Based on the petition, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
The hymn was written for the Congregational Hymnary (England), 1916. A note by the author explains his purpose in the hymn:
The hymn was written to declare that in doing God’s will, active co-operation is as much needed as humble resignation. Charlotte Elliott, in her hymn, “My God and Father, while I stray,” had expressed the latter thought beautifully. My hope was to supplement her hymn as best I could.
(Miss Elliott’s hymn is found at No. 245).
Howell Elvet Lewis, of Welsh birth, became an influential leader in English Congregationalism. He served as minister of the Welsh Tabernacle, King’s Cross, London, and was at one time chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales. He is the author of a number of volumes of poems and biography.
MUSIC. HAST DU JESU RUF VERNOMMEN appears anonymously in the Gesangbuch mit Noten, set to a missionary hymn beginning with these words. By repeating the first four lines of the first stanza of the present hymn the refrain was made possible.
The tune was written by John R. Sweney, 1837-99, a native of West Chester, Penna., who received his degrees of Mus. Bac. and Mus. Doc. at the Pennsylvania Military Academy, Chester, Penna. Sweney was a skilled choir leader, violinist, and pianist. He collaborated with Wm. J. Kirkpatrick in the production and publishing of numerous gospel hymn tunes and hymnals. After the Civil War, he taught music in the school from which he received his degrees and became well known as a song-leader at summer religious assemblies, especially at Ocean Grove, N. J.
A beautiful poem expressing genuine love for America and faith in human brotherhood. The historical accuracy of the second and third stanzas may be questioned. To one familiar with New England theocracy, it is clear that the Pilgrims were not, as the poet suggests, the champions of freedom of thought and religion. On the contrary, they were intolerant of any form of opposition, whether religious or political.
The hymn is less limited to the New England landscape than “My country, ’tis of thee,” and probably for that reason has overshadowed the latter as a popular national hymn.
Katharine Lee Bates, born in Falmouth, Mass., was educated at Wellesley College where she later became Professor of English. She is the author of many books.
A folder published by the author, giving the exact title and words of the hymn, also contains interesting data concerning its origin and history:
America the Beautiful was written in its original form, more literary and ornate than the present version, in the summer of 1893. I was making my first trip west. After visiting at Chicago the World’s Fair, where I was naturally impressed by the symbolic beauty of the White City, I went on to Colorado Springs. Here I spent three weeks or so under the purple range of the Rockies, which looked down with surprise on a summer school. This had called to its faculty several instructors from the east, Dr. Rolfe coming from Cambridge to teach Shakespeare, Professor Todd from Amherst for lectures on Astronomy, Professor Katharine Coman from Wellesley for a course in Economics. My own subject, which seemed incongruous enough under that new and glowing sky, was English Religious Drama.
We strangers celebrated the close of the session by a merry expedition to the top of Pike’s Peak, making the ascent by the only method then available for people not vigorous enough to achieve the climb on foot nor adventurous enough for burro-riding. Prairie wagons, their tail-boards emblazoned with the traditional slogan, “Pike’s Peak or Bust,” were pulled by horses up to the half-way house, where the horses were relieved by mules. We were hoping for half an hour on the summit, but two of our party became so faint in the rarified air that we were bundled into the wagons again and started on our downward plunge so speedily that our sojourn on the peak remains in memory hardly more than one ecstatic gaze. It was then and there, as I was looking out over the sea-like expanse of fertile country spreading away so far under those ample skies, that the opening lines of the hymn floated into my mind. When we left Colorado Springs the four stanzas were pencilled in my note-book, together with other memoranda, in verse and prose, of the trip. The Wellesley work soon absorbed time and attention again, the note-book was laid aside, and I do not remember paying heed to these verses until the second summer following, when I copied them out and sent them to The Congregationalist, where they first appeared in print July 4, 1895. The hymn attracted an unexpected amount of attention. It was almost at once set to music by that eminent composer, Silas G. Pratt, and re-published with his setting, in Famous Songs, issued in 1895 by the Baker and Taylor Company. Other tunes were written for the words and so many requests came to me, with still increasing frequency, to permit its use in various publications and for special services that, in 1904, I re-wrote it, trying to make the phraseology more simple and direct.
The new form first appeared in the Evening Transcript of Boston, November 19, 1904. After the lapse of a few years, during which the hymn had run the gauntlet of criticism, I changed the wording of the opening quatrain of the third stanza. The hymn as printed above is the final version, of which I retain the copyright, not as a matter of money-making, for I have given hundreds, perhaps thousands, of free permissions for its use, but in order to protect it from misprints and conscious alterations.
But here comes a difficulty. Over sixty original settings, some of them by distinguished musicians, have been written for the hymn, which thus suffers from an embarrassment of riches. It is associated with no one tune. The original setting which has, thus far, won widest acceptance is that of the former Municipal Organist of Portland, Will C. MacFarlane (sold by Cressey and Allen, 534 Congress Street, Portland, Maine). His tune, which is played on the city chimes of Springfield, Mass., he has made the theme of a spirited march, America the Beautiful, arranged for band music. In an octavo published by Oliver Ditson Company are included four settings, one by Clarence G. Hamilton, professor of music at Wellesley College, and another by W. W. Sleeper, formerly pastor of the Wellesley Congregational Church. Both these settings have found favor with choruses and made their way into various hymnals. This octavo carries, also, settings by William Arms Fisher, musical editor of the Boston house of Ditson. Other tunes that have a strong following are those of the celebrated composer, Horatio W. Parker (in the Methodist Sunday School Hymnal), Charles S. Brown (in Junior Carols, Society of Christian Endeavor), John Stainer (in the Pilgrim Hymnal), J. A. Demuth, professor of music at Oberlin (in Oberlin’s Favorite Hymns, published by Arthur P. Schmidt), and Herbert G. Peabody of Fitchburg, Mass., (published by H. W. Gray Company of New York). Other attractive settings, published, privately printed or yet in manuscript, have their special circles, and the words have been fitted to various old tunes, as those of Auld Lang Syne, The Harp that Once through Tara’s Halls, The Son of God goes forth to War and O Mother Dear Jerusalem. To this last, Materna, by S. A. Ward, in many hymnals and well known throughout the country, America the Beautiful is at present most often sung.
That the hymn has gained, in these twenty odd years, such a hold as it has upon our people, is clearly due to the fact that Americans are at heart idealists, with a fundamental faith in human brotherhood.
Katharine Lee Bates
(Quoted by permission.)
MUSIC. MATERNA (Mother) was composed for “O mother dear, Jerusalem.” The composer, Samuel Ward, 1847-1903, resided at Newark, N. J., where he operated a successful music business and was for 14 years the director of the Orpheus Club. The tune has by popular preference become inseparably associated with the words.
The best loved of our patriotic hymns, widely used, and deeply imbedded in the American soul.
His Harvard classmate, Oliver Wendell Holmes, saluted Smith in a poem written for their class reunion on the 30th anniversary of their graduation as follows:
And there’s a nice youngster of excellent pith—
Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith:
But he shouted a song for the brave and the free—
Just read on his medal, “My country,” “of thee.”
The inspiration for this hymn came from the reading of a German patriotic poem sent him by Lowell Mason (See 348). The author, then a young student at Andover Theological Seminary, says:
I instantly felt the impulse to write a patriotic hymn of my own, adapted to the tune. Picking up a scrap of waste paper which lay near me, I wrote at once, probably within half an hour, the hymn, “America,” as it is now known everywhere. The whole hymn stands today as it stood on the bit of waste paper.
The hymn was first sung at a children’s festival in Park Street Church, Boston, July 4, 1832.
For comments on the author, Samuel F. Smith, see Hymn 324.
MUSIC. AMERICA is also the tune used with the national anthem of Britain, “God save the king.” The melody is of obscure origin. It has been known in England for several centuries. In Denmark it was used toward the end of the 18th century for a national hymn, “Heil dir dem liebenden,” and in Germany it was widely used in Prussian and other northern states to patriotic words. In earlier days in the United States, the words, “Come Thou Almighty King,” were sung to this tune. The tune has thus nearly come to be an International Anthem.
Henry Carey, 1692-1743, an English musician of considerable ability, known as the composer of the song, “Sally in Our Alley,” is sometimes credited with this tune but the evidence is disputed. He wrote songs and poems for light and burlesque operas but always with regard for decency and good manners. His life was ended by suicide.
A prayer for the nation.
The hymn was written with the English Empire in mind, but its message and concern for the removal of national evils are such as to make it appropriate for use nearly everywhere.
Henry Scott Holland had a distinguished career at Oxford and attained to numerous positions of responsibility in the Church of England. He was Professor of Divinity at Oxford and later Canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral. The two chief interests of his fruitful life were social reform and missionary work, both of which are embodied in this, his only hymn. The poem was published in July, 1902, in The Commonwealth, a Christian social magazine which Dr. Holland edited, and was included in the English Hymnal in 1906.
MUSIC. SICILIAN MARINERS. For comments on this tune see Hymn 45.
A powerful hymn of national righteousness, taken from Lowell’s poem called “The Present Crisis,” 1845, the crisis being the war with Mexico which the author held to be unjust and would only result in enlarging the area of slavery. To make the meter of the poem regular enough to be sung, some alteration was inevitable.
James Russell Lowell graduated from Harvard in 1838 and was admitted to the bar two years later. He succeeded Longfellow as Professor of Modern Languages and Literature in Harvard, in 1855. From 1857 to 1862 he edited the Atlantic Monthly and the nine years following that he was editor of the North American Review. In 1877 he was appointed minister to Spain, and in 1881, to England, remaining at the latter post four years. He wrote various volumes of poetry and was a prominent anti-slavery writer both in verse and prose.
MUSIC. TON-Y-BOTEL, also known as “Ebenezer,” is a “solemn tune, of very simple structure, being formed, throughout, of imitations of the first bar.” A letter from the copyright owners, W. Gwenlyn Evans and Son, Caernarvon, Wales, written by A. Vaughan Evans, throws interesting light on this tune and the origin of the fictitious story which gave rise to the name TON-Y-BOTEL. It reads, in part:
... We have pleasure in granting permission to use the tune Ebenezer (Ton-Y-Botel) free of charge in the Mennonite Hymn Book.... It is an original Welsh composition by T. J. Williams ... and was part of a Memorial Anthem ‘Goleu yn y Glyn’ (Light in the Vale) in memory of a friend of the composer....
You will have noticed above that the correct name of the tune is Ebenezer and it may be of interest to learn how it acquired the ‘nickname’ Ton-Y-Botel (the bottle tune). Not long after the Welsh Revival of 1904 the tune spread all over Wales and then England and Scotland ‘by ear.’ There were no written or printed copies of it. A crowd of young men were singing it on a hilltop just outside this town of Caernarvon and the usual questions were asked: Who was the composer, etc., when a lad for a joke said the tune had been found in a bottle washed up by the tide on the beach at Dinas Dinlle (a small bathing place in the Irish Sea near here). Ever since the tune has been called by the Welsh equivalent of “Bottle Tune.” One of the young men made a written copy of the music as it was sung all over the country, and brought it to us to print. The demand was enormous and we published hundred of thousands of copies.... We purchased the copyright and now the tune appears in hymnals all over the world—except in Wales, the country of its origin. I do not think it is a case of the prophet being without honour in his own country, but rather that the popularity was so great that it was sung everywhere—in taverns and public houses, non-religious words were sung to it, etc.—with the result that the tune was regarded as not quite ‘respectable’ by the generation which produced it. No doubt it will be valued by later generations of Welsh people. This has happened with several of the best-known Welsh hymns as many of them 200 years ago were of secular origin.
I am giving the above details so that something of its history may be on record in the United States, and hope they may be of interest.
A hymn of broadminded patriotism, called forth by the “Centennial” Fourth of July celebration in 1876, held at Brandon, Vt. It was published in various papers at the time and included in the Hymnal of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1894. Since then it has appeared in a number of other church hymnals.
The hymn was written by Daniel C. Roberts, a graduate of Kenyon College, and a clergyman in the Episcopal Church.
MUSIC. NATIONAL HYMN was used at the Columbian celebration service at St. Thomas’ Church, New York City, Sunday morning, October 9, 1892. It is one of the finest processional tunes in the hymn book. The trumpet introduction and the interludes, making it unique among hymn tunes, gives it a quickening martial rhythm yet without losing its spirit of sanctity and reverence.
The composer, George William Warren, 1828-1902, was an American organist, born at Albany, N. Y. Though self-taught, he held responsible positions as organist in Albany and then at Holy Trinity and St. Thomas’ churches in New York.
The first two stanzas are a free translation of Stanzas 1 and 3 of the following patriotic song for Saxony:
Gott segne Sachsenland,
Wo fest die Treue stand
In Sturm und Nacht!
Ew’ge Gerechtigkeit,
Hoch überm Meer der Zeit,
Die jedem Sturm gebeut,
Schütz uns mit Macht!
Blühe, du Rautenkranz
In schöner Tage Glanz
Freudig empor!
Heil, Friedrich August, dir!
Heil, guter König, dir!
Dich, Vater, preisen wir
Liebend im Chor!
Was treue Herzen flehn
Steigt zu des Himmels Höh’n
Aus Nacht zum Licht.
Der unsre Liebe sah,
Der unsre Tränen sah,
Er ist uns huldreich nah,
Verlässt uns nicht.
A fourth stanza, identical with the first, follows.
It was written by the German song writer, Siegfried Augustus Mahlmann, and published in G. W. Fink’s Musikalischer Hausschatz, 1842. The hymn was first sung Nov. 13, 1815, in the presence of the King of Saxony. The hymn was also the inspiration for Samuel F. Smith’s, “My country ’tis of thee.”
The translation was made in 1834 by Charles T. Brooks, while a student at the Divinity School at Cambridge, Mass. It was revised by John Sullivan Dwight, 1813-93, to form our version. Dwight was a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and became a Unitarian minister in Northampton, Mass., but gave up the ministry to devote himself to literature and music. For thirty years he owned and edited Dwight’s Journal of Music.
The third stanza, raising the hymn above any narrow patriotism, was added by William E. Hickson, an English shoe manufacturer who retired from that business to pursue literary and philanthropic interests. Much interested in the musical culture of his people, he published various books on music and composed numerous musical works of merit. For a time he was editor of the Westminster Review.
MUSIC. DORT. For comments on the composer of this tune, Lowell Mason, see Hymn 12.
Entitled “Thanksgiving Hymn,” this poem was written in 1828 when the author was only eighteen years old. It was published in the Presbyterian Psalms and Hymns, 1829, Princeton, N. J. There have been many alterations of the lines.
Alfred Alexander Woodhull, son of a Presbyterian minister, graduated from Princeton at 18 years of age, and then took a medical course at the University of Pennsylvania. He began the practice of medicine at Marietta, Pennsylvania, then moved to Princeton where within a year he contracted a fever which occasioned his death. Known as a fine Christian man as well as a skilled physician, his early death was greatly lamented. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church.
MUSIC. MENDON. For comments on this tune see Hymn 211.
A prayer for all the nations.
The author, Howard J. Conover, was born in New Jersey, the son of devout Christian parents. He was educated at Pennington Seminary, Pennington, N. J., and Dickinson College. He took up the ministry and was known to be a studious, devout, and thoroughly faithful pastor, serving a number of churches in his native state. A nephew, Elbert M. Conover, is the director of The Interdenominational Bureau of Architecture, with offices in New York City, serving twenty-five denominations.
MUSIC. ORTONVILLE. For comments on this tune see Hymn 120.
A touching cry for peace, based on the Russian national hymn by Chorley. This paraphrase was written by John Ellerton, in 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War. It was published in Church Hymns in 1871.
Henry F. Chorley, an English man of letters, received his education at the Royal Institution, Liverpool. He was a literary and music critic and a friend and great admirer of Charles Dickens. For 34 years he was on the editorial staff of the Athenaeum, published in London.
MUSIC. RUSSIAN HYMN was composed for the words, “God save the Czar,” the national Russian anthem written in 1833. It is a stately, powerful tune which most congregations love to sing, especially after it has been used often enough to overcome certain of its difficulties. It was written at the command of the Czar who ordered it adopted for the army. But there is nothing about the tune itself to render it inappropriate for the churches. In his Memoirs, Lwoff says that in composing this tune he “felt and fully appreciated the necessity of accomplishing something which would be robust, stately, stirring, national in character, something worthy to reverberate either in a church, through the soldiers’ ranks, or amongst a crowd of people, something which would appeal alike to the lettered and the ignorant.”
The composer, Alexis T. Lwoff, 1799-1871, was an eminent Russian musician, succeeding his father in St. Petersburg as head of the imperial choir where he not only maintained the traditions of that great organization, but raised it to still greater heights of eminence. He composed violin concertos, operas, and church music. Lwoff had a thorough understanding of the canonical services of the Russian Church, and his collection of ritual chants is still considered authoritative.
An ardent prayer for universal peace. This noble hymn was contributed by the author to Hymns Ancient and Modern, London, 1861, a notable book of which Baker was chief editor.
For comments on the author, Henry W. Baker, see Hymn 143.
MUSIC. QUEBEC. For comments on this tune and its composer see Hymn 171.
A good peace hymn.
The author, William Merrill Vories, was born in Leavenworth, Kansas. He is the founder of an independent mission in the province of Omi, Japan. Vories published the present poem February, 1909, in the Advocate of Peace. Since that time, it has found a place in a number of hymn books. The copyright, appropriately enough, is held by the American Peace Society.
MUSIC. PENTECOST, a dignified tune, simple in structure, was first used with the hymn, “Veni Creator,” and appeared in Thirty-two Hymn Tunes, Composed by Members of the University of Oxford, 1868. It was revised by Arthur Sullivan who set it to Monsell’s hymn, “Fight the good fight with all thy might,” for the tune lends itself to spirited rendition as well as the more devotional and contemplative as required by the present hymn.
The composer, Rev. William Boyd, 1847-1928, was born in Jamaica and educated at Oxford where Baring-Gould was his tutor. The latter asked him to compose a tune to “Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire,” for a meeting of Yorkshire coal miners on the Day of Pentecost. The result was this tune to which he gave the name PENTECOST. Boyd was ordained priest in 1882 and from 1893 until his retirement in 1918, he was vicar of All Saints, Norfolk Square, London.
One of the hymns of our time in which, characteristically, the international note is struck. It was written at the request of the Rev. H. R. L. (Dick) Sheppard, minister of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, London, for the Life and Liberty movement after World War I. The bitter experiences of that war, with the subsequent fear and distrust among the nations, had intensified the longing for the realization of the petition in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” This hymn gives utterance to that longing.
Laurence Housman is an English artist known chiefly for his book illustrations, but he is also known as a writer of poetry and prose of merit. A contemporary wrote of him: “He has the heart of compassion for the little ones of the earth, the dumb and the helpless, that ought to be, but is not always, an essential part of poetry. His is the true Franciscan spirit.”
MUSIC. OLD 124TH is from the Genevan Psalter, 1551, where it is set to Psalm 124. It is commonly attributed to L. Bourgeois (See 34). The tune has always been popular in England with the non-conformist churches and is one of the few surviving tunes from the Old Version Psalter.
A hymn of thanksgiving and of the higher patriotism, glorying not in empire nor in battleship and fortress but in the things of the spirit which have made America great. It was first printed in The Continent, a Presbyterian paper, now defunct, published in Chicago.
Concerning the origin of the hymn, Dr. Merrill wrote in a letter dated April 18, 1947:
The occasion for the writing of this hymn was a Union Thanksgiving Service in Chicago, where Jenkin Lloyd Jones made a prayer, in which he thanked God more for spiritual values in our national life than for any temporal ones. That prayer inspired my hymn.
Howard Chandler Robbins, Professor of Pastoral Theology in the General Theological Seminary, New York City, says: “On Thanksgiving Day we all ought to be singing Dr. Merrill’s great Thanksgiving hymn, one of the greatest national hymns in the English language.”
For comments on William Pierson Merrill see Hymn 183.
MUSIC. IN BABILONE. For comments on this tune see Hymn 122.
One of our few hymns on the petition, “Thy Kingdom come.” It is an earnest prayer for social righteousness and peace. The hymn was written by Henry Warburton Hawkes, an English Unitarian.
No further information is at hand concerning the author.
MUSIC. FFIGYSBREN. For comments on this tune see Hymn 183.
A beautiful prayer for the peace which is “based upon Thy will and built in righteousness.” The author, having learned that a new hymnary was to be published, and aware of the Mennonite position on war and peace, sent this hymn from England for inclusion in this book with the request that it be used with the tune “Diademata.”
For comments on the author, John Oxenham, see Hymn 320.
MUSIC. DIADEMATA. For comments on this tune and its composer, George J. Elvey, see Hymn 118.
O selig Haus, wo man dich aufgenommen,
Du wahrer Seelenfreund, Herr Jesu Christ;
Wo unter allen Gästen, die da kommen,
Du der gefeiertste und liebste bist;
Wo aller Herzen dir entgegenschlagen
Und aller Augen freudig auf dich sehn;
Wo aller Lippen dein Gebot erfragen
Und alle deines Winks gewärtig stehn!
O selig Haus, wo Mann und Weib in einer,
In deiner Liebe eines Geistes sind,
Als beide eines Heils gewürdigt, keiner
Im Glaubensgrunde anders ist gesinnt;
Wo beide unzertrennbar an dir hangen
In Lieb’ und Leid, Gemach und Ungemach,
Und nur bei dir zu bleiben stets verlangen
An jedem guten wie am bösen Tag!
O selig Haus, wo man die lieben Kleinen
Mit Händen des Gebets ans Herz dir legt,
Du Freund der Kinder, der sie als die Seinen
Mit mehr als Mutterliebe hegt und pflegt;
Wo sie zu deinen Füssen gern sich sammeln
Und horchen deiner süssen Rede zu
Und lernen früh dein Lob mit Freuden stammeln,
Sich deiner freun du lieber Heiland, du!
O selig Haus, wo du die Freude teilest,
Wo man bei keiner Freude dein vergisst!
O selig Haus, wo du die Wunden heilest
Und aller Arzt und aller Tröster bist,
Bis jeder einst sein Tagewerk vollendet,
Und bis sie endlich alle ziehen aus
Dahin, woher der Vater dich gesendet,
Ins grosse, freie, schöne Vaterhaus!
Based on Luke 19:9: “This day is salvation come to this house,” the poem originally bore the title, “Salvation is come to this house.” It is probably the best hymn ever written on the Christian home.
The author of the hymn enjoyed a singularly happy and peaceful home life, not only under the parental roof, but also after he was married and had established his own home. Carl Spitta, Lutheran minister and greatest German hymn writer of the nineteenth century, was born in Hannover. His father came from a Huguenot family that fled France during the Catholic persecutions and died when Carl was only four years old. His mother was a Christian Jewess whose loving care no doubt inspired the son to write this hymn on the home. After completing his theological studies in 1824, Spitta taught school for four years and then was ordained in 1828 to the Lutheran ministry. He passed through a deep spiritual experience about this time which resulted in the composition of his finest hymns. “In the manner in which I formerly sang,” he wrote a friend in 1826, “I sing no more. To the Lord I dedicate my life, my love, and likewise my song. He gave to me song and melody. I give it back to Him.”
His hymns were received with enthusiasm and held in the same esteem in Germany as Keble’s Christian Year in England. His collection of hymns, Psalter und Harfe, first published in 1833, passed through more than 50 editions and a second collection printed in 1843 had by 1887 passed through 42 editions.
Spitta had a family of seven children, one of whom became Professor of New Testament Exegesis and Practical Theology in the University of Strassburg, and another, John August Spitta, wrote the monumental four-volume work on the life of J. S. Bach.
The translator of the hymn, Sarah Findlater, also knew the blessings of a happy home. Her daughter wrote concerning her mother:
Her home life with my father was almost idyllically happy, in the small manse at Lochearnhead, where there never was enough of money, yet where my parents exercised unceasing hospitality—almost foolish hospitality. They were both great readers, and used to read aloud to each other for hours. My mother was an excellent linguist, and her German translations were a great pleasure to her. That simple little hymn of hers which begins “O happy home,” is really an epitome of her home life with my father—they were so single-eyed in their longing to serve God: it came first with them always.
For further comments on Sarah Findlater, see comments on her sister, Jane Borthwick, Hymn 54.
MUSIC. O SELIG HAUS is a popular German melody written in 1854 by Edward Niemeyer. Information concerning the composer has not been traced.
Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes in 1869 to be read or sung at the annual meeting of the 1829 college class of Harvard University, of which he was a member. The famous class included in its membership J. Freeman Clarke, founder of the Disciples, and Samuel F. Smith, author of “America.” The forty years of retrospect, mingled with sunshine and shadow, are touched here with tenderness and grace.
For comments on Oliver W. Holmes see Hymn 172.
MUSIC. ES KAM DIE GNADENVOLLE appears in the Gesangbuch mit Noten to the words, “Früh Morgens da die Sonn’ Aufgeht.”
The composer, Johann Heinrich Egli, 1741-1810, was born in Seegräben, Switzerland. He was a pupil of Pastor Schmiedli at Wetzikon, and became a music teacher in Zurich, where he died. His compositions for voice, both sacred and secular, won great popularity in Switzerland.
A tender lyric in praise of the home where love dwells. Especially fine are the lines,
All the earth is filled with love
When there’s love at home,
for it recognizes the wide influence of the home, the primary social institution where the first lessons of the Christian life are learned. A nation’s peace and prosperity is rooted in the quality of life found in its homes.
The words and music are by John Hugh McNaughton, who was born 1829, in Caledonia, N. Y., of Scottish parentage. His lyrics have some literary qualities and Henry W. Longfellow once wrote to McNaughton: “Your poems have touched me very much.” He composed many popular songs, including “The Blue and the Gray,” and “Faded Coat of Blue,” which sold by the hundreds of thousands of copies. He is the author of a Treatise on Music and Onnalinda, a metrical romance.
One of the strongest hymns on the Christian home. It first appeared in Selections of Hymns and Poetry, Boston, 1846, compiled by Mrs. Herbert Mayo, where it was entitled, “The Happy Home.”
For comments on the author, Henry Ware, Jr., see Hymn 13.
MUSIC. ST. AGNES. For comments on this tune see Hymn 155.
A poem for use in the dedication of a Christian home, first printed in House and Garden magazine about thirty years ago. Since then it has become widely known both here and abroad. Its first use as a hymn was in the Methodist Hymnal of 1935, edited by Dr. Robert McCutchan.
The author, Arthur Guiterman, was a writer, poet, and speaker. He was born in Vienna, Austria, November 20, 1871, of American parents, his mother being a native of Ohio. Most of his education was received in New York City, his college course having been completed in the City College. Guiterman was a frequent contributor to Harper’s Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, The Youth’s Companion, Ladies Home Journal, and other leading magazines. His poetry is written on a large variety of subjects. Joyce Kilmer characterized him as “the most American of poets.”
MUSIC. ICH SINGE DIR is a familiar melody in the Gesangbuch mit Noten where it appears anonymously, set to the words, “Ich singe Dir mit Herz und Mund,” by Paul Gerhardt.
A mother’s prayer, written by Miss Burke in December, 1903, and published the following February in The Treasury, where it was headed, “Prize Hymn for Mothers’ Union Service.” It was included in The English Hymnal, 1906.
Miss Christian Burke was born in London. She contributed poems to various periodicals and in 1896 published a collection of her poetic writings, with the title, The Flowering of the Almond Tree.
MUSIC. The tune was found in St. Basil’s Hymnal, published by the Basilian Fathers, Chicago, 1918. It bears no name and the composer is not identified. The hymn is also sung to the tune “Silician Mariners” (45).
Suitable for Mother’s Day.
The hymn and tune are found in Hymns of the Spirit, published in Boston, 1937.
Julian Stearns Cutler, born at Thomaston, Maine, graduated from Tufts Theological School, Tufts College, Mass., in 1885, and served Universalist churches in Marblehead, Melrose, and Orange, Mass., 1896-1904; in Little Falls, N. Y., 1904-10; and in Pawtucket, R. I., 1910-26. He wrote a good deal of occasional verse published in newspapers, especially in the Boston Transcript, and his collected poems were privately printed under the title, Songs of Cheer, about a year after his death. His hymn, “Motherhood, sublime, eternal,” written about 1910, was adapted for use in Universalist hymn books and in slightly altered form in Hymns of the Spirit, 1937. It was taken from the latter for use in the Hymnary.
MUSIC. MOTHERHOOD. No information has been traced concerning the origin of this tune or its composer, Willis A. Moore, except that Moore was a member of the Universalists but left their fellowship some years ago. The Universalist Publishing House, Boston, from whom inquiry was made, has no further information at hand.
Written for the purpose of a Christian good-by.
The author, Jeremiah E. Rankin, was pastor of the First Congregational Church in Washington, D. C., when he wrote this hymn. Later, in 1889, he became president of Howard University, a Negro institution in the same city. He was always a friend of the colored people and did what he could for their advancement.
He has given us the origin of the hymn as follows:
Written in 1882 as a Christian good-by, it was called forth by no person or occasion, but was deliberately composed as a Christian hymn on the basis of the etymology of “good-by,” which is “God be with you.” The first stanza was written and sent to two composers—one of unusual note, the other wholly unknown and not thoroughly educated in music. I selected the composition of the latter, submitted it to J. W. Bishoff (the musical director of a little book we were preparing), who approved of it but made some criticisms which were adopted. It was sung for the first time one evening in the First Congregational Church in Washington, of which I was then the pastor and Mr. Bishoff the organist. I attributed its popularity in no little part to the music to which it was set. It was a wedding of words and music, at which it was my function to preside; but Mr. Tomer should have his full share of the family honor.
MUSIC. FAREWELL was composed by William G. Tomer, 1832-96, an American journalist who made music his avocation. In early life he taught school, later becoming the editor of the Hunterdon Gazette at High Ridge, New Jersey. The hymn he helped make famous was sung at his funeral by a large assembly of friends and neighbors.