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Hymn #99: Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken

Jun3

Lyrics: John Newton
Music: AUSTRIA arranged by Franz Joseph Haydn or ABBOT’S LEIGH by Cyril Taylor.

Girl Detective: “I did like Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken, till I learned it was set to the tune of Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles.”

I say: never let a tune with bad associations ruin a good hymn. One can almost always find an alternate tune. I can manage to sing Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken without ever visualizing a Nazi uniform, but if you can’t try this tune from the day before yesterday’s hymn, or use the more modern tune written by Cyril Taylor especially for these words called ABBOT’S LEIGH.

Glorious things of thee are spoken,
Zion, city of our God!
He, whose Word cannot be broken,
Formed thee for His own abode.
On the Rock of Ages founded,
What can shake thy sure repose?
With salvation’s walls surrounded,
Thou may’st smile at all thy foes.

See! the streams of living waters,
Springing from eternal love;
Well supply thy sons and daughters,
And all fear of want remove:
Who can faint while such a river
Ever flows their thirst t’assuage?
Grace, which like the Lord, the Giver,
Never fails from age to age.

Round each habitation hovering,
See the cloud and fire appear!
For a glory and a cov’ring
Showing that the Lord is near.
Thus deriving from our banner
Light by night and shade by day;
Safe they feed upon the manna
Which He gives them when they pray.

Blest inhabitants of Zion,
Washed in the Redeemer’s blood!
Jesus, whom their souls rely on,
Makes them kings and priests to God.
’Tis His love His people raises,
Over self to reign as kings,
And as priests, His solemn praises
Each for a thank offering brings.

Savior, if of Zion’s city,
I through grace a member am,
Let the world deride or pity,
I will glory in Thy Name.
Fading is the worldling’s pleasure,
All his boasted pomp and show;
Solid joys and lasting treasure
None but Zion’s children know.

Although this is hymn writer John Newton’s first appearance on this list, it will surely not be his last. He is most famous in the United States for another hymn which will appear in due time. In the meantime, Mr. Newton, former slave and then slave trader, was a prolific versifier. Along with poet and friend WIlliam Cowper, Newton published a collection of hymn lyrics called The Olney Hymns, named after the village where Newton was a minister for many years. Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken was one of the hymns in the collection that was written by Mr. Newton. Newton, and his friend Cowper, wrote these hymns for a weekly prayer and worship service with usually one new hymn written each week.

Newton on hymns for public worship: “They should be Hymns, not Odes, if designed for public worship, and for the use of plain people. Perspicuity, simplicity and ease, should be chiefly attended to; and the imagery and coloring of poetry, if admitted at all, should be indulged very sparingly and with great judgement.”

Sources:
Victorian Web: The Olney Hymns by John Newton.
Amazing Grace: The Story of John Newton by Al Rogers.
Hymntime: Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken.

Books Read in May, 2009

Jun1

Every Secret Thing by Ann Tatlock. A little too sweet for my tastes, this story about secrets, and recovered love, and unfulfilled dreams might be a treat for some other palates.

The Blood of Lambs by Kamal Saleem (with Lynn Vincent). Memoir of a former PLO terrorist, converted to Christianity and sworn to defend America by alerting Americans to the danger of terrorists among us.

The Trap by Joan Lowery Nixon. YA murder mystery. Nothing to write home about, but it’s an OK way to spend an hour or two.

Gringolandia by Lyn Miller-Lachmann. Semicolon review of this YA novel set in Chile and in the U.S. among Chilean refugees, here.

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson. I’m fairly sure this book looks inside the mind of a certain kind of adolescent male fairly accurately; I’m not sure I want to go there again anytime soon.

Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey. I’ve got to get a review written and posted of this mystery novel set in Ghana. Short version: good, but not anything like the Alexander McCall Smith books it’s compared to on the back cover.

Lavinia by Ursula K. LeGuin. The story of the Trojan hero Aeneas’s second or third wife (was Dido a wife?), Lavinia, a Latin princess for whom he founded the city of Lavinium, later part of Rome. THe book was OK, but I remember Ms. LeGuin as a more exciting and interesting writer.

Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George. Semicolon review here plus a short list of favorite novelized fairy tales.

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson. R-e-a-l-l-y sure I don’t want to go here again anytime soon.

Tuck by Stephen Lawhead. I didn’t think this third book in Lawhead’s Robin Hood trilogy was as good as the first and second, but it did provide a satisfying ending

Ancient Highway by Bret Lott.

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje. I actually didn’t finish this Booker Prize-winning novel. Wikipedia says “the narrative is non-linear,” and I think that’s what wore me out so that I stopped halfway and never returned.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. Odd, but the ending was satisfactory.

The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips. Semicolon review here.

Amazing Grace: The Story of America’s Most Beloved Song by Steve Turner. Great book. Recommended. I’ll be writing more about this one as my hymn posts progress.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume 1, The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson. Finally, I read this one. It’s wonderfully evocative of the time period (American Revolution) with the language of the narrator reflecting the era and sadly educational (slavery), but I really wonder how many young adults, much less children, would make it through the first chapter.

The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips

May30

The Well and the Mine is Alabama author Gin Phillips’s first novel, and I’m impressed. The plot is simple: Nine year old Tess witnesses a tragedy on her own back porch, and she and her older sister, Virgie, try to figure out why a Mystery Woman threw a baby in their well. It’s very much a bildungsroman, a coming of age story, reminiscent of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. (OK, I’m not saying it’s as good as To Kill a Mockingbird, but the setting and themes are similar. And it is good.)

The well part of the title is indicative of the plot; the mine points to the setting. The story of Tess and VIrgie and their family takes place in the fictional mining town of Carbon Hill, Alabama, somewhere not too far from Birmingham. Tess’s daddy is a coal miner; her mother is a homemaker who works from dawn to late at night to put food on the table and make a life for herself, her husband, and her three children. Tess and Virgie have a little brother, Jack. They’re all good folks.

Each member of the family takes turns telling the story in first person from his or her point of view, sometimes for a few paragraphs and sometimes for several pages. This rotating narration was annoying at first. I had to keep looking back to the beginning of the section to the name in italics to see who was talking, who “I” was this time. But you get used to it, and this style of story-telling has the advantage of giving the reader a fuller view of what’s going on in the family, of family dynamics, of how different people see things. Each of the five narrators became a real person for me. I felt I knew them, and I was glad that Ms. Phillips saw fit to tell us over the course of the story, which mainly focuses on one summer in 1931, what happened to each family member in later life.

I’m glad I got to read this novel about life during the Great Depression in a coal-mining town in northern Alabama. I didn’t even know they had coal mines in Alabama. I associate coal mining with Kentucky and West Virginia. At any rate, if you’re a fan of the Southern novel, the summer-of-growing-up family slice of life novel, or the gentle, rambling, character-driven story of an historical era, The Well and the Mine will fit the bill. Recommended.

Two by Laurie Halse Anderson

May29

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson. Viking, 2007.

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson. Viking, 2009.

Ms. Anderson is a skilled writer. Her contemporary YA novel Speak was “haunting and memorable.” (Semicolon review here.) Twisted, written from a male protagonist’s point of view is, well, rather twisted, but also thought-provoking even now, three weeks after I’ve read the book and returned it to the library. Wintergirls, Ms. Anderson’s newest novel, is twisted, haunting, and memorable and eventually crosses the line into downright disturbing.

Put it this way: I let my fourteen year old read Speak because I thought it dealt with a subject she should know about and be on guard against. I let her read Twisted because I thought she was naive about teenage boys and the fact that even “nice” boys think about sex . . . a lot, especially when confronted with immodestly and skimpily clad teenage girls. Ms. Anderson did an excellent job of getting inside the mind of a fairly typical teenage boy without making him into a saint or a hero or a total scumbag.

However, I don’t want Brown Bear Daughter to read Wintergirls. I’m not saying that the book is poorly written or pornographic, but do I really want my dancer daughter who already deals with body image issues (as do most teen girls) to read, to become immersed in, the seriously disturbed thoughts of a suicidal anorexic teenage girl? To read WIntergirls is to become immersed in an alternative universe in which thin is fat, eating is evil, and the self is to be annihilated. It’s scary and dark and very real. The book does hold out some hope, but not much.

So what I’m saying that it’s so well written that I don’t want impressionable teens to read it. Forget impressionable teens, impressionable anyage should beware. Enter at your own risk. Parental guidance suggested for both books, but there is some worthwhile stuff here.

Reading Wintergirls made me pray for those I know who have dealt with eating disorders or who are still living in the thrall of anorexia or bulimia. Reading Twisted reminded me of what a dangerous and twisted world we live in.

Other Hymn Surveys

May28

The BBC’s Sunday show Songs of Praise surveyed Brits in 2005:
1. How Great Thou Art
2. Dear Lord and Father of Mankind by John Greenleaf Whittier.
3. The Day Thou Gavest
4. Be Thou My Vision
5. Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
6. Be Still, For the Presence of the Lord
7. Make Me a Channel
8. Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer
9. In Christ Alone by Stuart Townsend and Keith Getty
10. Shine, Jesus, Shine by Graham Kendrick.

Favorite Hymns of United Methodists by Dean McIntyre (2006).
1. “Amazing Grace”
2. “Here I Am, Lord”
3. “How Great Thou Art”
4. “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing”
5. “Hymn of Promise”
6. “In the Garden”
7. “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”
8. “Holy, Holy, Holy”
9. “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee”
10. “Spirit Song”; “Blessed Assurance”

Christianity Today had about 500 respondents to its survey in 2001 of favorite hymns and praise songs:
1. Amazing Grace
2. How Great Thou Art
3. Because He Lives
4. Great Is Thy Faithfulness
5. The Old Rugged Cross
6. What a Friend We Have In Jesus
7. To God Be the Glory
8. Majesty
9. Shout to the Lord
10. Holy, Holy, Holy

PopularHymns.com administered a poll from December 2007 to February 2008, and these were their top ten:
1. Amazing Grace
2. How Great Thou Art
3. In the Garden
4. Be Thou My Vision
5. Great Is Thy Faithfulness
6. It is Well
7. What A Friend We Have in Jesus
8. Blessed Assurance
9. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
10. Holy, Holy, Holy

I deduce from these other hymn poll results that:
1. Amazing Grace will be in my top ten unless a bunch of Brits get in and clog up the works with the likes of American poet John Greenleaf Whittier.
2. How Great Thou Art is likely to make the top ten, too, even though Brown Bear Daughter can’t stand it. She’s fond of minor key mysterious sounding hymns, and How Great THou Art is much too rolling, majestic, and triumphant for her teen emo sensibilities.
3. Methodists sing a couple of hymns the rest of us haven’t heard. Hymn of Promise?
4. I don’t understand the popularity of a certain hymn which shall remain nameless, but which reminds me of the poem The Old Oaken Bucket, sentimental and slightly vapid.
5. I’m mostly in agreement with all of these polls. These are all fine hymns.
6. My poll may be redundant, but I’m enjoying it anyway. Please send your list of top ten hymns in today so that I can enjoy more.

Pseudogamy

May26

Anthony Esolen at Mere Comments is writing a series of essays that he calls “Pseudogamy,” reflecting the sham and pretense that we as a society have made of the sacred institution of marriage. It’s worth reading in its entirety, but here are some selected quotes to whet your appetite.

Marriage — marriage such as Jesus defined it — is the foundation of society not simply because it is the best environment for raising children, though it is. It is the foundation because in it man and woman commit themselves one to another, as if they were, so to speak, gods freely bestowing freedom upon what they create.

I return to the notion of cosmos: order. Man and woman unite in marriage to bring into being a new generation; and even when they cannot do so, because of age or some physical defect, they may well wish to do so, or they stand for others as exemplars of the act that naturally brings forth children. All of which is to say that marriage that is open to children is part of the order created by God. Then marriage that is not open to children violates that order, and introduces into our understanding of marriage a destructive chaos.

In these two posts, Mr. Esolen says eloquently and intelligently some of the things I tried to start talking about in this post on marriage: that we have already lost the meaning of marriage before the activists and anti-Christians came along to try to put into statute and law what was already broken. I’m not saying that it’s a losing battle but rather that we will have to re-examine the fundamental Biblical meaning of marriage itself before we will be able to speak truth to our culture and, perhaps, change the course we are travelling toward the destruction of both marriage and family.

Pseudogamy 101 by Anthony Esolen.

Pseudogamy 102 by Anthony Esolen.

Poetry Friday and Hymnic Research

May22

Yes, the word hymnic was in my dictionary. I rather like it.

The best place on the internet to get information about hymn writers, hymns, melodies, etc. is probably Cyber Hymnal. The site features over 10,000 hymns and lyricist/composer biographies. It also has pictures of all of the composers and hymn writers of whom they could find pictures. But the music is not nice. It comes on automatically when you click on a given hymn, repeats endlessly until you shut it off, and it’s some kind of electronic midi file that hurts my ears. Not appealing.
CyberHymnal also has a list of copyrighted hymns that have been requested but that the site is unable to post, along with the names of copyright holders, if known.

Oremus Hymnal Wiki “hopes to be the comprehensive source of information about the extensive tradition of English-language hymnody.” It looks as if it started out as a one-man project, and now others are invited to make it grow. Oremus also has articles about historical hymnals with an index to all the hymns published in that particular hymnal.

Scripture and Music has a limited number of hymn lyrics and midi or mp3 files to go with them. There’s also some information about the authors and composers of the hymns in their database.

Hymnal.net has better music, more traditional piano, and not that plinkety-plunkety electronic midi stuff. And from Hymnal.net one can embed the mp3 version of the music to most traditional hymns.

I like the following hymn very much, and I rather doubt it’s well known enough to make the Top 100 list, so I’m including it here for Poetry Friday.
James Mountain who wrote the music for this hymn also wrote the music to Like a River Glorious. The lyrics are by George Wade Robinson:

Loved with everlasting love,
Led by grace that love to know;
Spirit, breathing from above,
Thou hast taught me it is so.
Oh, this full and perfect peace!
Oh, this transport all divine!
In a love which cannot cease,
I am His, and He is mine.

Heaven above is softer blue,
Earth around is sweeter green;
Something lives in every hue
Christless eyes have never seen:
Birds with gladder songs o’erflow,
Flow’rs with deeper beauties shine,
Since I know, as now I know,
I am His, and He is mine.

Things that once were wild alarms
Cannot now disturb my rest;
Closed in everlasting arms,
Pillowed on the loving breast.
Oh, to lie forever here,
Doubt and care and self resign,
While He whispers in my ear,
I am His, and He is mine.

His forever, only His:
Who the Lord and me shall part?
Ah, with what a rest of bliss
Christ can fill the loving heart.
Heaven and earth may fade and flee,
Firstborn light in gloom decline;
But, while God and I shall be,
I am His, and He is mine.

The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson

May20

I picked up The Star of Kazan at the library on spec. It looked interesting, and I’d heard of Ms. Ibbotson, but I’d never read any of her books. (If you want more about Eva Ibbotson, Austrian-born, British writer of both children’s and adult books, here’s a delightful Guardian interview with her. She starts out cranky and ends up reflective.)

A foundling, Austrian professors, Viennese cooking, a bookshop, the Lippizaner stallions, a castle, a mysterious trunk full of costumes and fake jewels. These are some of the elements that make up this adventure story set in early twentieth century Vienna and Germany. It’s not really a fantasy, but it feels a little fairy-tale-ish.

Annika, the foundling who is the story’s heroine, loves her life in Vienna as the adopted daughter of servants, Ellie and Sigrid, and the adopted “niece” of the three professors for whom Ellie and Sigrid work. However, as a found child, Annika does imagine what it would be like to have her birth mother sweep into the house and claim her as a beloved, long lost daughter.

Then, one day it happens! And Annika’s mother and her new-found family are both more and less exciting and wonderful than her imagination could have dreamed.

The story sort of reminded me of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Little Princess, one of my favorite tales when I was a girl. Annika, like Sara Crewe, is either a princess or a penniless orphan or something in-between. And Annika and Sara, as their fortunes rise and fall, are throughout both books rather Pollyanna-like, almost always humble and servant-like and joyful.

I think I would have had a great big noisy fit somewhere in there. Which shows that when it comes to living up to my fictional ideals, I don’t.

Top 100 Hymns Survey

May19

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE SEND YOUR TOP TEN LISTS TODAY! I really wanted to have at least one hundred responses, and so far I have heard from thirty SIXTY of you. Thanks to the Early Thirty! The rest of of you send in your lists! Deadline: May 31, 2009.

So, this past Sunday in church while listening attentively to the sermon, and even taking some notes in my Bible, I thought up a new project. I get some of my best thinking done during church. My excuse is that I can listen faster than my pastor can preach, so I have time left over to think. And I like projects. At least, I like thinking them up. Sometimes I’m a little bit lacking in the follow-through.

At any rate, inspired by Fuse #8’s Top 100 Picture Book Poll, which I enjoyed immensely and would recommend as a beginning reading list of picture books to accompany my Picture Book Preschool, I thought a Top 100 Hymns Poll would be a great summer project. I might learn something and be encouraged in my own worship. You might learn some new hymns or be reminded of some oldies. We all might enjoy visiting and re-visiting the hymns of the faith together.

Here’s how I think this poll/journey is going to work (I stole some of the rules from Fuse #8):

1. Make a list of your top ten hymns of all time.
Hymn (according to Webster): a song of praise to God
a metrical composition adapted for singing in a religious service.
For the purposes of this poll, I’m limiting the choices to Christian hymns, but the form of the song doesn’t matter. In other words, the songs on your list should be suitable for congregational singing and should be Christian. Handel’s Messiah is Christian but probably not suitable for congregational hymn singing. Anything you sing in worship service, even what are normally called choruses or gospel songs or spirituals or CCM, is fine. (Oh, English, please, or at least translated into English. Sorry, but it’s all I really speak.)

2. List these hymns in your order of preference. So your #1 hymn would be the one you feel is the best, and so on. I will be giving your first choice 10 points, your second choice 9 points, and so on.

3. Submit your list to me at sherryDOTearlyATgmailDOTcom. Write “Hymn Survey” in the subject line. I’d rather you didn’t leave your votes in my comments here because it’ll be easier to tabulate all the votes if they’re all in my email (plus I want everyone’s votes to be a surprise). Deadline for votes to be sent to me is May 31, 2009.

4. If you like, you can submit a justification for each hymn. Or you can send me a link to an audio or video version online. Include the name of the hymn’s author or lyricist and the composer of the melody you prefer if at all possible, especially if you think I might be unfamiliar with your particular hymn. At the beginning of June I will tally up the totals, and I will pull from the submitted pieces why one reader or another liked a particular hymn (naming the reader, of course). That way we’ll be able to hear from a whole bunch of people why they love one hymn or another. I will then count down from 100 to 1 over the course of the summer the top choices of what folks feel the best hymns of all time are.

I’m also going to talk to someone at my church to see if we can sing a lot of these favorites this summer in our worship services. As many of you know, churches get caught in ruts where they sing the same hymns over and over. I think singing some of the favorite hymns of the faith, even some that we may not have sung in many years, would do us good. By the way, I’m not any kind of expert on music or hymns, but I’ll bet I’ll be a lot more knowledgeable about both by the end of the summer.

Thanks in advance for your votes/nominations. I’m going to enjoy this little exercise, and I hope you will, too.

Oh, and if you don’t mind, I would appreciate your publicizing this poll on your blog. I’d like to get at least 100 nominations or lists for this survey; more would be even better. If you want to post your top ten list on your blog, that’s fine. Just be sure you send me a copy.

Seven Ten Fifteen Nineteen Twenty-five Thirty SIxty responses so far!

John Adams’ Advice to His Children

May19

When I read David McCullough’s biography of John Adams back in February and watched the PBS miniseries based on the book, I copied several passages into my commonplace book for future reference. These are some quotations from Adams’ letters or other writings that reflect his advice to his children.

John adn Abigail had four children who lived to adulthood: one, John Quincy, became president of the United States. The other three lived to experience varying degrees of tragedy in their lives. Abigail, the eldest, nicknamed Nabby, married Colonel William Smith who turned out to be a profligate husband who practically deserted her and their children for long periods of time throughout their marriage. Nabby died of breast cancer at age forty-nine.

Charles Adams was by all accounts a charming and talented young man, but he drank excessively and eventually died an alcoholic. He was married to Col. Smith’s sister, Sally, and the couple had two daughters. He also deserted his family and died at the age of thirty, alone, in New York City.

Thomas Adams, the youngest of the Adams children, became a lawyer, but not a very successful one. Thomas married and had seven children, but he, too, was prone to alcohol abuse. He and his family lived with his father John Adams in John’s old age, and Thomas outlived his father in spite of his alcoholism.

Perhaps John Adams’ children, in light of their sometimes poor decisions in adult life, should have taken his advice more to heart. At any rate, here is some of what Mr. Adams wrote to his children, in case you want to take advantage.

“Daughter! Get you an honest man for a husband, and keep him honest. No matter whether he is rich, provided he be independent. Regard the honor and moral character more than all other circumstances. Think of no other greatness but that of the soul, no other riches but those of the heart. An honest, sensible humane man, above all the littleness of vanity and extravagances of imagination, laboring to do good rather than be rich, to be useful rather than make a show, living in modest simplicity clearly within his means and free from debts and obligations, is really the most respectable man in society, makes himself and all about him most happy.” (John Adams, p. 289)

“Public business, my son, must always be done by somebody. It will be done by somebody or other. If wise men decline it, others will not; if honest men refuse it, others will not. A young man should weigh well his plans. Integrity should be preserved in all events, as essential to his happiness, through every stage of his existence. His first maxim then should be to place his honor out of reach of all men.” (John Adams, p. 415)

To Charles on exercise: “Move or die is the language of our Maker in the constitution of our bodies. When you cannot walk abroad, walk in your room . . . Rise up and then open your windows and walk about your room a few times, then sit down to your books or your pen.” (John Adams, p. 452)

“More depends on little things than is commonly imagined. An Erect figure, a steady countenance, a neat dress, a genteel air, an oratorical period, a resolute, determined spirit, often do more than deep erudition or indefatigable application.” (John Adams, p. 453)

To John Quincy: “Rejoice always in all events, be thankful always for all things is a hard precept for human nature, though in my philosophy and in my religion a perfect duty.”