Read Ebook: The Story of the Hymns and Tunes by Brown Theron Butterworth Hezekiah

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Ebook has 1940 lines and 139361 words, and 39 pages

s not the whole of life to live Nor all of death to die.

Nor the haunting sweetness of--

There is a calm for those who weep.

Nor, indeed, the hymn of Christian love just now before us.

The melody exactly suited to the gentle trochaic step of the home-song, "People of the living God," is "Whitman," composed for it by Lowell Mason. Few Christians, in America, we venture to say, could hear an instrument play "Whitman" without mentally repeating Montgomery's words.

"TO LEAVE MY DEAR FRIENDS."

This hymn, called "The Bower of Prayer," was dear to Christian hearts in many homes and especially in rural chapel worship half a century ago and earlier, and its sweet legato melody still lingers in the memories of aged men and women.

Elder John Osborne, a New Hampshire preacher of the "Christian" denomination, is said to have composed the tune about 1815--though apparently the music was arranged from a flute interlude in one of Haydn's themes. The warbling notes of the air are full of heart-feeling, and usually the best available treble voice sang it as a solo.

To leave my dear friends and from neighbors to part, And go from my home, it affects not my heart Like the thought of absenting myself for a day From that blest retreat I have chosen to pray, I have chosen to pray.

The early shrill notes of the loved nightingale That dwelt in the bower, I observed as my bell: It called me to duty, while birds in the air Sang anthems of praises as I went to prayer, As I went to prayer.

How sweet were the zephyrs perfumed by the pine, The ivy, the balsam, the wild eglantine, But sweeter, O, sweeter superlative were The joys that I tasted in answer to prayer, In answer to prayer.

"SAVIOUR, THY DYING LOVE."

Saviour, Thy dying love Thou gavest me, Nor should I aught withhold Dear Lord, from Thee.

Give me a faithful heart, Likeness to Thee, That each departing day Henceforth may see Some work of love begun, Some deed of kindness done, Some wand'rer sought and won, Something for Thee.

Rev. Sylvester Dryden Phelps, D.D., was born in Suffield, Ct., May 15, 1816, and studied at the Connecticut Literary Institution in that town. An early call to the ministry turned his talents to the service of the church, and his long settlement--comprising what might be called his principal life work--was in New Haven, where he was pastor of the First Baptist church twenty-nine years. He died there Nov. 23, 1895.

The Rev. Robert Lowry admired the hymn, and gave it a tune perfectly suited to its metre and spirit. It has never been sung in any other. The usual title of it is "Something for Jesus." The meaning and sentiment of both words and music are not unlike Miss Havergal's--

I gave my life for thee.

"IN SOME WAY OR OTHER."

In some way or other the Lord will provide. It may not be my way, It may not be thy way, And yet in His own way The Lord will provide.

Sei's so oder anders, der Herr wird's versehn; Mag's nicht sein, wie ich will, Mag's nicht sein, wie du willst, Doch wird's sein, wie Er will: Der Herr wird's versehn.

In the English version the easy flow of the two last lines into one sentence is an example of rhythmic advantage over the foreign syntax.

Mrs. Cook was married to the well-known clergyman and editor, Parsons Cook, in Bridgeport, Ct., and survived him at his death in Lynn, Mass. She was Miss Martha Ann Woodbridge, afterwards Mrs. Hawley, and a widow at the time of her re-marriage as Mr. Cook's second wife.

"NEARER, MY GOD, TO THEE."

"Nearer, My God, to Thee" was on the lips of President McKinley as he lay dying by a murderer's wicked shot. It is dear to President Roosevelt for its memories of the battle of Las Quasimas, where the Rough Riders sang it at the burial of their slain comrades. Bishop Marvin was saved by it from hopeless dejection, while practically an exile during the Civil War, by hearing it sung in the wilds of Arkansas, by an old woman in a log hut.

A letter from Pittsburg, Pa., to a leading Boston paper relates the name and experience of a forger who had left the latter city and wandered eight years a fugitive from justice. On the 5th of November, 1905, he found himself in Pittsburg, and ventured into the Dixon Theatre, where a religious service was being held, to hear the music. The hymn "Nearer, My God, to Thee" so overcame him that he went out weeping bitterly. He walked the floor of his room all night, and in the morning telephoned for the police, confessed his name and crime, and surrendered himself to be taken back to the Boston authorities.

Mrs. Sarah Flower Adams, author of the noble hymn , was born at Harlow, Eng., Feb. 22, 1805, and died there in 1848. At her funeral another of her hymns was sung, ending--

When falls the shadow, cold in death I yet will sing with fearless breath, As comes to me in shade or sun, "Father, Thy will, not mine, be done."

In English churches the hymn was and may still be sung to "Horbury," composed by Rev. John B. Dykes, and "St. Edmund," by Sir Arthur Sullivan. Both tunes are simple and appropriate, but such a hymn earns and inevitably acquires a single tune-voice, so that its music instantly names it by its words when played on instruments. Such a voice was given it by Lowell Mason's "Bethany," . "Bethany" appealed to the popular heart, and long ago hymn and tune became each other's property. It is even simpler than the English tunes, and a single hearing fixes it in memory.

"I NEED THEE EVERY HOUR."

Mrs. Annie Sherwood Hawks, who wrote this hymn in 1872, was born in Hoosick, N.Y., in 1835.

She sent the hymn to Dr. Lowry, who composed its tune, adding a chorus, to make it more effective. It first appeared in a small collection of original songs prepared by Lowry and Doane for the National Baptist Sunday School Association, which met at Cincinnati, O., November, 1872, and was sung there.

I need Thee every hour, Most gracious Lord, No tender voice like Thine Can peace afford.

CHORUS. I need Thee, Oh, I need Thee, Every hour I need Thee; Oh, bless me now, my Saviour, I come to Thee!

One instance, at least, of a hymn made doubly impressive by its chorus will be attested by all who have sung or heard the pleading words and music of Mrs. Hawks' and Dr. Lowry's "I need Thee, Oh, I need Thee."

"I GAVE MY LIFE FOR THEE."

This was written in her youth by Frances Ridley Havergal, and was suggested by the motto over the head of Christ in the great picture, "Ecce Homo," in the Art Gallery of Dusseldorf, Prussia, where she was at school. The sight--as was the case with young Count Zinzendorf--seems to have had much to do with the gifted girl's early religious experience, and indeed exerted its influence on her whole life. The motto read "I did this for thee; what doest thou for me?" and the generative effect of the solemn picture and its question soon appeared in the hymn that flowed from Miss Havergal's heart and pen.

I gave my life for thee, My precious blood I shed, That thou might'st ransomed be And quickened from the dead. I gave my life for thee: What hast thou given for me?

The music that has made this hymn of Miss Havergal familiar in America is named from its first line, and was composed by the lamented Philip P. Bliss , a pupil of Dr. George F. Root.

He was born in Rome, Pa., Jan. 9, 1838, and less than thirty-nine years later suddenly ended his life, a victim of the awful railroad disaster at Ashtabula O., Dec. 29, 1876, while returning from a visit to his aged mother. His wife, Lucy Young Bliss, perished with him there, in the swift flames that enveloped the wreck of the train.

"JESUS KEEP ME NEAR THE CROSS."

This hymn, one of the best and probably most enduring of Fanny J. Crosby's sacred lyrics, was inspired by Col. 1:29.

Frances Jane Crosby the blind poet and hymnist, was born in Southeast, N.Y., March 24, 1820. She lost her eyesight at the age of six. Twelve years of her younger life were spent in the New York Institution for the Blind, where she became a teacher, and in 1858 was happily married to a fellow inmate, Mr. Alexander Van Alstyne, a musician.

George F. Root was for a time musical instructor at the Institution, and she began early to write words to his popular song-tunes. "Rosalie, the Prairie Flower," and the long favorite melody, "There's Music in the Air" are among the many to which she supplied the text and the song name.

She resides in Bridgeport, Ct., where she enjoys a serene and happy old age. She has written over six thousand hymns, and possibly will add other pearls to the cluster before she goes up to join the singing saints.

Jesus, keep me near the Cross, There a precious Fountain Free to all, a healing stream, Flows from Calv'ry's mountain.

CHORUS. In the Cross, in the Cross Be my glory ever, Till my raptured soul shall find Rest beyond the river.

Near the Cross! O Lamb of God, Bring its scenes before me; Help me walk from day to day With its shadows o'er me.

CHORUS.

William Howard Doane, writer of the music to this hymn, was born in Preston, Ct., Feb. 3, 1831. He studied at Woodstock Academy, and subsequently acquired a musical education which earned him the degree of Doctor of Music conferred upon him by Denison University in 1875. Having a mechanical as well as musical gift, he patented more than seventy inventions, and was for some years engaged with manufacturing concerns, both as employee and manager, but his interest in song-worship and in Sunday-school and church work never abated, and he is well known as a trainer of choirs and composer of some of the best modern devotional tunes. His home is in Cincinnati, O.

"I WOULD NOT LIVE ALWAY."

This threnody of W.A. Muhlenberg, illustrating one phase of Christian experience, was the outpouring of a poetic melancholy not uncommon to young and finely strung souls. He composed it in his twenties,--long before he became "Doctor" Muhlenberg,--and for years afterwards tried repeatedly to alter it to a more cheerful tone. But the poem had its mission, and it had fastened itself in the public imagination, either by its contagious sentiment or the felicity of its tune, and the author was obliged to accept the fame of it as it originally stood.

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