darkness shall be over, By and by, by and by;With the toilsome journey done,And the glorious battle...
What shall I do my God to love, My Saviour, and the World's, to praise. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
There are two hymns by Charles Wesley beginning 'What shall I do my God to love'. In Hymns and Sacred Poems (1742), in which it was first published, this one continued with the second line as above. It was entitled 'Desiring to love'. In 1742 it had five stanzas:
What shall I do my God to love, My Saviour, and the World's to praise? Whose Bowels of Compassion move To Me, and All the Fallen...
York, hymns and hymnals. The Use of York was one of the major secular liturgies of the British Isles in the later Middle Ages. It was used at York Minster and in parish churches across northern England from at least the 13th century to the Reformation. The origins of York's hymn repertory are found in the New Hymnal, a 9th-century collection of hymns compiled in the Frankish Empire (see 'Medieval hymns and hymnals'*). Its first appearance in England was probably as a result of the 10th-century...
Ämelie Juliane Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (née von Barby). b. Heidecksberg, near Rudolstadt, 16 August 1637; d. Rudolstadt, 3 December 1706. She was born into the noble von Barby family, which had taken refuge from the Thirty Years' War at Heidecksberg with the Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt family. She was the cousin of Ludämilia Elisabeth Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt*. Her father died in 1641 and her mother in 1642, but she was brought up in the family and received a good education, with an emphasis on...
SCHREINER, Christian Alexander Ferdinand. b. Steinbühl, a suburb of Nürnberg (Nuremberg), Bavaria, Germany, 31 July 1901; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, 15 September 1987. Schreiner was associated with the Mormon Tabernacle as an organ recitalist for many years and was the Chief Organist from 1965 to 1987. As a member of the General Music Committee of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), he assisted in the preparation of the 1948 LDS hymnal, which includes 10 of his hymn...
Break forth, O beauteous heavenly light. Johann Rist* (1607–1667), translated by John Troutbeck* (1832–1899).
The translation of this chorale was taken from the second part of the Christmas Oratorio (Weihnachts-Oratorium, BWV 248/2) by Johann Sebastian Bach*. It was through Troutbeck's translation (1874) for Novello, Ewer, and Company that this translation made its way into English-language hymnals. The original German text was the ninth stanza of a twelve-stanza hymn, 'Ermutre dich, mein...
GILLETTE, Carolyn Winfrey. b. Harrisonburg, Virginia, 28 May 1961. Hymn writer and ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA). She was raised, baptized, and confirmed in the United Methodist Church; she earned a bachelor's degree in religion from Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania before going on to receive her M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary (1985). She was ordained in 1986. Gillette has served at churches in New Jersey and Delaware, and as a hospital and...
LORENZ, Edmund Simon (ES). b. near Canal Fulton, Stark County, Ohio, 13 July 1854; d. Dayton, Ohio, 10 July 1942. He was a self-taught musician, tireless innovator, and highly competitive and successful publisher. He was an important and prolific author whose books informed mainline Protestant church music education while attempting to bridge the gap between its contrasting and rival hymnic traditions: the songs of the camp meeting, Sunday school and revival, and the urban church's worship-song...
ARÉVALO, Faustino (S.J.). b. Campanario, Badajoz, Spain, 29 July 1747; d. Madrid, 7 January 1824. Arévalo entered the novitiate in 1761 at Villagarcía de Campos, in the province of Castile. There, together with his training as a Jesuit, he received a solid humanistic education which would be reflected later in his work. In 1764, one year after taking his religious vows, he continued his education at the seminary at Medina del Campo, until the expulsion from Spain of the Society of Jesus in...
THALBEN-BALL, (Sir) George Thomas. b. Sydney, Australia, 18 June 1896; d. Wimbledon, London, 18 January 1987. Born in Australia, he settled in England in 1900 with his English-born parents and was a chorister and piano pupil of George Dorrington Cunningham (1878-1948) who, at that time, was organist of Alexandra Palace (Cunningham, who later became organist at St Alban's, Holborn, was considered one of the most gifted organists of his generation; only Thalben-Ball, Arnold Richardson and Walter...
HOPKINS, Gerard Manley. b. Stratford, London, 28 July 1844; d. Dublin, 8 June 1889. From Stratford, East London, his family moved to Hampstead in 1852. Gerard was educated at Highgate School, followed by Balliol College, Oxford (BA 1867). In the face of anguished opposition from his Anglican parents, he became a Roman Catholic in 1866, being received into the church by John Henry Newman*, and teaching for a short period at Newman's Oratory at Birmingham. He entered the Jesuit order in 1868...
Give me the faith which can remove. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), the book that Charles Wesley published with his brother's approval in the expectation of his [Charles's] marriage. The customary text is part of a hymn of eight 6-line stanzas, which began 'O that I was as heretofore'. The full original text is printed in Frank Baker's Representative Verse of Charles Wesley (1962), pp. 108-9.
The eight-stanza hymn is of considerable interest. It...
Hills of the North, rejoice. Charles Oakley* (1832-1865).
According to JJ, this first appeared in Hymns adapted to the Christian Seasons, edited by Thomas Valpy French (1825-1891). No date is given for this book, but it was compiled for French's congregation at St John's, Cheltenham, where he became the incumbent in October 1864 and where he stayed for a few years, so it can probably be dated ca. 1865-66. French worked for the Church Missionary Society in India, and became the first Bishop of...
GRAY, James Martin. b. New York City, 11 May 1851; d. Chicago, Illinois, 21 September 1935. Gray was a Bible scholar, editor, hymn writer, and dean and president of the Moody Bible Institute (MBI), 1907-34. He was the last child born to Hugh Barr Gray (1805?-1851?) and Mary Ann Martin Gray (1825?-1875?). Both Hugh and Mary were born in Ireland, and immigrated to the USA about 1842.
James Gray married Amanda Pauline Thorne (? -1875) in Manhattan, NYC, 30 March 1871, (New York Marriages,...
DODDRIDGE, Philip. b. London, 26 June 1702; d. Lisbon, 26 October 1751. Born into a family with a strong Puritan and Dissenting tradition, Philip was first educated by his mother, who taught him Biblical history from the pictures on the Dutch tiles of the fireplace even before he could read. He was then taught by a private tutor, Mr Stott, until 1712 when he attended a grammar school in Kingston-on-Thames, studying under an ejected Presbyterian minister, Daniel Mayo. He was then sent to a...
Send your Word. Yasushige Imakoma* (1926–2013), paraphrased by Nobuaki Hanaoka* (1944– ).
Yasushige Imakoma (1926–2013) prepared this text in 1965 for Pentecost Sunday to be sung by congregation he served in Kawasaki. Taiwanese educator and ethnomusicologist I-to Loh* describes the origins of this hymn:
The poet believes that the crisis and wars of the world are caused by the lack of verbal communication, as shown by God's interference in the building of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11: 1–9)....
LELAND, John. b. Grafton, Massachusetts, 14 May 1754; d. North Adams, Massachusetts, 14 January 1841. He was a leading Baptist minister and evangelist and a champion of individual religious rights and separation of church and state. His many writings include several hymns, of which the most widely published are 'The day is past and gone'* and 'O when shall I see Jesus'*.
John Leland's parents, James Leland, Jr. (1720–1807) and Lucy Warren (1721– ), were Congregationalists. 'As my father had no...
'Amen' ('See the baby'). Broadus Henry Hogan (1888–1953) and Laura B. Davis (1909 – ); adapted and arranged by Jester Joseph Hairston* (1901–2000).
The well-known African American song 'Amen' began appearing in hymnals in the 1970s, designated most often as an African American spiritual*. Closer analysis reveals that the song's roots, while influenced by the spiritual tradition, are in Black gospel compositions beginning in the 1930s.
Wings over Jordan Choir
The Wings Over Jordan (WOJ)...
By precepts taught of ages past. Latin, translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866), altered by the compilers of A&M (1861).
This is a translation of a Lenten hymn, 'Ex more docti mystico', found in a British Museum MS (Vesp.D.xii.f.54) and in a Durham Cathedral 11th-Century Psalter (see JJ, p. 359, and Inge Milfull, 1996). This was translated by Edward Caswall* and John David Chambers*, among others (see JJ, p. 359). Neale's translation, from the Hymnal Noted Part II (1854), formed the...
BAYLEY, Daniel. b. Rowley, Massachusetts, 27 June 1729; d. Newburyport, Massachusetts, 29 February 1792. Bayley was a compiler and publisher of tunebooks. While active, possibly as clerk and possibly as a chorister, in St. Paul's Anglican (Episcopal after the Revolution) Church in Newburyport, as well as a printer, potter, and shopkeeper, he became one of the most productive early publishers of American church music. His tunebooks are of particular interest for reasons of 'piracy' – prior to...
MONTGOMERY, James. b. Irvine, Ayrshire, 4 November 1771; d. Sheffield, 30 April 1854. His father was minister of the Moravian congregation at Irvine. He was educated at the Moravian school at Fulneck, Pudsey, near Leeds. In 1783, his parents went as Moravian missionaries to Barbados, where they both died of fever when he was about twenty years old. He was apprenticed to a baker in Mirfield, Yorkshire, but was more interested in writing poetry or playing and composing music. He ran away from the...
IRELAND, John Nicholson. b. Dunham Massey, Altrincham, Cheshire, 13 August 1879; d. Washington, Sussex, 12 June 1962. The youngest child of Alexander Ireland, a writer and publisher, and his second wife, Anne Elizabeth Ireland (née Nicholson), his schooling was erratic and unhappy. After two terms at Leeds Grammar School, he entered the Royal College of Music in September 1893 at the age of only fourteen. His mother died within a week of his studentship and his father died in 1894, leaving him...
MURRAY, John. b. Alton, Hampshire, England, ca. 1740; d. Boston, Massachusetts, 3 September 1815. Murray is regarded as the founder of the Universalist denomination in America (see Unitarian-Universalist hymnody, USA*). He contributed five hymn texts to James Relly* and John Relly's Christian Hymns, Poems, and Sacred Songs: Sacred to the Praise of God Our Saviour (Portsmouth, Massachusetts, 1782). His wife, Judith Murray*, became an important American literary figure and Universalist...
Oh Freedom. African American Spiritual.
Freedom was the constant and greatest desire of the slave. Countless slaves spent their entire lives actively seeking to be free—in spite of not knowing the path to follow to safety, fear of the unknown, loss of guaranteed food and lodging, and the punishment awaiting a failed escape attempt. Punishment awaiting family and friends in the event of a successful escape also offered a disincentive to doing so.
Even in the most benevolent situations, living...
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, Ralph. b. Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, 12 October 1872; d. London, 26 August 1958. His father was vicar of Down Ampney, but he was raised at his mother's family home at Leith Hill, Surrey, after his father's death in 1875. He was educated at Charterhouse and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read history (MusB 1894; BA 1895), and then at the Royal College of Music, where he studied composition with Charles Wood*, Hubert Parry* and Charles Villiers Stanford*. The foremost...
In modern German 'choral' is the term used for a hymn tune, either the melody or its simple setting, in contradistinction to 'Kirchenlied' which is commonly used for both hymn text and its associated tune. In modern English usage 'chorale' can be used to denote a German hymn, both text and tune, though it is more frequently used for the tune alone, and commonly associated with simple harmonizations of German hymn tunes, such as 'Bach chorales', or 'four-part chorales'.
In the 16th century two...
The lone, wild [fowl] bird. Henry Richard McFadyen* (1877–1964).
This two-stanza hymn was the only text composed by McFadyen (sometimes misspelled as'MacFadyen'). The final two lines of each stanza form a refrain.The Homiletic and Pastoral Review sponsored a hymn-writing contest during the time that McFadyen served the Nashville Presbytery. The author describes the origins of his hymn: 'The hymn was written on a quiet Sunday afternoon in the fall or winter of 1925 and sent to...
Pre-Reformation Netherlands hymnody
Apart from a page of 10th century neumatic plainchant notation and the mystical vernacular hymns by the 13th century nun Hadewijch, the earliest written evidence of sacred music in the Netherlands dates from the 15th century.
Two important sources for our knowledge of spiritual songs in the Netherlands are the manuscripts from the Tertiarissenklooster (Cloister of the Tertiaries) of St Margaretha in Amsterdam (ca. 1480: now in the Austrian National Library...
As the wind song through the trees. Shirley Erena Murray* (1931-2020).
Dated 2005, this hymn was the outcome of a partnership between New Zealander Shirley Erena Murray and Singaporean Lim, Swee Hong (林瑞峰)* (1963— ). It started with the music, not the text. The composer, Lim Swee Hong, completed the tune shortly before the season of Pentecost in 2004, marking a departure from his usual practice of creating tunes for existing words. He then sent this tune to his long-time friend Shirley...
Church of the Brethren hymnody
The roots of the Church of the Brethren lie with a small group of believers in Schwarzenau, Germany, who under the strong influences of Pietism sought to model their lives on the patterns of the church found in the New Testament and who were rebaptized in December, 1708. Under the leadership of Alexander Mack, Sr. (1679-1735), they rejected infant baptism, practiced footwashing as a church ordinance, claimed the Bible as sole authority in discerning matters of...
We are climbing Jacob's ladder (Jacob's Ladder). African American spiritual*.
Enslaved Africans found fertile connections between the biblical story of Jacob's ladder in Genesis 28: 10-22 and their existential experience and spirituality. As with many spirituals, the origins are unknown. An undocumented account indicates that the spiritual dates between 1750 and 1875 (James, 1995, p. 58). Ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax (1915–2002) suggests without documentation that 'This is one of the old...
Braille hymns and hymnals, USA. The St Gregory Hymnal and Catholic Choir Book (Philadelphia, 1922), compiled and edited by Nichola Montani (1880-1948, distinguished and controversial composer, conductor, and former liturgical music editor for G. Schirmer, New York) was published in 1926 as the first braille hymnal. Today, many Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant hymnals are available in two electronic platforms, Braille Ready Format (BRF) and American Standard Code for Information Exchange...
Give me that old time religion. African American spiritual*.
The pre-publication origins of this spiritual, sometimes referred to as 'Old Time Religion', are unknown, though hymnals usually identify it as an African American spiritual. The earliest print version, linked to the Fisk Jubilee Singers*, appears in Gustavus D. Pike's The Jubilee Singers and their campaign for twenty thousand dollars (Boston, 1873) and J.B.T. Marsh's The Story of the Jubilee Singers with their songs (Boston, 1880)....
In Iceland there developed a rich literary heritage during the Middle Ages, the Sagas and the Eddas. Soon after the establishment of Christianity in 1000, Icelandic poets began also to write poetry on Biblical themes and on the Saints, in which they used the skaldic and eddic metres formerly used in the heroic and mythical poems. Of these the most famous are Geisli ('The Beam') on St Olav from the 12th Century, and Sólarljóð ('The Sun Poem') from the 13th Century composed in the Eddic metre...
In Christ alone my hope is found. Keith Getty* (1974- ) and Stuart Townend* (1963- ).
Written in 2001, this was the first collaboration by Keith Getty not only with Stuart Townend, but with any other writer. It is the duo's most popular hymn, holding the number one position in the United Kingdom Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI) rankings in 2006 and remaining in the top 25 songs as of 2019.
Townend gives the following account of the song's origins:
Keith and I met in the...
GOWER, John Henry. b. Rugby, Warwickshire, England, 25 May 1855; d. Denver, Colorado, USA, 30 July 1922. He was an organist and composer, remembered especially for the hymn tunes GOWER'S LITANY and MEDITATION.
Gower was the second son of the Rev. Herbert Gower (1803-1875) and Elizabeth (née Holder) Gower (1826-?), who were married June 6, 1839. The father received the BA (1821) and MA (1825) from Oxford University. At Oxford, he was a chorister at Christ Church (1812-17) and St John's...
BÉVENOT, Ludovic Eloi Isidore Jean Joseph (Monastic name: Laurence) OSB. b. Birmingham, 21 June 1901; d. 22 October 1990. He was born to French immigrant parents: his father was professor of Romance Languages at Birmingham University. He was educated at Mount St Mary's Preparatory School, Derbyshire (1909-14) and Ampleforth College, Yorkshire (1914-19). He joined the monastic community at Ampleforth in 1919. He read Mathematics at St Benet's Hall, Oxford University (1922-25). From 1928 to 1951...
Let party names no more. Benjamin Beddome* (1717-1795).
This was published in John Ash* and Caleb Evans*'s Collection of Hymns Adapted to Christian Worship (Bristol, 1769), and subsequently in John Rippon*'s Selection of Hymns (1787), in which it had the title 'Christian Love. Gal. iii. 28.' This verse is: 'There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. It had four stanzas:
Let Party Names no more The...
BUCER, Martin (BUTZER). b. Sélestat (Schlettstadt), Alsace, 11 November 1491; d. Cambridge, England, 28 February 1551. He was first educated in the Dominican Convent of his native town (1506 onwards); then he enrolled in the University of Heidelberg (31 January 1517) where he met Martin Luther*; he became an instant admirer of Luther and embraced his new doctrine and ideas. In 1521 he left the Order of St Dominic with which he had become totally incompatible. With the authorization of Rome, he...
Someone asked the question ('Why we sing'). Kirk Franklin* (1970– ).
'Why We Sing', as this song is known, comes from an earlier time in Franklin's career, soon after he organized 'The Family' in 1992. The Family was a choir of seventeen singers who were Franklin's friends. They were signed to the record label GospoCentric soon after they began. By 1993, the group became known as Kirk Franklin & The Family. They released their debut album Kirk Franklin and the Family (Live), an album...
Take me to the water. African American spiritual*
In modern hymnals, this first appears in Yes, Lord! Church of God in Christ Hymnal (Memphis, 1982). However, recordings and possible references to the spiritual in the accounts of enslaved black people indicate that its roots may extend at least to the turn of the 20th century, and perhaps to the antebellum South. While found primarily in African American hymnals, other mainline denominational collections include the spiritual: Chalice Hymnal...
When my final farewell to the world I have said. Marianne Farningham* (1834-1909), altered by Ira D. Sankey* (1840-1908).
Marianne Farningham was the pen-name of Mary Ann Hearn (in JJ , p. 502, she is annotated as 'Hearn, Marianne'). In the course of the entry it is stated that this hymn appeared in The Christian World (Autumn, 1864), and in Farningham's Poems (1865; an error for 1866. There was a Second Edition in 1869, and a Third in 1875). In this edition the first line was 'When mysterious...
Barrel organs that could play without the use of keys have been the subject of much controversy. When these organs were frequent in churches there were sharp differences in opinion as to their musical value, and more recently historians have argued about when they became frequent and whether or not they displaced West Gallery bands (see 'West Gallery music'*).
Mechanical organs playing from pinned barrels had been built for several centuries before their introduction into British churches in...
My life flows on in endless song (How can I keep from singing). Pauline T., dates unknown. Formerly attributed to Robert Lowry* (1826-1899).
This text first appeared in The New York Observer (1868) entitled 'Always Rejoicing', an allusion to 2 Corinthians 6: 10, attributed to 'Pauline T':
My life flows on in endless song;Above earth's lamentation,I catch the sweet, tho' faroff hymn That hails a new creation;Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear the music ringing; It finds an echo in...
Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University.
The School of Theology (now known as Perkins School of Theology) [PST], was one of the three original schools of Southern Methodist University (SMU), founded in 1911 as a nonsectarian institution of higher education by what is now the United Methodist Church in partnership with Dallas civic leaders. After large gifts from Joe L. and Lois Craddock Perkins of Wichita Falls, Texas, beginning in 1945, the name of the School of Theology was...
HELD, Wilbur Caldwell. b. Des Plaines, Illinois, 20 August 1914; d. Claremont, California, 24 March 2015. Held was a composer, organist, and professor of organ and choral music at Ohio State University. He composed IN BETHLEHEM, several other hymn tunes, and many organ arrangements of hymn tunes.
Wilbur Held's parents were Walter Wilbur Held (1884–1981) and Amy Caldwell (née Greene) Held (1886–1937). Walter owned a heating business in Des Plaines, where he served on the school board for 13...
CRULL, August. b. Rostock, Mecklenburg, Germany, 27 January 1845; d. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 17 February 1923. August Crull was a German-American Lutheran theologian and educator who played an important role in 19th-century American Lutheranism as a hymnal editor and hymn translator. As a hymnal editor, he helped compile and edit the first English-language hymnals of the Missouri Synod branch of American Lutheranism, thus shaping its hymnic tradition as it began to transition from German to...
Awake my soul in joyful lays. Samuel Medley* (1738-1799).
This was Hymn IX in the Second Edition of Hymns. By the Rev. S. Medley, of Liverpool (Bradford, 1789), and Hymn CLXXXI in his Hymns. The public worship and private devotions of the Christians assisted, in some thoughts in verse: principally drawn from select passages of the word of God (1800). It was preceded by 'I will mention the loving kindness of the Lord. Isa. lxiii. 7.' In the 1789 book each element of the loving kindness was...
Begone unbelief, my Saviour is near. John Newton* (1725-1807).
First published in Olney Hymns (1779), Book III, 'On the Rise, Progress, Changes, and Comforts of the Spiritual Life'. It was headed 'I will trust and not be afraid' and had seven stanzas in a combination of iambic and anapaestic metre reminiscent of Charles Wesley*. It has been particularly valued by Methodists: all seven stanzas appeared in The Primitive Methodist Hymnal (1887, 1889). It featured in several denominational...
PULKINGHAM, Betty Carr. b. Burlington, North Carolina, 25 August 1928; d. Austin,Texas, 9 May 2019. Her mother was a lifelong Baptist and her father had Scottish Presbyterian roots, but joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. She attributed her ecumenical approach to her early experience of both traditions.
She grew up with music around her at school and home. She learned the piano from the age of eight, and from the age of ten was playing for the hymns at her Sunday School. Later, she was one...
HEARN, Billy Ray. b. Honey Grove, Texas, 26 April 1929; d. Nashville, Tennessee, 15 April 2015. A visionary and innovator in the Christian music industry, Hearn was primarily known as the founder of Sparrow Records, currently a part of the Capitol Christian Music Group family of record labels and distributors owned by Universal Music Group, a subsidiary of media conglomerate Vivendi. He grew up in Beaumont, Texas, joined the US Navy after high school, and upon discharge in 1948 he studied...
Bread of heaven! on thee we feed. Josiah Conder* (1789-1855).
First published in Conder's The Star in the East; with Other Poems (1824), entitled 'For the Eucharist', with quotations from John 6: 51-4 and John 15: 1 ('I am the true vine…'). It was included in The Congregational Hymn Book (1836), edited by Conder. The original text used the first person — 'Bread of heaven, on thee I feed' — but it was changed to 'we' in Josiah Pratt's Psalms and Hymns (1829), which printed it in three 4-line...
Carmina Gadelica (1900, and after).
The full title of this remarkable collection is Carmina Gadelica, Hymns and Incantations, with Illustrative Notes on Words, Rites,and Customs, Dying and Obsolete: orally collected in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and Translated into English. Volumes I and II were the work of Alexander Carmichael* (Gaelic name Alastair MacGillemhicheil) (1832-1912). Carmichael was an exciseman who collected Gaelic hymns, prayers, charms, and songs from the Highlands...
TAYLOR, Cecily. b. Coulsdon, Surrey, 25 March 1930. She was evacuated during the war, and enjoyed what she calls a 'considerably varied' primary school career, attending six schools by the age of twelve. She worshipped in the local Anglican Church, but returned after the war to her home, where she was introduced to a Congregational youth group by a friend. At the age of 17 she joined the church and remained in membership for 40 years. There also she met her husband, and was involved in church...
LANGDON, Chauncy (or Chauncey). b. Farmington, Connecticut, 8 November 1763; d. Castleton, Vermont, 23 July 1830. Although his first name is spelled Chauncy in a few early publications and on his tombstone, and also in WorldCat Identities and Library of Congress Authorities, it appears that the spelling Chauncey is far more common.
Although Langdon is known primarily as a United States Representative from Vermont, he is also credited with the compiling of Beauties of Psalmody, Containing...
GIBSON, Colin Alexander. b. Dunedin, New Zealand, 26 March 1933; d. Dunedin, 10 December 2022. He was educated at Otago Boys' High School and the University of Otago (he studied English, classics and music and completed a doctorate in English literature), Christchurch Training College and the University of Canterbury. He became Donald Collie Professor of English and chairman of the Department of English at the University of Otago, where he taught for 42 years. From 1956 until his death he was...
Come, let us sing the song of songs. James Montgomery* (1771-1854).
This was written for the Sheffield Sunday School Whitsun Festival, May 1841. It was later published in Montgomery's Original Hymns (1853), where it was Hymn LXXXIX, entitled 'The Song of Songs'. The title comes from The Song of Solomon, which opens with the words 'The song of songs, which is Solomon's.' Montgomery daringly takes the phrase and uses it to mean 'the song that is the song of all songs' (cf. 'the Holy of Holies')....
Come and Praise was a two-volume series of hymnals published by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The first volume, simply titled Come and Praise, appeared in 1978, and Come and Praise 2 in 1988. A combined edition, The Complete Come and Praise, was issued in 1990. Both volumes were compiled by Geoffrey Marshall-Taylor with musical arrangements by Douglas Coombes. The volumes were published in connection with the Radio Department of BBC School Broadcasting, which had, since 1945,...
Dear Lord and Father of mankind. John Greenleaf Whittier* (1807-1892).
This is the concluding part of a poem first printed in the Atlantic Monthly (April 1872), and then in Whittier's The Pennsylvania Pilgrim, and Other Poems (Boston, 1872). This hymn seems so complete and serene that it comes as something of a shock to find that it consists of the closing stanzas (12-17) of an astonishing and peculiar poem entitled 'The Brewing of Soma'. Whittier had read of Soma in the works of the...
Deep river. African American spiritual*, date unknown.
This much-loved and very beautiful spiritual is of unknown origin. Like 'Roll Jordan, roll', which was the first number in Slave Songs of the United States*, it celebrates Jordan (the 'deep river') as the traditional river of death, which in this case leads to 'campground', a place of rest and a promised land where all is peace. It is based on Joshua 3: 17, in which the people of Israel passed 'clean over Jordan'. Here the singer claims...
Do no sinful action. Cecil Frances Alexander* (1818-1895).
From Alexander's Hymns for Little Children (1848). It was Hymn V, on the first promise in the catechism, to 'renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanity of this wicked world, and all the lusts of the flesh' (following the promise made by the godparents at Baptism). It had seven stanzas:
Do no sinful action, Speak no angry word; Ye belong to Jesus, Children of the Lord.
Christ is kind and gentle, Christ is pure and...
Draw nigh to thy Jerusalem, O Lord. Horatio Bolton Nelson* (1823-1913), based on Jeremy Taylor* (1613-1667).
This is a version, in a regular metre for singing, of a poem by Taylor entitled 'The Second Hymn for Advent; or Christs coming to Jerusalem in triumph', first published in The Golden Grove (1655), in a section entitled 'Festival Hymnes'. On the following page these hymns were described as 'Hymns, Celebrating the Mysteries and Chief Festivals of the Year, according to the manner of the...
Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld. Paul Gerhardt* (1607-1676).
Originally 'Ein Lammeln...', this was published in Johann Crüger's Praxis Pietatis Melica (1648), in ten 10-line stanzas. It is a most beautiful meditation on the Passion of Christ, based on John 1: 29 ('Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world') and on Isaiah 53: 1-7. It is a hymn which narrates the events of the Passion and gives thanks for Christ as 'der große Freund/ und Heiland meiner Seelen' ('great...
Father of everlasting grace. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns of Petition and Thanksgiving for the Promise of the Father (1746) in eight 6-line stanzas. It was the first of 32 'Hymns for Whitsunday', the sub-title of this short book of 35 pages. Stanzas 1, 6, 7 and 8 of the original were included in John Wesley*'s A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780) in the section 'For Believers groaning for full Redemption'; in subsequent Wesleyan...
For everyone born, a place at the table. Shirley Erena Murray* (1931-2020).
This was written in 1996 from Murray's involvement in the work of Amnesty International, and the liberal theology of her husband, John Stewart Murray*, in his church at Wellington, New Zealand. It has its origins in the 'Universal Declaration of Human Rights' of the United Nations (December 1948), which stated that 'All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights', and that 'Everyone has the right to...
GEALY, Frederick Daniel. b. Oil City, Pennsylvania, 13 May 1894; d. University Park, Texas, 15 December 1976. Distinguished New Testament scholar, teacher, hymnist, and church musician, Gealy attended Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, (BA, 1916); Boston University (STB 1919; PhD 1929), with additional study at Universität Basel, Switzerland; Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Berlin, Germany; Union Theological Seminary New York City (Dodge Mission Fellow, MTh, 1929); and the University...
For the strength of the hills we bless Thee. Felicia Hemans* (1793-1835).
This poem was entitled 'Hymn of the Vaudois Mountaineers in Times of Persecution'. It was published in Hemans' Scenes and Hymns of Life (1834), a volume dedicated to William Wordsworth*, and in her Poems (1872), available in Project Gutenberg (1875 printing):
(https://www.gutenberg.org/files/66785/66785-h/66785-h.htm)
The 'Vaudois Mountaineers' were the Waldensians, a sect in the mountains and valleys of upper...
Guide my feet. African American spiritual*.
'Guide my feet' is a spiritual about the Christian journey, drawn from Hebrews 12: 1–2:
Guide my feetwhile I run this race.Guide my feetwhile I run this race.Guide my feetwhile I run this race,for I don't want to run this race in vain! (race in vain).
Welsh Methodist William Williams*' famous hymn 'Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (Redeemer)'* was a well-known antebellum precursor on this theme in the African American community. This hymn's rich...
Hail to the Sabbath day. Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch* (1809-1870).
Published in Bulfinch's first book, Contemplations of the Saviour: a series of extracts from the Gospel history, with reflections and original and selected hymns (Boston, 1832), and then in his Poems (Charleston, 1834) and in Lays of the Gospel (Boston, 1845). Contemplations is a series of expositions of biblical passages, divided into eight parts. The present hymn comes from Part III, 'To the Commencement of Jesus' Public...
Halle, Halle, Hallelujah! Traditional Caribbean refrain with stanzas by George Mulrain* (1946- ).
The refrain of 'Halle, Halle, Hallelujah' is one of the most popular Caribbean songs among North American churches, appearing in many recent hymnals published since 1995. The refrain is often used as the Gospel acclamation. To this traditional joyful, syncopated refrain, George Mulrain added four stanzas that both capture the spirituality of this region and incorporate significant biblical and...
He never said a mumbalin' word. African American spiritual, date unknown
The first line of this spiritual is 'They crucified my Lord', but it is more frequently known by the repeated lines in each stanza:
They crucified my Lord,and he never said a mumbalin' word;they crucified my Lord,and he never said a mumbalin' word,not a word, not a word, not a word.
This has something in common with 'Were you there when they crucified my Lord'* in addition to its painful subject. Jon Michael Spencer...
CAPIEU, Henri. b. Bizerte, Tunisia 1909; d. Meudon, France 1993. Capieu was a French Reformed Pastor, ordained in 1933, who served at Clairac and at Les Salies de Béarn (1946-47). He was inspired by the discreet piety of his mother, biblical narratives, and the Protestant poet Antoine de la Roche Chandieu (1534-1591). He pastored the church in Algiers (1947-61) where he befriended Albert Camus, and worked against torture during the Algerian war. He then became pastor in central Paris at the...
WARE, Henry, Jr. b. Hingham, Massachusetts, 21 April 1794; d. Framingham, Massachusetts, 25 September 1843. Ware, a teacher, influential Unitarian minister, writer, and author of hymns (see Unitarian-Universalist hymnody, USA*), was born of the marriage of Henry Ware (1757-1845) and Mary Clarke Ware (1752-1805). His father was a Minister of First Parish (originally Puritan, then Unitarian-Universalist), Hingham, Massachusetts, 1787-1805, and Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard College,...
I found free grace and dying love ('New-Born Again'). African American spiritual.
According to Reynolds (1976, p. 96) this spiritual is of unknown origin. It was not among the spirituals printed as sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers*, though it may have been sung by them. It was printed in Folk Songs of the American Negro No. 1 (Nashville, TN, 1907), edited by Frederick Jerome Work*, with an introduction by John Wesley Work (II)*. Its heading was 'New-Born Again', often used as the title of this...
I have heard of a tree ('Heaven's Christmas Tree'). Charles Albert Tindley* (1851-1933).
Charles Albert Tindley was one of the eminent preachers of Methodism at the turn of the 20th century. African American hymnologist James Abbington* has called Tindley a 'pastor, orator, poet, writer, theologian, social activist, father of African American Hymnody, progenitor of African American gospel music, and prince of preachers' (Kimbrough and Young, 2006, p. v).
African Americans at the turn of the...
If the world from you withhold ('Leave it there'). Charles Albert Tindley* (1851-1933).
This title of this hymn is found in the refrain:
Leave it there (leave it there), leave it there (leave it there), Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there, If you trust and never doubt, He will surely bring you out; Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.
In Gospel Pearls* (1921) the hymn was marked 'copyright, 1916, by C. Albert Tindley.' It had four stanzas:
If the world from you...
In dulci iubilo. German/Latin, ca. 14th century.
There are many versions of this carol, which is an early example of a text in Latin and German. Wackernagel, Das Deutsche Kirchenlied II. 483-6, lists eight texts, ranging in date from the end of the 14th century (Leipzig, see below) to 1635. Most have four stanzas, but there are texts with five, six, or seven (the last from Munich).
Modern research on the hand-written texts by Gisela Kornrumpf (2000) found examples in parts of southern Germany...
It fell upon a summer day. Stopford Augustus Brooke* (1832-1916).
This hymn was first published in Brooke's Christian Hymns (1881). It has been printed in full because it is an interesting example of Brooke's work: his liking for long hymns, and his broad moral sympathies. The attractive innocence of children is linked to the idea of 'quiet work and simple word', and the belief that the world is sweet and that God's love can be found everywhere. It end with a prayer for a childlike heart, and...
Jesu, with thy church abide. Thomas Benson Pollock* (1836-1896).
Pollock was described by JJ as 'a most successful writer of metrical Litanies' (p. 900). This was entitled [Litany] 'Of the Church'. Part was written for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel for the Day of Intercession in 1871 (cf. 'Through midnight gloom from Macedon'*) and first published in Pollock's Litany Appendix (1871), a supplement to his Metrical Litanies for Special Services and General Use (1870).
Parts of the...
AHLE, Johann Rudolf (or Rudolph). b. Mühlhausen, Thuringia, 24 December 1625, d. Mühlhausen, 9 July 1673. Ahle began his education at the Gymnasium at Mühlhausen, moved ca. 1643 to Göttingen, and started to study theology at Erfurt University in 1645. Nothing is known of his musical training in these years, but during his university years he took up the office of Kantor at the school and church of St. Andreas in Erfurt (1646). Ahle returned to Mühlhausen in 1650, where he became organist at St....
SCHEFFLER, Johannes ('Angelus Silesius'). b. Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland), 1624 (baptised 24 December); d. Breslau, 9 July 1677. Born into a Polish noble family, he was educated at the Elisabeth-Gymnasium in Breslau. He studied medicine at Strasbourg (1643), Leiden (1644) and Padua (1647), where he qualified as a physician. In 1649 he was appointed court physician at Öls to Duke Silvius Nimrod of Württemberg-Öls, but the intolerant Lutheranism of the court was not to his liking, and he left in...
DARBY, John Nelson. b. Westminster, London, 18 November 1800; d. Bournemouth, Hampshire, 29 April 1882. He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1819). He was a lawyer, who was called to the Irish and English Bar, but who then gave up law to become a clergyman in the Church in Ireland. He worked as a curate in Calary, near Enniskerrry, a poor area of County Wicklow, from 1825 to 1827, when he had a riding accident that gave him time to consider his position in the...
YLVISAKER, John Carl. b. Fargo, North Dakota, 11 September 1937; d. Waverly, Iowa, 9 March 2017. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) composer of over 1,000 songs and hymns, church musician, and a performer, he was influenced by the music of the Civil Rights Movement in the USA, including the songs of Pete Seeger (1919-2014). The content of many of the texts and the folk musical style of his songs led Gracia Grindal* to call him the 'Bob Dylan of Lutheranism' (Ortárola, Star...
GELINEAU, Joseph. b. Champ-sur-Layon, Maine et Loire, France, 31 October 1920; d. Sallanches, France, 8 August 2008. Gelineau studied music at the École César Franck in Paris, and theology in the seminary at Lyon Fourvière. He became a member of the Society of Jesus in 1941, and was ordained in 1951. He was sent to Paris, to the Centre de Pastorale Liturgique, and also taught at the Institut Catholique. He became one of the most influential and best known sacred musicians in the Catholic...
HENKYS, Jürgen. b. Heiligenkreutz, East Prussia (now Russian Krastnotorovka) 6 November 1929; d. 22 October 2015. He was educated at Heiligenkreutz and at Königsberg (Russian Kaliningrad), Wyk auf Föhr, and Leverkusen. He studied theology at Wuppertal, followed by further study at Göttingen, Heidelberg and Bonn. He was ordained in 1956, and worked until re-unification in the German Democratic Republic, first at Brandenburg/Havel, west of Berlin (1956-65) as a lecturer and an instructor in...
Let Christian faith and hope dispel. John Logan* (1748-1788).
This was paraphrase 48 in Translations and Paraphrases (1781), part of the material for worship, together with the Scottish Psalter*, that dominated services in the Church of Scotland until recent times. The full title was Translations and Paraphrases, in verse, of several passages of Sacred Scripture. Collected and Prepared by a Committee of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in order to be sung in...
Lord, I hear of showers of blessing. Elizabeth Codner* (1823-1919).
According to JJ, who had access to the papers of Daniel Sedgwick*, the hymn was sent by Codner to Sedgwick on 18 June 1866, and the manuscript states 'written in the summer of 1860'. In that MS it was headed 'Bless me, even me also, O my Father'. Duffield (1886, p. 328) states that it was published as a leaflet in 1861, which would account for its appearance in Charles Haddon Spurgeon*s Our Own Hymn Book (1866). Taylor (1989,...
LANDSTAD, Magnus Brostrup. b. 7 October 1802; d. 8 October 1880. Born at Måsøy, he was one of ten children born to parish priest Hans Landstad (1771-1838) and Margrethe Elisabeth Schnitler (1768-1850). His family moved several times, settling finally in Seljord, Telemark, in 1819. He was raised in a period of abject poverty in rural Norway, partially caused by the Napoleonic wars. His father educated him until 1822, when he began studies at the University of Christiania (Oslo), where he...
BRINGLE, Mary Louise ('Mel'). b. Ripley, Tennessee, 31 July 1953. Bringle grew up in a family active in the Presbyterian Church US: her father served as a deacon and ruling elder, and her mother taught two-year-olds in Sunday school. She sang in children's and youth choirs at the First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. She majored in French and religious studies at Guilford College, Greensboro (BA 1975); received a Fribourg Foundation grant to study at the Institut de Science...
Nothing between my soul and the Savior.Charles Albert Tindley* (1851-1933).
This hymn is normally known as 'Nothing Between'. Tindley's copyright was dated 1905. Young, who dates in 'ca. 1906', describes it as having been written during a difficult period of Tindley's life in Philadelphia 'when negotiations were underway for the purchase of the Westminster Presbyterian Church on Broad Street' (Young, 1993, p. 495). It had four stanzas and a refrain. The refrain was:
Nothing between my soul...
Now the Saviour stands a pleading. John Leland* (1754–1841).
The first known printings of this hymn date from 1801, in at least three collections:
Richard Allen, A Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs: from various authors (Philadelphia: T. L. Plowman); Josiah Goddard, A New and Beautiful Collection of Select Hymns and Spiritual Songs (Walpole, New Hampshire: Thomas & Thomas); Peter Leibert, The Christian's Duty: exhibited in a series of hymns collected from various authors designed...
O for a closer walk with God. William Cowper* (1731-1800).
Written in 1767 (see below), and first printed in Richard Conyers*'s Collection of Psalms and Hymns (1772) and then in Augustus Montague Toplady*'s Toplady's Psalms and Hymns (1776) before publication in Olney Hymns (1779). It was Hymn III in Book I of OH, entitled 'Walking with God', with a link to Genesis 5: 24, 'And Enoch walked with God'. It was written in December 1767 when Cowper's friend, Mary Unwin, was seriously ill, and...
O for that flame of living fire. William Hiley Bathurst* (1796-1877).
From Bathurst's Psalms and Hymns for Public and Private Use (1831, 'By W.H. Bathurst, M.A., Rector of Barwick-in-Elmet'). It had five stanzas, preceded by the words 'For an increase of grace':
O for that flame of living fire Which shone so bright in saints of old; Which bade their souls to heaven aspire, Calm in distress, in danger bold.
Where is that Spirit, Lord, which dwelt In Abraham's breast and seal'd him thine;...
O little town of Bethlehem. Phillips Brooks* (1835-1893).
Written in 1868 for the Sunday School of Brooks's church in Philadelphia. It was the product of what Wordsworth called 'emotion recollected in tranquillity', for it depended on a visit that Brooks had made to Bethlehem at Christmas 1865. He described it in a letter to his father, reprinted in Letters of Travel (1893):
Before dark, we rode out of town to the field where they say the shepherds saw the star… as we passed, the shepherds were...
O Thou God of my Salvation. Thomas Olivers* (1725-1799).
This hymn was first published at the end of A Short Account of the Death of Mary Langson of Taxall, in Cheshire, who died January the 29th 1769. Printed in the Year MDCCLXXI (JJ, p. 1584). This was a work of twelve pages, recording the short life of Mary Langson, who caught smallpox and died 'before the expiration of her twentieth year.' She lived a life of fervent piety, sure of her hope of heaven.
She was described as having been...
O'er the gloomy hills of darkness. William Williams* (1717-1791).
From Williams's Gloria in Excelsis (Carmarthen, 1772), where it was Hymn XXXVII. A correspondent to the Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal of 1941 suggests that the diction and imagery may have been inspired by the Black Mountain range in Carmarthenshire which may be seen from Williams's home (Polack, 1958, p. 352).
The customary text is one of three (or sometimes four) stanzas, selected from the original seven. It was included in...
BROOKS, Phillips. b. Boston, Massachusetts, 13 December 1835; d. Boston, 23 January 1893. He came from a prosperous and religious family, who left the First Church of Boston, where Phillips had been baptized, when it became Unitarian. The family then worshipped at St Paul's Episcopal Church, and Phillips became an Episcopalian. He was educated at the Boston Latin School and Harvard College (AB 1855). After a failed attempt at teaching at his old school, he went to Virginia Theological Seminary...
Quiet, Lord, my froward heart. John Newton* (1725-1807).
From Book III of Olney Hymns (1779), 'On the Rise, Progress, Changes, and Comforts of the Spiritual Life.' This hymn comes from Section V, 'Dedication and Surrender'. It was entitled 'The Child (e)'. The '(e)' points to two references at the foot of the page, Psalm 131: 2 ('Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child') and Matthew 18: 3-4 ('Except ye be converted,...
A distinctive feature of the Reformation of the 16th century, as it developed in different ways across Europe, was the introduction of congregational hymnody into the newly-devised Protestant forms of worship. While this psalmody and hymnody in these new contexts was 'new' in the experience of the worshippers, the Reformers who introduced congregational singing knew that they were not creating something that had never been done before, but rather re-introducing an established practice of the...
WALLACE, Robin Knowles. b. Toledo, Ohio, 6 January 1952. Wallace is a hymnological scholar, editor, teacher of congregational song, and ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. Her timely and influential published works are characterized by usability for scholars and practitioners, attention to language for inclusion and justice, and the centrality of congregational song in worship as a spiritual and theological formational practice.
Robin attended the University of Cincinnati, Ohio...
HARBOR, Ronald Dean. b. Greenville, South Carolina, 7 August 1947. Ronald Dean (Rawn) Harbor is a Catholic composer and liturgical musician. He received early encouragement and piano instruction from his family, a high school music teacher, and Springfield Baptist Church, an African American congregation in Greenville. Harbor received degrees from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina (BM, 1971) in music theory and composition, and the Franciscan School of Theology in San Diego,...
Salisbury hymns and hymnals
The Use of Salisbury or Sarum was the most influential and widespread secular liturgy in the British Isles in the later Middle Ages. (For a detailed overview of its history and influence see Sandon, 2001, pp. 159-60.) The origins and early development of the Use are obscure: the earliest surviving service book dates from the end of the 12th century. In the early 13th century the town of Old Sarum was moved to a new site two miles away, which became known as New Sarum...
Servant of God, well done. James Montgomery (1771-1854).
First published in Montgomery's Greenland, and other poems (1819), entitled 'The Christian Soldier'. This was followed by 'Occasioned by the sudden death of the Reverend Thomas Taylor; after having declared, in his last Sermon, on a preceding evening, that he hoped to die as an old soldier of Jesus Christ, with his sword in his hand.' The echo of Mr Valiant-for-Truth's farewell in Part II of The Pilgrim's Progress is clear.
Taylor was a...
Shepherd of souls, with pitying eye. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Hymns for those that seek, and those that have Redemption in the Blood of Jesus Christ (Bristol, 1747). It was entitled 'For the Outcasts of Israel'. The 1747 text was as follows:
Shepherd of Souls, with pitying Eye The Thousands of our Israel see: To Thee in their Behalf we fly, Ourselves but newly found in Thee.
See, where o'er desart Wastes they err, And neither Food nor Feeder have, Nor Fold, nor Place of...
Stop, poor sinner! stop and think. John Newton* (1725-1807).
This is from Olney Hymns (1779), Book III, 'On the Rise, Progress, Changes, and Comforts of the Spiritual Life.' It was the second hymn in the first section of Book III, 'Solemn Addresses to Sinners', entitled 'Alarm'. It had five stanzas:
Stop, poor sinner! stop and think Before you farther go!Will you sport upon the brink Of everlasting woe?Once again I charge you, stop! For, unless you warning take,Ere you are aware, you...
DUNSTAN, Sylvia Gaye. b. Simcoe, Ontario, Canada, 26 May 1955; d. 25 July 1993. She was raised by her grandparents, who had Methodist and Salvation Army backgrounds. She read History at York University, Toronto (BA, 1977), and then studied at Emmanuel College, University of Toronto (MDiv, 1980). In 1980 she was ordained in the United Church of Canada. Her first pastorate was in a two-point charge in Alma-Albert, New Brunswick. Following her return to Toronto she became duty chaplain of a...
The church of Christ cannot be bound. Adam Tice* (1979– ).
This hymn was first published in the author's collection Woven Into Harmony (2009). The first hymnal to include it was Celebrating Grace (2010). Selected additional hymnals include Lead Me, Guide Me, Second Edition (2012), Glory to God (2013), Total Praise (2011), and Voices Together (2020). This hymn text won the 2005 Macalester Plymouth United Church hymn-writing contest, which called for texts dealing with homelessness and...
The day is past and gone. John Leland* (1754–1841).
This has the title 'Evening hymn'. It was, and still is, Leland's most published hymn, dating from as early as Richard Broaddus and Andrew Broaddus, Collection of Sacred Ballads (Virginia: Caroline Co., 1790). Hymnary.org gives a page scan dating from the same year, from Society hymns, original and selected on evangelical and experimental subjects (Boston: Manning & Loring, 1790):
The Day is past and gone, The evening shades appear;O...
Thine be the glory, Risen conqu'ring Son. Edmond Louis Budry* (1854-1932), translated by Richard Birch Hoyle* (1875-1939).
This translation of Budry's hymn, 'A toi la gloire, O Ressuscité'*, was first published in Cantate Domino (1924), published by the World's Student Christian Federation, where it is dated 1923. The first line began 'Thine is the glory…'. It was in three stanzas, with stanza 1 lines 1-2 forming a refrain for all stanzas. In the original printing stanzas 2 and 3 were...
The cross, the cross, O that's my gain. Clare Taylor* (d. 1778).
This hymn is dated 1742 in Moravian books in Britain. In that year the original of the present hymn was published, with no author's name, in A Collection of Hymns, With several translations From the hymn-book of the Moravian Brethren. It was a long hymn of 15 stanzas, beginning:
The Cross, the Cross, O that's my Gain!Because on that, the Lamb was slain;'Twas there my Lord was crucify'd;'Twas there the Saviour for me dy'd.
The...
Ut queant laxis. Latin, ca. 800 or earlier.
The text was written by ca. 800 (it appears on a flyleaf dating from that time found in Vatican Ottob. 532). It is often attributed to Paul the Deacon*. This dates back to the 12th-century writers, Alberic and Peter the Deacon of Montecassino, as well as to an anecdote by Durandus in Rationale divinorum officiorum (ca. 1286). He writes that Paul the Deacon, having to sing the 'Exultet' on Holy Saturday with a sore throat, petitioned for divine aid, as...
McKAY, V. Michael. b. Alexandria, Louisiana, 8 May 1952. V. Michael McKay grew up in Alexandria, Louisiana, where his grandfather was a Baptist preacher. His grandmother sang hymns to him at home and while riding in the car, embedding in him a love for the people's song at an early age. It was out of this experience that he felt a calling to make composition and music making as his life's work (Defender, 2018, n.p.). He named his publishing company, Schaff Music Publishing, after his...
Victim divine, thy grace we claim. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
First published in Hymns on the Lord's Supper (1745) in five 6-line stanzas, in the section entitled 'The Holy Eucharist as it implies a Sacrifice'. Though it was not included in John Wesley*'s Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), it appeared in the 1831 edition with Supplement and the 1876 edition ('Wesley's Hymns'). From the Methodist Hymn Book (1904) onwards, it has remained in use in British...
The Waldensians take their name from Peter Waldo (ca. 1140- late 12th century), a wealthy son of a merchant of Lyon, France, who followed the instructions of Jesus Christ to sell all he had and give to the poor. He translated the New Testament into Provençal: he and his followers led lives of poverty and simplicity. They regarded themselves as orthodox Catholics, and were represented at the Third Lateran Council (1179) under Pope Alexander III. Their independent teaching, including the...
This account is in two parts: German Hymnody to the end of the 19th century, by J.R. Watson ; German Hymnody in the 20th century, by Cornelia Kück. The Appendix is by J.R. Watson.
Introduction
'German hymnody surpasses all others in wealth.' This is the opening sentence of the article on the topic in JJ (p. 412), and there is no reason to question it, certainly with regard to the modern period (Latin hymnody has an equal claim if all ages of Christian hymnody are under consideration). The...
The word 'Copt' comes from the Greek word 'Aigyptios' ('Egyptian') and was disfigured by the Arabs to 'Copt'. The Greek word is the name of the sanctuary near Memphis 'Het-Ka-Ptah' ('The dwelling of the 'Ghost'(ka) of Ptah'). Hence this word is used to designate the Egyptian people. The Egyptians used the Egyptian Language (Hieroglyphic and later Coptic) until the conquest of Alexander the Great, when Greek was used. After the Arab conquest, Arabic was imposed.
According to the Gospel of...
TULLAR, Grant Colfax. b. Bolton, Connecticut, 5 August 1869; d. Ocean Grove, New Jersey, 20 May 1950. He was a gospel singer, evangelist, publisher, writer of hymn texts, and composer of hymn tunes.
A few months before Tullar's birth, Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) and Schuyler Colfax (1823-1885) were inaugurated President and Vice-President of the United States. Tullar was named in their honor. His father, Austin Milleon Tullar (1830-1896) fought briefly in the Civil War, having enlisted 30...
BROWN, Grayson Warren.b. Brooklyn, New York, 21 March 1948; d. Jacksonville, Florida, 2 July 2023.
Grayson Warren Brown was a pioneer in the development of the Black gospel Mass in the late 1960s. Authentic, spirit-filled worship liturgies characterized his work in a small inner-city multicultural parish in New York. Brown's creative works mixed the genres of Black gospel music with the Western classical tradition, illustrating his sensitivity to both the Catholic tradition and the...
CLARKE, Harry Dixon. b. Cardiff, Wales, 28 January 1889, d. Lexington, Kentucky, 14 October 1957. Harry Dixon Clarke was born in Cardiff (some sources indicate that he later changed his middle name to Dudley). Orphaned at a young age, he ran away from the orphanage, found his way to London, and went to sea for nearly a decade. With his brother's assistance, Clarke moved to Canada and then to the United States, where he experienced his conversion. After studying at Moody Bible...
Hath not thy heart within thee burned. Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch* (1809-1870).
From Bulfinch's Contemplations of the Saviour: a series of extracts from the Gospel history, with reflections and original and selected hymns (Boston, 1832). For the structure and arrangement of this book, see the entry on 'Hail to the Sabbath day'*. This hymn comes from Part VIII, 'To the Ascension of Jesus': section xlviii (the sections are numbered independently) is entitled 'Jesus appears to his disciples'. It...
Junior Praise (Junior Praise, 1986; Junior Praise 2, 1992; Junior Praise Combined Music Edition, 1997/2004; Complete Junior Praise, 2008).
A series of sister publications to the long-running Mission Praise* series, Junior Praise sought to provide British churches and schools with a wide-ranging selection of Christian hymns and songs suitable for children and young people. The first volume contained just over three hundred items; Junior Praise 2 took the combined total to 503, while more...
Lamb of God ('Your only Son, no sin to hide'). Twila Paris* (1958– ).
Carl P. Daw, Jr.* points out that, though often cited, the phrase 'Lamb of God' appears only in relation to John the Baptist, who is referencing Jesus (John 1: 29, 36). Isaiah 53: 7 uses this image also: 'He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth' (KJV). The image receives its...
See also 'New Zealand hymnody'*. The first European Christian church communities in New Zealand to use printed hymnbooks were largely made up of immigrants from England and Scotland, who brought their hymnbooks with them. For more than a century, and in some cases to the present day, denominational hymnbooks in successively revised editions and differentiated titles were sourced overseas, at first from Britain and later from America and Australia.
Dependence on overseas publications was also...
Introduction
While there is a substantial amount of writing produced on religion and theology in South America, there is surprisingly almost nothing written concerning hymnody and its development. Information about the history of South American hymnody is scarce. Some of the accounts are conflicting, and they are not organized in any formal way. A more complete survey of current and historical South American hymnody and singing would require individual articles on each South American country...
HUSBERG, Amanda. b. Chicago, 7 December 1940; d. New York City, 15 February 2021. Amanda Husberg graduated from Concordia Teacher's College (Seward, Nebraska, B.S., 1962) where she studied education, and organ performance with Jan Bender*. Subsequently, she completed her study in early childhood education from Hunter College (New York City, M.S., 1971).
From July 1964 onwards she was the Director of Music at St John the Evangelist Lutheran Church in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Concurrent with her...
Away with our fears/ Our troubles and tears. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
From Hymns of Petition and Thanksgiving for the Promise of the Father. By the Reverend Mr. John and Charles Wesley (Bristol, 1746), where it was Hymn XXXII, the last in the book. It had five 8-line stanzas:
Away with our Fears, Our Troubles and Tears! The Spirit is come, The Witness of Jesus Return'd to hs Home: The Pledge of our Lord To his Heaven restor'd, Is sent from the Sky, And tells us our...
Christ is the world's Redeemer. St Columba* (521-597), translated by Duncan MacGregor* (1854-1923).
This is a translation of the second part of a Latin hymn, found in two manuscripts held in Dublin, in the library of Trinity College, and in the Franciscan College.This second part begins 'Christe Redemptor gentium'. Both sections were traditionally attributed to St Columba, but a note in the Trinity College MS casts doubt on his authorship of the first part, beginning 'In Te, Christe,...
Come, pure hearts, in sweetest measures. Latin, translated by Robert Campbell* (1814-1868).
First published in Campbell's Hymns and Anthems for Use in the Holy Services of the Church within the United Diocese of St Andrews, Dunkeld, and Dunblane (Edinburgh, 1850), where it was entitled 'Commemoration of Evangelists'. It was a translation of three stanzas from two anonymous Sequences of the 12th century, 'Iucundare, plebs fidelis'*, and 'Plausu chorus laetabundo'* (altered by Clichtoveus*: see...
DARGIE, David. b. 29 July 1938. David Dargie is one of South Africa's leading ethnomusicologists. He studied with Andrew Tracey at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa (on Andrew Tracey, see African hymnody*). Dargie is also a foremost encourager of compositions by Africans for the church. Of Scottish descent, Dargie is a third-generation South African raised in the coastal town of East London. Following seminary training in Pretoria and his ordination in 1964, he served in New...
ASKINS, George. b. Ireland, date and place unknown; d. Frederick, Maryland, 28 February 1816. Little is known about Askins save his birth country, Ireland, and that he had made his way to the United States by 1801 as an adult Methodist, where he was given a charge as a trial itinerate preacher in the Montgomery circuit of the Baltimore Annual Conference. Still on trial, he was assigned to the Ohio circuit of the Pittsburgh Annual Conference in 1802 and then to the Shenango circuit of the same...
God calling yet. Gerhard Tersteegen* (1697-1769), translated by Sarah Laurie Findlater* (1823-1907), altered by Lowell Mason* (1792-1872) and co-editors.
This translation of Tersteegen's 'Gott rufet noch. Sollt ich nicht endlich hören'* was first published in the Second Series of Hymns from the Land of Luther (1855). The hymns in that book were translated by both Findlater and her older sister, Jane Laurie Borthwick*, but there is no doubt of the authorship of the present hymn because...
It's me, it's me, O Lord (Standing in the need of prayer). African American spiritual*.
'It's me, it's me, O Lord' reveals the intimate nature of prayer. Groans and moans were among the early utterings of enslaved Africans that formed the basis of the later spirituals. Sister Thea Bowman notes:
When African Americans met or congregated, they consoled and strengthened themselves and one another in sacred song—moans, chants, shouts, psalms, hymns, and jubilees, first African songs, then...
MAUNDER, John Henry. b. Chelsea, London, 21 February 1858; d. Brighton, Sussex, 25 January 1920. He was the only son of John and Eliza Maunder. He married Ellen Fanny Fulgoux Dakin of Wandsworth, March 1880: they had one daughter, Winifred, b. October 1884.
Little of Maunder's early life is known, except that he studied at the Royal Academy of Music. Two announcements in the London Gazette (27 April 1877 and 2 December 1898) and two census entries, 1891 and 1911, confirm his employment as an...
KEITHAHN, Mary Nelson. b. St Paul, Minnesota, 17 February 1934. An ordained pastor and certified church education specialist in the United Church of Christ (UCC), she grew up in a small Minnesota town where she graduated from high school in 1952. It was customary for the junior class at Gaylord High School to write prophesies for what graduated students would become in their adult life. Mary was surprised to read that her younger classmates foresaw a future for her as a great writer.
After high...
FREY, Marvin V. b. Sherwood, Washington County, Oregon, 19 December 1918; d. Tarrytown, Westchester County, New York, 28 November 1992. Frey was one of seven siblings born to Charles Emmanuel Frey (1886–1972) and Anna M. Frey (née Fichtner) (1891–1958). He married Helen M. Frey (1923– ). Known as an evangelist for the nondenominational Independent Assemblies of God, he commenced his ministry in the 1930s at an early age and, in addition, played the piano for Canadian Pentecostal evangelist...
GOULD, Nathaniel Duren. b. Chelmsford (now Bedford), Massachusetts, 26 March 1781; d. Boston, Massachusetts, 28 May 1864. Gould was a tunebook compiler and master of penmanship and engraving. His most widely cited book is Church Music in America (1853).
Probably the most detailed description of Nathaniel D. Gould's family and change of name is found in Jeffries Wyman's biographical memoir of Gould's son, Augustus Addison Gould (1805-1866), a graduate of Harvard College and distinguished...
New English Hymnal (1986). The New English Hymnal, published in 1986, represented the most recent development in what might be described as 'the ongoing English Hymnal project'; that is to say, the succession of publications which shared and continued to disseminate the literary and musical objectives pioneered by EH in 1906 (an EH with revised music appeared in 1933). A further development took place in 1975 with the publication of English Praise, a supplement to EH.
In order to understand...
O how he loves you and me. Kurt Kaiser* (1934- ). This song dates from 1975. Kaiser described his methods of writing and composing as follows:
Through the years I have been in the habit of keeping my ears tuned to things that people say, a phrase that may give me an idea for a song. I'll write it down quickly. I may come across a musical refrain or a lyrical idea that I can file away in a special place in my office. Occasionally, I'll pull these things out and look at them (Terry, 2002, pp....
Asian and Asian American hymns, USA
This essay updates a portion of Carlton R. Young*'s earlier study (1998) on the inclusion of ethnic congregational song in hymnals published 1942-95 by the Protestant Episcopal Church, The Evangelical Lutheran Church, The Christian Reformed Church, The United Methodist Church, The Presbyterian Church (USA), The Southern Baptist Church, The United Church of Christ, and the Disciples of Christ. His detailed work noted a distinct increase of ethnic minority...
Great Awakenings, USA
The Great Awakenings is the name given to periods of religious revival that occurred in colonial British North America and the United States in the early to mid-18th century, in the early national period to the middle of the 19th century, and in the Reconstruction era to about 1910. These awakenings profoundly changed the course of American religious history, and to a lesser degree that of other countries. By the middle of the 19th century, the dominant character of...
Hymnody of the Catholic Church
The first hymn poems in Korean, called ChunjooGasa (Chunjoo means 'Lord of Heaven', and Gasa is the traditional narrative song of Korea), are the 'Ten Commandments Song' written by YakChun Chung and two scholars, and 'Praise Song for the Lord of Heaven' by Byuk Lee written in 1779, over one hundred years before the Protestant hymn was introduced. Chunjugasa's metrical pattern is usually 4.4.4.4, a kind of Long Metre in terms of Western poetry. It is a confessional...
See also 'Byzantine hymnody'*, 'Byzantine rite'*, 'Greek hymnody'*, 'Rite of Constantinople'*, 'Rite of Jerusalem'*, 'Greek hymns, archaeology'*.
History
The history of Georgian Orthodox hymnody can be traced back to the first centuries of Christianity, and is directly connected with the conversion of Georgia. In the first century AD, Christianity was preached in Georgia by the apostles St. Andrew and St. Symeon Cananeli (Symeon of Canania). Christianity became the state religion in the first...
He's got the whole world in his hands. African American spiritual*.
The earliest known publication containing this spiritual is Spirituals Triumphant Old and New (1927), collected and arranged by Edward Hammond Boatner* (1898–1981) with editorial assistance by Willa Townsend* (1880–1947). Boatner credits his father, Dr. Daniel Webster Boatner (?1854– ) an itinerate Methodist minister born to his enslaved grandparents, for his interest in spirituals. He heard them being sung at his father's...
History
The Ruebush-Kieffer Company was formed at Singers Glen*, Virginia in 1872 by Aldine S. Kieffer (1840-1904) and Ephraim Ruebush (1833-1924). Originally, 'Ruebush, Kieffer, and Company', the name 'Ruebush-Kieffer Company' appeared after 1891. Kieffer and Ruebush were brothers-in-law, Ruebush having married Kieffer's sister in 1861. Kieffer was the grandson of Joseph Funk*, a Mennonite hymnal compiler and printer who had published the successful Harmonia Sacra (Genuine Church Music) at...
Social Gospel Hymnody, USA
The 'Social Gospel' is a North American Christian movement, with roots in the Third Great Awakening (See Great Awakenings, USA*), which flourished from about 1890 to 1940, most prominently in the early 1900s. The main idea of the movement was application of Christian principles to bring about the transformation of society. At the end of the 19th century, mainline Protestant theology viewed individuals as fallen and in need of redemption; the Social Gospel extended...
HOLST, Gustav(us Theodore von). b. Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, 21 September 1874; d. Ealing, West London, 25 May 1934. He was of German, Scandinavian and Russian ancestry; his father was a pianist and organist in Cheltenham. Holst won a scholarship (on a second attempt) to study at the Royal College of Music where he worked under Stanford* (1895-98) and, as a student, befriended Vaughan Williams*, Ireland*, Coleridge-Taylor, Hurlstone and Fritz Hart. His second study, the trombone, enabled him...
MUHLENBERG, Henry Melchior ('Melchior Heinrich Mühlenberg' was his given name which he reversed, and the anglicized versions of 'Henry' and 'Muhlenberg' with no umlaut on the 'u' are normally used today). b. Einbeck, (southern Lower Saxony), Germany, 6 September 1711; d. Trappe, Pennsylvania, 7 October 1787.
Known as 'the Patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America', Muhlenberg was the seventh child in a poor family of nine. His parents were Nicolaus Melchior Muhlenberg (1660/66-1723/29) and...
[note: 'French Canada' refers not only to the province of Quebec, but also to the pockets of French-speaking people in all parts of Canada]
Early history
Roman Catholic liturgical music was brought to New France in the 17th century by French missionaries and peasants. In the 1640s the Jesuit Relations (Relations des jésuites, Paris, 1632-72) referred to music sung by the peoples of the First Nations and French settlers. One of the songs that has survived and is sung at Christmas time in...
Let's walk together ('Welcome'). Mark Miller* (1967– ) and Laurie Zelman.
'Let's Walk Together'(2007) highlights the themes of inclusion and hospitality. The text was written by Miller in collaboration with Laurie Zelman, whom he met while Zelman was a seminary student at Drew Theological School in Madison, New Jersey. The three stanzas are anaphoric, each inviting the singer into an act of communal engagement— 'Let's walk together' / 'Let's talk together' / 'Let's dream...
Missionary College Hymns (Scotland, 1914)
This compilation for the Free Church Women's Missionary Training Institute in Edinburgh was remarkable in including hymns from traditions other than the Christian: Vedic, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Jewish, Syrian, African, Islamic – one of the latter being the Muezzin's call to prayer. They were set to tunes appropriate to their provenance, many Indian, but also melodies from Japan, Syria, Africa, China, Persia and Egypt, with instructions regarding...
Prayer is the breath of God in man. Benjamin Beddome* (1717-1795).
JJ reported that this was first printed by Robert Hall in the collection of Beddome's hymns, Hymns Adapted to Public Worship (1817, 1818), published some twenty years after Beddome's death, and that the date of 1787 (Rippon's Selection of Hymns*) was an error (p. 907: it was in the 27th Edition of Rippon's book).
It was entitled 'Importance of Prayer'. It had five stanzas:
Prayer is the breath of God in man,
Returning...
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky. Alfred Tennyson* (1809-1892).
This is section 106 (written ca. 1845-46) of In Memoriam A.H.H., the series of poems published in 1850 in memory of his great friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died in 1833. It followed the last of three Christmas sections in the poem, each of which marks a stage in recovering from his grief. It is a splendid cry for a nobler and fairer world, inspired by the ringing of bells in a country parish on New Year's Eve:
Ring out,...
MORRIS, Sally Ann. b. Greensboro, North Carolina, 16 September 1952. She is a composer of hymn tunes, anthems, and a leader and teacher of congregational song. A lifelong Presbyterian (PCUSA), she was baptized at the age of six at Highland Presbyterian Church, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Her father was a string bass player, and a member of the newly formed Winston-Salem Symphony Orchestra from the 1950s into the 1970s. He grandparents on her mother's side, George (d. 1973) and Ruby Moxley...
TIPLADY, Thomas. b. Gayle, Wensleysdale, Yorkshire, 1 January 1882; d. London, England, 7 January 1967. Tiplady was one of ten children born into a Methodist family. His father, Francis, was a local preacher; his mother, Mary (née Allen) was a descendent of the hymn writer James Allen*. In 1885 the family moved to Nelson, Lancashire, to find work in the cotton mills. At age five, Tiplady attended the Railway Street Methodist Day School as well as its Sunday School. When he was ten, he began to...
General
Southern Gospel is one of the multiple vernacular Christian music traditions that developed within American (and to some extent British) Protestant cultures during the 19th and 20th centuries, and part of the gospel music phenomenon that has flourished in Anglophone Christendom since the 1870s. It is also part of the Christian, but especially Protestant, practice of recreational musicking with vernacular songs and hymns.
'Southern Gospel' refers to a music tradition that dates arguably...
Text and tune
'Music . . . the exaltation of poetry. Both of them may excel apart, but sure they are most excellent when they are joyn'd' (Henry Purcell).
The primary hallmark of excellence in vocal music, whether sacred or secular, is the depth of poetic unity between words and music. Arguably, it is the quality of the relationship between tune and text that is likely to be the most effective in quickening the emotions of both performer and listener and, in the case of sacred vocal...
YOUNG, Carlton Raymond ('Sam'). b. Hamilton, Ohio, 25 April 1926; d. Nashville, Tennessee, 21 May 2023. He was the son of J. Otis Young , a pastor, and Mary Leibrook, an elementary school teacher. Following his mother's death he was raised by maternal grand parents, who started his piano lessons at age six. He attended Fairfield High School in Butler County, Ohio, where music was a requirement not an elective, and where he played brass instruments and string bass. He studied at Cincinnati...
Every time I feel the Spirit. African American spiritual*.
While not as commonly sung as 'Go tell it on the mountain'* or 'Let us break bread together on our knees'*, this spiritual still has a significant presence in many hymnals. Its roots may be found in the antebellum South. One often-cited report indicates that Abraham Lincoln heard a group of escaped slaves led by 'Aunt Mary' Dines singing this spiritual, among others, during one of his visits to the 'contraband' camp at Seventh Street...
BAKER, Frank. b. Kingston upon Hull, UK, 15 April 1910; d. Durham, North Carolina, 11 October 1999. In a fine tribute by John E. Vickers in the Second Edition of Baker's John Wesley and the Church of England (Peterborough, 2000), we read that Frank gave his life to Jesus Christ during the 'Humberside Crusade' in the winter of 1924. This led to his becoming a local preacher and then answering the call to full-time ministry in the Primitive Methodist Church. Because of what seems today to have...
Lim, Swee Hong (林瑞峰).b. Singapore; 11 June 1963.
Lim, Swee Hong is a Singaporean church musician, composer, and educator. Born into a Chinese Christian family, Lim inherited the faith of his maternal heritage as a fourth-generation Christian. His father (Baptist) and mother (Presbyterian) instilled the value of service to God. Along with his siblings, Lim was encouraged by his mother to serve the church through music-making. Lim began to learn musical instruments at an early age, planting the...
PARK, Chai-hoon (Jai-hoon) 박재훈. b. Gimwha County, Gangwon Province, Korea (now North Korea), 14 November 1922; d. Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, 2 August 2021. Park was a composer and the foremost Korean hymnodist. His music-making and life influenced and shaped the development of Korean church music. He grew up in a Christian family, a rarity in that era, the youngest of the four sons from nine siblings. All four brothers became ministers later, a pledge that his mother had made to God. An...
Tanzania is a particularly fertile location for the development of indigenous hymnody because of the work of a leading African priest, Stephen Mbunga, and the ministry of a Protestant missionary, Howard Olson*, that spanned four decades. Together they offer insight into a process of cultivating congregational song, a pattern followed in other areas of the continent.
Precursors
The Moravian diaspora resulted in their first mission station in colonial German East Africa in 1891 by Theodor Meyer...
Lü Xiaomin (吕小敏). b. Fangcheng, Nanyang, Henan Province, China; 1970.Lü Xiaomin (Xiao Min) was born to a poor family of farmers belonging to the Hui minority group. She grew up at a village in Fangcheng, Nanyang, Henan Province. Dropping out of school during the first year of junior high due to severe sinusitis and other health issues, she stayed at home to help on her family farm (“Xia Min,” n.d., n.p).
Xiaomin became a Christian when her aunt shared the gospel with her. Later, she joined a...
Do, Lord, remember me. African American spiritual*.
African American Sources
Though its exact roots are lost in history, the spiritual 'Do, Lord, remember me' likely begins in the 19th-century antebellum period. This spiritual should not be confused with a shorter traditional response, 'Remember me', that often appears in African American hymnals with a harmonization by Judge Jefferson Cleveland*. William McClain, late United Methodist professor of homiletics, identifies this...
This article includes the tradition of Egypt/Alexandria. See also 'Greek hymnody'*.
Introduction
Christian papyrology enables us to study many of the non-biblical liturgical songs of the early Greek Church, which were previously known only through translations, particularly in the Georgian, Armenian or Coptic traditions (which are difficult to date), through fragments in late Greek compilations, or through literary works of dubious authorship or uncertain liturgical use. These papyrological...
French Protestant Psalms
16th Century
French and German Reformers, such as Jean Calvin* (1509-1564), Guillaume Farel (1489-1565), Martin Luther* (1483-1546) and Martin Bucer* (1491-1551) were very conscious of the impact of singing. They wished to introduce, very early on in the Reformation, a new liturgy and hymnody, mainly for worship. Their task was to supply the new reformed Church with its specific liturgy and hymnody. The language was an essential problem to be solved, because everyone...
See also 'New Zealand hymnbooks'*. The history of New Zealand Pakeha (non-Maori) hymnology begins on Christmas Day, 1841, with a service of worship conducted in the presence of a largely Maori congregation by the Reverend Samuel Marsden (1765-1838) representing the Church of England's Church Missionary Society. Marsden himself led the singing of Psalm 100, to Loys Bourgeois*' tune known in England as the OLD HUNDREDTH. The Anglican presence in the new colony-to-be was followed by the arrival of...
Sequence is a Latin medieval chant sung after the Alleluia* of the Mass on feast days and, like the Alleluia, not usually sung in Lent. The Latin term 'sequentia' appears to derive from the function of the chant as one which 'follows' the Alleluia, after the pattern: (i) Alleluia incipit, (ii) Alleluia jubilus, (iii) Verse, (iv) Alleluia incipit, (v) Sequence. But it is not certain if this was the original or authentic order of performance, or if it was universally practised.
Sequences are...