Sing A Song Of The Saints

While perusing the pages of the UCC hymnal, this one also caught my eye: "I Sing a Song of the Saints of God", words by Lesbia Scott, 1929, and melody by John H. Hopkins, 1940.

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Verse 1:

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I sing a song of the saints of God,

Patient and brave and true,

Who toiled and fought

And lived and died

For the Lord they loved and knew.

And one was a doctor,

And one was a queen,

And one was a shepherdess on the green:

They were all of them saints of God,

and I mean,

God helping,

To be one, too.

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Verse 2:

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They loved their Lord so dear, so dear,

And His love made them strong;

And they followed the right,

For Jesus' sake,

The whole of their good lives long.

And one was a soldier,

And one was a priest,

And one was slain by a fierce wild beast:

And there's not any reason,

No, no the least,

Why I shouldn't be one, too.

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Verse 3:

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They lived not only in ages past,

There are hundreds of thousands still;

The world is bright with the joyful saints

Who love to do Jesus' will.

You can meet them in school,

Or in lanes,

Or at sea,

In church,

Or in trains,

Or in shops,

Or at tea;

For the saints of God are just folk

Like me,

And I mean to be one, too.

AMEN

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Sooner Or Later

This being All Souls Day, here is a reminder of what awaits the souls of all, "Sooner Or Later", a miniscule hymn found in a United Church of Christ hymnal. The words are from poet Christina Rosetti, 1881. The tune is Dunfermline from the Scottish Psalter, 1615:

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Sooner or later:

Yet at last

The Jordan must be past.

Sooner or later:

Yet one day

We all must pass that way.

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When mysteries shall be revealed,

All secrets be unsealed:

Lord God of mercy

and of men,

Show mercy on us then.

AMEN

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Behold A Host Arrayed In White

For All Saints Day, one of my favorite hymns, although I can't get through it without tears. It is rather long and plodding and we rarely we sing it at Sunday services, but occasionally it is a funeral hymn. "Behold A Host Arrayed In White" was written by Hans A. Brorson who lived 1694-1764. His name sounds Norwegian, doesn't it? And indeed, the tune to this hymn is listed as a Norwegian folk melody, arranged by Edvard Grieg.....was he Norwegian, too?

I'm intrigued by the lines in Verse 3: "You harvest seeds once cast abroad in tears and sighs. See with new eyes the pattern in the seed." Troubles and trials come for a reason.

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Verse 1:

Behold a host arrayed in white

Like thousand snowclad mountains bright.

They stand with palms

And sing their psalms

Before the throne of light.

These are the saints who kept God's Word;

They are the honored of the Lord.

He is their prince

Who drowned their sins,

So they were cleansed, restored.

They now serve God both day and night;

They sing their songs in endless light.

Their anthems ring

When they all sing

With angels shining bright.

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Verse 2:

On earth their work was not thought wise,

But see them now in heaven's eyes;

Before God's throne

Of precious stone

They shout their victory cries.

On earth they wept through bitter years;

Now God has wiped away their tears,

Transformed their strife

To heavenly life,

And freed them from their fears.

For now they have the best at last;

They keep their sweet eternal feast.

At God's right hand

Our Lord commands;

He is both host and guest.

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Verse 3:

O blessed saints, now take your rest;

A thousand times shall you be blest

For keeping faith

Firm unto death

And scorning worldly trust.

For now you live at home with God;

You harvest seeds once cast abroad

In tears and sighs.

See with new eyes

The pattern in the seed.

The myriad angels raise their song.

O saints, sing with that happy throng;

Lift up one voice;

Let heaven rejoice

In our Redeemer's song!

AMEN

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Click HERE for more info.

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

Beneath the Cross of Jesus

This hymn is in honor of Mary Magdalene who kept vigil "beneath the cross of Jesus" during the Crucifixion, and posted now because yesterday, July 22, is her feast day on the Church calendar.

This hymn was written in 1868 by Elizabeth C. Clephane, and published posthumously in 1872 in the "Family Treasury", a Scottish Presbyterian magazine. The editor introduced the hymn with the following: "These lines express the experiences, the hopes and longings of a young Christian lately released. Written on the very edge of life, with the better land fully in view of faith......".

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Verse 1:

Beneath the cross of Jesus

I fain would take my stand----

The shadow of a mighty Rock

Within a weary land;

A home within the wilderness,

A rest upon the way,

From burning of the noontide heat,

And the burden of the day.

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Verse 2:

O safe and happy shelter

O refuge tried and sweet.

O trysting place where

Heaven's love and Heaven's justice meet!

As to the holy patriarch

That wondrous dream was given,

So seems my Savior's cross to me,

A ladder up to Heaven.

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Verse 3:

Upon the cross of Jesus

Mine eye at times can see

The very dying form of One

Who suffered there for me;

And from my smitten heart with tears

Two wonders I confess----

The wonders of redeeming love

And my unworthiness.

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Verse 4:

I take, O cross, thy shadow

For my abiding place;

I ask no other sunshine

Than the sunshine of His face;

Content to let the world go by,

To know no gain nor loss,

My sinful self my only shame,

My glory all the Cross.

AMEN

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Cyberhymnal link: www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/b/t/btcjesus.htm

Martha's Hands......Mary's Mind

The other day at the Goodwill Store I purchased a tiny book entitled Devotions for Women at Home by Martha Meister Kiely, 1959. On the preface page is this poem called "Prayer Hymn" by Cecily R. Hallack:

Lord of all pots and pans and things,

Since I've no time to be

A saint by doing lovely things,

Or watching late with Thee,

Or dreaming in the dawnlight

Or storming heaven's gates,

Make me a saint by getting meals,

And washing up the plates.

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Although I must have Martha's hands,

I have a Mary mind;

And when I black the boots and shoes,

Thy sandals, Lord, I find.

I think of how they trod the earth,

What time I scrub the floor;

Accept this meditation, Lord,

I haven't time for more.

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Warm all the kitchen with Thy love,

And light it with Thy peace;

Forgive me all my worrying,

And make my grumbling cease.

Thou Who didst love to give men food,

In room, or by the sea,

Accept this service that I do----

I do it unto Thee.

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The first devotion in the book is called "God's Tug on the Apron Strings". Here are some thoughts from it:

"God's tug is firm, constant, and difficult to ignore. Only the insensitiveness of our hearts can keep Him distant.

If we admit Him into our consciousness, He will transform us from housekeepers into His handmaids. We are released from the monotony of tasks no one seem to appreciate or even notice to the freedom of performing each small task "as unto Him".

Allowing God to make Himself known to us in our homes rewards us with divine companionship, eternal purpose, peace that passes understanding, and a joy no one can take from us."

The Wartburg Hymnal

At a garage sale awhile back I purchased an old tattered "Wartburg Hymnal". Its preface is by the compiler, O. Hardwig, of Waverly, Iowa, dated July 1918. Maybe this hymnal was published by or for Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. There seems to be a Lutheran order of service in the front, and services for Sunday School and Young People's Societies, along with Scripture lessons and Psalms. Wartburg College is operated by the ELCA, the nowadays more liberal branch of the Lutheran tree. The campus is lovely, and I've attended many concerts in the Wartburg Chapel and Neumann Auditorium.

Here is hymn number 40 from this "Wartburg Hymnal". Words are by F. T. Palgrave and the tune is "Hesperus" by Henry Baker.

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Verse 1:

Lord God of morning and of night,

We thank Thee for Thy gift of light;

As in the dawn the shadows fly,

We seem to find Thee now more nigh.

Verse 2:

Fresh hopes have wakened in the heart,

Fresh force to do our daily part;

Thy thousand sleeps our strength restore,

A thousand fold to serve Thee more.

Verse 3:

O Lord of lights, 'tis Thou alone

Canst make our darkened hearts Thine own;

O then be with us, Lord, that we

In Thy great day may wake to Thee.

Verse 4:

Praise God, our Maker and our Friend;

Praise Him through time, till time shall end;

Till psalm and song His name adore

Through heaven's great day of evermore.

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Battle Hymn of the American Revolution

In The New American Songbook, published in 1933, the introductory paragraphs give an overview of the types of music that were popular in the early days of America. It states......."The most popular songs with the soldiers of Washington's Army were "Yankee Doodle" and the hymn "Chester". "Chester" was written by William Billings, a tanner's assistant, who was born in Boston in 1746 and who died poor and neglected in his native city in 1800. Billings was a good singer and a great organizer and director. He was chiefly responsible for the development of the organized "singing schools" which were so popular in New England at the end of the 18th century. "Chester" was sung by the Continental Army all through the long years of the Revolutionary War."

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"Chester"

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Verse 1:

Let tyrants shake their iron rod

And slavery clank her galling chains,

We'll fear them not;

We trust in God,

New England's God forever reigns.

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Verse 2:

What grateful offering shall we bring?

What shall we render to the Lord?

Loud hallelujahs let us sing,

And praise His name on every chord.

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Here's more info about this hymn, from its Cyberhymnal webpage: "This hymn was known as the "Battle Hymn of the Revolution". Everywhere, in church and home, by children and the aged, these words were sung with passionate fervor. The soldiers knew them by heart and to the sound of fife and drum they sang them as they advanced to meet the foe. This Battle Hymn contributed not a little to the winning of the Revolutionary War!"

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Cyberhymnal link: www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/l/t/ltstirod.htm