Hymn #41: This Is My Father’s World

Aug10

Lyrics: Maltbie Babcock, 1901.

Music: TERRA BEATA by Frank L. Sheppard, 1915.

Theme: The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Psalm 24:1.

Steve Webb’s Lifespring Hymn Stories: This Is My Father’s World.

This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world: I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
His hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father’s world, the birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white, declare their Maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world: He shines in all that’s fair;
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass;
He speaks to me everywhere.

This is my Father’s world. O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world: the battle is not done:
Jesus Who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and Heav’n be one.

Maltbie Babcock: “Good habits are not made on birthdays, nor Christian character at the new year. The workshop of character is everyday life. The uneventful and commonplace hour is where the battle is lost or won.”

This is my Father’s world, dreaming, I see His face.
I ope my eyes, and in glad surprise cry, “The Lord is in this place.”
This is my Father’s world, from the shining courts above,
The Beloved One, His Only Son,
Came—a pledge of deathless love.

This is my Father’s world, should my heart be ever sad?
The lord is King—let the heavens ring. God reigns—let the earth be glad.
This is my Father’s world. Now closer to Heaven bound,
For dear to God is the earth Christ trod.
No place but is holy ground.

This is my Father’s world. I walk a desert lone.
In a bush ablaze to my wondering gaze God makes His glory known.
This is my Father’s world, a wanderer I may roam
Whate’er my lot, it matters not,
My heart is still at home.

Maltbie Babcock’s original poem consisted of sixteen verses, but these are all I could find. Babcock himself was a Presbyterian minister in addition to being a swimmer, a baseball player, a singer/musician, and a poet. He also liked to walk and to hike, and he often told his secretary or his wife, “I’m going out to see my Father’s world!” His somewhat lengthy poem about his Father’s world was published posthumously, and his friend, Frank Sheppard, set it to the music of an old English folk tune.

Sources:
101 Hymn Stories by Kenneth W. Osbeck.
The Center for Church Music: This Is My Father’s World.
Wikipedia: Maltbie Davenport Babcock.
Anchor for the Soul: This Is My Father’s World.
Wordwise Hymns: Maltbie Babcock Born.

Hymn #42: What a Friend We Have in Jesus

Aug9

Lyrics: Joseph Mendicott Scriven, 1855.

Music: ERIE by Charles Converse, 1868.
Alternate tune: CALON LAN

Theme: A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24

What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In his arms he’ll take and shield thee; thou wilt find a solace there.

Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised, Thou wilt all our burdens bear
May we ever, Lord, be bringing, all to Thee in earnest prayer.
Soon in glory bright unclouded, there will be no need for prayer
Rapture, praise and endless worship, will be our sweet portion there.

Joseph Scriven’s first fiance drowned the night before their wedding was to take place. He moved to Canada (from England) where he met and became engaged to another young woman, Eliza Roche. Eliza contracted pneumonia and died shortly before the wedding. Joseph joined the Plymouth Brethren and spent the rest of his life serving the aged and the poor. Unfortunately, Mr. Scriven also died tragically, by drowning, either a suicide or an accident.

This monologue by Christian comedienne Chondra Pierce is an excellent commentary on this hymn and on the faithfulness of our Lord:

It seems odd and mildly humorous to me, but this hymn is said to be a very popular wedding song played at Japanese weddings. A Japanese poet’s (secular) words have been set to Mr. Converse’s tune, but usually if the words are sung, they’re a Japanese translation of Mr. Scriven’s lyrics. I’m trying to imagine “Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer” in Japanese and at a wedding. Incongruity anyone?

The tune has also been used, particularly during World War I for other, more bawdy, lyrics, but you don’t want to go there, do you? Me neither. I’m still stuck on the Japanese wedding song thing. If you’re wanting to get that picture out of your imagination, go back and listen to Chondra Pierce again. It’s worth another listen.

Sources:
What a Friend We Have in Jesus by Lindsay Terry in Christianity Today.
Seiyaku: What a Friend We Have in Jesus.

Sunday Salon: More Books I Want to Read

Aug9

The Sunday Salon.comThe Whole Five Feet: What the Great Books Taught Me About Life, Death and Pretty Much Everything Else by Christopher Beha. Grove Press. New York Times Book Review. Excerpt from the first chapter of The Whole Five Feet. Why do I so enjoy reading books about people reading books? About reading projects? It’s addictive and tempting. I want to start another project of my own, write a book about it, have everyone read about my reading. Which is what I’m doing here at the blog, isn’t it?

The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner. A fictional account of the life of Juana la Loca, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella and mother to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Reviewed here by Heather at A Lifetime of Books. I really like historical fiction about royals, IF it’s done well and not too romanticized. This novel sounds like a winner. (But I could do without the partially decapitated model on the cover.)

Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas. This memoir of an Iranian American refugee growing up in California is reviewed at Small World Reads. I’ ready for something funny since most of my reading has been quite serious lately.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. I’ve read a lot of buzz about this YA novel, and now I see in Jennifer’s review that the protagonist of the novel has a favorite book: A Wrinkle in Time! Since I’m a Madeleine L’Engle fan from way back, how can I resist?

The Widow’s Season by Laura Brodie. Reviewed by Carrie K. This one just sounds like fun.

Pastwatch by Orson Scott Card. Reviewed by Seth Heasley at Collateral Bloggage. (By the way, I like the title of Mr. Heasley’s blog, don’t you?) I may need to move this sci-fi/historical fiction novel way up on the list since we’re starting this year’s history unit with Christopher Columbus.

Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen by Susan Gregg Gilmore. Reviewed by Kathy at Bermuda Onion. Georgia, Baptist church, Dairy Queen, I’m hooked.

The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter by Susan Wittig Albert. Reviewed at Framed and Booked. This series of cozy mysteries sounds as if it’s worth a try at least.

Sometimes a Light Surprises by Jamie Langston Turner. Reviewed by Barbara at Stray Thoughts. Read here about my love for the writing of Jamie Langston Turner. I’m pleased to read about this new book by a favorite author. (Yikes! another half head guillotined by the edge of the cover!)

Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch. Carrie makes this book sound like a must-read, and I heard someone recommend it at the homeschool conference I attended this weekend. So I’ll read it.

Hollywood Worldviews: Watching Films With Wisdom and Discernment by Brian Godawa. Another Carrie (Reading to Know) pick.

Hymn #43: Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy

Aug8

Lyrics: Joseph Hart, 1759.

Music: RESTORATION arranged by William Walker, 1835, from The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion.
Also BEACH SPRING arranged by Benjamin Franklin White, 1844 from The Sacred Harp.
These two were competing hymnals, both using “shape notes“. (Here’s a shape note rendition of this hymn.) Benjamin F. White was William Walker’s brother-in-law. Unfortunately, although the two men worked together at first in collecting and composing hymn tunes, they refused to share credit for the collections they produced. So they were estranged for the rest of their lives.
Or you could go back to Indelible Grace for this tune by Darwin Jordan or this one by Matthew S. Smith. Brown Bear Daughter, who has a predilection for minor key tunes, insists on retaining the traditional Southern Harmony RESTORATION tune, and I’ll admit that I’m with her.

Theme: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30.

Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore;
Jesus ready stands to save you,
Full of pity, love and pow’r.

Refrain:
I will arise and go to Jesus,
He will embrace me in His arms;
In the arms of my dear Savior,
Oh, there are ten thousand charms.

Come, ye thirsty, come, and welcome,
God’s free bounty glorify;
True belief and true repentance,
Every grace that brings you nigh.

Come, ye weary, heavy-laden,
Lost and ruined by the fall;
If you tarry till you’re better,
You will never come at all.

View Him prostrate in the garden;
On the ground your Maker lies;
On the bloody tree behold Him;
Sinner, will this not suffice?

Lo! th’ incarnate God ascended,
Pleads the merit of His blood:
Venture on Him, venture wholly,
Let no other trust intrude.

Let not conscience make you linger,
Not of fitness fondly dream;
All the fitness He requireth
Is to feel your need of Him.

Baker Church:

“The verses of the hymn were composed much earlier (1759) by English pastor Joseph Hart. Two years before he wrote this hymn, Hart was converted to Christianity following a Moravian service he attended on Pentecost Sunday. Despite his rearing in a Christian home, Hart entered a stage of rebellion in his early twenties characterized by a lifestyle of carnality and a philosophy of anti-Christian sentiments. He was known as an enemy of the cross, and went to great lengths to discredit Christianity and its followers. Hart published a pamphlet entitled, “The Unreasonableness of Religion” as a response to one of John Wesley’s sermons, earning him a reputation not unlike that of Saul. Hart fell into a depression in the 1850s(sic1750s). It was during this time that he developed a Spiritual conviction that eventually led him to the Moravian meeting in 1857(sic1757) and his eventual conversion. Filled with the Holy Spirit and anxious to share his experience, Hart took to writing poetry, from which the text of our hymn was derived.”

Here’s yet another tune by CCM artist Todd Agnew:

Sources:
Rebecca Writes: Sunday’s Hymn.
Baker Church Media: Come Ye Sinners.

Hymn #44: Just As I Am

Aug7

Lyrics: Charlotte Elliot, 1835.

Music: WOODWORTH by WIlliam B. Bradbury is the traditional tune for this hymn.
I like the tune, found in the 1975 Baptist Hymnal, called TABERNACLE by Phillip Landgrave, 1968. Unfortunately, I can’t find a good midi or mp3 of this tune. Here’s the only one I found, but it’s played way too fast and peppy for my taste.

Theme: How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! Hebrews 9:14.

Billy Graham: “That well-known Gospel hymn has been used by God in crusades all over the world to draw people to Himself, not only in English but also in other languages as well.” (Graham chose this hymn’s title as the title of his 1997 autobiography.)

Rev. H.V. Elliott, Charlotte’s brother: ‘In the course of a long ministry I hope I have been permitted to see some fruit for my labours; but I feel far more has been done by a single hymn of my sister’s”.

Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, tho’ tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind-
Sight, riches, healing of the mind,
Yea, all I need in Thee to find-
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, thy love unknown
Has broken ev’ry barrier down,
Now to be thine, yea thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, of that free love
The breadth, length, depth and height to prove,
Here for a season, then above,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve,
Because Thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!

Sources:

Workers for Jesus: Just As I Am.

STEM Publishing: Miss Charlotte Elliott, 1789-1871.

I Wanna GO!

Aug5

News bulletin from Mother Reader:

It is officially time to sign up for the KidLitosphere Conference taking place on October 17th, 2009 at the Sheraton Crystal City Hotel. The conference is open to bloggers – and wannabe bloggers – in children’s and young adult literature. Yes, this includes YA/Kidlit authors, illustrators, editors, and publishers who blog or would like to blog.

So what’s the conference like, other than awesome? The day starts with breakfast from 7:00 to 8:00 a.m, where you can catch up with old friends or meet new ones. The sessions go from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and will cover:
-The Blog Within: An Interview With Your Inner Blogger
– Building a Better Blog: Best Practices, Ideas, and Tips
– Split Reviewer/Author Sessions:
Better Book Reviews/Writing Ideas for Blogging Authors
– Split Reviewer/Author Sessions:
Social Networking for Fun (and Profit?)
– Authors, Publishers, Reviewers (and ARC’s): A Panel Conversation
– Coming Together, Giving Back: Building Community, Literacy, and the Reading Message (KidLitosphere CentralPBS/RIF/Literacy)
There will also be a Meet the Author time at the end where writers and illustrators can bring their books. A fun dinner to mix-and-mingle is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. to 10 p.m. with the continuing party moving to the hotel bar. The registration fee for all of this – including the breakfast and dinner – is only $100. It’s a total bargain.

Informal outings will take place on Friday and Sunday. We’re hoping to arrange a Library of Congress tour for Friday afternoon and we’ll gather for dinner near the hotel around 6:00 p.m. Sunday’s expedition may involve a local DC bookstore, Politics and Prose. If I can get some authors to register soon, we may even be able to arrange a reading.

Rooms are currently on hold at the Sheraton Crystal City Hotel for the amazing rate of $109 a night. They will only be held until September 16th, and if our block is filled before that low rate may not be available. Book soon. Since I’ve held rooms with two double beds, you could bring your family along to visit DC or share with a blogger buddy.

It should be noted that the hotel is a mile from National Airport and free shuttle service is available. A Metro Station is on the same block and goes to Washington DC in minutes. In fact, Downtown DC is only two miles away. The hotel is right next to the Crystal City Shops and a few blocks from the upscale Fashion Center at Pentagon City. If you want more information about the hotel, visit the website of the Sheraton Crystal City Hotel.

The registration form is available at KidLitosphere Central. There are a limited number of spaces available, so please sign-up soon.

Health Care, Reading Skills, and Responsibility

Aug5

I just sent the following questions to my congressman and to my two senators:

I have two questions:

1) Will you vote to require members of Congress to be included as participants on any bill dealing with health care? Please give me a yes or no answer.

2) Do you have a policy of reading any proposed bill before voting in favor of it? If so, will you vote against or abstain from voting on any bill that you are unable to read before a vote is taken?

Thank you for your time and for your service,

If you are interested in answers from members of Congress to either or both questions, I would suggest that you email your members of Congress or call them and ask the same two questions. I do not think it at all unreasonable to ask that members of Congress read the bills that they are voting to enact. And if the Congressional leadership does not give the members sufficient time to read the bills, they should vote “NO!”

I also believe that if the current health care bill is so great for the poor and the uninsured, Congressmen and their families should be happy to sign on to receive the same health care and have the same access to health care that their constituents will get.

Hymn #45: Immortal, Invisible

Aug4

Lyrics: Walter Chalmers Smith, 1876. Read more about Walter Chalmers Smith.

Music: ST DENIO from a Welsh melody arranged by John Roberts, 1839.

Theme: “NOW UNTO THE KING ETERNAL, IMMORTAL, INVISIBLE, THE ONLY GOD, BE HONOR AND GLORY FOREVER AND EVER. AMEN.” —1 TIMOTHY 1:17

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, Thy great name we praise.

Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
Nor wanting, nor wasting, Thou rulest in might;
Thy justice like mountains high soaring above,
Thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.

To all life Thou givest, to both great and small;
In all life Thou livest, the true life of all;
We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,
And wither and perish, but nought changeth Thee.

Great Father of Glory, pure Father of Light
Thine angels adore Thee, all veiling their sight;
All laud we would render, O help us to see:
‘Tis only the splendor of light hideth Thee.

To do a study of this hymn in your homeschool, check out Hymn Studies: Immortal Invisible.

Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski

Aug4

I read this 2007 National Book Award finalist because Mindy Withrow said it was good. She was right.

End of review. Read it.

*****************

Just kidding. But you really should read the book before you read my thoughts about the book because there are many, many things to discuss here. But you should come to the book without preconceived notions. So go thou hence to the bookstore or the library, and then come back, and we’ll talk.

Martiya is an anthropologist and a murderer. How do we reconcile those two legacies? That’s a lot of what the book is about. How could such an intelligent, lively, promising, woman have first buried herself in a native village in northern Thailand and then killed a man in cold blood? Make no mistake, Martiya does bury herself. She goes to Thailand looking for a soul-changing experience, and she gets one. She can never go back to Berkley again, not even to Western civilization anywhere. She becomes a part of the Dyalo culture she is studying, then becomes an outcast, then when she tries to be reborn into Western Christianity, she is rejected again.

Looking at this novel from my own perspective, that of an evangelical Christian sympathetic to the missionaries, the Walker family, I read the story of a woman, unsaved and unprotected by the blood of Jesus Christ, who decides to take up residence with demons and becomes enslaved to them and to the evil that they represent. In the Walkers, especially Thomas and Naomi Walker, I see a family of Christians who make a crucial mistake in their dealings with Martiya, in not seeing her as sinner in need of salvation just as much as the Dyalos need liberation from demonic bondage. Thomas and Naomi Walker pay for that mistake with the life of their only son.

However, one could read the story as the saga of an anthropologist who is driven mad by her long exile from Western civilization and who is finally broken by the single-minded jealousy of a an offended woman (Naomi) who should be able to overlook Martiya’s sin if Christianity is really true. However, I am left with questions that make me want to re-read the novel to see what I missed:

Are all the characters in the novel possessed by their own particular view of the world such that they can’t see each other or love each other? Why does Martiya seem to be so happy in the end in the prison as she works on her ethnography of prison life? And if she is happy in that work, why does she commit suicide? Because she’s finished? Because Rice is finished with her? How do Laura and Thomas Walker reconcile their part in their son’s death with their continuing work as missionaries? Why does the author imply that it takes a supernatural experience of hearing singing angels in the sky to become a committed Christian? Does he believe that? Why does Martiya’s paramour Hupasha remain faithful to Christ even after others have fallen away? What is the significance of drugs, particularly opium in the novel? Martiya commits suicide with a ball of opium. The narrator smokes opium and says that he hears the final episode of the story from the lips of Martiya’s ghost. Is opium related to the demonic practices of the Dyalo, to the traditions that Christianity is there to destroy? Can one enter into the native’s point of view and still remain an impartial observer, a scientist? Once you’ve “gone native” are you a better anthropologist or a worse one?

I may have to add this novel to my list of all-time favorites. It’s absolutely fascinating on many levels. And as an added fillip to my reading of the novel, it bears some relation to things that are going on in my own family. Eldest Daughter’s boyfriend just left to go to Thailand with this group to live in a a poor section of Bangkok for four months as a missionary. I also think he’s trying to figure out the course of his own life, looking for a “transformation of the observer’s soul” in the perhaps overly dramatic words of the author of Fieldwork. We’ll see what he finds.

Hymn #46: The Church’s One Foundation

Aug3

Lyrics: Samuel John Stone, 1866.

Music: AURELIA by Samuel Sebastian Wesley, 1844.

Theme: For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. I Corinthians 3:11

Center for Church Music: “The Reverend Samuel John Stone . . . was concerned about people saying the Apostles Creed in a perfunctory manner, saying the words without a clear understanding of what they were saying. He wrote a series of twelve hymns, each explaining a section of the creed and defending the fact of the inspiration of Scripture. ‘The Church’s One Foundation’ explains the ninth article – ‘I believe in the Holy Catholic (Universal) church, the communion of the saints.’ This series of hymns was printed in Lyra Fidelium (Lyre of the Faithful) in 1866.”

The church’s one Foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord;
She is his new creation
By water and the Word:
From heav’n he came and sought her
To be his holy bride;
With his own blood he bought her,
And for her life he died.

Elect from ev’ry nation,
Yet one o’er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food.
And to one hope she presses,
With ev’ry grace endued.

Though with a scornful wonder
Men see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder,
By heresies distressed,
Yet saints their watch are keeping,
Their cry goes up, “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song.

The church shall never perish!
Her dear Lord to defend,
To guide, sustain and cherish
Is with her to the end;
Though there be those that hate her,
And false sons in her pale,
Against or foe or traitor
She ever shall prevail.

‘Mid toil and tribulation,
And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
Of peace for evermore;
Till with the vision glorious
Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great church victorious
Shall be the church at rest.

Yet she on earth hath union
With the God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
With those whose rest is won:
O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we,
Like them, the meek and lowly,
On high may dwell with thee.

Additional verses that were part of the original hymn text, but have been altered or omitted:

Yet she on earth hath union
With God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
With those whose rest is won,
With all her sons and daughters
Who, by the Master’s hand
Led through the deathly waters,
Repose in Eden land.

O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we
Like them, the meek and lowly,
On high may dwell with Thee:
There, past the border mountains,
Where in sweet vales the Bride
With Thee by living fountains
Forever shall abide!

Not a praise and worship hymn. Not a reworked psalm hymn. Not a gospel hymn. A teaching hymn. I like that. I may use this one as one of the hymns we learn in school this year.

The pictured book covers are some of my favorite books about The Church. However, as I chose books to be pictured, I realized that I haven’t read that many books that are specifically about the Church. Can you suggest any other must-read books about the Church (Baptist/evangelical/mere Christian perspective)?