T7. Reflections: Aug.17

7 August 2017

Father, Let Me Dedicate

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Words: Lawrence Tuttiett (b. Oct. 31, 1825; d. June 21, 1897)
Music: George Alexander Macfarren (b. Mar. 2, 1813; d. Oct. 31, 1887)

Links:
Wordwise Hymns
The Cyber Hymnal
Hymnary.org

Note: An English clergyman, Lawrence Tuttiett also wrote many hymns, though few of them are used today. He was married, and the couple had one daughter that I know of. Eminent hymn historian John Julian said of him:

“Mr. Tuttiett’s hymns are characterized by smoothness of rhythm, direction of aim, simplicity of language, and deep earnestness.”

For some, stepping from December 31 into January 1 is not particularly significant. Just another day gone by, just a bit more water under the bridge. After all, it’s only a traditional division, not a real one. Other cultures and calendars start their new year in a different place. The Chinese New Year varies, falling each year some time between January 21 and February 21.

In Canada and the United States it seems that New Year’s Eve has become a time of overindulging and partying–for many, the bigger and wilder the better. Then, those giddy party-goers waken, late the next day, with a nauseating headache–and with the revelries of the night before regretted, or only vaguely remembered.

Not that I speak from experience.

Our family parties over the years, both on the eve of the new year and on the day itself, were enjoyable–and alcohol free–gatherings of friends and family that I can recall with fondness and joy, even many decades later. And in between a New Year’s Eve party, and the celebrations of the next day, came a Watchnight Service at the church.

Bidding farewell to the old year, and welcoming the new, in the house of God with other like-minded Christians–what a special blessing that was. To look back on God’s provisions in days and months past, and His sustaining grace in difficult times. Then to look ahead with renewed faith, leaning on the Lord for whatever the future may bring. All present seemed to be greatly encouraged by that.

And there are some wonderful New Year’s hymns that put these things into memorable lines of verse. Even if they are not in your present hymnal, you could print them up and distribute them, as they’re in the public domain.

Another Year Is Dawning (Frances Havergal)
Standing at the Portal (Frances Havergal)
How Sweet the Hour (Fanny Crosby)

The latter song is sung to the tune of Auld Lang Syne, and it reminds us that “Through faith in Jesus’ precious blood, we all shall meet in heav’n.”

The Bible uses the words year or years hundreds of times. There we learn that the rolling seasons are marked by the movement of the stars (Gen. 1:14). We see that the eternal God, who exists outside of time, counts time differently from what we do (Ps. 90:4; II Pet. 3:8). “You [God] are the same, and Your years will have no end” (Ps. 102:27). In comparison, mortal life for us is brief. As Job put it, “When a few years are finished, I shall go the way of no return” (Job 16:22).

In spite of life’s brevity and many trials, the psalmist says, “You crown the year with Your goodness” (Ps. 65:11). And we are encouraged to begin in our earliest years to remember from whom our blessings come. “Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come, and the years draw near when you say, ‘I have no pleasure in them'” (Ecc. 12:1). In a commitment to that we declare, “I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving” (Ps. 69:30), and look forward to His sustaining grace in the days ahead.

Lawrence Tuttiett certainly believed in that. Here is his hymn for the new year, a commitment to starting well.

CH-1) Father, let me dedicate, all this year to Thee,
In whatever worldly state Thou wilt have me be:
Not from sorrow, pain or care, freedom dare I claim;
This alone shall be my prayer, / glorify Thy name.

CH-2) Can a child presume to choose where or how to live?
Can a Father’s love refuse all the best to give?
More Thou givest every day than the best can claim
Nor withholdest aught that may glorify Thy name.

CH-4) If Thou callest to the cross, and its shadow come,
Turning all my gain to loss, shrouding heart and home;
Let me think how Thy dear Son to His glory came,
And in deepest woe pray on, “Glorify Thy name.”

Questions:
1) What experiences have you had over the past year that show the love and faithfulness of God?

2) What are you trusting the Lord to do in your life over the coming year?

Links:
Wordwise Hymns
The Cyber Hymnal
Hymnary.org

4 August 2017

Father, I Know That All My Life

Robert Cottrill T7. Reflections: Aug.17

Words: Anna Laetitia Waring (b. Apr. 19, 1823; d. May 10, 1910)
Music: Brother James’ Air, by James Leith Macbeth Bain (b. Nov. 21, 1860; d. _____, 1925)

Links:
Wordwise Hymns (Anna Waring)
The Cyber Hymnal
Hymnary.org

Note: Anna Laetitia Waring was born into a Quaker family in Wales, but at the age of nineteen she joined the Anglican church. We know only a little about her. She apparently led a quiet, godly life, and was active in charitable work, especially with the Discharged Prisoners’ Aid Society. Having mastered Hebrew as a young girl, she delighted in reading daily from Psalms in their original language. Miss Waring also wrote hymns. The most familiar today is In Heavenly Love Abiding, a meditation on Psalm 23.

There are some oddities with the metre of the present hymn, and with the text adjusted to it, as it appears in the Cyber Hymnal. The metre is ostensibly 8.6.8.6.8.6, but that is not what the text has there. For example, line 3 of stanza 6 reads, “I would have my spirit filled the more” (9 beats), when it should be 8–“I’d have my spirit filled the more.”

I found earlier versions of the hymn better fitted to that metre, and a tune that suits it. To Brother James’ Air, by Scotsman James Bain, I sang The Lord’s My Shepherd, in a male choir, many years ago. The text I’ve given of the present hymn fits that melody well. (You can listen to the tune here, and print a copy of the music.)

We live in a world that often promotes bigness as equaling “betterness” (to coin a word), and as something to be preferred. Littleness, by this measure, is inferior or insignificant.

It comes up in the food we eat. We can get the super large drink, or order a hamburger piled so high it defies any attempt to get it in our mouths. Bigness is touted in sports, too. Heavier football players, taller basketball players. And people crave bigger houses–often beyond their needs or their means. Then there’s bigness in the military: bigger ships, bigger guns, bigger rockets. And there’s bigger entertainment: bigger shows, bigger movies and bigger stars.

But bigness doesn’t necessarily insure quality or effectiveness. Nor is it always to be preferred. Do you prefer a big debt, or a small debt? A big, crippling, life-shortening disease, or a small bruise? And small things can do wonders. When my wife had cataract surgery, we saw one of the tiny lenses they insert in the eye. So small! But what a big difference those lenses have made!

In the Scriptures, the Lord warns many times about not having an inflated idea of ourselves.

“Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Prov. 26:12).

“I say…to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith” (Rom. 12:3).

The Pharisees of Jesus’ day had a problem with this. They prided themselves in their religiosity, but it was often a hollow and hypocritical sham. While they made a big show of charitable giving, or praying in public (Matt. 6:2, 5), they were ready to “devour widows houses” without scruple (Matt. 23:14). Their religion was only skin deep; they had no personal heart relationship with God. The Lord compared them to “whitewashed tombs” (Matt. 23:27).

How much better to realize our own smallness before God. The Bible says, “He remembers that we are dust” (Ps. 103:14)–and dust is pretty helpless stuff. As Christ put it, “Without Me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5). But the great blessing of our smallness and weakness before God is that our lives reveal His power, to His greater glory (II Cor. 12:9). “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (Jas. 4:6).

Anna Waring’s song expresses her humility, and a willingness to fill a small and unheralded place of service, in the will of God. Note the insightful fifth line in stanza 2, “A heart at leisure from itself”–which I take to mean not dwelling on Me, and my accomplishments.

1) Father, I know that all my life
Is portioned out for me,
And changes that are sure to come
I do not fear to see;
I ask Thee for a present mind
Intent on pleasing Thee.

2) I ask Thee for a thoughtful love,
Through constant watching wise,
To meet the glad with joyful smiles,
And wipe the weeping eyes;
A heart at leisure from itself,
To soothe and sympathize.”

3) I would not have the restless will
That hurries to and fro,
Seeking for some great thing to do
Or secret thing to know;
I would be treated as a child,
And guided where I go.

5) I ask Thee for the daily strength,
To none who ask denied,
A mind to blend with outward life
While keeping at Thy side;
Content to fill a little space,
If Thou be glorified.

Questions:
1) What gifts do you have that the Lord has given? And how are you using them?

2) What does the author mean by saying, “I would be treated as a child”?

Links:
Wordwise Hymns (Anna Waring)
The Cyber Hymnal
Hymnary.org

2 August 2017

Come, Said Jesus’ Sacred Voice

Robert Cottrill T7. Reflections: Aug.17

Words: Anna Laetitia Akin Barbauld (b. June 20, 1743; d. Mar. 9,1825)
Music: Forgiveness, by George Mursell Garrett (b. June 8, 1834; d. Apr. 9, 1897)

Links:
Wordwise Hymns
The Cyber Hymnal
Hymnary.org

Note: Anna Laetitia Akin was the daughter of a pastor in England. A child prodigy, at the age of two, she was able to read simple stories, and by three she was reading as well as most adults. Her understanding of the Scriptures also grew quickly.

An incident when she was five reveals her precociousness in the latter. Her father spoke to another man about the angels in heaven, saying that their joy and happiness was complete, and they therefore could not experience more, since they were perfectly happy already. But little Anna piped up, “Papa, I think you are mistaken,” reminding him of the text that says, “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents” (Lk. 15:7, 10).

By the age of twenty, Anna Aikin had mastered French, Italian, Latin, and Greek, and she became a classics tutor, and a hymn writer. She married a pastor and teacher named Rochement Barbauld, but it was not a happy union. He developed a violent temper which turned into full insanity. When he attacked his wife with a knife, she had him committed to an asylum. He later escaped, and finally committed suicide.

Have you ever watched an ant hill. Those little creatures are constantly coming and going. A steady procession leaves the nest to forage for food, and the ants return, sometimes carrying loads that seem far too great for their size.

On a much larger scale there is continual coming and going all over the world. Whether it’s cars and trucks on busy highways and along city streets, or the streams of people in malls and stores, there is much coming and going. We are each busy with the tasks before us day by day.

Though they did not possess motorized vehicles, it was much the same in Bible times. And God’s Word promised His people Israel, “The Lord shall preserve [guard] your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore” (Ps. 121:8). In the New Testament, after Christ’s disciples had a busy time of ministry, we read, “He said to them, ‘Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.’ For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat” (Mk. 6:31).

There is a spiritual coming and going as well, and it relates to each one of us. We come to the Lord seeking His grace and mercy, and go out to live for Him and serve Him. To come to the Lord in faith, seeking His help and blessing, will find us abundantly rewarded. Using the symbolism of water to picture the life-giving work of the Spirit of God, Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink” (Jn. 7:37-39; cf. 4:14).

But many, in the days of Christ’s earthly ministry, followed Him for awhile and then deserted Him. When that happened, “Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you also want to go away?’ But Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life’” (Jn. 6:67-68). To depart from the Lord is to leave the place of blessing and take the path of unbelief and disobedience. In terms of a search for eternal salvation, turning our back on Christ can only be eternal condemnation (Matt. 7:23; 25:41).

But we as believers need to come to Him too. The invitation is still open to respond to the Lord’s summons, “Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). Anna Barbauld wrote a hymn inspired by that verse, during her years after the terrible distress and danger caused by her husband’s insanity.

Her hymn, which she entitled The Gracious Call, shows that she found comfort in the Lord.

CH-1) “Come,” said Jesus’ sacred voice,
“Come, and make My paths your choice;
I will guide you to your home,
Weary pilgrim, hither come.

CH-2) “Thou who, houseless, sole, forlorn,
Long hast borne the proud world’s scorn,
Long hast roamed the barren waste,
Weary pilgrim, hither haste.

CH-3) “Ye who, tossed on beds of pain,
Seek for ease, but seek in vain;
Ye whose swollen, sleepless eyes
Watch to see the morning rise.

CH-4) Ye, by fiercer anguish torn,
In remorse for guilt who mourn.
Here repose your heavy care:
Who the stings of guilt can bear?

CH-5) Hither come, for here is found
Balm that flows for every wound,
Peace that ever shall endure,
Rest eternal, sacred, sure.”

Questions:
1) In what personal circumstance have you found rest for your soul in the Lord?

2) Is there someone you know to whom you could bring words of comfort and assurance during a difficult time?

Links:
Wordwise Hymns
The Cyber Hymnal
Hymnary.org

19 July 2017

Lord, It Belongs Not to My Care

Robert Cottrill T7. Reflections: Aug.17

Words: Richard Baxter (b. Nov. 12, 1615; d. Dec. 8, 1691)
Music: Evan, by William Henry Havergal (b. Jan. 18, 1793; d. Apr. 19, 1870)

Links:
Wordwise Hymns (none)
The Cyber Hymnal
Hymnary.org

Note: In Baxter’s Poetical Fragments, this hymn is entitled “The Covenant and Confidence of Faith.” He noted, “This covenant, my dear wife, in her former sickness, subscribed with a cheerful will.” The hymn was sung to her in her last illness.

Either…or… The two words frame a choice. It may be a choice of little consequence, such as which pair of socks to wear that day, or which flavour of ice cream to have. But there are decisions that are clearly more important. Which college to attend, which job to take, which person to marry.

And there are those on our planet who face, almost every day, the effects of a choice more critical still, laying their lives on the line for the work or cause they’ve committed to. In military conflicts, in law enforcement, in fire fighting, life threatening situations are faced many times. The dedication of the men and women involved is heroic, and it needs our appreciation and support.

Something that’s less in the daily news, but just as significant, in some countries today Christians face persecution for their faith in Christ. This can take the form of shunning by family and friends, the loss of a job or refusal of community services, and beyond that, imprisonment, torture, and even death. It has been so since the beginning. Many believers, in the early church, were persecuted and killed because they were followers of Christ.

Polycarp (circa AD 69-155), is an example. Said to be a disciple of the Apostle John, he became the bishop of the church at Smyrna. But he was burned at the stake for refusing to burn incense in worship of the emperor–who claimed to be a god. Before his death, Polycarp boldly bore witness to his faith in the following way.

“Eighty and six years I have served Him [the Lord], and He has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King and Saviour? You threaten me with a fire that burns for a season, and after a little while is quenched; but you are ignorant of the fire of everlasting punishment that is prepared for the wicked.”

The Apostle Paul understood the opposition Christians face. From a Roman prison cell he wrote:

“[I know] according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Phil. 1:20-21).

“Whether by life or by death”–either…or, I’m devoted to Christ. Centuries later, it was the same for English clergyman Richard Baxter. A deeply spiritual man, he was also a prolific author and a devoted pastor. He preached and wrote without compromise, speaking out with holy boldness against wrongs.

On one occasion he was brought to trial on the false charge of “libeling the church.” When the corrupt Chief Justice taunted him with, “Richard, I see the rogue in thy face,” Baxter retorted, “I had not known before that my face was a mirror!”

As a result of this trial Baxter spent eighteen months in prison. Afterward, though warned not to preach, he continued as before. But he “preached as never sure to preach again.” And he has given us a beautiful hymn, based on the words of Paul quoted above.

CH-1) Lord, it belongs not to my care
Whether I die or live;
To love and serve Thee is my share,
And this Thy grace must give.

CH-2) If life be long, I will be glad,
That I may long obey;
If short, yet why should I be sad
To welcome endless day?

CH-3) Christ leads me through no darker rooms
Than He went through before;
He that unto God’s kingdom comes
Must enter by this door.

Of the prospect of heaven Baxter’s hymn says:

CH-5) Then I shall end my sad complaints
And weary sinful days,
And join with the triumphant saints
That sing my Saviour’s praise.

CH-6) My knowledge of that life is small,
The eye of faith is dim;
But ’tis enough that Christ knows all,
And I shall be with Him.

Questions:
1) Why are Christians ready and willing to die when faced with the threat of death?

2) How should the possibility of opposition or persecution affect our daily lives?

Links:
Wordwise Hymns (none)
The Cyber Hymnal
Hymnary.org