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  1. Carol Blair
    16 December 2009 @ 12:16 pm

    One of my favorite things to do is find lost verses of well-known hymns — and then make them known to other hymn lovers. I’ve also had former Hymnology students send me “lost verse finds” — what a blessing. My favorite multi-stanzad hymns are:
    ** “The Sands of Time are Sinking,” 19 verses; Samuel Rutherford’s Scripture-filled longings for Heaven
    ** “Soldiers of Christ Arise,” 16 verses –Charles Wesley’s expository sermon in poetry form on Eph. 6:11-18;
    ** “O For a Thousand Tongues,” 17 verses — Charles Wesley’s personal testimony;
    ** “O God, Our Help in Ages Past,” 9 verses; Isaac Watts’ commentary on Psalm 90; a wonderful hymn to sing at the beginning of a new year.
    ** “O Worship the King,” 6 verses—Robert Grant’s commentary on Psalm 104. The 1991 Trinity Hymnal contains all 6.

    In the banner of this website is the hymn “It Is Well with My Soul,” with 6 verses. I have a fifth one, but it doesn’t seem to match the words that I can see, and I’ve never seen a sixth. Would you print the full text of the other two verses?

    Also, will you be doing any commentaries on Christmas carols on the blog?

    • rcottrill
      17 December 2009 @ 8:15 am

      Thanks for you comments Carol. Glad to hear there is someone else on the look-out for those rarely published verses! Hidden treasures! As to “It Is Well,” the following two stanzas come between the 3rd and the 4th (and final) as the hymn is most commonly printed.

      For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
      If Jordan above me shall roll,
      No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
      Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

      But, Lord, ‘tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
      The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
      Oh trump of the angel! Oh voice of the Lord!
      Blessèd hope, blessèd rest of my soul!

      Then comes “And Lord, haste the day…”

      Regarding commentaries on Christmas carols, there are a few, scattered through the year on the daily blog. This is because the blog is not organized topically or seasonally. It is an almanac, arranged by the date of either the author’s birth, death, conversion–or occasionally the date the song was first published.

      Further, I had to restrict what I said about the carols because I’ve presently got a book being published (as advertised here on the blog) that contains full articles on 63 carols, covering about 1600 years of church history. The material is now copyright, and I’d have to write completely new articles for the blog. There just isn’t time right now to do that. The publisher tried hard to get the book out for this Christmas, but it looks now as though it won’t quite make it. Anyway (small commercial here!) I encourage you to get a copy when it comes out. It will tell you about pretty much every carol in common use.

  2. Iggy Antiochus
    17 December 2009 @ 5:26 pm

    For “As with Gladness…” Lutheran Service Book and its predecessors included the final stanza. It works well with our celebration of the Epiphany Season.

    On the trivial side, I once tried matching “As with Gladness” to the John Rutter setting of “For the Beauty of the Earth.” Even though the two texts share the tune DIX in many hymnals, “As with Gladness” just doesn’t work so nicely in with the Rutter setting. It must have to do with the way he paints the text.

    BTW, speaking of missing verses, I think you will find a few of those for “For the Beauty of the Earth,” if you have not already featured them.

    • rcottrill
      17 December 2009 @ 6:27 pm

      You indicate an important point to keep in mind when switching tunes for a hymn. It is not simply a matter of the number of beats per line of poetry. The em-PHA-sis has to be on the right syl-LA-ble. And also, the mood of the tune may relate better to one text than another.

  3. Iggy Antiochus
    17 December 2009 @ 7:07 pm

    Yeah, that em-PHA-sis thing comes into play especially when there is an odd number of syl-LA-bles! The tune might start on the downbeat instead of the pick-up beat, and that changes everything when singing the text!

    BTW, Cyberhymnal has all the verses of “For the Beauty…”

    http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/f/b/fbeautye.htm

    One verse is Marian in nature (but not in worship to her) and another uses the peculiar phrase “For the lips of infancy.”

    • rcottrill
      17 December 2009 @ 7:21 pm

      Interesting stuff. I do a music seminar in which I demonstrate that switching tunes has to take these things into account. Just one suggestion, when you’re referring folks to the Cyber Hymnal, I encourage you to use the link I’ve provided here. My friend Dick Adams has worked diligently on the site for some 13 years. Over the years, I’ve had quite a bit of input as well. Then, someone came along, lifted all his material without permission, and simply set up a rival site. One characteristic of Dick’s is evident immediately. No advertising.

  4. Iggy Antiochus
    17 December 2009 @ 7:39 pm

    Thanks for the background on Cyber Hymnal. Apparently someone else owns cyberhymnal.org. Your link goes to hymntime.com. I am sorry if your friend was robbed of his work. I just compared my bookmark of “A Mighty Fortress” from hymntime.com with the link from “For the Beauty” provided above.

    No ads over at hymntime! If outright plagiarism doesn’t sell people, an ad-free website should.