Written April 30, 1868, at the request of W. H. Doane, composer of the tune to which it was to be sung. The hymn and tune were published first in Songs of Devotion for Christian Associations, 1870. It is a tender lyric which has given peace and satisfaction to many who have faced death and especially to mothers who have lost children.
Fanny Crosby, born in Putnam County, N. Y., became blind when six weeks old as the result of an application of a warm poultice to her eyes. She was educated in the New York (City) Institute for the Blind and there served as a teacher for a time. In 1858, she was married to Alexander van Alstyne, a blind musician. Miss Crosby began writing verses when a child of eight years and throughout her long life showed a marvelous facility for expression in poetry, which resulted in the writing of nearly 6,000 hymns besides many secular poems. Many of her hymns were written for W. H. Doane, Robert Lowry, Philip Phillips, Ira Sankey, and others who were editors of evangelistic song books. She is best known by her maiden name but also wrote under her married name and 216 noms de plume. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Ten of her hymns are in the Hymnary.
MUSIC. SAFE IN THE ARMS, also known as “Refuge,” was composed by William Howard Doane, 1832-1916, a manufacturer of wood-working machinery in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was a member of the Baptist Church and served many years as superintendent of the Sunday school in his church. A music enthusiast, he published 35 collections of song books and composed numerous hymn tunes, anthems, and cantatas. In 1875, Denison University, Granville, Ohio, conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Music.
Written by Margaret Mackay, wife of a distinguished officer in the English army. She composed numerous hymns and poems, but none is so widely known as this tender lyric so often used as a funeral hymn, which she entitled, “Burial of the Dead.” The hymn was suggested by an inscription she saw on a tombstone in the burying ground of Pennycross Chapel, a rural spot in Devonshire:
“Sleeping in Jesus.”
One stanza, the fifth, has been omitted. It reads:
Asleep in Jesus: time nor space
Debars this precious “hiding place.”
On Indian plains or Lapland snows
Believers find the same repose.
The hymn was first published in The Amethyst, 1832, in Edinburgh.
MUSIC. REST. For comments on the composer, William B. Bradbury, see Hymn 103.
Written for Church Hymns, 1871, by John Ellerton, distinguished hymnist of the Church of England. His biographer has written concerning this hymn:
We now come to the loveliest and most loved of Mr. Ellerton’s hymns. It has been sung and will continue to be sung at the graveside of princes, divines, statesmen, poets, artists, authors, as well as many a Christian labourer of humble life.
For comments on John Ellerton see Hymn 42.
MUSIC. REQUIESCAT was written for this hymn. It appeared first in Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1875. For comments on the composer, John B. Dykes, see Hymn 1.
This hymn, a source of comfort and courage to many mourners, was composed by Hosmer in 1888 for the Easter service in his own church in Cleveland, Ohio.
The note of triumph runs throughout the hymn, each stanza ending with a jubilant “Allelujah.” It was written to be sung with Palestrina’s tune, “Victory.”
For comments on Frederick Hosmer see Hymn 72.
MUSIC. VICTORY. For comments on this tune see Hymn 116.
The original, in eleven stanzas, was published in 1864 in Hymns for Saints’ Days, by a layman, Lord Nelson. One of the omitted stanzas reads:
For the Apostles’ glorious company
Who, bearing forth the Cross o’er land and sea,
Shook all the mighty world, we sing to Thee.
For comments on William How see Hymn 144.
MUSIC. SARUM. The tune was composed for the Sarum Hymnal, 1869, for these words by Bishop How. It is also known as “St. Philip” and “For All the Saints.”
For comments on the composer, Joseph Barnby, see Hymn 21.
Written in 1876 after the death by drowning of a young member of the church of which the author was minister.
For comments on the author, Frederick L. Hosmer, see Hymn 72.
MUSIC. ST. FLAVIAN is from the English Psalter of 1562 which was printed by John Day in London. The present is the first half, with some alterations, of the tune set to Psalm 132.
The first of a group of Funeral Hymns, published in 1759. It sets forth the assurance that friends gone before are not lost to those who mourn,
For all the servants of the King
In earth and heaven are one.
This hymn, one of Wesley’s greatest, has had wide use throughout the English speaking world in times of sorrow and loss of loved ones. It is an exposition of the words of the ancient Creed, “I believe in the communion of saints.”
The third and fourth verses, containing the idea of One Church, are among the finest in the whole range of hymnody.
The hymn was a great favorite of John Wesley. It so happened that he gave it out to be sung at a service he was conducting, at the very hour of the death of his brother Charles, giving the hymn a peculiarly pathetic interest.
For comments on Charles Wesley see Hymn 6.
MUSIC. DUNDEE. For comments on this tune see Hymn 297.
A poem of human brotherhood, carrying a fine missionary message much needed in our day. It is written in the spirit of St. Paul—“where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all and in all,” Col. 3:11. It stands in striking contrast to Kipling’s more narrow nationalism in his “East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.”
This hymn which has now found its way into most modern hymn books was written for a missionary pageant, The Pageant of Darkness and Light, which the London Missionary Society asked the author to write, for use in connection with a great missionary exhibition in London, an affair which ran for a month and did much to stimulate interest in missions in all the churches. Oxenham wrote the libretto and planned the scenes for the pageant. The composer of the music, Hamish MacCunn, sent to him in a hurry one day for a few verses to fill in a gap. To this request Oxenham responded with the beautiful, simple lines, “No East or West.”
John Oxenham, English publisher, poet, and novelist, was born in Manchester. He wrote this poem in 1908; and in 1939 sent the hymn, “Peace in our time” (357) with a personal letter to the editors of the Hymnary. The name John Oxenham is a nom de plume for William Arthur Dunkerley. For some years Dunkerley was engaged in business, in the interest of which he travelled extensively in Europe and Canada, and lived in France and the United States. He once investigated the possibilities of cotton growing and sheep raising in the Southern States but decided against the venture. He began writing as a relief from business, and then, later, dropped business in favor of writing.
MUSIC. ST. PETER, also known as “St. Peter’s, Oxford,” was composed for Psalm 118, by Alexander R. Reinagle, 1799-1877, distinguished organist for thirty-one years in St. Peter’s-in-the-East Church, Oxford. The tune derives its name from the church which the composer served so long. It appeared in Psalm Tunes for the Voice and the Pianoforte, published by Reinagle in 1830. It is a majestic tune and should be sung in moderate time with strong rhythmic accent.
Four simple, lovely stanzas setting forth the unity of believers in Christ.
For comments on Charles Wesley see Hymn 6.
MUSIC. MÜDE BIN ICH, GEH ZUR RUH. For comments on this tune see Hymn 254.
A favorite and appropriate hymn for use at religious reunions and conference gatherings. Wesley entitled it, “At meeting of Friends.”
For comments on Charles Wesley see Hymn 6.
MUSIC. ARMENIA was composed by Sylvanus Billings Pond, 1792-1871, Albany, N. Y., a piano manufacturer. Billings wrote many fine tunes and in 1841 issued the United States Psalmody, in which this tune appeared.
A beautiful hymn of Christian love, suggesting lines by Alice Carey:
He who loves best his fellowman
Is loving God the holiest way he can.
It appeared in the author’s Walworth Hymns, 1792, entitled, “The Grace of Christian Love.”
Joseph Swain, English Baptist minister and hymn writer, lost his parents early in life and was apprenticed to an engraver. He led a careless, frivolous life until his conversion at the age of twenty-two, when he became a fervent Christian. He qualified for the Baptist ministry and began serving as minister of a congregation in East Street, Walworth, in 1791. His poetic gifts, formerly given worldly and superficial expression, were now turned with great effect to his evangelistic appeals. His short ministry of five years, cut off by a lamented early death, was very successful.
MUSIC. REMEMBER ME. For comments on Asa Hull, composer of the tune, see Hymn 232.
A great missionary hymn, though a little too optimistic. It was written in 1832 while the author was a student in Andover Theological Seminary. After reading an inspiring account by Adoniram Judson of his great missionary work in Burma, Smith put his enthusiasm for missions into these verses, now sung in all the churches.
Rev. Samuel F. Smith, Harvard graduate in the class with Oliver Wendell Holmes, became the foremost American Baptist hymn writer of the 19th century. He is the author of numerous hymns but is best known by “My country, ’tis of thee” and the present hymn. His desire to be a missionary himself was never fulfilled, but his son volunteered for the service and became the successor to Judson in the great work in Burma. “The morning light is breaking” has been translated into many tongues. In a letter dated March 17, 1883, the author said of this hymn: “I have heard versions of it sung in Karen, Burman, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, German, and Telegu.” Dr. Smith was a great linguist. He taught modern languages for a time in Colby College and had a familiarity with no less than fifteen languages. It is said that at the age of 86 he was seeking a suitable textbook to use in the study of the Russian language. He served as minister of Baptist churches at Waterville, Me., and Newton Center, Mass., and was secretary of the Baptist Missionary Union for 15 years.
MUSIC. WEBB. For comments on this tune and its composer, George J. Webb, see Hymn 65.
A popular missionary hymn based on Luke 10:2: “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest.”
No information has been found concerning the author, J. O. Thompson, or the composer of the tune, J. B. O. Clemm. The song appeared in The Epworth Hymnal, edited by John H. Vincent, afterward a Bishop, and published by Phillips and Hunt, Methodist Publishers, New York, in 1885. It was copyrighted by them as of that year.
A prayer for the sick, and for physicians engaged in medical missionary work.
The hymn first appeared in A Missionary Hymn Book, 1922, published by the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, in London. The author, Rev. Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley, was an influential minister and educator in the Church of England. He spent much of his life in the Lake District in northern England, and, being a man of public spirit and a lover of nature, he championed the rights of the people in securing for public use in perpetuity many beautiful tracts of the Lake District and other parts of the country. His friends remembered him as one “who, greatly loving the fair things of nature and of art, set all his love to the service of God and man.”
MUSIC. “TALLIS,” says William H. Havergal in Notes on Certain Tunes, is “simplicity itself. A child may sing the tune, while manly genius will admire it.”
For comments on the composer, Thomas Tallis, see Hymn 33.
The author of this hymn, Samuel Wolcott, born at South Windsor, Conn., graduated from Yale at 20, spent two years in Syria as a missionary, and then, on account of failing health, returned to the United States where he served as pastor in various Congregational churches. The hymn was suggested to him by a motto, “Christ for the World and the World for Christ,” made from branches of evergreen, in a Cleveland church where a Y.M.C.A. convention was held. One night, walking home from the convention to which he was a delegate, the words of the hymn took form. Yankton College, South Dakota, has adopted it as the opening hymn for each term of school.
MUSIC. MALVERN. For comments on this tune and its composer, John Roberts, see Hymn 131.
One of the strongest and most useful missionary hymns in the English language.
Mary Ann Faulkner was born in London but came to this country as a girl and became the wife of John Thomson, Librarian of the Free Library, in Philadelphia. A member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, her hymns, about forty in all, were published in The Churchman, New York, and in The Living Age, Chicago.
Of the origin of this missionary hymn, Mrs. Thomson has written:
I wrote the greater part of the hymn, “O Zion, haste,” in the year 1868. I had written many hymns before, and one night, while I was sitting up with one of my children who was ill of typhoid fever, I thought I should like to write a missionary hymn to the tune of the hymn beginning, “Hark, hark, my soul, angelic songs are swelling,” as I was fond of that tune; but as I could not then get a refrain I liked, I left the hymn unfinished, and about three years later I finished it by writing the refrain which now forms part of it. By some mistake 1891 is given instead of 1871 as the date of the hymn in the (Episcopal) Hymnal. I do not think it is ever sung to the tune for which I wrote it. Rev. John Anketell told me, and I am sure he is right, that it is better for a hymn to have a tune of its own, and I feel much indebted to the composer of the tune TIDINGS for writing so inspiring a tune to my words.
She was mistaken in the last sentence, for Walch’s tune, strangely enough, was composed for the words “Hark, hark my soul” (260).
MUSIC. TIDINGS was written, as stated above, for the hymn, “Hark, hark my soul! Angelic songs are swelling” (260), by James Walch, 1837-1901, an English composer and organist. The tune was never accepted for that hymn, because there already were several good tunes for it in use. In the providence of God, it found this hymn. The union was favored from the beginning and continues so today.
One of the best and most useful hymns for foreign missions.
The original poem has six stanzas, our hymn comprising the last three, translated by Catherine Winkworth. The German text is found at No. 551, the hymn there being a free translation by Percy Dearmer.
For comments on Catherine Winkworth see Hymn 236.
Jonathan F. Bahnmaier was born at Oberstenfeld where his father, J. C. Bahnmaier, was town preacher. He received his education at Tübingen and became assistant, in 1798, to his father. Later he had an appointment as Professor of Education and Homiletics at Tübingen but resigned in 1819 to become dean and town preacher at Kirchheim-unter-Teck, a post he held until his death. Bahnmaier was greatly interested in education, missions, and Bible societies and was on the committee which compiled the Württemberg Gesangbuch, published after his death in 1842. One other of his hymns, “Jesu als du wiederkehrtest,” entitled, “Prayer after School,” has been translated into English.
MUSIC. MOZART is adapted from the “Kyrie” of the Twelfth Mass by the famous composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1756-91.
For comments on Mozart see Hymn 179.
One of the greatest missionary hymns in the English language. It was composed for a missionary service held in Leeds, England, June 4, 1823, and was entitled, “The Spirit Accompanying the Word of God.” Its lyric beauty, its burning passion for the spread of the gospel, combined with its dignity and healthy-mindedness make it an extraordinarily useful hymn. Setting forth and emphasizing the relation of the Holy Spirit to the work of missions, it fills an important place in the Hymnary.
For comments on James Montgomery see Hymn 62.
MUSIC. ALSTONE. For comments on this tune see Hymn 300.
A stirring missionary hymn entitled, “Missions, Home and Foreign.”
It is based on Psalm 60:4: “Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth.”
The hymn was written in response to a request from the young women at St. Mary’s Hall, Burlington, N. J., a girls’ college founded by Bishop Doane, to be sung at a flag raising. The author, writing what has become a widely known hymn, gave the occasion a far wider significance than the girls had foreseen.
Bishop George Doane, a zealous advocate of missions, was known in his own church as “the missionary bishop of America.” The modern missionary movement arose and spread in his lifetime. The hymn reflects Doane’s enthusiasm and aggressive missionary leadership.
For further comments on the author see Hymn 36.
MUSIC. WALTHAM—also known as “Doane” and “Camden”—was written by John Baptiste Calkin, 1827-1905, English pianist and organist, professor of music, and composer of church music, both instrumental and vocal. The tune with its martial swing lends itself well for use as a processional.
A missionary hymn written in 1832, at the beginning of the modern missionary movement. It was first published in Spiritual Songs for Social Worship, 1833, a volume compiled jointly by Hastings and Mason, set to the present tune by Lowell Mason. Spiritual Songs was a notable volume, publishing for the first time such well-known hymns as “The morning light is breaking,” “My faith looks up to Thee,” and introducing in America, Toplady’s famous “Rock of Ages.”
For comments on Thomas Hastings see Hymn 120.
MUSIC. WESLEY, also called “Hail to the Brightness,” was written by Lowell Mason for this hymn. It is a simple, straightforward melody, whose merit as a hymn tune is unquestionable.
For comments on Lowell Mason see Hymn 12.
One of the most famous missionary hymns ever written. An interesting story is attached to its origin, a detailed account of which was written by Thomas Edgeworth on the fly-leaf of a facsimile of the original manuscript as follows:
On Whitsunday, 1819, the late Dr. Shipley, Dean of St. Asaph, and Vicar of Wrexham, preached a sermon in Wrexham Church in aid of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. That day was also fixed upon for the commencement of the Sunday evening lectures intended to be established in the church, and the late Bishop of Calcutta (Heber), then rector of Hodnet, the Dean’s son-in-law being together in the vicarage, the former requested Heber to write “something for them to sing in the morning”; and he retired for that purpose from the table where the Dean and a few friends were sitting to a distant part of the room. In a short time the Dean enquired, “What have you written?” Heber having then composed the three first verses, read them over. “There, there, that will do very well,” said the Dean. “No, no, the sense is not complete,” replied Heber. Accordingly he added the fourth verse, and the Dean being inexorable to his repeated request of “Let me add another; oh, let me add another!” thus completed the hymn of which the annexed is a facsimile and which has since become so celebrated. It was sung the next morning in Wrexham Church the first time.
The tune to which it was sung was “’Twas when the seas were roaring,” from The Beggar’s Opera—a fine but somewhat incongruous selection.
The words of the hymn reflect the enthusiasm and zeal of consecrated youth, eager, like Livingstone, to go out to a distant people needing help and to sacrifice life for the cause. Greatly interested in missions, Heber was offered the Bishopric of Calcutta and accepted it against the advice of his friends. After three years of strenuous, devoted labor, he was stricken with apoplexy and found dead in his bath on the evening of a busy day in which he had baptized forty-two native converts.
The much-discussed second stanza, omitted in the Hymnary because of its seeming low estimate of man, is as follows:
What though the spicy breezes
Blow soft o’er Ceylon’s isle;
Though every prospect pleases
And only man is vile;
In vain with lavish kindness
The gifts of God are strown;
The heathen in his blindness
Bows down to wood and stone.
The hymn is widely used among German speaking people in the following translation made by Dr. Ch. G. Barth, 1799-1862:
Von Grönlands eis’gen Zinken,
China’s Korallenstrand,—
Wo Ophirs Quellen blinken,
Fortströmend goldnen Sand,—
Von manchem alten Ufer,
Von manchem Palmenland
Erschallt das Fleh’n der Rufer:
“Löst unsrer Blindheit Band!”
Gewürzte Düfte weben
Sanft über Ceylons Flur;
Es glänzt Natur und Leben
Schlecht sind die Menschen nur.
Umsonst sind Gottes Gaben
So reichlich ausgestreut;
Die blinden Heiden haben
Sich Holz und Stein geweiht.
Und wir, mit Licht im Herzen,
Mit Weisheit aus den Höh’n,
Wir könnten es verschmerzen,
Dass sie im Finstern geh’n?
Nein, nein! das Heil im Sohne
Sei laut und froh bezeugt,
Bis sich vor Christi Throne
Der fernste Volkstamm beugt!
Ihr Wasser sollt es tragen,
Ihr Winde, führt es hin,
Bis seine Strahlenwagen
Von Pol, zu Pole ziehn;
Bis der versöhnten Erde,
Das Lamm, der Sünderfreund,
Der Herr und Hirt’ der Heerde
In Herrlichkeit erscheint!
MUSIC. MISSIONARY HYMN, like the hymn to which it is sung, was written in a few minutes time. Miss Mary W. Howard of Savannah, Ga., read the words in the American edition of The Christian Observer, of February, 1823, and was so impressed with them that she requested a young bank clerk who had gone to Georgia from New England, to write a tune for them. He complied, and in a half hour handed her the tune which is now sung all over the world. The clerk was Lowell Mason. For further comments on Mason see Hymn 12.
A missionary hymn written for the anniversary of a Sunday school in Baltimore in which the author had been a worker for many years.
Priscilla Jane Owens, of Scottish and Welsh descent, was born and died in Baltimore where she was a public school teacher and an untiring worker in the Sunday school. Most of her hymns were written for children’s services.
MUSIC. JESUS SAVES was composed by William J. Kirkpatrick, 1838-1921, a native of Duncannon, Pa. He was a regimental musician during the Civil War and was skilled as an organist, gospel singer, and composer, and was editor and publisher of gospel songs.
A popular missionary hymn, breathing the spirit of Christ’s great commission: “Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”
The message of the hymn, in which lies the hope of the nations, is summarized in the chorus.
The words and music are by the same person, Henry Ernest Nichol, who was born at Hull, England, December 10, 1862. He always signed his correct name to a tune, and the anagram “Colin Sterne,” to a hymn. Oxford University gave him his degree in music. His compositions, many of them for the church, have the simplicity and directness of the folk song. The tune here forms a splendid musical setting for the words and may be sung variously, as a solo, duet, all the voices in unison, or in four parts.
Based on Isa. 52:7: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings.” The hymn was written after the good news came from the island of Tahiti that the first little band of mission workers sent there by the London Missionary Society, was kindly received by the natives, their message heard and welcomed, and that there was every prospect for the success of the mission. Hearing the news, Rev. Thomas Kelly wrote this hymn, entitling it, “On the Good News from Tahiti.” The London Missionary Society met soon afterward for an enthusiastic gathering where this hymn was first sung.
For comments on Thomas Kelly see Hymn 119.
MUSIC. ZION. This tune is also used with the hymn, “Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,” but it is better suited to the present hymn.
For comments on the composer, Thomas Hastings, see Hymn 120.
A hymn, originally of four stanzas, written as a farewell to missionaries.
The author, Rev. Bourne H. Draper, was born of a Church of England family, near Oxford, England. He joined the Baptist Church while employed as a printer’s apprentice at the Clarendon Press, Oxford. He trained himself for the Baptist ministry and became pastor of the Baptist Church at Chipping-Norton. A man of great piety and poetic gift, he wrote numerous books for children as well as devotional works and volumes of sermons.
MUSIC. MISSIONARY CHANT appeared in the composer’s American Harp, 1835, where it was identified with this hymn. Concerning the composition of the tune, Zeuner said: “I was sitting on one of those seats on Boston Commons on a most beautiful moonlight evening, all alone, with all the world moving about me, and suddenly ‘Missionary Chant’ was given me. I ran home as fast as ever I could and put it on paper before I should forget.”
Charles Heinrich Christopher Zeuner, 1795-1857, a native of Germany, came to America at the age of 29 and settled in Boston. His musical ability was soon recognized, and he was made president of the Handel and Haydn Society, and later its conductor. He published a book, American Harp, of nearly 400 pages of tunes, in 1832, mostly his own compositions. He moved to Philadelphia where he served as organist of St. Anne’s Episcopal Church and later of the Arch Street Presbyterian Church. Due to harsh criticism of his playing, he became despondent and took his own life one November day at a lonely spot in the woods. Zeuner was never married and had no relatives in this country.
A hymn of the Christian traveller, particularly descriptive of the experience of many Christian missionaries. It is known as the “Traveller’s Hymn” and has been found useful as a part of the daily devotions by Christians journeying in foreign lands.
It appeared in ten stanzas in the Spectator for September 20, 1712, at the end of an article on “Greatness,” with special reference to the greatness and awesomeness of the sea. The hymn was “made by a gentleman upon the conclusion of his travels.” Returning in 1700 from the terrors of a voyage on the Mediterranean Sea, Addison gives here, years afterwards, a picture of his own trying experiences. The second stanza describes some of the hardships through which he passed. The omitted stanzas (3, 4, 5, 7, 8) of the hymn picture the storm at sea, its subsidence, and the traveller’s trust in God. They are as follows:
Thy mercy sweetened every soil,
Made every region please:
The hoary Alpine hills it warmed,
And smoothed the Tyrrhene seas.
Think, O my soul, devoutly think
How with affrighted eyes
Thou sawest the wide-extended deep
In all its horrors rise!
Confusion dwelt in every face,
And fear in every heart;
When waves on waves, and gulfs on gulfs,
O’ercame the pilot’s art.
When by the dreadful tempest borne
High on the broken wave,
They know Thou art not slow to hear,
Nor impotent to save.
The storm is laid, the winds retire,
Obedient to thy will;
The sea, that roars at thy command,
At thy command is still.
For comments on Joseph Addison see Hymn 50.
MUSIC. KILMARNOCK appeared in England as a Psalm tune in Parochial Psalmody: a New Collection of the Most Approved Psalm Tunes.... By J. P. Clark, Second Edition, 1831.
The composer, Neil Dougall, 1776-1862, son of a shipwright, went to school until he was 15, then took to the sea. Three years later he met with an accident which resulted in the loss of his eyesight and his right arm. He then took up the study of music and for 45 years was a successful teacher of singing classes. He wrote about 100 psalm and hymn tunes.
A rousing missionary hymn which Wesley wrote after preaching to the coal miners at Newcastle. The imagery of the great flame was suggested by the night scene—the glow in the sky from the blazing fires connected with the mines. The climax of the hymn, stanza 4, was inspired by an incident in the life of Elijah. When his servant returned the seventh time from looking toward the sea from the housetop, he reported: “Behold there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea like a man’s hand!... And it came to pass in the meantime that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain” (I Kings 18:41-45).
For comments on Charles Wesley see Hymn 6.
MUSIC. BENEVENTO is an adaptation from a motet on the words, “Tibi omnes angeli” by Samuel Webbe, 1740-1816, a London organist and composer.
The watchword, “the whole wide world for Jesus,” brings to mind the motto, “The evangelization of the world in this generation,” which served to inspire the Student Volunteer Movement in the days of John R. Mott, Robert E. Speer, and Sherwood Eddy. Two world wars have shaken the foundations of the missionary enterprise, but those closest to the movement still declare the motto to be both a possibility and an obligation. The missionary forces are making resolute plans for giving the Gospel to the entire world.
No information is at hand concerning the author, J. Dempster Hammond.
MUSIC. THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD. The composer, John H. Maunder, was born in Chelsea, England, in 1858, and died in 1920. He received his musical education at the Royal Academy of Music in London; held various musical appointments and became a well-known and popular accompanist for vocalists. As a composer, he was widely known for his anthems, cantatas, and services which have met with wide approval. His A Song of Thanksgiving, a cantata, has been quite popular in this country, as have several of his anthems. In the secular field he has written much excellent choral music, one of the best being his “The Song of Thor.”
Founded on the last part of Psalm 72, this is the earliest of the great English hymns on missions. It is sung by all Christian congregations in the homelands and has probably been translated into a greater number of languages and dialects than any other English hymn.
Watts did not hesitate to use the name of Jesus in interpreting the Psalm. On this point, he wrote in the preface to his Psalms:
Where the original runs in the form of prophecy concerning Christ and his salvation, I have given an historical turn to the sense; there is no necessity that we should always sing in the obscure and doubtful style of prediction, when the things foretold are brought into the open light by a full accomplishment.
“Peculiar honors” in stanza 5 means honors appropriate to the various peoples who bring them.
For comments on Isaac Watts see Hymn 11.
MUSIC. DUKE STREET. This is a psalm tune by John Hatton (d. 1793), a native of Warrington, England, of whom little is known. The tune appeared first in A Select Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, Glasgow, 1793. It has long been associated with this hymn, although other tunes—“Old Hundredth,” “Warrington,” and “Truro”—have also been used with it.