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Hymn Almanac July

Today in 1865 – Margaret Harris Born

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Mrs. Harris and her husband were gospel musicians and evangelists in the United States with the holiness movement, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Margaret Jenkins Harris was also acclaimed as an effective speaker. Two gospel hymns she wrote are still in use. One is He Took My Sins Away.

I came to Jesus, weary, worn, and sad.
He took my sins away, He took my sins away.
And now His love has made my heart so glad,
He took my sins away.

He took my sins away, He took my sins away,
And keeps me singing every day!
I’m so glad He took my sins away,
He took my sins away.

The other of Margaret Harris’s songs that I’ve heard sung recently is I Will Praise Him.

When I saw the cleansing fountain
Open wide for all my sin,
I obeyed the Spirit’s wooing,
When He said, “Wilt thou be clean?”

I will praise Him! I will praise Him!
Praise the Lamb for sinners slain;
Give Him glory, all ye people,
For His blood can wash away each stain.

(2) Today in 1889 – Horatius Bonar Died

Horatius Bonar, a pastor in Scotland, was a powerful preacher, as well as being the noted author of about 600 hymns. He was a man of great physical energy, with a powerful voice. It was not unusual for him to preach three times in his church, and once more in the open air, all in one day. He seemed to some to be always preaching. Others said he was always visiting, others that he was always writing, and still others that he was always praying. Known as the Prince of Scottish Hymn Writers, he kept a notebook in which he jotted down bits of verse as they occurred to him, often as he was travelling by railroad. His hymns include:

Go Labour on; Spend and Be Spent
Hallelujah for the Cross!
Here, O My Lord, I See Thee Face to Face
I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say
I Lay My Sins on Jesus (a hymn for children)
No Blood, No Altar, Now
No, Not Despairingly
Not What These Hands Have Done

But there is a sad peculiarity about the hymns of this good man. Beautiful, and spiritually enriching though they are, they were never sung in his own church! In the Free Church of Scotland at the time, only the Psalms were sung. Once when someone tried to introduce one of the pastor’s songs in a service, two of the elders rose up angrily and stormed out of the meeting. Yet such a closed door did not deter Bonar from writing songs that proved to be a blessing in many other churches and denominations.

A hymn published in 1846 he called The Voice from Galilee. We know it today as I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say. The first stanza is based on the promise of the Lord Jesus, “Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). The song celebrates the sufficiency of Christ to meet our deepest needs.

I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Come unto Me and rest;
Lay down, thou weary one, lay down Thy head upon My breast.”
I came to Jesus as I was, weary and worn and sad;
I found in Him a resting place, and He has made me glad.

I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Behold, I freely give
The living water; thirsty one, stoop down, and drink, and live.”
I came to Jesus, and I drank of that life giving stream;
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and now I live in Him.

Several tunes are used for this hymn. John Dykes’s Vox Dilecti is common, with its dramatic shift from a minor to a major key suiting a turning point in the text. The tune for the secular ballad Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes also works well. Here is another rendition of this beautiful hymn, by a Mennonite choir, using yet another tune.

Another beautiful but lesser-known of Bonar’s hymns is Fill Thou My Life. I encourage you to check out the complete hymn on the Cyber Hymnal. It’s wonderful.

Fill Thou my life, O Lord my God,
In every part with praise,
That my whole being may proclaim
Thy being and Thy ways.
Not for the lip of praise alone,
Nor e’en the praising heart
I ask, but for a life made up
Of praise in every part!

Today in 1842 – Maxwell Cornelius Born

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The years of Mr. Cornelius’s life were dotted with difficulties. He learned the trade of bricklaying and became a building contractor in Pittsburgh. Then, an injury on the job site led to the amputation of his leg, and he saw the need to change his occupation. He went to college and became a minister of the gospel, but was forced to leave his first church in Pennsylvania due to his wife’s severe and protracted illness.

He moved to California and built a large new church there, but many who had promised to fund the project failed in business, and he was left to cover much of the cost himself. Maxwell Newton Cornelius did so, but shortly afterward his wife died. He conducted the memorial service himself, quoting the lines of what is likely the only hymn from his pen, Sometime We’ll Understand.

The song provides a wonderful statement of faith in God that looks beyond the trials of today and rests in God’s wisdom. Even when we cannot explain why something has happened we can trust in the goodness of God (Rom. 8:28). What is so often a mystery here, God’s purpose in our trials, will be made clear one day.

Not now, but in the coming years,
It may be in the better land,
We’ll read the meaning of our tears,
And there, some time, we’ll understand.

Then trust in God through all the days;
Fear not, for He doth hold thy hand;
Though dark thy way, still sing and praise,
Some time, some time we’ll understand.

God knows the way, He holds the key,
He guides us with unerring hand;
Some time with tearless eyes we’ll see;
Yes, there, up there, we’ll understand.

(2) More from Oswald Smith – Then Jesus Came

Evangelist and creationist Dr. Harry Rimmer was preaching on John chapter 11. He pictured the sorrow that darkened the home, and the sadness of Mary and Martha, when their brother Lazarus died. Suddenly, he paused, and shouted triumphantly, “Then Jesus came!”

Sitting in the audience that evening was gospel musician Homer Rodeheaver. The phrase struck him as a great theme for a song. Shortly after, he was visiting with pastor and hymn writer Oswald Smith. It was May of 1939. The musician said, “I want a hymn depicting the change that took place in the lives of men and women when Jesus came. Dr. Smith provided the text, and Rodeheaver set it to music.

One sat alone beside the highway begging,
His eyes were blind, the light he could not see;
He clutched his rags and shivered in the shadows,
Then Jesus came and bade his darkness flee.

When Jesus comes, the tempter’s pow’r is broken;
When Jesus comes, the tears are wiped away.
He takes the gloom and fills the life with glory,
For all is changed when Jesus comes to stay.

The song became an oft-repeated solo of George Beverly Shea’s. If you can find it on YouTube, you may be impressed, as I have been, with not only his technical mastery of singing technique but his ability to present a message in song in a sincere and unaffected way. Missing are the frequent theatrical grimaces and the posturing that are the bad habit of many contemporary gospel singers.

Today in 1866 – Thomas Chisholm Born

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Thomas Obediah Chisholm was born in Kentucky, and educated in a country schoolhouse–where he himself became the teacher at the age of 16! For a while, he worked as a reporter and the associate editor of a newspaper in Louisville. Then, after becoming a Christian, Chisholm became a pastor, but ill health soon forced his resignation. For most of his adult life he worked as an insurance salesman. He died on February 29th of 1960 (a leap year).

A humble man, Tom Chisholm sometimes described himself as “just an old shoe,” but he blessed the Christian community again and again with his writing–over 1200 poems and hymns in all. Among the best known of the latter are:

Great Is Thy Faithfulness
He Was Wounded for Our Transgressions
Living for Jesus
O to Be Like Thee
Trust in the Lord

Great Is Thy Faithfulness was written in 1923, and it soon became the unofficial school hymn of Moody Bible Institute, in Chicago. The theme is based on the words of the prophet Jeremiah, “His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness” (Lam. 3:22-23).

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.

Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Chisholm’s hymn Trust in the Lord is loosely based on Prov. 3:5-6. It says,

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
This is God’s gracious command;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
So shall you dwell in the land.

Trust in the Lord, O troubled soul,
Rest in the arms of His care;
Whatever your lot, it mattereth not,
For nothing can trouble you there;
Trust in the Lord, O troubled soul,
Nothing can trouble you there.

(2) Today in 1957 – William Runyan Died

William Marion Runyan was a pastor and evangelist, with an outstanding musical gift. (He served as a church organist at the age of 12!) Among his work on other songs, Runyan supplied the tune for Chisholm’s Great Is Thy Faithfulness, and for God Hath Not Promised, a poem of Annie Johnson Flint’s. He also wrote words and music for some hymns, such as Lord, I Have Shut the Door, a great prayer hymn that emphasizes the need for personal fellowship with God.

Lord, I have shut the door, speak now the word
Which in the din and throng could not be heard;
Hushed now my inner heart, whisper Thy will,
While I have come apart, while all is still.

Today in 1750 – Johann Sebastian Bach Died

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Bach is universally considered one of the greatest composers who ever lived. Some say he ranks above all the rest. Certainly, he was the greatest composer of church music, and an ardent Christian himself. He was the most gifted organist of his day, and composed a great deal of music for the organ, as well as many orchestral works. Also, his sacred music includes the unparalleled St. Matthew Passion, and over 200 cantatas.

Bach said, “Music’s only purpose should be for the glory of God and the recreation of the human spirit.” That is worth pondering. It parallels the two-dimensional description the Lord Jesus gave of “the great commandment:” love God, and love others (Matt. 22:35-40). How much music in the world today would be cast aside if we would ask, Does this truly glorify God? And is it wholesome and edifying to me and others?

The great composer sensed his need of God in his work, and relied upon divine enablement. Bach said, “Where there is devotional music, God is always at hand with His gracious presence.” As he took up a blank manuscript sheet to begin writing music notation, he frequently put “J.J.” at the top of the page, standing for Jesu Juva, “Help me, Jesus.” And at the bottom of the manuscript he would add “S.D.G.” representing Soli Deo Gloria, “To God alone the glory.”

Some tunes for hymns were taken from Bach’s works. For example, the tune Green Fields is used for John Newton’s How Tedious and Tasteless the Hours. Or the tunes were arrangements of the music of others, harmonized by Bach for use with a hymn. The most familiar example of the latter is the tune Passion Chorale, used with the hymn O Sacred Head Now Wounded.

Bach wrote the music for Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring to accompany the original German text by Martin Janus. (And incidentally, the last line of the first stanza is not speaking of actual death. It is describing poetically the flight of worshipers around the throne of God. The thought is that they rise and fall, like the glittering waters of a fountain, in their ceaseless circling of the throne.)

Jesu, joy of man’s desiring,
Holy wisdom, love most bright;
Drawn by Thee, our souls aspiring
Soar to uncreated light.
Word of God, our flesh that fashioned,
With the fire of life impassioned,
Striving still to truth unknown,
Soaring, dying round Thy throne.

Through the way where hope is guiding,
Hark, what peaceful music rings;
Where the flock, in Thee confiding,
Drink of joy from deathless springs.
Theirs is beauty’s fairest pleasure;
Theirs is wisdom’s holiest treasure.
Thou dost ever lead Thine own
In the love of joys unknown.

Bach was troubled with cataracts in his latter years, and two surgeries failed to restore his sight. His latter days were spent in almost total blindness. But he continued to compose to the end. At the age of 65, on his deathbed, he dictated his last piece of music, a chorale entitled, Before Thy Throne I Now Appear.

(2) Today in 1857 – Ballington Booth Born

Ballington Booth was the son of Salvation Army founder William Booth. He headed up the Salvation Army, first in Australia (1885-1887), then in America (1887-1896). In the latter years, he broke with his father’s organization and founded the Volunteers of America. The only hymn of his in wide use today is The Cross Is Not Greater, using the cross as a symbol of the believer’s suffering and sacrifice for the cause of Christ (cf. Matt. 16:24).

The cross that He gave may be heavy,
But it ne’er outweighs His grace;
The storm that I feared may surround me,
But it ne’er excludes His face.

The cross is not greater than His grace,
The storm cannot hide His blessèd face;
I am satisfied to know
That with Jesus here below,
I can conquer every foe.

(3) Today in 1894 – Jesse White Died

Jesse Tom White, a lifelong Baptist layman, was a composer and arranger of music for The Sacred Harp hymn book. He is credited with writing the tune sometimes called All Is Well which first appeared in The Sacred Harp in 1844. The Mormons adopted the melody for their signature hymn Come, Come, Ye Saints, speaking of the group’s search, under the leadership of Brigham Young, for a place to build a community of their own in America, where they could follow their beliefs.

We’ll find a place which God for us prepared
Far away, in the West,
Where none shall come to hurt or make afraid;
There the saints will be blessed.

Most of the lyrics, however, could apply to a spiritual pilgrimage, and the hymn has been adapted at least a couple of times for orthodox Christian use. Avis B. Christiansen used some of the first stanza of the original, but almost entirely rewrote the rest of the song. In her lovely version, the stanza above begins:

God hath prepared a glorious home above
Round His throne, for His own,
Where they may rest forever in His love,
Toil and tears all unknown.

Today in 1741 – Francois Barthelemon Born

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Francois Hippolyte Barthelemon was a violinist, orchestra conductor, and composer. Though born in France, his mother was from a wealthy Irish family. Barthelemon served briefly in the Irish army, but left to study music. He lived in London from 1764 onward and was an associate of composer Franz Joseph Haydn. He wrote operas, symphonies, violin sonatas and one oratorio, as well as some hymn tunes.

Barthelemon was asked to write a tune for the hymn Awake, My Soul, and With the Sun and produced a tune called Morning Hymn for the purpose. It is worth a listen, though I like the tune Mainzer as well. (You can hear both on the Cyber Hymnal.)

The composer wrote the tune Autumn in 1785, used with Robert Robinson’s wonderful hymn Mighty God While Angels Bless Thee. Though many congregations know only Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing from Robinson’s pen, the latter is a marvellous hymn of worship, especially focusing on Christ in the latter stanzas.

Mighty God, while angels bless Thee,
May a mortal sing Thy name?
Lord of men as well as angels,
Thou art every creature’s theme.
Lord of every land and nation,
Ancient of eternal days.
Sounded through the wide creation
Be Thy just and endless praise.

For the grandeur of Thy nature,
Grand beyond a seraph’s thought;
For the wonders of creation,
Works with skill and kindness wrought.
For Thy providence, that governs,
Through Thine empire’s wide domain,
Wings an angel, guides a sparrow,
Blessèd be Thy gentle reign.

For Thy rich, Thy free redemption,
Bright, though veiled in darkness long,
Thought is poor, and poor expression;
Who can sing that wondrous song?
Brightness of the Father’s glory,
Shall Thy praise unuttered lie?
Break, my tongue, such guilty silence!
Sing the Lord Who came to die.

Graphic WW1 Red Cross

(2) Today in 1861 – Cyrus Nusbaum Born

Cyrus Sylvester Nusbaum was a pastor who also served the Lord with his Methodist denomination as an evangelist, and for a time he worked in an administrative role at Southwestern College in Kansas. An American army captain during the First World War, he was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson to inspect the work of the Red Cross in France.

Only a single hymn is credited to Cyrus Nusbaum, His Way with Thee, for which he wrote both words and music. It was written during his early struggles in pastoral ministry. He was assigned to an extremely poor district, and he and his wife had difficulty making ends meet. He hoped and prayed that he might be appointed to a better situation, but the denominational leaders left him where he was. Pastor Nusbaum confesses:

I was very unhappy and a spirit of rebellion seemed to possess me. About midnight, I finally knelt in prayer beside my chair. After some struggle, a deep peace came stealing into my heart. I told the Lord I would be willing to let Him have His way with me, regardless of the cost. With that feeling of surrender to the will of God came the inspiration for the song.

It is a hymn encouraging surrender to the will and power of the Lord. As well as saying, “Your will be done on earth” (Matt. 6:10), we need to say, “Your will be done in me.” Romans puts it this way: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God [because of all the Lord has done for you], that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1). (You can see the complete hymn on the Cyber Hymnal.)

Would you live for Jesus, and be always pure and good?
Would you walk with Him within the narrow road?
Would you have Him bear your burden, carry all your load?
Let Him have His way with thee.

His power can make you what you ought to be;
His blood can cleanse your heart and make you free;
His love can fill your soul, and you will see
’Twas best for Him to have His way with thee.

Today in 1933 – Charles Tindley Died

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American pastor and hymn writer Charles Albert Tindley’s story is an amazing one of striving to overcome hardship and succeeding, by the grace of God. He was born in 1851, the son of Charles and Esther Tindley. Charles’s father was a slave, but his mother was a free woman. Thus, he was born free but brought up among enslaved people. His mother died when he was 4 years old, and he was separated from his father a year later. Charles was raised by his Aunt Caroline.

In that day, white slave owners considered it dangerous for blacks to receive an education. But after the Emancipation Proclamation, young Charles taught himself to read and write. He moved to Philadelphia, where he worked as a janitor in a small church, attending school in the evenings and taking a correspondence course. He mastered Hebrew and Greek, largely on his own, and prepared himself for Christian ministry.

In 1902 he became the pastor of the church where he had once worked as a janitor. It grew steadily under his leadership, until, at the time of his death, it had 12,500 members. Most unusually for the time, it was an integrated congregation, with both blacks and whites serving in leadership positions. In spite of Pastor Tindley’s objections, the church was renamed the Tindley Temple Methodist Church.

As well as being a busy pastor, Charles Tindley wrote a number of fine gospel songs. In fact, he is considered one of the founding fathers of American gospel music. Twenty years after his death, his son Elbert and his wife Hazel ministered in music in our church in Ontario, singing some of the songs written by his father.

Charles Tindley wrote We’ll Understand It Better By and By. And his song I’ll Overcome Some Day became the inspiration for the secular Civil Rights song We Shall Overcome. Some of his songs grew out of incidents in his daily life. Pastor Tindley was working in his study one day when a puff of wind from the open window blew some papers over the notes he was jotting down. The thought came to him, “Let nothing between,” and the idea for a song was born. I have an old recording of son Albert singing it, and I can still see his shining face as I listen.

Nothing between my soul and the Saviour,
Naught of this world’s delusive dream;
I have renounced all sinful pleasure;
Jesus is mine, there’s nothing between.

Graphic Sack Full

On another occasion, a worried believer came to see Tindley, pouring out all his troubles and complaints. The pastor offered this counsel, based on I Pet. 5:7, “Put all your troubles in a sack, take ‘em to the Lord, and leave ‘em there!” Out of that conversation grew the hymn Leave It There. In succeeding stanzas, he lists several kinds of difficulty we can commit to the Lord in prayer: financial distress, illness and pain, hurts caused by others, and the problems of old age.

If the world from you withhold of its silver and its gold,
An you have to get along with meagre fare,
Just remember, in His Word, how He feeds the little bird;
Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.

Leave it there, leave it there,
Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.
If you trust and never doubt,
He will surely bring you out.
Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.

Here’s a link to a unique rendering of Leave It There. From 1927 to 1929, black gospel singer and songwriter Washington Phillips recorded a series of 18 songs. His style is unmistakably his own. And the instrument he plays has remained something of a mystery. It has a zither-like sound, but some have concluded it must have been a homemade stringed instrument he invented himself.

(2) More from Isaac Watts

Isaac Watts is so significant to English hymnody that I wanted to include a hymn here or there that was not tied to a particular date. There Is a Land of Pure Delight came to mind. As he sat in his home at Southampton, looking out across the water at the green verdure of the Isle of Wight, he thought of the glories of heaven that await the believer beyond the “narrow sea” of death.

There is a land of pure delight,
Where saints immortal reign;
Infinite day excludes the night,
And pleasures banish pain.

There everlasting spring abides,
And never withering flowers:
Death, like a narrow sea, divides
This heav’nly land from ours.

Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood
Stand dressed in living green:
So to the Jews old Canaan stood,
While Jordan rolled between.

But timorous mortals start and shrink
To cross this narrow sea;
And linger, shivering on the brink,
And fear to launch away.

O could we make our doubts remove,
Those gloomy doubts that rise,
And see the Canaan that we love
With unbeclouded eyes!

Could we but climb where Moses stood,
And view the landscape o’er,
Not Jordan’s stream, nor death’s cold flood,
Should fright us from the shore.

Today in 1817 – John Fawcett Died

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For seven years, John Fawcett served a small Baptist church in a village in Yorkshire, England. It was a time of great blessing, and Pastor Fawcett was loved by his congregation.

Beyond his own community, he was a recognized scholar, and even King George III wrote to express his appreciation for the young preacher. One day in 1772, he received an invitation to serve a much larger congregation in London. It was tempting. The financial support would be greater, and he admitted that was needed, because “my family increases faster than my income.”

After due consideration, and accepting the invitation with some misgivings, he preached his farewell sermon in the little church. Then, with wagons loaded with all their belongings, the family prepared to take their leave. The congregation gathered around to say goodbye. But suddenly Mrs. Fawcett broke into tears and cried, “O John, I cannot bear this. I know not how we can go!” “Nor I,” her husband replied. “Nor will we go. Unload the wagons!” A letter was sent off declining the new position, and Pastor Fawcett stayed an amazing fifty-four years serving in the little church.

It is believed that the bond of fellowship the church family experienced at that time led John Fawcett to write his hymn, Blest Be the Tie that Binds, published in 1782.

Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above.

When we asunder part,
It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart,
And hope to meet again.

Another fine hymn of Pastor Fawcett’s is Lord, Dismiss Us with Thy Blessing. The fact that there are several hymns with that opening line has led to some confusion about Fawcett’s authorship. But eminent historian John Julian seems to settle the matter in his Dictionary of Hymnology.

Lord, dismiss us with Thy blessing;
Fill our hearts with joy and peace;
Let us each Thy love possessing,
Triumph in redeeming grace.
O refresh us, O refresh us,
Traveling through this wilderness.

Thanks we give and adoration
For Thy gospel’s joyful sound;
May the fruits of Thy salvation
In our hearts and lives abound.
Ever faithful, ever faithful,
To the truth may we be found.

(2) Today in 1854 – Francis Rowley Born

The son of a doctor, Francis Harold Rowley became an ordained Baptist clergyman who, for about 30 years, served churches in several states in America. He was also greatly interested in animal welfare, wrote books on the subject, and was president of the Massachusetts S.P.C.A. for 35 years, being made chairman of the board at the age of 91. For his notable interest in both human and animal welfare, the Rowley School of Humanities at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta was named in his honour.

I Will Sing the Wondrous Story is the only hymn credited to Rowley. He was serving a church in Massachusetts at the time of writing it (around 1886). The church was holding a series of evangelistic meetings, assisted by gospel musician Peter Bilhorn. Pastor Rowley says, “One night, after the close of the service, he [Bilhorn] said, ‘Why don’t you write a hymn for me to set to music.’ During the night these most unpretentious and wholly unworthy verses came to me.”

Sometimes today the words are sung to the tune Hyfrydol.  It’s a truly great hymn tune, but my only concern is that it’s used for so many hymns. Most of the older hymn books still set the hymn to Peter Bilhorn’s original melody.

Years after Francis Rowley wrote the song, the author was walking down a street in London, late at night, and saw a group of Salvation Army people holding an open-air service. He says, “As I came nearer to them, it occurred to me that the hymn they were singing was familiar. Then it dawned upon me that it was this one.”

I will sing the wondrous story
Of the Christ Who died for me.
How He left His home in glory
For the cross of Calvary.

Yes, I’ll sing the wondrous story
Of the Christ Who died for me,
Sing it with the saints in glory,
Gathered by the crystal sea.

It is both a joy and a duty to sing the praises of our Saviour. David pledges, “I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify Your name forevermore. For great is Your mercy toward me, and You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol” (Ps. 86:12-13).

In eternity, the redeemed of the Lord will join in singing “by the crystal sea.” Observing those around the heavenly throne, John says, “They sang a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation’….Blessing and honour and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!” (Rev. 5:9, 13).

(3) Today in 1899 – Stuart Hine Born

Stuart Wesley Keene Hine was a British missionary who, with his wife, served in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Russia, until the outbreak of the Second World War. He made an English translation of a much-travelled hymn he had learned during his years of missionary service, adding to it a stanza of his own. The result was the now immensely popular hymn How Great Thou Art.

The Billy Graham team introduced it in North America at their Toronto Crusade in 1955. On a whim, soloist George Beverly Shea made a couple of changes in the opening stanza, believing they improved the song. “Works,” in the second line became “worlds,” and “mighty thunder,” in the third line became “rolling thunder.” Stuart Hine was not at all pleased with the tinkering, but he seems to have grudgingly accepted it in time.

O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works Thy hands have made,
I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder,
Thy pow’r throughout the universe displayed.
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

Today in 1725 – John Newton Born

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Newton’s story is among the better known in English hymnody. For years he was the blaspheming captain of a slave ship. But the Lord got hold of his life and everything changed. From that day until he died he never ceased to marvel at the “amazing grace” of God. Grace is God’s unmerited favour. It is God freely giving to us blessings we did not earn and do not deserve. And it was his overwhelming joy in that that led John Newton to write:

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.

What we commonly sing as the last stanza of this great hymn was not written by Newton. It was added later. In fact, we do not know who wrote it. But it does provide a great summing up of the song. Because of God’s wonderful grace, we have not only the forgiveness of our sins now, but the prospect of eternal joy and blessing in His presence in the heavenly kingdom. And,

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun.

When almost 40 years of age Newton became the pastor of the Anglican church in the little English village of Olney. Renowned poet William Cowper was a member of his congregation. Together, they produced a new hymn book, Olney Hymns, in 1779. Newton contributed 280 of the hymn texts, and Cowper 68. Quite a few of Newton’s hymns still appear in hymnals today. Among them:

Amazing Grace
Come, My Soul, Thy Suit Prepare
Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken
How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds
I Saw One Hanging on the Tree
May the Grace of Christ Our Saviour
Safely Through Another Week

Graphic How Sweet the Name of Jesus

In the accompanying picture you can see the first 3 stanzas of How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds, exactly as they appear in 1779’s Olney Hymns. Notice that the lower case “s” in those days was sometimes printed similarly to the letter “f,” making the text look decidedly odd to the modern reader. (The heading refers to the words of the Song of Solomon 1:3, “Your name is ointment poured forth.”)

The original of Stanza 5 of this hymn begins, “Jesus! My Shepherd, Husband, Friend.” And in spite of the fact that the Bible portrays Christ as the heavenly Bridegroom, and the church as His bride (cf. II Cor. 11:2; Rev. 19:7-9), most editors today substitute the word Brother for Husband.

However, they may possibly have missed Newton’s intention. As a former sea captain, he would have known that the man in charge of the ship’s food stores and provisions back then was called the ship’s husband. It may have been in the sense of being our heavenly Provider that the term was originally meant to apply to Christ.

John Newton’s testimony was much like that of the Apostle Paul whose reputation in the early church was, “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy” (Gal. 1:23). Both men were objects of God’s amazing grace!

(2) Today in 1954 – James McConnell Died

As a child in the early 1950s, I can recall watching a television show called “Smilin’ Ed’s Gang,” sponsored by Buster Brown Shoes, and starring “Smilin’ Ed McConnell.” The show featured stories and songs, and an impudent puppet called Froggy the Gremlin. James Edwin McConnell had originated the show on radio, and brought it briefly to television, before his death in 1954. (Actor Andy Devine took over the show from there.)

But Mr. McConnell had a more serious side. The son of a Baptist pastor, he was involved in evangelistic work, singing, playing the piano, and leading choirs at the meetings. In addition, he hosted radio programs of hymns. And he wrote the tunes (and sometimes the words as well) for a number of gospel songs.

One of these is the 1921 song Jesus is a Friend of Mine (not to be confused with He’s a Friend of Mine, by John Sammis and Daniel Towner). James McConnell provided the music for Avis Christiansen’s text. You can see the song and hear the melody on the Cyber Hymnal.

I’ve a blest Companion ever at my side;
He’s my Lord and Saviour, and He’s my Guide;
I am trusting daily in His love divine;
He’s a Friend of mine.

Jesus is a Friend of mine,
Friend of mine, a Friend of mine;
Sweeter ever sweeter, is His love divine;
Jesus is a Friend of mine.

When I meet temptations Jesus bears me through,
Gives me blessèd vict’ry and keeps me true;
Heaven’s golden sunlight round my path doth shine;
He’s a Friend of mine.

Today in 1846 – William Featherstone Born

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William Ralph (sometimes spelled Rolf) Featherstone lived with his family in Montreal. They attended the Wesleyan Methodist church there (now called St. James United Church). And there is some question about the years of his birth and death. Some list them as 1842-1870, others 1846-1873. It will be seen that in either case he died while still a young man in his late twenties.

Featherstone wrote the hymn My Jesus, I Love Thee when he was 16 years old, likely at the time of his conversion. He sent a copy to his aunt in California, and it was she who suggested he have it published. Reportedly, his descendants still treasure the original manuscript of the hymn.

A Methodist hymnal published early in the twentieth century has an interesting difference in the wording of the first stanza from what we’re familiar with today. It reads:

My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine!
For Thee all the pleasures of sin I resign;
My gracious Redeemer, my Saviour art Thou.
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now!

“Pleasures,” rather than today’s word “follies” likely follows the author’s original. It fits the statement in Hebrews, where we read that Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God “than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin” (Heb. 11:25). It can be argued that young Featherstone knew what he was doing, and the original, with its resignation of sinful pleasures, makes good sense.

(2) Today in 1847 – Lizzie DeArmond Born

Lizzie Douglas Foulks DeArmond was a school teacher who lived in Pennsylvania. She served the Lord in the children’s department of her Sunday School. DeArmond had enjoyed writing since her earliest years, but it was not until she found herself a widow in 1923, with 8 children to support, that she focused on this as a means both of ministry and livelihood. She produced children’s hymns, recitations, exercises, dialogues and so on, along with articles for newspapers and magazines, the text for cantatas, nature stories and more.

Mrs. DeArmond wrote of her work, “If anything I have written has helped to lift one soul above the cares and worries of everyday life, and brought it nearer to the great loving heart of Jesus, the joy is mine, but the glory belongs to God.” It was out of her grief over the death of her daughter that Lizzie DeArmond wrote the touching gospel song, Good Night and Good Morning.

When comes to the weary a blessèd release,
When upward we pass to His kingdom of peace,
When free from the woes that on earth we must bear,
We’ll say “good night” here, but “good morning” up there.

Good morning up there where Christ is the Light,
Good morning up there where cometh no night;
When we step from this earth to God’s heaven so fair,
We’ll say “good night” here but “good morning” up there.

(3) Today in 1856 – Frederick Graves Born

Frederick Arthur Graves was troubled from childhood with epileptic seizures–though they appear to have stopped for a time in his adult years. In his sixties, he became an ordained minister with the Assemblies of God. Graves wrote a number of gospel songs, including Honey in the Rock in 1895.

I can recall a student in the Bible college where I taught discovering this song in a hymn book and wondering aloud (with something of a superior smirk) where such an odd idea came from. He was surprised to learn it was taken from the Scriptures. In the rugged Holy Land, bees build nests wherever they can, often hiving in a crevice of some rocky cliff. And when God gave His people “honey from the rock” (Deut. 32:13; Ps. 81:16) it was a way of showing that they could trust Him to provide for them, even in the most unlikely places and circumstances.

Graves takes the rock as a symbol of Christ, and speaks of the richness of spiritual provision found in Him.

O my brother, do you know the Saviour,
Who is wondrous kind and true?
He’s the “Rock of your salvation!”
There’s honey in the Rock for you.

Oh, there’s honey in the Rock, my brother,
There’s honey in the Rock for you;
Leave your sins for the blood to cover,
There’s honey in the Rock for you.

Today in 1836 – Emily Elliot Born

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Emily Elizabeth Steele Elliot was the niece of Charlotte Elliot, author of the hymn Just As I Am. She wrote a number of hymns for the church in England where her father served as pastor. Elliot published a book called Under the Pillow containing 48 of her hymns. It was designed for the use of those in hospitals and infirmaries.

The one song of hers in common use today is the Christmas hymn Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne. It reminds us of the infinite condescension required for God the Son to take on our humanity. Though “being in the form of God, [He] did not consider it robbery [a thing to be clutched and held on to] to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:6-7).

The third stanza, a touching reference to Christ’s words in Luke 9:58, is sometimes omitted from our hymn books. It says:

The foxes found rest, and the birds their nest
In the shade of the forest tree;
But Thy couch was the sod, O Thou Son of God,
In the deserts of Galilee.

(2) Today in 1855 – Louis Benson Born

Dr. Louis Fitzgerald Benson practiced law for seven years. Then, after seminary training, he became a Presbyterian pastor. However, his most lasting contribution to the church at large is likely his scholarly work in the area of hymnology. Considered one of the leading authorities on the hymns of the Christian church, he had a private library of some 9,000 volumes on the subject, writing extensively on hymn history himself. Louis Benson wrote a number of hymns, and provided English translations of the work of others. One of his own is O Sing a Song of Bethlehem.

O sing a song of Bethlehem, of shepherds watching there,
And of the news that came to them from angels in the air:
The light that shone on Bethlehem fills all the world today;
Of Jesus’ birth and peace on earth the angels sing alway.

He said that the ideal hymn should have the qualities of: reverence, spiritual reality, beauty, and cheerfulness. In his classic work The Hymnody of the Christian Church, he says:

Hymnody, then, is a spiritual function, and its welfare proceeds from the heart. Nevertheless its congregational expression needs guidance and thoughtful ordering, as much now as at Corinth in the days of St. Paul.

What Makes a Good Hymn?: To learn of several other factors that work together to make a good quality hymn, take a look at my article on the subject.

(3) Today in 1865 – Peter Bilhorn Born

American gospel musician and evangelist Peter Philip Bilhorn had a remarkable career in many respects. His family was Bavarian, and their original name was Pulhorn. This was changed officially by a judge named Abraham Lincoln (before he became president). With his older brother, Bilhorn established the Eureka Wagon and Carriage Works, in Chicago. He also had a marvellous singing voice, and entertained in the concert halls and beer gardens in the area. But when he came to Christ, he determined to use his gifts in the service of the Lord.

Bilhorn became a much-travelled evangelist, also serving as a song leader in the early ministry of Billy Sunday. At the World’s Christian Endeavour Convention in London’s Crystal Palace, he conducted a choir of 4,000 voices. On the invitation of Queen Victoria, he sang several of his own songs in the chapel at Buckingham Palace.

Graphic Bilhorn Organ

Seeing the need for a small portable pump organ that could be used in street meetings and on the mission field, Peter Bilhorn designed and built one himself. The small but powerful organ folded down into a unit about the size of a large suitcase. The Bilhorn Brothers Organ Company grew from this, and they sold a variety of models worldwide. (I can recall playing an organ of this type in Sunday School, many years ago.) The inventor turned all his profits from their sale back into the Lord’s work.

One time, while conducting meetings in Wisconsin, the evangelist retired to his room for the night, but could not sleep. He felt compelled to take his folding organ and go out into the bitter cold. Walking down a street, he saw a gleam of light in a basement window. When he knocked, he was admitted to a room where a group of men were gambling. He set up his organ and began to sing. As a result of this bold ministry, six men trusted in the Saviour that night.

Peter Bilhorn wrote around 2,000 gospel songs, sometimes providing the tune for others, as he did for I Will Sing the Wondrous Story, and other times writing both words and music himself, as for Sweet Peace, the Gift of God’s Love. The ensemble below plays the tune of the latter hymn.

There comes to my heart one sweet strain,
A glad and a joyous refrain,
I sing it again and again,
Sweet peace, the gift of God’s love.

Peace, peace, sweet peace,
Wonderful gift from above,
Oh, wonderful, wonderful peace,
Sweet peace, the gift of God’s love.

Through Christ on the cross peace was made,
My debt by His death was all paid,
No other foundation is laid.
For peace, the gift of God’s love.

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