Archive by Author | Sherry

Hymn #51: Of the Father’s Love Begotten

Jul27

Lyrics: Aurelius Prudentius. Translated by John Mason Neale.

Music: DIVINUM MYSTERIUM

Theme: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with GOd, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. John 1:1-3.

I posted about this hymn last Christmas, so I thought I’d do a repost. This hymn has become one of my favorite Christmas carols.

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This week we’ve been learning and singing this o-l-d hymn from the fourth century. (We’re studying the Middle Ages and the Renaissance this year in school.) Anyway, the hymn poem was written by a man named Aurelius Prudentius who lived in Spain and wrote in Latin in the fourth or fifth century. It was translated into English by John Mason Neale in the mid-nineteenth century in England. The version I copied for the urchins and me to sing runs to nine verses, and we sang them all, much to someone’s chagrin. I always want to sing all the verses.


1. Of the Father’s love begotten,
Ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega,
He the source, the ending He,
Of the things that are, that have been,
And that future years shall see,
Evermore and evermore!

2. At His Word the worlds were framèd;
He commanded; it was done:
Heaven and earth and depths of ocean
In their threefold order one;
All that grows beneath the shining
Of the moon and burning sun,
Evermore and evermore!

3. He is found in human fashion,
Death and sorrow here to know,
That the race of Adam’s children
Doomed by law to endless woe,
May not henceforth die and perish
In the dreadful gulf below,
Evermore and evermore!

4. O that birth forever blessèd,
When the Virgin, full of grace,
By the Holy Ghost conceiving,
Bare the Savior of our race;
And the Babe, the world’s Redeemer,
First revealed His sacred face,
Evermore and evermore!

5. This is He Whom seers in old time
Chanted of with one accord;
Whom the voices of the prophets
Promised in their faithful word;
Now He shines, the long expected,
Let creation praise its Lord,
Evermore and evermore!

6. O ye heights of heaven adore Him;
Angel hosts, His praises sing;
Powers, dominions, bow before Him,
And extol our God and King!
Let no tongue on earth be silent,
Every voice in concert sing,
Evermore and evermore!

7. Righteous judge of souls departed,
Righteous King of them that live,
On the Father’s throne exalted
None in might with Thee may strive;
Who at last in vengeance coming
Sinners from Thy face shalt drive,
Evermore and evermore!

8. Thee let old men, thee let young men,
Thee let boys in chorus sing;
Matrons, virgins, little maidens,
With glad voices answering:
Let their guileless songs re-echo,
And the heart its music bring,
Evermore and evermore!

9. Christ, to Thee with God the Father,
And, O Holy Ghost, to Thee,
Hymn and chant with high thanksgiving,
And unwearied praises be:
Honor, glory, and dominion,
And eternal victory,
Evermore and evermore!

Here’s a different translation, this one by R.F. Davis.

Hymn #52: Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

Jul26

Lyrics: Helen H. Lemmel, 1922.
Alternate Title: The Heavenly Vision

Music: Helen H. Lemmel, 1922.

Theme: Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2.

O soul are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s light for a look at the Saviour,
And life more abundant and free.
Refrain:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His Glory and Grace.

Through death into life everlasting
He passed, and we follow Him there;
Over us sin no more hath dominion –
For more than conquerors we are!

His Word shall not fail you – He promised;
Believe Him, and all will be well;
Then go to a world that is dying,
His perfect salvation to tell.

I was a bit surprised to find this hymn/gospel tune on the list. Not that it is unfamiiar, I’ve heard it all my life, and I think it has a great message. I just didn’t know that it was all that well-known. As it turns out in addition to the Alan Jackson countrified version above, Amy Grant, Hillsong, Newsboys, Michael W. Smith, Cynthia Clawson and many others have recorded this song.

The composer and author of the hymn, Helen Lemmel, was the daughter of a Methodist pastor. From a gospel tract called Focused by Lilias Trotter, a missionary to the Muslims of Algeria, Ms. Lemmel heard the words, “So then, turn your eyes upon Him, look full into His face and you will find that the things of earth will acquire a strange new dimness.”

As she meditated on those words, Ms. Lemmel said: “Suddenly, as if commanded to stop and listen, I stood still, and singing in my soul and spirit was the chorus, with not one conscious moment of putting word to word to make rhyme, or note to note to make melody. The verses were written the same week, after the usual manner of composition, but nonetheless dictated by the Holy Spirit.”

Helen Lemmel wrote more than 500 other hymns, but this one has endured.

Sources:
Our Favorite Hymns: Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.
Wikipedia: Lilias Trotter.

A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation by Catherine Allgor

Jul26

Quick, what do you think of when you think of Dolley Madison? One of two things: either cupcakes or the image of Dolley saving George Washington’s portrait from the depredations of the invading British Army during the War of 1812?

I did learn a lot more about Dolley Payne Todd Madison and her husband, James, from this biography than I knew before I read it. Did you know that:

Dolley was married to John Todd before she married Mr. Madison, and she had only one son who survived to adulthood, Payne Todd. Dolley and James Madison never had any children together, and he was accused of being impotent, a particularly malicious accusation for a man in those days. Dolley, on the other hand, was said to have been “oversexed”, thus destroying Mr. Madison’s manly force by her inordinate demands. (Only the opposition press said or hinted at such things. We only think the press nowadays is obsessed with sexual scandal and impropriety. Back then, it was no holds barred.)

Dolley’s son Payne was a wastrel and an alcoholic who was nevertheless adored and pampered by his blindly affectionate mother.

Dolley exercised considerable power in Washington society and as a partner in James Madison’s presidency, although she disclaimed any knowledge or influence in political matters as befitted a woman of her time.

Dolley Payne was born into a Quaker family. Her father owned slaves, but he freed them and moved to Philadelphia as a matter of conscience. However, the Madisons were an old, venerable, and slave-owning Virginia family, and after her marriage Dolley became enmeshed in the “peculiar institution” of slavery and never expressed any reservations about slavery or about her participation in owning slaves.

Dolley owned a pet macaw named Polly. Polly was impressive to guests for “her colorful feathers and ability to talk”, but the macaw was also a menace, dive-bombing visitors, screaming and pecking at them.

Dolley enjoyed writing poems, epigrams, and letters, but many of her letters were burned after her death by her nieces in an attempt to protect her reputation, privacy, and legacy.

Although she was a church-goer, Dolley Madison was not baptized into any church until 1845 when she and her niece Annie Payne were baptized at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C.

As James Madison lay dying in June 1836, his doctors offered to prolong his life with drugs so that he could die on the Fourth of July as Thomas Jefferson and John Adams had done ten years earlier in 1826. Madison declined their ministrations, saying that he preferred to die “in full possession of all his noble faculties.” Madison died on June 28, 1836.

Dolley lived until 1849 and became the most celebrated woman in Washington society.

Ms. Allgor’s biography of Dolley Madison is readable and features lots more interesting facts and observations; however, the book does have a couple of drawbacks as far as I’m concerned. It begins with a “note on names” in which Ms. Allgor explains her rather confusing system of nomenclature. Rather than refer to men by their last names, as in “Madison” and “Jefferson” and “Adams”, and women by their first or first and last, as in “Dolley” or “Dolley Madison”, the author chooses to call some by first names only (men and women in “political partnerships”) and others by their last names or full names. The result is confusing and distracting.

Also, as another seeming manifestation of overactive feminism, the author spends a great deal of time, like half of the book, “proving” that Dolley was a consummate politician even though Dolley Madison herself claimed to eschew politics as an essentially manly pursuit. Ms. Allgor’s premise that Dolley Madison was involved in politics and a full partner in her husband’s presidency is indisputable, but it comes across in a “protests-too-much” manner that wore me out as a reader after a while. Yes, I get it. She was doing politics in the parlor and in the drawing room even while Mr. Madison met with the Cabinet upstairs. Now, get on with the story.

Aside from these two niggling issues with Ms. Allgor’s biography, I did enjoy the book, and I would recommend it. I feel as if I gained some measure of insight into the political life of early nineteenth century America and into the lives of James and Dolley Madison. (And yes, I put James’s name first because I thought that putting Dolley’s first would be distracting and annoying. I’m a bad feminist.)

Next up on the Presidential Hit Parade: James Monroe. I have James Monroe: The Quest for National Identity by Harry Ammon on my list of possibilities for this project. Does anyone have any other suggestions for a good biography of Mr. Monroe?

Hymn #53: All Glory Laud and Honor

Jul25

Lyrics: Theodulph of Orleans, c.820. Translated by John Mason Neale, 1854.

Music: ST THEODULPH by Melchoir Tesner, 1615. This tune, and the lyrics, cry out for organ:

Theme: Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Hosanna in the highest!” Matthew 21:9

Another hymn that’s not on my playlist nor that of any church I’ve ever attended. This one started out as in Latin written as a processional hymn, in the Middle Ages when the priest and the congregation used to carry the cross or relics through the town in procession on special occasions such as Palm Sunday.

Refrain:
All glory, laud, and honor
to thee, Redeemer, King!
to whom the lips of children
made sweet hosannas ring.

Thou art the King of Israel,
thou David’s royal Son,
who in the Lord’s Name comest,
the King and Blessed One.

The company of angels
are praising thee on high;
and mortal men and all things
created make reply.

The people of the Hebrews
with palms before thee went;
our praise and prayer and anthems
before thee we present.

To thee before thy passion
they sang their hymns of praise;
to thee, now high exalted,
our melody we raise.

Thou didst accept their praises;
accept the prayers we bring,
who in all good delightest,
thou good and gracious King.

Theodulph of Orleans was born in Spain about 760 AD. He was both a poet and a theologian.The Emperor Charlemagne appointed him Bishop of Orleans, France. However, when Charlemagne died, his son, Louis the Pious suspected Theodulph of treason, and he was imprisoned in Angiers in 818.

While in prison, Theodulph wrote the verses that give us this hymn. Theodulph died in while still in prison in 821.

John Mason Neale noted “another verse was usually sung until the seventeenth century, at the quaintness of which we can scarcely avoid a smile”:
Be Thou, O Lord, the Rider,
And we the little ass,
That to God’s holy city
Together we may pass.

Quaint. Yes, and we think some of today’s praise songs have somewhat foolish lyrics. I don’t know whether we can blame Theodulph or Neale or someone else for trying to make us all into donkeys.

Sources:
The Center for Church Music: All Glory Laud and Honor.
Precious Lord Take My Hand.
Catholic Encyclopedia: Theodulf

An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken

Jul24

Ms. McCracken writes well. And she and her husband seem to have a wonderful, mutually supportive marriage. Those are the good parts of the book.

Exact Replica is a memoir of the author’s experience with the death of her first child and the subsequent healthy birth of her second. I wanted to read it because I once had a daughter that was stillborn. However, although I grieved then and still think of my daughter, Joanna, who is now in heaven, Ms. McCracken takes grief to another level. France (the entire country) is “ruined” for her since her baby was born and died there. (What about the rest of us who manage to cope while living in the same place after losing loved ones?) I am not invalidating or disallowing her reactions and emotions; they’re hers, and she has a right to feel whatever she feels. Nevertheless, her experience wasn’t mine, and I didn’t find much to identify with in this book.

When Joanna died (she would be 15 years old now), I was very sad. I was also very ill, having lost so much blood that I needed a transfusion. I don’t remember expecting all of my friends to send cards and emails and make phone calls and rejecting them if they did not. Of course, it was nice to hear that people cared, but Ms.McCracken is “not speaking” to a close friend because said friend was three months late in sending condolences and then said the wrong thing.

Ms. McCracken’s midwife said something very stupid and insensitive at the hospital when the author was recovering from the birth of her stillborn baby. The rage that Ms. McCracken and her husband felt for this hapless and admittedly thoughtless midwife was all out of proportion; I think, amateur psychologist that I am, that they were angry about the loss of their baby and displaced that anger onto the midwife.

Anyway, I wouldn’t recommend this book for anyone who is grieving the loss of a child; too much self indulgent wallowing in emotion, not enough help for others who are experiencing loss. It made me feel vaguely guilty for not being as devastated as the author was. Do you have a recommendation for reading for a mother (or father) who has lost a child?

Hymn #54: Holy God, We Praise Thy Name

Jul24

Lyrics: Ignacz Franz. Translated from German to English by Clarence A. Walworth, 1858. Verse 7 by Hugh T. Henry.

Music: GROSSER GOTT.

Theme:

Cry out, “Save us, O God our Savior;
gather us and deliver us from the nations,
that we may give thanks to your holy name,
that we may glory in your praise.”
I Chronicles 16:35

Holy God, we praise thy name;
Lord of all, we bow before thee;
all on earth thy scepter claim;
all in heaven above adore thee.
Infinite thy vast domain;
everlasting is thy reign.

Hark the glad celestial hymn
angel choirs above are raising;
cherubim and seraphim,
in unceasing chorus praising,
fill the heavens with sweet accord:
Holy, holy, holy Lord.

Lo! the apostolic train
joins thy sacred name to hallow;
prophets swell the glad refrain,
and the white-robed martyrs follow.
And from morn to set of sun,
through the church the song goes on.

Holy Father, Holy Son,
Holy Spirit: three we name thee,
though in essence only one;
undivided God we claim thee,
and adoring bend the knee
while we own the mystery.

Thou art King of glory, Christ:
Son of God, yet born of Mary;
For us sinners sacrificed,
And to death a tributary:
First to break the bars of death,
Thou has opened Heaven to faith.

From Thy high celestial home,
Judge of all, again returning,
We believe that Thou shalt come
In the dreaded doomsday morning;
When Thy voice shall shake the earth,
And the startled dead come forth.

Therefore do we pray Thee, Lord:
Help Thy servants whom, redeeming
By Thy precious blood out-poured,
Thou hast saved from Satan’s scheming.
Give to them eternal rest
In the glory of the blest.

Spare Thy people, Lord, we pray,
By a thousand snares surrounded:
Keep us without sin today,
Never let us be confounded.
Lo, I put my trust in Thee;
Never, Lord, abandon me.

I’ve never heard this hymn, know nothing about it. I’m thinking it’s a Roman Catholic hymn, but I don’t know that its use is limited to that church. Ah, yes, here it says, “It is usually sung during the Benediction ceremony of the Catholic Church, when the Eucharist is placed back in the tabernacle after Eucharistic Adoration.You can listen to a beautiful instrumental (with dulcimer) version of the melody here.

In the 1937 movie Heidi with Shirley Temple, Heidi and her grandfather sing this hymnwith the congregation when Grandfather returns to church and to society as a result of the influence of his adorable granddaughter.

I rather like the hymn itself, and I don’t see anything that would disturb a good Protestant in the lyrics.

More ObamaMed

Jul24

Have you seen this chart? Apparently, it’s so misleading that those Democrats who support this monstrosity don’t want anyone to see it —because we can’t figure out for ourselves whether the 1018 page (as of last report) bill is accurately represented in the chart or not.

We probably can’t —which is the point. They can’t explain it to us either, and they haven’t even read it. The Senate will not vote on health care reform until after the recess, but Speaker Pelosi says the House can’t wait. Why not?

U.S. Presidents Reading Project: Derailed by Jefferson

Jul24

One of my projects for 2009 was a U.S. Presidents Reading Project (part of this larger project).

However I got sidetracked by my antipathy for Thomas Jefferson. I tried three different biographies of Jefferson, and I watched the first episodes of Ken Burns’ documentary of Jefferson, but I never could make myself want to spend that much time with Mr. Jefferson. I know he has redeeming qualities; he wrote the Declaration of Independence, for Pete’s sake, a literary and governmental masterpiece if ever there was one. And he didn’t do such a bad job as president.

But I just don’t trust the guy. With John Adams, and even with the reserved Mr. Washington, you knew where you stood. Jefferson comes across as a back-stabber and a hypocrite. I’m glad he and John Adams mended their friendship at the end of their lives, but I never felt Jefferson’s heart was in the relationship.

SO, I’m going to skip Jefferson and read this book that I found at the library: A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation by Catherine Allgor. I know that Madison was Jefferson’s protege, but somehow I think I’ll like Mr. Madison better. Or maybe at least I’ll enjoy getting to know Mrs. Madison.

Obamamed

Jul23

Bill Kristol: “The juvenile happy talk reached its peak with this presidential statement: ‘If there’s a blue pill and a red pill, and the blue pill is half the price of the red pill and works just as well, why not pay half price for the thing that’s going to make you well?’
Now, there’s good idea. Why hasn’t anyone else thought of that? For this reform, we need to spend $1 trillion?”

Norma at Collecting My Thoughts: “I’ll believe he’s serious about improving health insurance when he says, ‘I know this can work, and we’ll start with all federal, state and local officials, elected and appointed, me and my family, Congress and SCOTUS included, and civil service staff, run it as a model for 5 years to tweak and improve it, just to show to you it can work.'”

Richard Land: “Unless Congress specifically prohibits abortion services being covered as an ‘essential benefit,’ government bureaucrats will inevitably create an “abortion mandate” for both public health insurance plans and publicly subsidized private plans. Then tens of millions of Americans will be forced to pay through their taxes for that which they find morally reprehensible.”

The Senate will NOT vote on the health care legislation until after the August break. In the meantime you can do something to stop this ridiculous legislation that will give the federal government control over something that they have no right or responsibility to control: our health and the doctors and hospitals that dispense health care.

What you can do if you DON’T want Obamamed:

1. Pray
2. E-mail and write letters to your Representative and two Senators.
3. Call the Washington office and the local office of your Representative and two Senators.
4. Spread the word! Distribute this flyer to everyone you know and use Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail samples.
5. Write a Letter to the Editor of your local newspaper.

Hymn #55: My Hope Is Built On Nothing Less

Jul23

Lyrics: Edward Mote, 1834.
Alternate Title: On Christ the Solid Rock

Music: SOLID ROCK by William Bradbury, 1863. the vocalists are a group of homeschooled sisters called The Cadet Sisters:

Or MELITA by John Dykes. Here it is sung by Deborah Liv Johnson:

Theme: For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
I Corinthians 3:11

Read here for the story of Edward Mote’s writing the hymn’s lyrics.

LifeSpring Hymn Stories: The Solid Rock.

1. My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

2. When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

3. His oath, His covenant, and blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When every earthly prop gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

4. When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found,
Clothed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne!
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.