All Mankind Fell in Adam's Fall

You want to learn some doctrine? Sure you do......and here's a hymn to help you do so: "All Mankind Fell In Adam's Fall", written in 1524 by Lazarus Spengler. Tune by Louis Bourgeois and translation by Matthias Loy. We sang this hymn yesterday in church.

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Verse 1:

All mankind fell in Adam's fall,

One common sin infects us all;

From sire to son the bane descends,

And over all the curse impends.

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Verse 2:

Through humankind corruption creeps

And them in dreadful bondage keeps;

In guilt they draw the infant breath

And reap its fruits of woe and death.

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Verse 3:

From hearts depraved, to evil prone,

Flow thoughts and deeds of sin alone;

God's image lost, the darkened soul

Seeks not nor finds its heavenly goal.

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Verse 4:

But Christ, the second Adam, came

To bear our sin and woe and shame,

To be our life, our light, our way,

Our only hope, our only stay.

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Verse 5:

As by one man all mankind fell

And, born in sin, was doomed to hell,

So by one Man, who took our place,

We all received the gift of grace.

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Verse 6:

We thank you, Christ; new life is ours,

New light, new hope, new strength, new powers:

This grace our every way attend

Until we reach our journey's end.

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It would be more complete if this hymn mentioned the Cross somewhere.......probably in verse 4. And it doesn't mention Sacraments, but other than that it clearly tells the story of sin, justification, and maybe even sanctification (verse 6----but Lutherans aren't supposed to give much thought to that apart from the Sacraments).

Cyberhymnal link: www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/a/l/l/allmanfa.htm

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

My LCMS Lutheran Church is now using the new hymnal, The Lutheran Service Book. This morning we sang this great hymn, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing", which is one we sang often in the Baptist Church when I was growing up. I don't think this hymn was included in our former Lutheran hymnals.

The words were written by Robert Robinson in 1758. The book Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck includes this story about Mr. Robinson's conversion: "During his early teen years, Robert Robinson lived in London, where he mixed with a notorious gang of hoodlums and led a life of debauchery. At the age of 17 he attended a meeting where the noted evangelist George Whitefield was preaching. Robinson went for the purpose of 'scoffing at those poor, deluded Methodists' and ended up professing faith in Christ as his Savior." The latter half of verse two probably refers to this radical conversion.

That second verse starts with, "Here I raise my Ebenezer"------when I was young I wondered what in the world an "Ebenezer" was! Finally, after all these years, I've just now looked it up in the dictionary: "1.(in the Bible) the name given by the prophet Samuel to the stone he erected in recognition of God's help in defeating the Philistines, I Samuel 7:12. In Hebrew, "Ebenezer" literally means 'stone of help'."


The tune is by John Wyeth, 1813, from his Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music, Part II.

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Verse 1:

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;

Streams of mercy, never ceasing,

Call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me some melodious sonnet,

Sung by flaming tongues above;

Praise the mount---I'm fixed upon it,

Mount of Thy redeeming love.

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Verse 2:

Here I raise my Ebenezer;

Hither by Thy help I'm come;

And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,

Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,

Wandering from the fold of God;

He, to rescue me from danger,

Interposed His precious blood.

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Verse 3:

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I'm constrained to be!

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,

Bind my wandering heart to Thee;

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here's my heart, O take and seal it;

Seal it for Thy courts above.

AMEN

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Cyberhymnal link: www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/c/o/comethou.htm

Let Us Ever Walk With Jesus

Here's a hymn we sang last Sunday in church, "Let Us Ever Walk With Jesus". Its one of my Lutheran favorites and has a nice easy alto part to sing. An old hymn, it was written in 1653, not long after the Reformation, by Sigismund von Birken (1626-81). The tune we sing it to was written by Georg G. Boltze in 1788, so how it was sung before that I have no idea. The words possibly reflect the difficult times in Europe in the 1600's, with religious wars going on. Applicable, of course, are these lyrics to people living at any time in history.


Another reason this hymn catches my eye is because walking is a favorite pastime of mine. If only I truly felt I was "walking" with Jesus. But, Lutherans emphasize not worrying about feeling anything in relation to faith, so I'll just walk on and trust.

In the middle of night a couple days ago, I awoke with this line from the hymn playing over and over in my head, "Let us do our Father's bidding.......Let us do our Father's bidding......".

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Verse 1:

Let us ever walk with Jesus,

Follow His example pure,

Through a world that would deceive us

And to sin our spirits lure.

Onward in His footsteps treading,

Pilgrims here, our home above,

Full of faith and hope and love,

Let us do our Father's bidding,

Faithful Lord, with me abide;

I shall follow where you guide.

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Verse 2:

Let us suffer here with Jesus

And with patience bear our cross.

Joy will follow all our sadness;

Where He is, there is no loss.

Though today we sow no laughter,

We shall reap celestial joy;

All discomforts that annoy

Shall give way to mirth hereafter.

Jesus, here I share Your woe;

Help me there your joy to know.

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Verse 3:

Let us gladly die with Jesus,

Since by death he conquered death,

He will free us from destruction,

Give to us immortal breath.

Let us mortify all passion

That would lead us into sin;

Then by grace we all my win

Untold fruits of His creation,

Jesus, unto You I die,

There to live with You on high.

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Verse 4:

Let us also live with Jesus,

He has risen from the dead

That to life we may awaken.

Jesus, since You are our head,

We are your own living members;

Where You live, there we shall be

In Your presence constantly,

Living there with You forever,

Jesus, let me faithful be,

Life eternal grant to me.

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Cyberhymnal link: www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/l/e/t/letuewwj.htm