The First Nowell

Glory to God: 147

TEXT: English Carol 1823 
MUSIC:   English Carol;  Sandy’s Christmas Carols. 1833 

The first Nowell the angel did say 
was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay, 
in fields where they lay keeping their sheep, 
on a cold winter’s night that was so deep. 
 
Refrain: 
Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, 
born is the King of Israel. 
 
They looked up and saw a star 
shining in the east beyond them far; 
and to the earth it gave great light, 
and so it continued both day and night.

Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, 
born is the King of Israel. 
 
And by the light of that same star 
three wise men came from country far; 
to seek for a king was their intent, 
and to follow the star wherever it went.

Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, 
born is the King of Israel. 
 
This star drew nigh to the northwest; 
o’er Bethlehem it took its rest, 
and there it did both stop and stay, 
right over the place where Jesus lay.

Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, 
born is the King of Israel. 
 
Then entered in those wise men three, 
full reverently upon their knee, 
and offered there in his presence 
their gold, and myrrh, and frankincense.

Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, 
born is the King of Israel. 
 
Then let us all with one accord 
sing praises to our heavenly Lord, 
that hath made heaven and earth of nought, 
and with his blood our life hath bought.

Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, Nowell, 
born is the King of Israel. 

Dr. Michael Hawn says it all in this wonderful article. 

Here is the link if you want it straight from his cyber pen! Discipleship Ministries | History of Hymns: 'The First Noel' 

 This Epiphany carol raises several questions. First, “What is a carol?” While the majority of carols are associated with Christmas, the folk carol tradition was employed at other high seasons of the Christian year, including Holy Week and Easter. Although Christmas carols are found throughout the world, their origin is largely European. Usually, no author or composer can be ascribed to them. Historically, carols would have been sung outside the Catholic Mass in non-liturgical gatherings and spread through oral tradition. In their earliest forms, the carols would have been ways of preserving and spreading biblical or quasi-religious narratives among those who were not literate. 

Christmas hymns, by contrast, are a part of the literate song tradition. While carols began to flourish during the medieval era, Christmas hymns can be traced back to the fourth century during the Council of Nicea (325 A.D.) and subsequent councils, where the adoption of the Nicene Creed defined the nature of Christ in what became orthodox theology. Early Latin hymns from this time were polemical statements that explained the doctrine of the Incarnation in opposition to Arianism, a concept that asserted that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was created by God at a specific point in time and was an entity distinct from God the Father, and therefore subordinate to the Father. “Corde natus de Parentis” (“Of the Father’s love begotten,” The United Methodist Hymnal, 184) is one of the most famous hymns from this era that is still sung. The Spanish judge Aurelius Clemens Prudentius (c. 348–c. 413) left a legacy for the church’s sung faith that has lasted for centuries. See the following link for a discussion of this hymn: http://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-of-the-fathers-love-begotten. 

Since that time, telling the story of the birth of Christ in song has been an important tradition, especially in the Western Church. Since congregational participation, including singing, was very limited in the medieval Catholic Mass, the people’s song developed outside the church. In most cases, the composers of these carols have long been lost in time, partly a function of their oral tradition. Undoubtedly, carols existed in oral forms long before being published in collections. 

The second question is, “What does ‘Noel’ mean?” “Nowell,” the English transliteration, comes from the old French “Nouel” or “Noël,” modern French. The derivation of this word probably relates to the earlier Latin term “natalis” or birth. In Latin, “Dies natalis” means “birthday.” Some suggest that “Noel” is also related to “novellare” or “nouvelle” meaning “new” —something to tell. As hymnologist and hymnwriter Carl P. Daw, Jr. indicates, The Oxford English Dictionary notes the earliest use of “Nowel” is in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (c. 1395) where the poet cites “The Franklin’s Tale” (1255): “And ‘Nowel’ crieth every lusty man” (Daw, 2016, 154). 

“The First Noel” has its roots in the fifteenth century in its oral form, and it appeared on eighteenth-century broadsides in Helston, near Cornwall (Keyte and Parrott, 1992, 482). It was published first in the revised edition of Some Ancient Christmas Carols (1823), edited by Davies Gilbert. Its publication in the famous Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern (1833), compiled by William Sandys in London (Sandys, 1833, 74–75) increased the carol’s prominence. Originally in nine stanzas, five are commonly used in most hymnals today. Though the angels’ appearance to the shepherds (Luke 2:1–20) is the subject of the first stanza, most of the carol focuses on the journey of the magi (Matthew 2:1–12), giving the carol an Epiphany focus. 

The melody of this carol is the subject of some speculation. The first printing of the tune comes from Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern (1833) by William Sandys (See https://archive.org/details/christmascarolsa00sandrich/page/194/mode/2up). This version of the tune was transcribed from a Cornwall collection (1827) and, indeed, bears some resemblance to other tunes from this region. The stanzas consist of two sections that are identical plus the refrain that is so similar that it appears to be a variant of the first two. Rather than a standard Bar Form (AAB), the musical structure of many German tunes like LOBE DEN HERRN (“Praise to the Lord, the Almighty,” The United Methodist Hymnal, 139), this tune is AAA’. 

British hymnologist Erik Routley (1917–1982), never one to mince words, noted: “But may we not whisper that THE FIRST NOWELL, beloved though it is, is really a terrible tune?” Recalling the extreme repetition, he concludes, “Something has gone amiss, surely, with the transmission of this tune” (Routley, 1958, 96). Perhaps, however, the musical structure is closer to the medieval storytelling form chanson de geste. This musical structure was used by clerics between the eleventh and twelfth centuries to tell epic stories in northern France. While little of the music is preserved, the chanson de geste repeated a simple melodic formula to tell the story, very similar to the melodic structure of our carol. For this author, this seems to be a more logical explanation of the extreme repetition in the melody rather than some other speculations, including notions that the singer forgot the proper melody, or it was transmitted improperly. Furthermore, Cornwall, on the southeastern tip of England, is on the English Channel directly across northern France. The telling of the story may have superseded the need for an interesting melody. 

Undoubtedly, the melody and text have been smoothed out over the centuries to the form we have it today, but its essential character probably remains intact. An early version of the first couplet reads: “The first Nowell that the Angel did say / Was to three poor shepherds in fields as they lay.” The Cornish Songbook (1929), edited by Ralph Dunstan, prints the first stanza as follows: 

O well, O well, the Angels did say 
To shepherds there in the fields did lay; 
Late in the night a-folding their sheep, 
A winter’s night, both cold and bleak. 
O well, O well, O well, O well, 
Born is the King of Israel. 

Since the carol was transmitted by aural/oral tradition, it is not impossible that the lesser known French word “Noël” sounded like “O well.” 

Sir John Stainer (1840–1901) standardized the melody as we know it and provided a harmonization that has become the customary one today. Sandys published Stainer’s arrangement in Christmas Carols New and Old (1876). The eight-measure melody appears twice for each stanza, plus the refrain variant. Stainer enhanced the refrain by allowing the tenors to soar to a high F-sharp on the final “Noel,” giving it a sense of climax, while the soprano maintains the repetition throughout. Tenors look forward to taking the spotlight at that point, leaving the sopranos on the original tune that becomes a less interesting countermelody. See Stainer’s setting of the song in Christmas Carols New and Old (1850 edition) at the following link: https://archive.org/details/christ00bram/page/12/mode/2up. Then listen to the Staple Hill Salvation Army Band playing Stainer’s version at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iznOSxywgo4. 

English folksong collector Cecil Sharp (1859–1924) discovered another version (Sharp, 1914, 26–27), indicating the popularity of oral transmission and retelling the nativity narrative: 

The repeated “Noel” (or “Nowell” in some hymnals) has the character of spreading the good news— “born is the King of Israel.” A final stanza, occasionally used in hymnals, draws all humanity into the story and extends the birth account to the story of salvation and Christ’s suffering. Though the use of “mankind” has probably limited its use in current hymnals, this stanza places the birth of Jesus into the fuller context of redemption: 

Then let us all with one accord 
Sing praises to our heavenly Lord, 
That hath made heaven and earth of nought, 
And with his blood mankind has bought. 
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel, 
Born is the King of Israel. 

Sources 

• Carl P. Daw, Jr., Glory to God: A Companion (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2016). 

• Hugh Keyte and Andrew Parrott, The New Book of Oxford Carols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992). 

• Alan Luff, “The First Nowell the Angel Did Say.” The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press, http://www.hymnology.co.uk/t/the-first-nowell-the-angel-did-say (accessed October 17, 2020). 

• Erik Routley, The English Carol (Westport, CN: Greenwood Press Publishers, 1958). 

• William Sandys, Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern (London: Richard, Beckley, 1833). See the following link for the carol: https://archive.org/details/christmascarolsa00sandrich/page/74/mode/2up (accessed October 17, 2020). 

• Cecil J. Sharp, Frank Kidson, Lucy E. Broadwood, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and A.G. Gilchrist, “Carols,” Journal of the Folk-Song Society 5, no. 18 (January 1914), 1–30): 
  https://www.jstor.org/stable/4434000 (accessed October 17, 2020). 

• John Stainer, ed., Christmas Carols New and Old (London: Novello, Ewer and Co., 1850), https://archive.org/details/christ00bram/page/n3/mode/2up (accessed October 18, 2020). 

Here’s a beautiful arrangement that the Angel Choir sang as their last song for Walking Tour, sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir where it had it’s origins. 

O Little Town of Bethlehem
Glory to God: 121 

TEXT: Phillips Brooks, 1868 
MUSIC: Lewis Henry Redner, 1868 

O little town of Bethlehem, 
how still we see thee lie! 
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep 
the silent stars go by. 
Yet in thy dark streets shineth 
the everlasting light; 
the hopes and fears of all the years 
are met in thee tonight. 
 
For Christ is born of Mary 
and, gathered all above, 
while mortals sleep, the angels keep 
their watch of wondering love. 
O morning stars, together 
proclaim the holy birth, 
and praises sing to God the king, 
and peace to all on earth. 
 
How silently, how silently, 
the wondrous gift is given! 
So God imparts to human hearts 
the blessings of his heaven. 
No ear may hear his coming, 
but in this world of sin, 
where meek souls will receive him, still 
the dear Christ enters in. 
 
O holy child of Bethlehem, 
descend to us, we pray; 
cast out our sin and enter in; 
be born in us today. 
We hear the Christmas angels 
the great glad tidings tell; 
O come to us; abide with us, 
our Lord Emmanuel! 

Enjoy this wonderful carol and beautiful timeless story of it’s creation from Dr. Michael Hawn’s website

Chick here: Discipleship Ministries | History of Hymns: “O Little Town of…

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
Glory to God: 347

Let all mortal flesh keep silence, 
and with fear and trembling stand; 
ponder nothing earthly minded, 
for with blessing in his hand 
Christ our God to earth descendeth, 
our full homage to demand. 
 
King of kings, yet born of Mary, 
as of old on earth he stood, 
Lord of lords, in human vesture, 
in the body and the blood, 
he will give to all the faithful 
his own self for heavenly food. 
 
Rank on rank the host of heaven 
spreads its vanguard on the way, 
as the Light of light descendeth 
from the realms of endless day, 
that the powers of hell may vanish 
as the shadows clear away. 
 
At his feet the six-winged seraph, 
cherubim, with sleepless eye, 
veil their faces to the presence, 
as with ceaseless voice they cry, 
“Alleluia, alleluia, 
alleluia, Lord most high!” 

“Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence”

is one of the earliest Christian hymns still in common usage. Its roots date to the fourth century and is based on the Greek text “Prayer of the Cherubic Hymn” in the Liturgy of St. James. 

According to hymnologist Albert Bailey, the ancient Liturgy of St. James originated with the Church at Jerusalem and is sometimes called the Liturgy at Jerusalem. Originally it was thought to have been the work of James the Lesser, the brother of Jesus, but now seems to have been created under Cyril of Jerusalem c. 347 and was later amplified. 

Dr. Bailey explains the context of the original hymn: “In performance this liturgy leads up to the celebration of the Eucharist, our Communion. Since the Eucharist was an awesome rite in which, according to universal ancient belief, Christ was actually present under the guise of bread and wine, it should be approached only after due spiritual preparation.” 

The celebrant would say the following Preface during the Eucharistic liturgy, setting the context for the hymn: “We remember the sky, the earth and the sea, the sun and the moon, the stars and all creation both rational and irrational, the angels and archangels, powers, mights, dominations, principalities, thrones, the many-eyed Cherubim who say those words of David: ‘Praise the Lord with me.’ We remember the Seraphim, whom Isaias saw in spirit standing around the throne of God, who with two wings cover their faces, with two their feet and with two fly; who say: ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord of Sabaoth.’ We also say these divine words of the Seraphim, so as to take part in the hymns of the heavenly host.” 

The hymn is thus imbued with the mystery of Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4 and invites the singer to participate in the mystery of the Incarnation, a sense of entering the Holy of Holies. 

During the Oxford Movement, a time in which some of the early texts of the Christian church were translated from Greek and Latin into English, Gerard Moultrie (1829-1885), an Anglican priest, provided a translation from the Greek in 1864 that appeared in the collection Lyra Eucharistica by Orby Shipley. 

English hymnologist J. R. Watson notes: “In the original Liturgy of St. James, [the hymn] was used as the bread and wine were brought into the sanctuary: it brings out the full drama of the occasion.” 

Stanza two concludes, “he will give to all the faithful/his own self for heavenly food,” lines reminiscent of John 6:35-58, beginning with, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.” (RSV) 

Stanza three clearly draws upon Revelation 4 with images of “Light of light descend[ing]” echoing the Nicene Creed. The final stanza conflates Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4:8 with visions of heavenly beings who sing eternally:

At his feet the six-winged seraph,
cherubim with sleepless eye,
veil their faces to the presence,
as with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia Lord Most High! 

Unlike the hymn, in Revelation 4:8 the creatures sing: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” (RSV), which echoes Isaiah 6:3. 

The tune PICARDY comes from a book of French folksongs, Chansons Populaires des Provinces de France, published in 1860. The famous English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) paired it with this text for the English Hymnal(1906), and the text and tune have been inseparable since that time.

Dr. Hawn is professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology.

Give Thanks
Glory to God: 647

Text and Music: Henry Smith, 1978

Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks to the Holy One
Give thanks because He's given
Jesus Christ, His Son

Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks to the Holy One
Give thanks because He's given
Jesus Christ, His Son

And now let the weak say, I'm strong
Let the poor say, I'm rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us
And now let the weak say, I'm strong
Let the poor say, I'm rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us
Give thanks

Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks to the Holy One
Give thanks because He's given
Jesus Christ, His Son

Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks to the Holy One
Give thanks because He's given
Jesus Christ, His Son

And now let the weak say, I'm strong
Let the poor say, I'm rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us
And now let the weak say, I'm strong
Let the poor say, I'm rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us
Give thanks

Giving Thanks

As we approach the week of Thanksgiving, I thought I’d share a hymn that, while not as old as Now Thank We All Our God or We Gather Together, has come to be beloved in our time. This was previously shared on November 21, 2022

Henry Smith Jr. (b. 1952) has composed approximately three hundred worship songs, but “Give Thanks” (1978) is the only one to be published and extensively recorded. During the early years of the song’s use, the composer was unknown. Occasionally, credit was ascribed to someone else. Smith was born in Crossboro, North Carolina. Though he started piano lessons in his early years, his brother’s guitar piqued his interest in music. He taught himself to play by reading a guitar manual and soon began composing songs.

During his years as a student at King’s College (Bristol, Tennessee), music became more important to him, deciding that “I only wanted to write songs for Christ” (Terry, 2002, p. 58). “Give Thanks” was written in 1978 in response to a sermon given by the pastor at Williamsburg New Testament Church (Virginia), preaching on 2 Corinthians 6:10. Soon afterward, Henry and his future wife Cindy sang the song at the church on several occasions. A military couple attending the church took the song with them to Germany, where they were stationed. The song then developed a life of its own.

It was not until 1986 that a friend brought Smith a cassette tape of a recording of the song by Integrity Music, who had listed the author as “unknown.” Henry Smith contacted the publisher. They informed him that they had been trying to locate the composer because the song had been recorded more than fifty times and published in several collections. The song first appeared as an octavo, “Give Thanks” (Mobile, AL, 1978). Donald Hustad’s The Worshiping Church (Carol Stream, IL, 1990) may have been the first standard hymnal to carry it. Evangelical British/American hymn writer Bryan Jeffery Leech (1931–2015) heard the song at Billy Graham’s “Mission England” Crusade in 1989 and recommended it to the hymnal committee (Hustad, 1990, no. 496). It started to spread beyond Evangelicals. Twenty-first-century hymnals continue to publish the song, attesting to its sustained use.

Contemporary Christian artist Don Moen (b. 1950) met Henry Smith in Washington, D.C., at an Integrity Music conference and played a recording of the song in Russian. “My wife and I began to weep. We were overwhelmed to hear my song in that language. Moen had no idea we were in the audience” (Terry, 2002, p. 59).

The song’s strength lies in the text’s biblical foundation, rhetorical construction, and the music's coherence. The biblical underpinnings are cited above. The effective repetition of the imperative “Give thanks” at the beginning of three successive lines in the first part of the refrain (anaphora) has a cumulative effect. The composer repeats section one, giving a total of six reiterations of “Give thanks.” The scriptural basis for whole-hearted thanks is abundant throughout the Psalms (9:1; 86.12; 111:1; 138:1). The second part of the refrain continues effectively with “let the weak” and “let the poor” in successive lines. Each section concludes with a “because” clause that balances the anaphora of the earlier phrases: “because he’s given Jesus Christ his Son” (section one); “because of what the Lord has done for us” (section two). Carl Daw Jr. identifies the characteristics of the effective melody: “Much of the coherence of this tune comes from the use of sequences. The second phrase, for example, is a third-lower sequence of the first phrase. Then in the repeated middle section, there are three successive phrases, each one step lower than the preceding one” (Daw, 2016, p. 615). In short, the song is a perfect blend of simplicity, symmetry, and artistry.

Henry Smith composed the song during a time of unemployment, financial insecurity, and an uncertain future due to a degenerative visual impairment that would eventually lead to his becoming legally blind. No doubt he found strength in Paul’s words, “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:10, NIV).

SOURCES:

• David Cain, “Give Thanks—Henry Smith,” Song Scoops (October 23, 2010), https://songscoops.blogspot.com/2010/ (accessed September 4, 2021).

• Carl P. Daw Jr., Glory to God: A Companion (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2016).

• Donald P. Hustad, ed. The Worshiping Church: Worship Leader’s Edition (Carol Stream, IL: 60188).

• Lindsay Terry, The Sacrifice of Praise (Nashville: Integrity Publishers, 2002).

Enjoy the composer singing his own song with his wife Cindy.

God of Grace and God of Glory  

Glory to God: 307 

Text: Henry Emerson Fosdick, 1930 
Music: John Hughes, 1907 

God of grace and God of glory, 
on thy people pour thy power; 
crown thine ancient church's story; 
bring its bud to glorious flower. 
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, 
for the facing of this hour, 
for the facing of this hour. 
 
Lo! the hosts of evil round us 
scorn thy Christ, assail his ways! 
From the fears that long have bound us 
free our hearts to faith and praise. 
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, 
for the living of these days, 
for the living of these days. 
 
Cure thy children's warring madness; 
bend our pride to thy control; 
shame our wanton, selfish gladness, 
rich in things and poor in soul. 
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, 
lest we miss thy kingdom's goal, 
lest we miss thy kingdom's goal. 
 
Save us from weak resignation 
to the evils we deplore. 
Let the gift of thy salvation 
be our glory evermore. 
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, 
serving thee whom we adore, 
serving thee whom we adore. 

God of Grace and God of Glory

was written in 1930 by Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) for the dedication of the famous Riverside Church in New York City. 

Fosdick was granted degrees from Colgate University and Union Theological Seminary. He was ordained in 1903 to ministry in the Baptist Church and became pastor of First Baptist Church, Montclair, N.J. 
 
Fosdick served as a chaplain during World War I and then was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in New York City. From this congregation, he was called to pastor Park Avenue Baptist Church, which was renamed Riverside Church. 

As we sing this hymn, perhaps it is helpful to remind ourselves of the events that shaped the “hour” and the “days” that provide the context for this great hymn. 
 
“God of Grace and God of Glory” was written while the United States was in the throes of the Great Depression between the two World Wars. Fosdick was a champion of the social gospel, a movement that recognized the plight of the poor, especially in the urban Northeast during the Industrial Revolution. 
 
UM Hymnal editor Carlton Young has noted: “Fosdick’s stirring radio sermons, books, and public pronouncements established Riverside as a forum for the critique of the same wealth and privilege whose gifts had made possible the building of the church. 
 
“Under his leadership, Riverside Church was interdenominational, interracial, without a creed, and, astonishingly for Baptists, required no specific mode of baptism. At the center of Fosdick’s ministry was urban social ministry.” 
 
Fosdick was perhaps the most vocal proponent of the social gospel of his time—a position that brought both wide acclaim and broad disdain. 
 
The congregation moved to a $5 million edifice made possible by a gift from John D. Rockefeller Jr. The new building overlooked the Hudson River in what Fosdick called “a less swank district” than Park Avenue, where the congregation had been located near Harlem. 
 
The hymn was written in the summer of 1930. It took shape as he reflected on the construction of the new building and was first sung as the processional hymn at the opening service on Oct. 5, 1930, and again at the dedication on Feb. 8, 1931. 
 
The language of the hymn is ultimately that of petition. “Grant us wisdom, grant us courage” concludes each stanza with the effect of a refrain. A petition begins stanza three with “Cure thy children’s warring madness,/ bend our pride to thy control.” The final stanza, equally prophetic, begins with “Save us from weak resignation/ to the evils we deplore.” 
 
Fosdick wrote the text to be sung to the stately REGENT SQUARE (usually sung to “Angels from the Realms of Glory”). Methodist hymnologist and hymnal editor Robert G. McCuthan, however, first paired it with the Welsh tune CWM RHONDDA for the 1935 Methodist Hymnal. It was an immediate success, and the new coupling has been almost universally adopted. 
 
Hymnologist William Reynolds says Fosdick disapproved strongly of the new pairing. When Dr. Young asked the poet why he continued to oppose the use of CWM RHONDDA with his text, Fosdick replied, “My views are well known—you Methodists have always been a bunch of wise guys.” 
 
That discussion notwithstanding, I object to the tempo played by many organists who take the hymn much too fast at the beginning, forcing the congregation to race through the prophetic petitions that conclude each stanza. The Welsh tune demands an appropriately stately tempo (think “processional,” not “horse race”) that gives the congregation time to absorb the challenges offered by the poet. 

Dr. Hawn is a professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology. 

I Bind Unto Myself Today
Glory to God: 6

Text Attributed to St. Patrick
Music: Irish Melody arranged by Charles Villiers Stanford 1902

I bind unto myself today
the strong name of the Trinity,
by invocation of the same,
the Three in One, and One in Three.

I bind this day to me forever
by power of faith, Christ's in carnation
his baptism in the Jordan river,
his death on Cross for my salvation;
his bursting from the spiced tomb,
his riding up the heavenly way,
his coming at the day of doom
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself today
the virtues of the starlit heaven,
the glorious sun's life giving ray,
the whiteness of the moon at even,
the flashing of the lightning free,
the whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,
the stable earth, the deep salt sea
around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today
the power of God to hold and lead,
God's eye to watch, God's might to stay,
God's ear to hearken to my need,
the wisdom of my God to teach,
God's hand to guide, God's shield to ward;
the word of God to give me speech,
the heavenly host to be my guard.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me, 
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the name,
the strong name of the Trinity,
by invocation of the same,
the Three in One, the One in Three,
of whom all nature hath creation,
eternal Father, Spirit, Word.
Praise to the Lord of my salvation;
salvation is of Christ the Lord!

Originally shared: November 1, 2021

Today’s hymn celebrates the Trinity with the timeless Irish hymn. The analysis of the text comes from the hymnology archive.

This hymn sets out the richness and depth of the Christian understanding of God. The hymn begins by surveying the vast panorama of the works of God in creation—one of the great themes of Celtic Christianity. The wonders of nature are reminders that God’s presence and power undergird the world of nature.

The hymn then turns its attention to the work of God in redemption. It declares that the same God who created the world—the earth, the sea, the sun, moon, and stars—acted in Jesus Christ to redeem us.

We are thus invited to reflect upon the history of Jesus Christ: his incarnation, baptism, death, resurrection, ascension, and final coming on the last day. These powerful ideas do not displace the belief that God created the world, and maybe discerned in its wonders; it supplements this, by focusing on another area of the power and activity of God. All these, Patrick affirms, are the actions of the same God who created us and redeems us through Jesus Christ.

Yet the hymn has not quite finished; there is another aspect of the activity and presence of God to be surveyed. Again, this is not to be seen as an alternative or substitute for what is already believed; it rounds off the full and authentic Christian vision of the character and power of God. The same God who called the universe into being and redeemed us through Jesus Christ is also the God who is present with us here and now.

The hymn thus affirms that the one and the same God created the world, entered into our work, and redeemed us in Christ, and is present as a living reality in this present moment. No other account of the nature and activity of God is adequate to do justice to the Christian witness to God, and no other doctrine of God can therefore be thought of as “Christian.”[2]This hymn belongs to a tradition of songs called lorica, songs of protection sometimes called breastplate songs. The idea is that these songs are a weapon in times of spiritual warfare, drawing on the biblical imagery of the armor of God in Ephesians 6:10-18, Isaiah 59:17, and 1 Thessalonians 5:8.

Lord, When I Came into this Life
Glory to God: 691 

Text: Fred Kaan, 1976 
Music: American Folk melody 

Lord, when I came into this life 
you called me by my name; 
today I come, commit myself, 
responding to your claim. 

Within the circle of the faith, 
as member of your cast, 
I take my place with all the saints 
of future, present, past. 

In all the tensions of my life, 
between my faith and doubt, 
let your great Spirit give me hope, 
sustain me, lead me out. 

So help me in my unbelief 
and let my life be true: 
feet firmly planted on the earth, 
my sights set high on you. 

This week’s Hymn of the Week…

…is adpated from a wonderful book by Paul Westermeyer entitled With Tongues of Fire Profiles in 20th -Century Hymn Writing.  Concordia Publishing House 1995. 

Fred Kaan was born in 1929 in Harlem, Netherlands, to a nominally Christian family. After his baptism, except for occasional Sunday School attendance, he did not attend church as a boy. His interest in theology was stimulated by high school theology religious education teachers, among them Hendrikus Berkhof who becamse Professor of Dogmatics and Biblical Theology at the University of Leiden. 

As you can tell from his birth year, Kaan endured the Nazi occupation of Holland as a youth. He was a member of the Dutch resistance movement. His family hid a Jewish man and a political prisoner. Through the war he almost lost his mother to starvation and lost all his grandparents to starvation. 

At first, Kaan wanted to be a painter but turned to theology in 1949 at the State University in Utrecht. He made his way to London where in 1954 he graduated with a B.A. from Bristol University. Other degrees include his PhD in theology from Geneva Theological College where his dissertation was entitled “Emerging Language in Hymnody”. He was ordained in 1955 into the Congregational Union of England and Wales, a denomination that later merged with the Presbyterian Church of England and the Churches of Christ to ultimately become the Union Reformed Church in the United Kingdom.   

When asked to talk about his theological accents in his hymns, he is summarized as saying the following: 

He believes that one should sing a new song to the Lord, “A new hymn for a new day.” He firmly believes that Christians today learn of a “new corporate existence in community” but continue to emphasize the individualism of the 18th and 19th centuries. We work in an urban world but sing of nature and a heavenly home.   He argues that the world needs to write the agenda and that Christ is in our midst. He wants to balance the heavy weight we place on Jesus as God with Jesus as a human being, a human like all of us. 

In terms of the function of hymns in worship, he believes that it should help people to live the liturgy and make their response to God. He believes that when a person sees the hymns listed for the day, they should know that they are in for a worship that they can see and fell where it is going to go. 

Since he is not a musician he relies on the rhythm and meter to carry him through as he writes his texts.   

I Sing the Mighty Power of God  
Glory To God: 32   

TEXT: Isaac Watts, 1715 

I sing the mighty power of God 
that made the mountains rise, 
that spread the flowing seas abroad 
and built the lofty skies. 
I sing the wisdom that ordained 
the sun to rule the day. 
The moon shines full at God's command, 
and all the stars obey. 
 
I sing the goodness of the Lord 
who filled the earth with food. 
God formed the creatures through the Word, 
and then pronounced them good. 
Lord, how thy wonders are displayed, 
where'er I turn my eye, 
if I survey the ground I tread, 
or gaze upon the sky! 
 
There's not a plant or flower below 
but makes thy glories known. 
And clouds arise, and tempests blow, 
by order from thy throne, 
while all that borrows life from thee 
is ever in thy care, 
and everywhere that we can be, 
thou, God, art present there. 

The following article:

is paraphrased from Dr. Hawn’s Discipleship website Discipleship Ministries | History of Hymns: Watts' "Power of God"… (umcdiscipleship.org)  

In the 1960s ecumenist Albert van den Heuvel stated, “It is the hymns, repeated over and over again, which form the container of much of our faith. . . . As such, they have taken the place of our catechisms. . . . Tell me what you sing, and I’ll tell you who you are!” 

Perhaps no hymn writer has been so conscious of the substance of this statement as Isaac Watts (1674-1748), especially in his hymns for children. Watts’ Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language, for the Use of Children (1715) was one of the most popular collections published in its day. Poems from this hymnal were used to inculcate many English children in Watts’ day and for decades after his death. 

In his preface, “To all that are concerned in the education of children,” Watts cites a biblical precedent for teaching songs to children for educational value: “The children of Israel were commanded to learn the words of the song of Moses, Deut. xxxi 19, 50, and we are directed in the New Testament, not only to sing ‘with grace in the heart, but to teach and admonish one another by hymns and songs,’ Ephes. v. 19.” 

Of the four reasons he gives for learning these songs, he states that these songs “will be a constant furniture of the minds of children, that they may have something to think upon when alone, and sing over to themselves. This may sometimes give their thoughts a divine turn, and raise a young meditation. Thus they will not be forced to seek relief for an emptiness of mind, out of the loose and dangerous sonnets of the age.” 

“I Sing the Almighty Power of God,” originally published as “Praise for Creation and Providence,” is now the only song that remains in common usage from this children’s hymnal. Expanding on the creation narrative in Genesis 1 and 2, Watts’ Calvinistic theology comes to the fore. 

For Watts, God is an all-powerful and sovereign being who knows every “plant or flower” and controls all of nature—even the “tempests blow . . . by order from thy throne” (stanza 3). Psalm 107:25 and Psalm 148:8 supported for Watts the idea that even the foulest of weather is ordained by God, a concept questioned by many theologians today. 

While not specifically a hymn based on the Apostles’ Creed according to the preface, any child of Watts’ day who sang the hymn would likely think of it as a theological amplification of the first article of the Creed: “I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.” Even the opening line of the hymn cites the “almighty power of God,” echoing the beginning of the Creed. 

There is no doubt that for Isaac Watts, often labeled the “Father of English-language hymnody,” hymns were a formative tool in the Christian education of children. 

Dr. Hawn is professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology. 

Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen 

African American Spiritual 

Chorus: 
Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen 
Nobody knows but Jesus 
Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen 
Glory hallelujah! 

 Verses: 
Sometimes I’m up, sometimes I’m down 
Oh yes, Lord 
Sometimes I’m almost to the ground 
Oh yes, Lord 

Now you may think that I don’t know 
Oh yes, Lord 
But I’ve had my troubles here below 
Oh yes, Lord 

One day when I was walkin’ along 
Oh yes, Lord 
The sky opened up and love come down 
Oh yes, Lord 

I never shall forget that day 
Oh yes, Lord 
When Jesus washed my sins away 
Oh yes, Lord 

There is so much to be said about this simple and sorrowful spiritual.

Many thanks to Dr. Michael Hawn and his History of Hymns website and all the sources he has pulled together for this wonderful article.   Enjoy! 

African American scholar and sociologist W.E.B. DuBois (1868–1963) quotes the first two musical measures (without text) of “Nobody Knows the Trouble” at the beginning of the opening chapter, “On Our Spiritual Strivings,” in his famous book, The Souls of Black Folk(1903). In this chapter, he poses an unasked question that, though never posed aloud, is on the tips of the tongues of even well-meaning and compassionate people: “How does it feel to be a problem?” (DuBois, 1903, p. 15) This unasked, rhetorical question can only be answered in what DuBois has called “The Sorrow Songs.” “Nobody knows the trouble” is, perhaps, at the head of the list. 

The following account from an enslaved woman captures this sorrow: 

Dear husband,

I want you to buy me as soon as possible, for it you do not get me somebody else will. . . Dear husband, you [know] not the trouble I see . . . It is said Master is in want of money. If so, I know not what time he may sell me, and then all my bright hops of the futer are blasted, for there has ben on bright hope to cheer me in all my troubles, that is to be with you—for if I thought I shoul never see you this earth would have no charms for me. Do all you can for me, witch I have no doubt you will.

Your affectionate wife,
Harriet Newby

[All spellings are as they appear in the original.] (Guenther, 2016, p. 116; cited in Johnson and Smith, 1998, p. 420). 

SOURCES AND VARIATIONS (AN INTRODUCTION) 
The appearance of this spiritual soon after the Civil War in Slave Songs of the United States(New York, 1867), the first collection of folk songs published in the United States, attests to its prevalence among members of the antebellum enslaved community. “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Had” (no. 74; p. 55) was one of the songs collected by northern abolitionists William Francis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison off the coast of South Carolina in the Carolina Sea Islands between 1862–1865 during the Civil War. A note at the bottom of the page states, “This song was a favorite in the colored schools of Charleston in 1865; it has since that time spread to the Sea Islands, where it is now sung with the variations noted above.”  
The general arc of the spiritual as we now know it is apparent in the following facsimile with some notable exceptions: 

Three aspects immediately stand out to those who know this spiritual today: the first is that the alternate text to the first line is “I see” rather than “I’ve had.” The second is that the refrain begins with a rising perfect fourth rather than the falling major sixth in current hymnals. The third is the inclusion of stanzas unfamiliar to modern singers. Referring to the text of the spiritual’s incipit (first line), J.B.T. Marsh, the editor of The Story of the Jubilee Singers with Their Songs (London, 1876), indicates that the version used by the Fisk Singers was “I see.” African American editor John Wesley Work (II) (?1872–1925) repeated this version in his New Jubilee Songs, as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers (Nashville: Fisk University, 1902) as the first spiritual in the collection. Given the prominence of the Singers’ performances during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, it is likely that their rendition solidified their version of the opening line. 

Concerning the initial interval of a rising fourth as noted in Slave Songs (1867), the version sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers as printed in Marsh’s collection begins with a rising minor third.  

The entire song is in a minor pentatonic scale (C, Eb, F, G, Bb) except for a single D at the conclusion of the refrain. This contrasts with the major pentatonic scale (Bb, C, D, F, G) in Slave Songs.  

The stanzas recorded by Marsh and Work (II) in their 1876 and 1902 collections, respectively, indicate that the Fisk Singers used a familiar formula that implored, in successive stanzas, spiritual family members (Brothers, Sisters, Mothers, and Preachers) to “pray for me” during the stanzas. Rather than standardizing the spiritual as we now know it, the Fisk Singers expanded the options. John Wesley Work (II) included two versions of the stanzas (without music) in Folk Song of the American Negro (Nashville, 1915). One can easily trace elements of both versions back to Slave Songs (1967). 

Version 1 (p. 50): 

Mother, won’t you pray for me; 
Mother, won’t you pray for me; 
Mother, won’t you pray for me; 
And help me to drive old Satan away. 

Preacher, won’t you pray for me; 
Preacher, won’t you pray for me; 
Preacher, won’t you pray for me; 
And help me to drive old Satan away. 

Version 2 (pp. 57–58): 

Sometimes I’m up, 
Sometimes I’m down, 
Oh, yes, Lord. 
Sometimes I’m level with the ground. 
Oh, yes, Lord. 

If you get there before I do, 
Oh, yes, Lord. 
Tell all-a-my friends I’m coming, too, 
Oh, yes, Lord. 

Concerning the appearance of the falling major sixth in the opening measure of the spiritual, this version may have first appeared in print in Hampton and Its Students with Fifty Cabin and Plantation Songs (New York, 1874), p. 181, arranged by Hampton’s choral director Thomas P. Fenner (1829–1912). Titled “Nobody knows de trouble I’ve Seen,” an introduction to the song may have been taken from Slave Songs (1867). The music, however, is significantly different, appearing in a four-part quartet version that was standardized during the dissemination of spirituals through performances by students from Black educational institutions in the south—including Fisk University (Tennessee), Hampton Institute (Virginia), and Tuskegee Institute (Alabama)—during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The music of the Hampton Institute version is the most like the versions in current hymnals. (For this version, see https://archive.org/details/hamptonanditsst00fenngoog/page/n189/mode/2up.)  

W.E.B. DuBois incorporates the falling major sixth into his excerpt in his 1903 book. 

Thomas P. Fenner, a white New England musician for the Union army, came to Hampton in 1872. He brought classical music training and sympathetic insight to the presentation of spirituals on the page and in performance: 

The slave music of the South presents a field for research and study very extensive and rich, and one which has been scarcely more than entered upon. There are evidently, I think, two legitimate methods of treating this music: either to render it in its absolute, rude simplicity or to develop it without destroying its original characteristics; the only proper field for such development is in harmony. (Fenner, 1874, Preface) 

Fenner was aware of African American performance practice of the time: “the swaying of the body; the rhythmical stamping of the feet; and all the wild enthusiasm of the negro camp-meeting.” However, these practices “evidently can not be transported to the boards of a public performance.” He attempted to balance his approach, leaving “the most characteristic of the songs. . . entirely or nearly untouched.” On other songs, Fenner attempted an “improvement” which “careful[ly] bring[s] out. . . the various parts. . . making more than has ever yet been made out of this slave music.” 

It is likely that “Nobody Knows the Trouble” was one of the spirituals that Fenner heavily arranged. His version must have been successful. The spiritual was included in a concert at Princeton University in 1874, a performance on the heels of one by The Fisk Jubilee Singers in 1873 at Princeton’s Second Presbyterian Church (Blanton, Hampton Singers, n.p.). Though the audience was “unusually attentive and responsive” and the performers “exceedingly earnest,” racial prejudice was evident in reviews such as “no slave. . . can favorably compare with that of the most talented operative singing of the day in rendering many of the popular songs of the South” (Armstrong, 2021, n.p.). Contemporary accounts of the concerts did not acknowledge the freed status of the student singers, most of whom were previously enslaved. They were still referenced as “slaves.” Fenner’s approach to arranging the spirituals appears to have been influential. An early recording from Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute Singers (1916) reflects the four-part harmonized style of singing (https://archive.org/details/78_nobody-knows-the-trouble-i-see_tuskegee-institute-singers_gbia0000393b/Nobody+Knows+The+Trouble+I+See+-+Tuskegee+Institute+Singers-restored.flac).  

Songs of Zion (Nashville, 1981) includes two versions of the spiritual—a simplified four-part harmonized rendition with the falling major sixth (no. 170) and an unaccompanied melody line of the rising minor third tune found in the early Fisk Jubilee Singers’ publications. The Episcopal collection Lift Every Voice and Sing II (1993) uses the past tense in the first line of the refrain— “Trouble I’ve Seen”—and provides a straightforward four-part harmonization with two stanzas: 

Sometimes I’m up, sometimes I’m down, Oh, yes, Lord, 
Sometimes I’m almost to the ground, Oh, yes, Lord. 

Although you see me going ‘long so, Oh, yes, Lord, 
I have my troubles here below, Oh, yes, Lord. 

Two aspects of this spiritual remain. The first is the appearance of “Glory hallelu” or “Glory hallelujah” at the conclusion of the refrain. How does this exuberant affirmation fit into one of the “Sorrow Songs”? John Wesley Work (II) approaches the issue this way: 

A most natural consequence of having faith is having joy. . . Truly, clouds sometimes overcast the skies, but these are only incidents in the life of faith. The believer can smile through tears and shout Hallelujah! in a minor strain. So, for every sorrow song like “Nobody Knows the Trouble I See,” there are many of those blasts of joy, like “Great Camp Meeting, “Shout All Over “God’s Heaven,” and “Golden Slippers. The Negro has the habit of being happy (Work, 1915, p. 128). 

A difficulty with this quotation, taken at face value, is the possible perpetuation of the myth of the happily enslaved Black on the plantation. African American Civil Rights leader and theologian Howard Thurman (1899–1981) approached the juxtaposition of sorrow and joy this way: 

These songs were rightfully called “Sorrow Songs.” They were born in tears and suffering greater than any formula of expression. And yet the authentic note of triumph in God rings out trumpet-tongued: 

Oh, nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen; 
Glory, hallelujah! 

There is something bold, audacious, unconquerable here: 

Sometimes I’m up, sometimes I’m down, 
Oh, yes, Lord, 
Sometimes I’m almost to de grou’, 
Oh, yes, Lord,  
Oh, nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen; 
Glory, hallelujah! (Thurman, 1975, pp. 31–32) 

While not addressing this spiritual directly, W.E.B. DuBois perhaps is the most eloquent on this subject: 

Through all the sorrow of the Sorrow Songs there breathes a hope—a faith in the ultimate justice of things. The minor cadences of despair change often to triumph and calm confidence. Sometimes it is faith in life, sometimes a faith in death, sometimes assurance of boundless justice in some fair world beyond. But whatever it is, the meaning is always clear: that sometime, somewhere, men will judge men by their souls and not by their skins (Dubois, 1903, p. 189). 

But, what about “trouble”? “Trouble” is a prevalent trope in the spirituals. In addition to “Nobody knows the trouble,” other spirituals include “The trouble[s] of the world,” “This is a sin-tryin’ world—In trouble,” “This old-time religion” (“It [religion] is good when you are in trouble”), and “Wade in the water” (“God’s a-gonna trouble the water.”). These and other mentions of the word indicate that sin [and Satan] is the source of trouble and that it will not last forever. “Trouble” took an ironic twist when the late Civil Rights activist and United States Representative John R. Lewis (1940–2020) reclaimed the word as a positive force for social change in a speech to the 2019 Freshman Convocation at Georgia State University:  

When I was growing up, I’d ask my mother, my father, my grandparents, my great-grandparents, my teachers, about the signs that I saw, saying “white men,” “colored men,” “white women,” and “colored women.” They would say, “boy, that’s the way it is. Don’t get in the way and don’t get in trouble.” But when I was 15 years old, in 1955, I heard of Rosa Parks. I heard the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. on the radio. The action of Rosa Parks and the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. inspired me to find a way to get in the way. And I got in the way. And I got in trouble, “good trouble.” (Lewis, 2019, n.p.) 

Causing “good trouble” in the face of oppressive, unjust, and racist trouble perpetrated by the systemic sin may be a way to appreciate the undaunted spirit represented in “Glory Hallelujah!” 

 SOURCES: 

William Francis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison, Slave Songs of the United States (New York: A. Simpson, 1867). 

April C. Armstrong, “Songs of the Freed: The Hampton and Jubilee Singers at Princeton,” Mudd Manuscript Library Blog (posted February 3, 2021), https://blogs.princeton.edu/mudd/2021/02/songs-of-the-freed-the-hampton-and-jubilee-singers-at-princeton/ (accessed August 8, 2022).  

Adrianne M. Blanton, “Hampton Singers,” Black Music Scholar: https://blackmusicscholar.com/hampton-singers (accessed August 8, 2022).  

Thomas P. Fenner, Fifty Cabin and Plantation Songs (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1874) 

Elaine Guenther, In Their Own Words: Slave Life and the Power of the Spirituals (St. Louis: MorningStar Publishers, 2016). 

Charles Johnson and Patricia Smith, Africans in America: America’s Journey through Slavery(San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1998). 

John R. Lewis, Speech to Freshman Class, Georgia State University (August 25, 2019): https://provost.gsu.edu/files/2020/07/john-lewis-transcription-bt.pdf (accessed August 8, 2022).  

Howard Thurman, Deep River and The Negro Spiritual Speaks of Life and Death (Richmond, IN: United Friends Press, 1975). 

John Wesley Work (II), Folk Song of the American Negro (Nashville: Fisk University Press, 1915). 

J. Richard Watson, Carlton R. Young, and Eileen Guenther, “Nobody Knows the Trouble I See,” The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press, http://www.hymnology.co.uk/n/nobody-knows-the-trouble-i-see (accessed August 8, 2022). 

Hymn of the Week: 
Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above
Glory to God #645

Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above 
Text: Johann Jacob Schütz, 1675
Translated by: Elizabeth Cox, 1864
Music: Bohemian Brethren’s Kirkengesang, 1566 Mit Freuden Zart

Sing praise to God who reigns above,
the God of all creation,
the God of power, the God of love,
the God of our salvation.
With healing balm my soul is filled
and every faithless murmur stilled:
To God all praise and glory.

What God’s almighty power has made
God’s gracious mercy keepeth;
By morning glow or eveing shade
God’s watchful eyene’er sleepeth,
Within the kingdom of God’s might,
Lo! All is just and all is right.
To God all praise and glory.

The Lord is never far away,
but through all grief distressing,
an ever present help and stay,
our peace and joy and blessing.
As with a mother's tender hand,
God gently leads the chosen band:
To God all praise and glory.

Thus all my toilsome way along,
I sing aloud thy praises,
that earth may hear the grateful song
my voice unwearied raises.
Be joyful in the Lord, my heart,
both soul and body bear your part:
To God all praise and glory.

This Hymn of the Week…

first blessed us in September 2021.

Frances Elizabeth Cox (1812-1897)

Frances Elizabeth Cox (1812-1897) devoted herself to translating hymns from the German language into English. She published 56 hymns in Sacred Hymns from German (1841, 2nd edition, 1864).

Though little is known about Cox’s life, her translations remain a testament to her accomplishments. Of the approximately 80 texts she translated, most appear in the second edition of Sacred Hymns. The Companion to the Psalter Hymnal tells us, “Her choice of hymns was often determined by her friend, Baron Bunsen, the Prussian ambassador to England.” The two best translators of hymns from German in the 19th century are generally considered to be Cox and Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878).

Johann Jacob Schütz

Schütz, a practitioner of civil and canon law, was influenced by Philipp Jakob Spener, the father of the Pietist movement in Germany. This German Lutheran movement of the 17th and 18th centuries emphasized, according to church historian James D. Nelson, a “heartfelt religious devotion, ethical purity, charitable activity, and pastoral theology rather than sacramental or dogmatic precision.” Pietism emerged in reaction to the formality of Lutheran orthodoxy.

The Rev. Carlton Young notes that Schütz suggested that Spener should begin his influential prayer meetings (Collegia Pietatis), an activity that signaled for many scholars the beginning of the Pietist movement. Spener’s Pia Desideria (1675) proposed that a religion of the heart should replace a religion of the head. Several hymn writers were influenced by this movement including Moravian Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, whose evangelical awakenings throughout Europe and in North America in the 18th and 19th centuries had a strong influence on John Wesley and Methodism.

Rather than the distant, rigid God of orthodox Lutheranism, Cox notes in stanza two that the “Lord is never far away.” Dr. Young suggests that Cox’s translation “has skillfully maintained the hymn’s balance between the strong and powerful biblical metaphors for God and the warm pietistic [ones such as] ‘As with a mother’s tender hand’” (stanza 2).

A 21st-century sensibility would see justice in terms of the needs of the hungry, the poor, the disadvantaged, and victims of racism, sexism, and other issues—not in terms of predetermined societal structures. Thus, the words may be the same, but most likely their meaning is very different.

Enjoy this stirring rendition from Plymouth Church in Lincoln, Nebraska

Mothering God, You Gave Me Birth 

Glory to God: 7 

TEXT: Jean Janzen, 1991 and Julian of Norwich, 1393 
MUSIC: Carolyn Jennings, 1993 

Mothering God, You Gave Me Birth 

Mothering God, you gave me birth in the bright morning of this world. 
Creator, source of every breath, you are my rain, my wind, my sun. 

Mothering Christ, you took my form, offering me your food of light,  
Grain of life, and grape of love, your very body for my peace.  

Mothering Spirit, nurt’ring one, in arms of patience hold me close,  
So that in faith I root and grow until I flow’r, until I know. 

“Mothering God, you gave me birth in the bright morning of this world.”

So reads the opening phrase of a text by poet Jean Wiebe Janzen (b. 1933). Ms. Janzen’s text has been associated with such contemporary issues as “feminism” and “inclusivity,” and some commentators have expressed discomfort with its unusual imagery. 

It may come as a surprise then that the inspiration for Ms. Janzen's text comes from the writings of a 14th-century mystic, Julian of Norwich (c. 1342–c. 1416). 
 
Ms. Janzen was born on the central Canadian prairies and grew up in Mountain Lake, Minn. During her college years she fell in love with literature, and was especially enthralled by the writings of enigmatic poet Emily Dickinson. She went on to study with poets Peter Everwine, Philip Levine and C.G. Hanzlicek, and has grown into an established and celebrated poet in her own right. 
 
As for the lyricist, Julian of Norwich lived a life of prayer and solitude at the church of St. Julian, from which she took her name. Scholar Anna Maria Reynolds described medieval England as a place of “violence, cruelty and pessimism,” these conditions heightened by the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) and the Black Death. 
 
In light of all this, the colorful and encouraging words of Julian, informed by her solid faith, stand out in even sharper contrast. Scholar Austin Cooper called Julian “a very intelligent woman . . . of great warmth and charm whose religious experience is expressed with vivid precision and gentle humanity.” 
 
In 1373, the deathly ill anchoress experienced a series of 16 profound visions, later published as her Showings. Julian saw Christ as our “true mother,” saying, “The human mother will suckle her child with her own milk, but our beloved Mother, Jesus, feeds us with himself.” 
 
Ms. Janzen was asked to contribute some new hymn texts for the 1992 Hymnal: A Worship Book of the Mennonite church, using the writings of some of the English mystics for inspiration. Ms. Janzen was enthralled by “the rich language of these mystics and their startling ways of speaking to God and about God.” 
 
In this text, Ms. Janzen, a mother herself, weaves the metaphor of God as nurturing mother into a hymn describing the Holy Trinity. “When I read the words of Julian of Norwich as she refers to God as her mother . . . I was astounded,” Ms. Janzen said. 
 
Ms. Janzen's hymn is constructed of three four-line stanzas in long meter. The text is written in the first person, attributing to each person of the Trinity different aspects of motherhood. 
 
For its initial publication in Hymnal: A Worship Book, American composer Janet Peachey provided an evocative tune on a Phrygian scale. The text also appears in the 1997 Book of Praise of the Presbyterian Church in Canada (set to David Ashley White’s mixed-mode tune ROCHESTER), and in the United Methodist Church hymnal supplement The Faith We Sing. 
 
Ms. Janzen’s text brings new life to Julian’s inspiring words and challenges contemporary singers to form a renewed understanding of the nature of God. 
 
“We carry this treasure, our hymns, with us into the 21st century, this bearer of good news, of God’s story, of our story,” said Ms. Janzen. “Next to the Bible, they are our best source for light and hope . . . and we hold them out to others with our open hands and voices, for the story is not ours to possess. It is ours to give away.” 

Resources:

*© 1991 Abingdon Press, admin. By The Copyright Co. All rights reserved. Used by permission 
 
Ms. Donaldson is a student of Dr. Michael Hawn in the Master of Sacred Music program at the Perkins School of Theology, SMU. 

Open My Eyes That I May See 

Text and Music: Clara H. Scott, 1895 

Open my eyes, that I may see 
glimpses of truth thou hast for me. 
Place in my hands the wonderful key 
that shall unclasp and set me free. 
Silently now I wait for thee, 
ready, my God, thy will to see. 
Open my eyes; illumine me, 
Spirit divine! 
 
Open my ears, that I may hear 
voices of truth thou sendest clear. 
And while the wave notes fall on my ear, 
everything false will disappear. 
Silently now I wait for thee, 
ready, my God, thy will to see. 
Open my ears; illumine me, 
Spirit divine! 
 
Open my mouth, and let me bear 
gladly the warm truth everywhere. 
Open my heart, and let me prepare 
love with thy children thus to share. 
Silently now I wait for thee, 
ready, my God, thy will to see. 
Open my heart; illumine me, 
Spirit divine! 

Clara H. Scott (1841-1897)

provides us with a hymn of consecration that has been sung for over 100 years. A Midwesterner, she was born in Illinois and died in Iowa. 

In 1856, Scott attended the first Music Institute held by C.M. Cady in Chicago, Ill. By 1859, she was teaching music at the Ladies' Seminary, Lyons, Iowa. She married Henry Clay Scott in 1861, and published in 1882 the Royal Anthem Book, the first volume of choir anthems published by a woman. 
 
Horatio R. Palmer, an influential church musician in Chicago and later New York City, was a source of encouragement for Scott and helped her publish many of her songs. Three collections were issued before her untimely death, when a runaway horse caused a buggy accident in Dubuque, Iowa. 
 
The text of "Open My Eyes" was written in 1895 shortly before Scott's death. Each stanza reveals an increasing receptiveness to the "Spirit divine." Open eyes lead to "glimpses of truth." Open ears lead to "voices of truth." An open mouth leads to sharing the "warm truth everywhere." An open heart leads to sharing "love to thy children." 
 
The image of open eyes is common in the Bible. In some cases, this is a sign of Christ's healing power, as when Jesus gave sight to the blind man at the pool of Siloam in John 9. Closed eyes, on the other hand, could be a metaphor for avoiding the truth as in the case of John 12:40, a passage following the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem and beginning his journey to the cross: "He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them." 
 
The image of open ears is also significant in the biblical witness. Matthew often reprises the theme "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." Closed ears become a metaphor for a lack of understanding: "For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them" (Matthew 13:15). 
 
While the eyes and the ears are receptive organs, the mouth has the capacity to project. The mouth may project "cursing and deceit and fraud" (Psalm 10:7), or it may be an organ that projects praise, as Psalm 51:15 exhorts us: "O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise." 
 
The heart is the only organ included in this hymn that is not visible. It may harbor deceit. Jesus asks in Matthew 9:4, "Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?" But Jesus also realized that the heart has the capacity for purity: "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8). 
 
Scott has given us not only a list of organs through which we may receive and project truth and love but also provides the method in her refrain: 
 
Silently now I wait for thee, 
ready my God, thy will to see. 
Open my eyes, ears, and heart, 
illumine me, Spirit divine! 
 
Learning to use these organs requires patience and reflection. The gentle 6/8 meter of Scott's music provides a subtle sense of dancing in tune with the Spirit as we learn to see, hear, and speak the truth from our hearts. 

Dr. Hawn is the director of the sacred music program at Perkins School of Theology. 

As a Chalice Cast of Gold

Glory To God: 429 

Text: Thomas H. Troeger, 1984 
Music: Carol Doran, 1984 

As a chalice cast of gold, burnished bright and brimmed with wine, 
Make me Lord, as fit to hold grace and truth and love divine. 
Let my praise and worship start with the cleansing of my heart. 

Save me from the soothing sin of the empty cultic deed  
and the pious, babbling din of the claimed but unlived creed. 
Let my actions, Lord, express what my tongue and lips profess. 

 When I bend upon my knees, clasp my hands, or bow my head, 
Let my spoken, public pleas be directly simply said, 
Free of tangled words that mask what my soul would plainly ask. 

When I dance or chant your praise, when I sing a psalm or hymn, 
When I Preach your loving ways, let my heart add its Amen. 
Let each cherished outward rite thus reflect your inward light. 

Enjoy this lovely hymn and spend time with the text reflecting on the images Troeger evokes.

Some biographical information is included about the hymn writer.   

Thomas Troeger (1945-2022),

professor of Christian communication at Yale Divinity School, was a well-known preacher, poet, and musician. He was a fellow of Silliman College, and held a B.A. from Yale University; B.D. Colgate Rochester Divinity School; S.T. D. Dickinson College, and was awarded an honorary D.D. from Virginia Theological Seminary. He was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in 1970 and the Episcopal Church in 1999, and remained dually aligned with both traditions. Troerger led conferences and lectures in worship and preaching throughout North America, as well as in Denmark, Holland, Australia, Japan, and Africa. He served as national chaplain to the American Guild of Organists, and for at least three years he hosted the Season of Worship broadcast for Cokesbury. He was president of the Academy of Homiletics as well as Societas Homiletica. He had, as of 2009, written 22 books in the areas of preaching, poetry, hymnody, and worship. Many of his hymn texts are found in New Hymns for the Lectionary(Oxford, 1992), and God, You Made All Things for Singing (Oxford, 2009). 

Listen, God is Calling  
Glory to God: 456 

TEXT   Kenyan; translated by Howard S. Olson 1987 
MUSIC:  Kenyan  arranged by Austin C. Lovelace, 1987 
Neno Lake Mungu 

Listen, listen, God is calling, through the word inviting, 
Offering forgiveness, comfort, and joy. 

Jesus gave his mandate: share the good news 
That he came to save us and set us free. 

Let none be forgotten throughout the world. 
In the triune name of God go and baptize. 

Help us to be faithful, standing steadfast, 
Walking in your precepts, led by your word. 

This song emphasizes our need to listen well,

…and includes a call to ourselves and others to receive it as God’s truth. Such prayers and exhortations implement the convictions of Belgic Confession, Article 24 and Our World Belongs to God, paragraph 32: “The Bible is the Word of God, the record and tool of his redeeming work. It is the Word of truth, breath of God, fully reliable in leading us to know God and to walk with Jesus Christ in new life.” 

The following is the scripture that is used as inspiration for this text:

Matthew 28:   19-20 
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” 

A Prayer Affirming God’s Call 
Faithful God, always you are calling. You call us back from dangerous schemes. You call us out from hopeless labyrinths. You call us forth to speak good news. Always you are calling. Always you are calling because it is never too late for us to listen, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen 

— Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. 

Lead, Kindly Light

Text: Cardinal John Henry Newman 1801-1890 

Lead, kindly light amid the encircling gloom, 
And lead me on! 
The night is dark, and I am far from home; 
Lead Thou me on! 
Keep Thou my feet: I do not ask to see 
The distant scene; one step enough for me. 
 
I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou 
Shouldst lead me on; 
I loved to choose and see my path; but now 
Lead Thou me on! 
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears, 
Pride ruled my will: remember not past years! 
 
So long Thy power hath blessed me, surely still 
’Twill lead me on 
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent’ 
Til the night is gone’ 
And with the morn those angel faces smile 
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile. 

First posted September 4, 2023.

We love this hymn for its strong, dark colors. If a hymn writer knows how to use his colors, can draw his picture well, and is true to the heart of life, there will certainly be a hearing of such a hymn.

How many hymns beguile us in one way or another with such dark colors? We all have at one time, or another known what deep darkness feels like. The darkness here is the darkness of a late October night deep in the woods. We acknowledge that hiking through such darkness is fraught with peril. Taking a walk in such darkness could lead our imaginations to run wild with thoughts that every rabbit hole leads to streams and torrents of dangerous water and sinister swamps. This kind of darkness can lead anyone to be willing to figuratively sell their soul to anyone who might be able to offer a light. Coming upon that first lighted window of an old farmhouse can make you feel as if that light is the sun rising in the east.  

 Of course, this is not the way we live our lives day to day. We work, we come home, we use electrical lights, and our cars are well-lit. Losing one’s way home is not a common experience for most of us. We have GPS that leads us out of every scary patch. 99.9% of the time losing our way isn’t a problem which of course can lead us to know how much worse it is when we do lose our way.   

The Author

Enter a young man of 32, our author, Cardinal John Henry Newman, the author of this hymn. He was on a Mediterranean cruise in the 1830s with his friends, Hurrell Froude and his father. He fell sick of an illness which was probably less than half physical in its origin, and more likely half occasioned by the great mental tension through which he was passing. Some believe he was on the sea when he wrote this text, but the imagery leads one to believe he was on land. When a person is in such dire straits, one can be led to sing or compose a hymn such as the one we are talking about today.   

It’s the kind of hymn you may not need all the time, but when you need it, you REALLY need this text. “The night is dark, and I am far from home.” We all know as we live our lives how the bottom can quickly drop out from under us at any time, setting our lives adrift. Some stroke of fortune good or bad can cut clean through the plans we’ve made so confidently.  

‘Keep Thou my feet: I do not ask to see, the distant scene; one step enough for me”. This is one secret in finding our path once more. When the world dissolves into such confusion, consider that there might be something close at hand that can be done to relieve the burden of the feelings of being lost. Maybe the darkness is only five yards and not complete. If God’s guidance on the problem is not forthcoming, God might be waiting to reveal or say something on a matter that might seem trivial at first, but God renders it important. He may be preparing you for that farmhouse window just beyond that 5 yards of darkness you are caught up in. It is also possible that keeping our eye on that window can lead us to misstep and twist our ankle in a hole we didn’t expect. But as for me, said the psalmist, my feet were almost gone; my treading had well-nigh slipped, BUT THEN “nevertheless, I am continually with thee; thou hast holden me with thy right hand.” (Psalm 73).   

The hymn talks of the same thing. I thought I had a firm hold on my life. I can’t remember ever feeling this low or lost. I thought I knew the terrain. If there was a problem, I thought I could handle it - but now, Lord, lead thou me on. I thought the light I was using was helping me, but it became as useless as the flashlight on our phone as we lost power, this light is adequate, but can it take us through to the end of our journey? If it’s possible, we should make a new beginning, ask for real light, and wash out the memory of those past years in which we took pride in our abilities to manage through life’s hardships. I’m in an emergency, Lord! Lead me through this! 

The Answer

Our faith is the answer to this feeling of being lost. For God, to whom I pray for light, has been very forbearing so far. I have invited his impatience, and he has never let me down or left me completely alone. So long thy power has blessed me. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.   

Til the night is gone’ 
And with the morn those angel faces smile 

This line can seem perplexing to us when taken out of context but not so to the singer singing the verse. It is only by taking thought that we succumb to perplexity, and having succumbed we must work through our truth. The truth may well be this, that the traveler, looking for a light is promised daylight. By the light he prayed for he might see what he had expected to see. By the light God gives, the lost person might find a light that takes him by surprise. He may see something that he thought was lost that he loved long ago.   

The traveler had lost his capacity through all the travails of this life to see things as they really are. 

Seeing things with the insight of heaven is one of the gifts of the Spirit that are given to people of faith; it is one of those things that go along with childlike innocence and are distorted by the corruptions of life. When the morning breaks the traveler will see straight and clear. He will see not only the path but the scenery.  He will see God’s plan as God devised it. He will see the past and present in true proportion. He will then understand how long it has been since he last felt sure of himself and of God.   

Much of today’s devotion is paraphrased from Eric Routley’s wonderful book. Hymns of the Faith 1952. 

It Is Well With My Soul  

Glory To God 840 (When Peace Like a River)

TEXT Horatio Gates Spafford   1876

MUSIC Philip P. Bliss 1876

When peace like a river attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll,
whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
it is well, it is well with my soul.

Refrain:
It is well with my soul;
it is well; it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
let this blest assurance control,
that Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
and hath shed his own blood for my soul. [Refrain]

He lives: O the bliss of this glorious thought.
My sin, not in part, but the whole,
is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul! [Refrain]

Lord, hasten the day when our faith shall be sight,
the clouds be rolled back as a scroll,
the trumpet shall sound and the Lord shall descend;
even so it is well with my soul. [Refrain]

Horatio Gates Spafford was born in New York, on 20th October 1828, but it was in Chicago that he became well-known for his clear Christian testimony.

He, and his wife Anna were active in their church, and their home was always open to visitors.

They counted the world-famous evangelist, Dwight L. Moody, among their friends. They were blessed with five children and considerable wealth. Horatio was a lawyer, and owned a great deal of property in his home city.

Not unlike Job in the Old Testament of the Bible, tragedy came in great measure to this happy home. When he was four years old, their son, Horatio Jr, died suddenly of scarlet fever. Then only a year later, in October 1871, a massive fire swept through downtown Chicago, devastating the city, including many properties owned by Horatio. That day, almost 300 people lost their lives, and around 100,000 were made homeless. Despite their substantial financial loss, the Spaffords sought to demonstrate the love of Christ, by assisting those who were grief-stricken and in great need.

Two years later, in 1873, Spafford decided his family should take a holiday in England, knowing that his friend, the evangelist D. L. Moody, would be preaching there in the autumn. Horatio was delayed because of business, so he sent his family ahead: his wife and their four remaining children, all daughters, 11 year old Anna, 9 year old Margaret Lee, 5 year old Elizabeth, and 2 year old Tanetta.

On 22nd November 1873, while crossing the Atlantic on the steamship, Ville du Havre, their vessel was struck by an iron sailing ship. Two hundred and twenty six people lost their lives, as the Ville du Havre sank within only twelve minutes.

All four of Horatio Spafford’s daughters perished, but remarkably Anna Spafford survived the tragedy. Those rescued, including Anna, who was found unconscious, floating on a plank of wood, subsequently arrived in Cardiff, South Wales. Upon arrival there, Anna immediately sent a telegram to her husband, which included the words “Saved alone….”

Receiving Anna’s message, he set off at once to be reunited with his wife. One particular day, during the voyage, the captain summoned him to the bridge of the vessel. Pointing to his charts, he explained that they were then passing over the very spot where the Ville du Havre had sunk, and where his daughters had died. It is said that Spafford returned to his cabin and wrote the hymn “It is well with my soul” there and then, the first line of which is, “When peace like a river, attendeth my way..” There are other accounts that say that it was written at a later date, but obviously, the voyage was one of deep pathos and is the clear inspiration of the moving and well-loved hymn. Horatio’s faith in God never faltered. He later wrote to Anna’s half-sister, “On Thursday last, we passed over the spot where she went down, in mid-ocean, the waters three miles deep. But I do not think of our dear ones there. They are safe….. dear lambs”.

After Anna was rescued, Pastor Nathaniel Weiss, one of the ministers travelling with the surviving group, remembered hearing Anna say, “God gave me four daughters. Now they have been taken from me. Someday I will understand why.”

Naturally, Anna was utterly devastated, but she testified that in her grief and despair, she had been conscious of a soft voice speaking to her, “You were saved for a purpose!” She remembered something a friend had once said, “It’s easy to be grateful and good when you have so much, but take care that you are not a fair-weather friend to God.”

Following this deep tragedy, Anna gave birth to three more children, but she and Horatio were not spared even more sadness, as on February 11th, 1880, their only son, Horatio (named after the brother who had died, and also after his father), also died at the age of four.

In August 1881 the Spaffords left America with several other like-minded Christians and settled in Jerusalem. There they served the needy, helped the poor, and cared for the sick, and took in homeless children. They desired to show those living about them, the love of Jesus.

The original manuscript of Spafford’s hymn has only four verses, but later another verse was added. The music, which was written by Philip Bliss, was named after the ship on which Horatio and Anna’s daughters had died – Ville du Havre.

Horatio Spafford died of malaria on 16th October 1888. Anna Spafford continued to work in the surrounding areas of Jerusalem until her own death in 1923. Both Horatio and Anna were laid to rest in Jerusalem. It can truly be said, in the words that Spafford penned that, “It is well with their souls.”

Today’s article comes from the website: Spafford – The Story Behind the Hymn “It Is Well with My Soul” – Christian Discipleship Lessons (cocdiscipleship.org)

There’s a Sweet, Sweet Spirit 

TEXT & MUSIC: Doris Mae Akers, 1962  

There's a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place, 
And I know that it's the Spirit of the Lord; 
There are sweet expressions on each face, 
And I know they feel the presence of the Lord. 
 
Sweet Holy Spirit, Sweet heavenly Dove, 
Stay right here with us, filling us with Your love. 
And for these blessings we lift our hearts in praise; 
Without a doubt we'll know that we have been revived, 
When we shall leave this place. 
 
There are blessings you cannot receive 
Till you know Him in His fullness and believe; 
You're the one to profit when you say, 
"I am going to walk with Jesus all the way." 
 
If you say He saved you from your sin, 
Now you're weak, you're bound and cannot enter in, 
You can make it right if you will yield, 
You'll enjoy the Holy Spirit that we feel. 

One of the most notable "Spirit Songs"…

Of the twentieth century is "There's a Sweet, Sweet Spirit in This Place" by African American gospel songwriter Doris Mae Akers (1923-1995). Born in Brookfield, Missouri, Ms. Akers connected with some of the most important gospel songwriters of her era until her death in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

"Sweet, Sweet Spirit" expresses in simple, heartfelt language the work of the Holy Spirit as it works in the life of the church. It is a fitting hymn for Pentecost Sunday or any Sunday where God’s people gather to worship. 

One of ten children, Dot Akers, as many called her, demonstrated her interest in music at the young age of six, teaching herself to play the piano by ear. By age ten, she had composed her first song, "Keep the fire burning in me," and by age twelve had organized a five-piece jazz band, "Dot Akers and Her Swingsters." 

In 1945 Akers moved to Los Angeles where she met some of the important names in gospel music of that era, including Sallie Martin, J. Earl Hines, and Eugene Douglas Smallwood. Soon after arriving, she joined the Sallie Martin Singers as a pianist and singer, formed the Akers Singers, and established her own publishing company, Akers Music House. In 1958 Akers formed the Sky Pilot Choir, the first interracial choir in Los Angeles. This choir was devoted to African American gospel music. She formed a relationship with Manna Music in the mid-1950s, just a few years before she composed "Sweet, Sweet Spirit" in 1962. 

Many famous singers have recorded Dot Akers' songs, including George Beverly Shea, Mahalia Jackson, the Roberta Martin Singers, Aretha Franklin, and the Stamps-Baxter Quartet. Other collaborations included recordings for the Gaither label and appearances at their concerts and TV productions. In the late 1990s she was featured in Bill Gaither's gospel videos "Old Friends" and "Turn Your Radio On." 

Honors include being named the Gospel Music Composer of the Year for both 1960 and 1961. She was honored by the National Organization of Black Catholics in 1987 when they named their official hymnal after her 1955 composition "Lead Me, Guide Me." Lead Me, Guide Me, Second Edition, was published by GIA Publications, Inc. in 2012. Known affectionately as "Miss Gospel Music," she was involved in every aspect of the industry from composing, arranging, publishing, choir directing, recording, as well as performing as a soloist and with ensembles. In 2001, Doris Akers was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. 

Baptist hymnologist William J. Reynolds noted that Akers' ability to capture the attention of a congregation came through "just letting go and releasing the Spirit of God." 

Lindsay Terry comments on the origins of this song in an interview with Doris Akers in the late 1980s: 

"[S]he related to me that one Sunday morning in 1962 while directing the Sky Pilot Choir, she said to her singers, 'You are not ready to go in.' She didn’t believe they had prayed enough! They were accustomed to spending time with her in prayer before the service, asking God to bless their songs. She said, 'I feel that prayer is more important than great voices.' They had already prayed, but this particular morning she asked them to pray again, and they did so with renewed fervor. 
 
"As they prayed, Doris began to wonder how she could stop this wonderful prayer meeting. She said, 'I sent word to the pastor letting him know what was happening. He was waiting in the auditorium, wanting to start the service. Finally, I was compelled to say to the choir, we have to go. I hate to leave this room and I know you hate to leave, but you know we do have to go to the service. But there is such a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place.'" 

The phrase stayed with her, and she wrote the song the next day. Matthew 3:16-17 inspired the specific line "Sweet heavenly Dove." This text focuses on the baptism of Jesus when "he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 

Sources:

For more information on this song and its writer, see Lindsay Terry, Stories Behind 50 Southern Gospel Favorites, Kregel Publications, 2005 and www.cbn.com/spirituallife/devotions/terry_sweet_spirit.asp. 

Dr. Hawn is a distinguished professor of church music at Perkins School of Theology. He is also the director of the seminary's sacred music program. 

When In Our Music God is Glorified
Glory to God: 641

TEXT: Fred Pratt Green, 1972
MUSIC: Charles Villiers Stanford, 1904

When in our music God is glorified,
and adoration leaves no room for pride,
it is as though the whole creation cried:
Alleluia!

How oft, in making music, we have found
a new dimension in the world of sound
as worship moved us to a more profound
Alleluia!

So has the Church, in liturgy and song,
in faith and love, through centuries of wrong,
borne witness to the truth in ev’ry tongue,
Alleluia!

And did not Jesus sing a psalm that night
when utmost evil strove against the light?
Then let us sing, for whom he won the fight:
Alleluia!

Let ev’ry instrument be tuned for praise,
let all rejoice who have a voice to raise,
and may God give us faith to sing always:
Alleluia!

I don’t believe this hymn (or any hymns by this great hymn-writer) has ever made it into our Hymn of the Week over the past several years. I think it’s about time it made its premiere! The tune comes to us from the English 19th-century church musician/organist Charles Villiers Stanford and the radiant text about music’s ability to praise God comes much later from a man born and raised outside Liverpool in the small town of Roby, England; Fred Pratt Green, (1903-2000)

Fred Pratt Green

Fred began life wanting to be an architect. Before he went to Didsbury Theological College, he worked for four years in his father’s leather business. While he studied at Didsbury, he discovered another love, that of writing. In 1928, he wrote his first hymn, “God Lit a Flame in Bethlehem.” This was the same year he became enamored of a young woman named Marjorie Dowsett whom he then married and remained married until her death in 1993. Rev. Green served several churches throughout England and in 1944 he paid a pastoral call to Fallon Webb, the father of one of his Sunday School children. Webb had an intense love of poetry. When he discovered that Rev. Green had written some poems, he insisted they each write a poem and critique it for the other. This practice continued until Webb’s death 20 years later.

Upon Fred’s retirement in 1969, (he was 66 years old), Fred had planned to spend time developing his skill as an artist working with pastels. However, he accepted an invitation to serve on a commission to prepare a supplement to the Methodist hymnal. The committee asked Fred to write hymns for topics where he felt hymns seemed to be lacking, and hymn writing eventually replaced his desire to paint. It wasn’t long before noted hymn writers and scholars became aware of Fred’s gifts and helped him develop them over time. These include the great hymn scholar, Eric Routley and John Wilson, Director of Music at Charterhouse from 1947-1965. Both are esteemed hymnologists.

I particularly love his response to a question about how he sees the hymn functioning in worship. In an interview with Paul Westermeyer, he states: “ Chiefly in 3 ways: to inspire a congregation to worship; to instruct a congregation in Christian truth and practice; and to help unite Christians of various denominations. I am also aware of the value of hymns in private devotion (private worship), as many letters to me have testified. Hymns have a pastoral influence in the life of the church.”

Rev. Green said of today’s hymn: This hymn expresses my deep love for music, the greatest of the arts (!) AND important in the worship of the church.

O God in Whom All Life Begins

Glory to God: 308

TEXT: Carl P. Daw 
MUSIC: English melody; arr. Arthur S. Sullivan 

O God in whom all life begins, 
who births the seed to fruit, 
bestow your blessing on our lives; 
here let your love find root. 
Bring forth in us the Spirit’s gifts 
of patience, joy, and peace; 
deliver us from numbing fear, 
and grant our faith increase. 

Unite in mutual ministry 
our minds and hands and hearts 
that we may have the grace to seek 
the power your peace imparts. 
So let our varied gifts combine 
to glorify your name 
that in all things by word and deed 
we may your love proclaim. 

Through tears and laughter, grief and joy, 
enlarge our trust and care; 
so bind us in community 
that we may risk and dare. 
Be with us when we gather here 
to worship, sing, and pray, 
then send us forth in power and faith 
to live the words we say. 

One of my all-time favorite, more recent, hymn writers

Carl P. Daw was born in 1944, the first of four children. At the time, his parents were living in Louisville where his father was in his last year of seminary, preparing to be a Baptist minister.

During World War II, his father was a Navy Chaplain and became pastor of a small church in Newport, Tennessee. After that pastorate, he went back to graduate school and then received a job at a church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where Carl spent most of his boyhood before going away to college. Grateful for his musical training at various schools he studied cello and piano.   

Carl went to Rice University and studied English literature. He then went on to graduate school at the University of Virginia where he earned his M.A. and PhD in English literature, with a dissertation on five sermons by the great writer, Jonathon Swift. Feeling called to the priesthood as an Episcopal priest he attended the School of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee. Daw became a consultant for the new Episcopal hymnal of the early 80s. He eventually served as a rector at several Episcopal churches throughout the East Coast.   

When asked to summarize his theological viewpoint, Carl Daw had this to say: 
Probably the most important, central theme from which my hymns radiate is the mystery of God’s grace and our human incapacity to anticipate or understand it. (A primary expression of this tension is “Praise God whose providential awkwardness,” whose title-before I adopted the practice of identifying my texts by their first lines – was simply, “Grace.”) because I understand the experiences of the Christian community, corporate worship (especially as expressed in the Sacraments), the reading of Scripture, and daily living as being potential ways of encounter with God, these are the contexts through which I usually approach this recurring concern. 

When asked how he sees hymn functioning in worship he responded with the following: 
With allowances for differences in particular traditions, I see worship as having four broad movements:  gathering, celebrating (which includes elements of praising, meditating, and proclaiming), identifying with God and each other, and dismissing/sending forth… I believe that hymnody is vital in creating and maintaining such a cohesive shape in worship… 

 Our tune is a tune we use at Christmastime (more in English churches). You’ll notice that the tune is accredited to Arthur Sullivan. Yes, he is THAT Arthur Sullivan of Gilbert and Sullivan fame.   

 Today’s biographical information and comments from Dr. Daw come from Paul Westermeyer’s brilliant book: With Tongues of Fire Profiles in 20th Century Hymn Writing. Concordia Publishing House 1995. 

Take the Name of Jesus with You 

TEXT: Lydia Baxter 
MUSIC: William H. Doane 

Take the name of Jesus with you, 
Child of sorrow and of woe. 
It will joy and comfort give you, 
Take it then where'er you go. 
 
Precious name, O how sweet! 
Hope of earth and joy of heaven; 
Precious name, O how sweet! 
Hope of earth and joy of heaven. 
 
Take the name of Jesus ever 
As protection ev'rywhere. 
If temptations 'round you gather, 
Breathe that holy name in prayer.  
 
Precious name, O how sweet! 
Hope of earth and joy of heaven; 
Precious name, O how sweet! 
Hope of earth and joy of heaven. 
 
At the name of Jesus bowing, 
When in heaven we shall meet, 
King of kings, we'll gladly crown Him 
When our journey is complete.  
 
Precious name, O how sweet! 
Hope of earth and joy of heaven; 
Precious name, O how sweet! 
Hope of earth and joy of heaven. 

Today’s bio:

Information comes from Robert Morgan’s book, Then Sings My Soul, and from www.hymnary.org  “I have a very special armor,” Lydia Baxter once told friends who asked her how she could be so radiant despite her health problems. “I have the name of Jesus. When the tempter tries to make me blue or despondent, I mention the name of Jesus, and he can’t get through to me anymore.” 

Lydia Baxter

Lydia, born in St. Petersburg, New York, on September 8, 1809, was converted alongside her sister under the preaching of a Baptist evangelist named Eben Tucker. She married Colonel John C. Baxter and moved to New York City, where she worked tirelessly for Christ until a severe illness left her bedridden. Her attitude, however, was so sunny that the Baxter home became a gathering place for many friends. 

William H. Doane

The hymn tune writer is our very own William H. Doane of Granville, Ohio. Here is his biography from www.hymnary.org An industrialist and philanthropist, William H. Doane (b. Preston, CT, 1832; d. South Orange, NJ, 1915), was also a staunch supporter of evangelistic campaigns and a prolific writer of hymn tunes. He was head of a large woodworking machinery plant in Cincinnati and a civic leader in that city. He showed his devotion to the church by supporting the work of the evangelistic team of Dwight L. Moody and Ira D. Sankey and by endowing Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and Denison University in Granville, Ohio. An amateur composer, Doane wrote over twenty-two hundred hymn and gospel song tunes, and he edited over forty songbooks. 

Enjoy the video that mixes today’s hymn with another lovely tune:  More Love to Thee