Singing Our Faith: Hymns for Each Life Season

Copyright © 2021 by Donald W. Haynes.

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Rev. date: 10/28/2021

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CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

PART: 1 HYMNS BY CHRONOLOGY

Chapter 1A Quick Chronological Sweep

of Our Music Heritage

Chapter 2Hymns from Early Christianity

through The 17th Century

Chapter 3The Age of Watts and The Wesleys—1707–1791

Chapter 4Nineteenth-Century "Oxford

Movement" Catholic Hymns

Chapter 5Nineteenth-Century Anglican Hymnody

Chapter 6Nineteenth-Century British Evangelical Hymnody

Chapter 7American Hymns That are Not Gospels

Chapter 8Gospel Hymns

Chapter 9Influence of The Jesus Movement

on Worship and Music

PART: 2 HYMNS BY SUBJECT

Chapter 10Hymns for Opening Worship

Chapter 11Tidings of Christmas Comfort and Joy

Chapter 12Hymns with a Social Gospel or Missions Challenge

Chapter 13Grace Theology Hymns—

Preparing, Pardoning, and Perfecting

Chapter 14Passion Hymns That Focus on The Cross

Chapter 15Easter Hymns Celebrating Jesus’s Resurrection

Chapter 16Hymns on Communion of

The Saints and Eternal Life

Chapter 17Hymns on Prayer, Trust, and Confidence

Chapter 18Cultural and Patriotic Hymns

Chapter 19Hymnody for The Word and Sacraments

Chapter 20Choral Responses, Choruses,

Bedtime Prayers, Etc.

Epilogue

Endnotes

Appendix

Let those refuse to sing who never knew our God,

but children of the heavenly King may speak their joys abroad.

—Isaac Watts

Let a true tune be sung

And every person of feeling is aroused and touched.

The melody clings to their memories.

On their way home, snatches of it will be heard

On the next Sabbath, if the same song is heard, one and another join in.

Such tunes are never forgotten; they bless us all of our life.

We carry them with us wherever our journey leads.

The soul is lifted above all its ailments and rises to the very presence of God. (Henry Ward Beecher)

Would you have your songs endure?

Build on the human heart.

—Robert Browning

Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual

songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord,

always giving thanks to God for everything.

—Ephesians 5:19–20

PREFACE

Hymns have had a profound influence on my spiritual journey as a child, in college and seminary, in pastoral ministry, in sixteen post-retirement years of seminary teaching and being an interim pastor in a variety of churches. Throughout my sixty-three years as a clergy person, I came in each season to appreciate a wider variety of hymnody. Selecting hymns for worship collegially has been an education in music appreciation. Since I do not know music or play any musical instrument, I have memorized tunes and studied the lyrics of this glorious heritage to which so many have contributed such a variety of poetic expressions to our faith.

The work for this book is my therapy as a husband who loved his wife until her death following her loss of both mobility and speech. She was playing the organ at her church when she was in high school. Early in our marriage, we bought a piano that was her therapy over the years. As she came to the end of her life over a period of many months, friends like Elisabeth Von Trapp and former church pianists came and played for her. She always sang in our church choirs. To the end of 2021, I sang to her the hymns of our faith before my nightcap prayer with her. For many months, I could see her muted lips moving, repeating the lyrics with me. Music more than sermons have been a shaping influence in her journey of faith. I want that memory for my children and my children’s children and for every reader of these pages.

We need to know not only the hymns but the stories that inspired them to be written. Albert Bailey, a brilliant hymnologist, has written with much sad wisdom, "I have attended church for upwards of sixty years. I have sung an average of ten hymns a week or 31,000 hymns. Yet I can count on the fingers of one hand the persons who in all that time ever said a word about the author of the hymn or the life situation or faith experience that prompted its being written."¹

My mission in writing this book is to address Dr. Bailey’s concern. These stories will enhance the meaning of lyrics rather that have worshipers remain silent or mouth the words by rote. Perhaps the COVID-19 pandemic made millions of Christians realize the paucity of their Christian memory which is rekindled or expressed when we sing our faith. Maybe Christians are eager to sing again!

I am indebted to Miriam Modlin Taylor and Martha Webster for proofreading my copy, to Allen Holt and my daughter, Alyssa Haynes, for their computer help, for Lynda Ferguson, Donna Miller, and Sarah Downey for their insistence that the book would meet a need. I am especially grateful to Xlibris for accepting this manuscript for publication.

INTRODUCTION

Hymns have recorded the spiritual experiences of the human race through all ages. The book of psalms is the Jewish hymnbook. According to Mark’s Gospel, as the Last Supper group left the upper room, They sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives. We have subsequently been inspired by new hymns in every generation and myriad vernacular languages beginning with Greek.

Hymn singing is vital to Protestant worship. Theologically, the congregants are not spectators applauding or criticizing the clergy and choir. Rather as Soren Kierkegaard put it, "God is the audience and every worshiper is an actor who has learned one’s lines in adoration, confession, thanksgiving, edification, or dedication." This acronym (ACTED) constitutes the chemistry of a worship service.

Martin Luther wrote, God speaks to us through his Word and we answer directly when we sing a hymn—of praise, prayer, confession, dedication, meaning for life here, or hope for life hereafter. Anglican hymnologist Eric Routley, writing on what he considered to be the most popular hymns in English Protestantism asserted in 1954, "The normal canon of popular hymns provides a popular commentary on the creeds of Christendom."² He confessed, It has been a labor of love to examine again the ‘good old hymns’ and find in them so much to respect and celebrate. Some of our best loved hymns are also the most profound in theological penetration; others are folk songs.³

A major, if not the major, influence of religion on human behavior, hope, and perseverance in the midst of life’s rough patches is the inculcation of faith through music. Music in worship historically affects the soul more than does either the preached Word or the administered sacrament. The mind of humankind cannot comprehend the wonders of God; it can only see the occasional flashes of light which shine through the glory holes of life. In the awesome mysteries of life experience, music helps people to express the inexpressible.⁴

Norman Vincent Peale noted in the introduction of his booklet, My Favorite Hymns, Hymns have blessed people throughout the ages in a variety of ways. Many grew out of personal sorrow, tragedy, or need; others celebrate conversion from a life of guilt to an experience of grace, and still others were written as they faced with faith their imminent death.⁵ In the following chapters, we shall explore the stanzas of various hymns which call forth the response of the call of God to persons of differing dispositions and life seasons—celebrating, grieving, convicting, or converting.

Congregational singing has weakened for the past half-century as both secular culture and church worship have become more a listening-in experience and less a participatory experience. In the twentieth century, this was exacerbated by professional music staff choosing hymns that lacked both singability and emotional expression.

Unfortunately, we must admit the truth in Austin Lovelace’s words, Few congregations can be found (today) which sing with the fervor that has marked the great periods of spiritual rebirth and vitality.⁶ The intention of this little book is to enhance that fervor. A major dimension of all Protestant Christian worship historically is the participation of the congregation. The primary congregational responsibility in worship is to make a joyful noise to the Lord!⁷

Congregational singing could fill the need expressed by James Weldon Johnson, Lift every voice and sing till earth and heaven ring . . . Let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies; let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Perhaps learning the life situation that prompted the writing of any given hymn will enhance the desire to know the words and even learn the tune.

Ideally, every hymn should elicit a response in every worshiper. Sadly many people sing along or stand silently without internalizing the meaning or impact on our faith and core values that the hymn lyrics would have if we thought on these things. Also, since hymn lyrics are poetry and the last words are often forced to rhyme, their sentence structure is sometimes admittedly quite awkward.

Hymn selection for denominational hymnals has always reflected current trends. In the Methodist Hymnal edited in 1905, there was a deliberate effort to delete gospel hymns from the official denominational hymnal. That included the omission of more Charles Wesley hymns than any previous Methodist book of hymns. In The Methodist Hymnal published in 1935, all hymn titles were omitted from the top of each page, insisting that the only purpose of the hymn was its subject matter, not its familiarity. The paucity of Gospel hymns was lumped together as Songs of Salvation with no regard for their content or relationship to hymnal subject sections. Two of the most popular hymns in America at that time were omitted—The Old Rugged Cross and In the Garden. That hymnal was so unpopular in rural churches that The Cokesbury Hymnal was published in 1923 and continued to be popular in 2020, at least in Sunday school and small membership churches! For Baptists, the same is true of their Broadman Hymnal which retained its popularity alongside The Baptist Hymnal. The 1989 United Methodist Hymnal restored many gospel and Wesley hymns. The advent of projecting hymns onto a screen in the place of worship has the potential of enhancing congregational singing.

Again, Austin Lovelace echoes my feelings in insisting that all music, hymnody included, is sensuous. That is, it speaks to and calls for a response from all of the senses identified by John Locke, plus the one added by John Wesley. To the five physical senses—touch, taste, smell, hear, and see—Wesley added impression of the Holy Spirit. Lovelace reflected this in his insistence that we err in splitting the human self into body and mind (soma and psyche); whereas God created the whole person and addresses himself to the whole person—body, mind, and soul. A high churchman himself, Lovelace on the one hand likes soft music but admits, Goosebumps is as much at a place in the church as in the concert hall or the home or theatre.⁸

The birth, death, and resurrection of Christ have captivated the poet and the hymn writer through the years. So has creation. Many hymns on the other hand come from the spiritual or psychological emotion of the author’s grief, suffering, conversion, love of nature, trust, confidence, etc. Some reflect the author’s theological concept of God’s providence, God’s love, God’s presence, God’s grace, etc. The majority have some biblical references. Hymns can have a prophetic critique of the secular culture or calling the church to what the author thinks its mission ought to be.

More recently, congregational singing has been weakened by praise, praise songs that are sometimes not written by persons with a mastery of historical theology! They are written to be accompanied by praise bands of strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion, and keyboards in which the ethos is performance and entertainment more than for worship per se. The setting often is a brilliantly lighted stage and a dark nave which reduces the identity and participation of the congregation. The stage is also often devoid of Christian symbolism—no cross, no candles, no communion table, and certainly no stained glass windows with symbols in them.

Yet at a personal level for many millennials, more praise songs are recovering the lyrics through which congregants can get in touch with the message of the music. Yet as was said of Jesus, The common people hear them gladly. Fortunately, as praise music comes of age, more and more directors are composing jazzed-up" tunes by which to sing the grand old hymns of the church since the second century.

A hymn writer with the ridiculous name of Thomas Hornblower Gill was called by Isaac Watts the greatest hymnist of his time! He wrote regarding the universality of music in all humanity:

Their joy unto their Lord we bring; their song to us descendeth;

The Spirit who in them did sing to us His music lendeth;

His song in them, in us, is one—We raise it high, we send it on—

The song that never endeth.

My hope is to introduce some of the hidden treasures among the lyrics—who wrote them, when and why they were written, and clues to the depth of their meaning—metaphorically, scripturally, and experientially. Expect to cry some, laugh some, and sing a few hymns that tap a long-repressed memory, even going back to childhood. Expect to learn a lot and to enjoy worship more! In the following chapters, we shall point out all these motivations and convictions from which come the hymns we sing. They are the sharing of the soul of the author, not just his or her gift for verse.

Part 1 follows the chronology of hymn singing with some examples from each era since all hymnody was from the Psalter.

Part 2 reflects the subject matter of the lyrics without regard for chronology per se.

The index provides you with a quick glance to see if your favorite hymns are here and on what page you can find them.

PART 1

Hymns by

Chronology

1

A Quick Chronological Sweep

of Our Music Heritage

Before we look at individual hymns, let’s take a cursory glance at the historical context in which our hymns were written and the inspiration of the authors.

The book of Psalms is not only the hymnal of the Jewish faith; those are the seedbed for many of our hymns. It is amazing what single words or phrases or seemingly insignificant verses from scripture, inspired some of our greatest hymns. The words hymns and songs are much more commonplace in the scriptures than the church has taught us. Except for the books of Matthew, Romans, Hebrews, James, and possibly Philippians, our New Testament epistles and letters were written to destinations where churches were functioning in Greek culture and language. Our Bible’s writing, our ecumenical creeds, and our earliest hymns outside the Psalter came from the Greco-Roman culture, not Palestinian Judaism.

The oldest known Christian hymn is "Shepherd of Tender Youth written by Clement of Alexandria in about 220 CE. He was born in Athens and studied Greek mythology and philosophy, but disenchanted with his own heritage, he migrated to Alexandria, Egypt, where he first studied Egyptian religion and reputedly, Judaism! It was a Christian in Alexandria, Pantǣnus, who led him to Christ whom Clement called the all in all." The largest Christian library in the ancient world was located there, but under the persecution of the Roman emperor Severus, Clement left Alexandria. Where he spent his last days is unknown in history. However, one of his three books survived—The Hymn of the Saviour." In that book, we find the hymn, Shepherd of Tender Youth. We shall detail that hymn in the next chapter.

Philo, a Jewish philosopher living in Alexandria, wrote, Hymns composed to the praise of God in many meters, and to various melodies; yet with antiphonal choirs they are harmonized. Perfectly beautiful are their motions, their discourses, and the final aim of their discourse in piety.⁹ By the second century, Christians were singing the Greater Doxology which was Gloria in excelsis Deo and the Lesser Doxology which we know as Gloria Patri. The Gloria Patri was sung often by martyrs who were being killed in the coliseum. Polycarp (c. 155 CE) sang it as the flames took his breath when he was burned at the stake for his faith. The Venerable Bede of England sang it as his dying words on May 26, 735. We often use it as a response, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. It actually is an affirmation of our faith.

Though prior to the fourth century, Christians mostly sang psalms; they sang them as translated into first Greek and then Latin, not in Hebrew! Hilary, in Gaul, first heard about Jesus by hearing hymns sung! He was baptized by immersion in Poitiers, France in 353 CE before the custom of baptizing by pouring had become popular.¹⁰ He was banished to Asia Minor by Emperor Constantine, who condemned nonbiblical hymns. Upon the change of Emperors, he returned to France and wrote two hymns himself, but they do not survive in any current hymnals.

By the fourth century, a saint named Niceta (c. 335–414) lived in what is now Serbia and wrote the famous Te Deum Laudamaus, perhaps the greatest of all Latin hymns that are not simply translations of psalms. It is often attributed erroneously to St. Ambrose. This grand composition called Te Deum is partly a hymn and partly a confession:

Stanza 1: "We praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord" (in contrast to the pagan gods of the Greeks which people had sung to prior to their conversion to Christ).

Stanza 2: the apostles, prophets, martyrs, and all the saints.

Stanza 3: "Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ." It recites events from Jesus’ life and concludes with a prayer that Christ will help his faithful ones now, and reward them with heaven after death.

Te Deum became the Trinitarian confession to "the Father of infinite majesty, his true and begotten Son; and the Holy Ghost, the Comforter." In effect, Te Deum has the congregation sing praises to the glorious company of the apostles, the goodly fellowship of the prophets, and the noble army of the martyrs.¹¹

The Catholic Church introduced the organ as a powerful dimension of congregational worship, but the mass did not call for congregational singing, per se. The choirs sang antiphonally but not the people. The Franciscan Order did sing and it is to St. Francis of Assisi that we attribute one of our older hymns which we will examine later—"All Creatures of Our God and King" (1225) Women were forbidden to sing after c. 574.

St. Thomas Aquinas defined a Christian hymn in this way, A hymn is the praise of God with song, a song that is the exultation of the mind dwelling on eternal things bursting forth in voice.

It was Martin Luther to whom we must attribute the origin of congregational singing. He gave us the Bible in German so God could speak directly to people in his Word, but gave them a hymnbook that they might answer God directly in their songs.¹² He not only took the hymn out of a foreign tongue, he also took the hymnary away from the choir! He insisted that the lyrics be evangelical but did not restrict the imagination of any poet. The result was a copious stream of hymnody. Hymns became a never-failing spring of spirituality in people’s hearts and lives."¹³

Count Zinzendorf, a Moravian and a contemporary of Luther’s, wrote his first hymn in 1532 and eventually wrote over 2,000 hymns. The German Pietists encouraged congregational singing.

The English Puritans again forbade hymn singing. Thomas Ken was a youth during the Puritan Commonwealth in England (1649–1661) was an Anglican priest and chaplain of Winchester College following the Restoration, and wrote two hymns for the students—one for their rising and one for their curfew! The first was Awake, my soul, and with the sun. and the latter was All praise to thee, my God, this Night. He also gave us the words to The Doxology.

Isaac Watts, often called the "father of English hymnody, told his clergy father that singing psalms was boring. His father was about whip him for writing rhyme when the boy said, O father, do some pity take and I will no more verses make. He did not get a whipping, instead he got a challenge to improve on psalm singing if he thought he could! He did and gave us many great hymns, including, When I survey the Wondrous Cross."

Charles Wesley followed in the footsteps of Watts but was an Arminianist whereas Watts was a Calvinist! Charles had as much influence on the religious culture of his time as his brother John did. Most of his hymns were inspired by a verse or phrase of holy scripture, which reveals his encyclopedic knowledge of the Bible, but without some help such as you will find in this book, one often does not recognize the scripture in his lyrics. Though the hymns of Charles Wesley were popular in American Methodism, the shaping influence of Methodism in the new world were the gospel hymns of the Second Great Awakening camp meetings.

The Second Great Awakening in America brought it back, especially with the singing of the camp meetings.

In the second era of gospel hymns, a dominant hymn writer was Fanny Crosby. She was blinded as a child by a poultice left too long on her eyes. Yet she wrote hymns that reflect her seeing through hearing. Many have a social gospel message because she heard the cries of the needy. An example is Rescue the Perishing—tell the poor wander a Savior has died. It calls on Christians to be evangelical with tenderness, not hellfire and damnation. Note, touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness, chords that were broken will vibrate once more.

Lowell Mason was the father of American church music. He introduced the Pestalozzian system into his public school music teaching and drew a national audience. He scanned poetry magazines and would contact authors to get permission to write a tune for their poem. In so doing, Mason gave posterity a lot of American hymns. He tended to create very singable tunes.

Also, many hymn tunes were written by organists who were given or who discovered lyrics written as poems. Hymn tunes were often named for places, people, or the subject of the hymn. Many of the gospels did have a social theology content and usually conveyed a concept of God as the Good Shepherd seeking lost sheep, the heavenly Father or Jesus as our Savior whose death on the cross effected our salvation.

The American and English evangelistic crusades of Dwight L. Moody and his song leader, Ira Sankey, were a major popularizing influence in the theology, the memorization, and the conversion of multiple thousands.

By the late nineteenth century and early twentieth centuries, hymn writers with a more liberal theology were writing hymns with a social gospel theology rather than personal conversion. Examples are Rise Up O Men of God, Lead On, O King Eternal, In Christ There Is No East or West, Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life, O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee, and O Young and Fearless Prophet, These hymns quickly made their way into the denominational hymnals and became congregational favorites. All were used widely in youth retreats and college chapels.

Though some very popular and influential hymns were written in the twentieth century, the volume was substantially less than in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. As the twentieth century faded, praise songs or contemporary Christian music came into vogue.

2

Hymns from Early Christianity

through The 17th Century

Music is to worship what flame is to a fire. Music is humanity’s instinctive response to our awareness of what Jewish theologian, Martin Buber, called the Holy Other. Martin Luther said, Next to theology, I give the first and highest honor to music. Austin Lovelace has written wisely, Every high moment of spiritual awakening in the history of the Church has been accompanied by a revival of song, for singing is as close to worship as breathing is to life itself. Church music today, however, does not seem to obtain the same results.¹⁴

Hymns in the Bible

Music was integral to Jewish worship in the Temples. In the biblical account of worship in Solomon’s Temple (c. 980 BCE), "All the Levitical singers, equipped with cymbals, harps, and lyres stood east of the altar with . . . priests who were trumpeters. The trumpeters and the singers joined in unison, as with one voice, to give praise and thanks to the Lord . . . for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God" (2 Chron. 5:12–14).

The 150th Psalm begins each of its six verses with Praise God. The second verse commands us to Praise God as suits his incredible greatness. We are urged to praise God with the ram’s horn, lute, lyre, drum, dance, strings, pipe, and cymbals!

Matthew and Luke both describe the conclusion of the Last Supper with, "When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives." (Mt. 26:30; Mk. 14:26) Hymns were not written in a vacuum—personally or historically. Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, Be filled with the Spirit in the following ways: speak to each other with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; sing and make music to the Lord with all your hearts (Eph. 5:19).

Oldest Known Christian Hymns

The Greek-speaking Christians developed a large body of metrical hymns. Our earliest definite knowledge of this comes from Pliny, the Roman governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor in 112 CE. As an appointee of the emperor, he had to punish Christians, but recorded that he found no evil in them, noting, They met on a certain fixed day before it was light and sang an antiphonal chant to Christ as to a god.¹⁵

Shepherd of Tender Youth

The oldest Christian hymn whose text we still have is by Clement of Alexandria. He was born about 140 CE. in Athens and learned Greek philosophy before being converted to Christianity in Alexandria. By 190, he was head of a Catechetical school for new converts where he wrote a book for catechumens (converts to Christianity) called The Tutor and appended a poem that is in many Protestant hymnals—Shepherd of Tender Youth.

In the hymn, dated about 200 CE, Christ is metaphorically called Shepherd, holy Lord, High Priest, Guide. The phrase tender youth is not at all an accurate translation; literally, the first line is "Bridle of colts untamed! The church was to break in" those rambunctious colts and harness them to