Lyrics: Attributed to Alexander Means.

Music: Appalachian folk tune arranged first by William Walker for his hymnal, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, then later by Southern Baptist musician William J. Reynolds.

Theme: Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Galatians 3:13-14.

This bluegrass version by a group called Blue Highway is not exactly the same tune that I’m used to hearing, but it’s probably more authentic and true to the older shape note rendition:

What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this
That caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul!

When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down
Beneath God’s righteous frown,
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul for my soul,
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul.

Ye winged seraphs, fly! Bear the news! bear the news!
Ye winged seraphs fly! bear the news!
Ye winged seraphs fly!
Like comets through the sky,
Fill vast eternity with the news, with the news,
Fill vast eternity with the news!

To God and to the Lamb I will sing, I will sing;
To God and to the Lamb I will sing;
To God and to the Lamb,
Who is the great I AM,
While millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing,
While millions join the theme, I will sing.

Come, friends of Zion’s King, join the praise, join the praise,
Come, friends of Zion’s King, join the praise!
Come, friends of Zion’s King,
With hearts and voices sing,
And strike each tuneful string, in his praise, in his praise,
And strike each tuneful string in his praise.

And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on;
And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on.
And when from death I’m free
I’ll sing His love for me,
And through eternity I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on,
And through eternity I’ll sing on.

It would be easy to make new verses to this song. Maybe I’ll see if my urchins can make up a new verse to sing to this tune that expresses their faith. Here’s mine:

Amazing grace, how sweet, sweet the sound, sweet the sound,
Amazing grace, how sweet, sweet the sound.
Amazing grace, how sweet
My Lord in heav’n I’ll meet,
We’ll sing and praise His grace, sweet the sound, sweet the sound.
We’ll sing and praise His grace, sweet the sound.

Yes, I borrowed a bit, but I rather like it. Anyone else want to try it?

Lyrics: Anna Warner wrote the first four verses printed below. Several authors have added more verses, including Anglican priest David Rutherford McGuire in 1971.
The chorus was added by William Bradbury.

Music: William B. Bradbury.

Theme: The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. I Timothy 1:14

Additional verses and variations:
Jesus loves me, this I know,
as he loved so long ago,
taking children on his knee,
saying, “Let them come to me.”

Jesus loves me when I’m good,
When I do the things I should,
Jesus loves me when I’m bad,
Though it makes Him very sad.

Jesus loves me still today,
Walking with me on my way,
Wanting as a friend to give
Light and love to all who live.

Jesus loves me! He will stay
Close beside me all the way;
If I love Him when I die,
He will take me home on high.

Jesus loves me! See His grace!
On the cross He took my place.
There He suffered and He died,
That I might be glorified.

Jesus loves me! God’s own Son
Over sin the vict’ry won.
When I die, saved by His grace,
I shall see Him face to face.

Jesus loves me! He is near.
He is with His Church so dear.
And the Spirit He has sent
By His Word and Sacrament.

The lyrics to “Jesus Loves Me” first appeared in a novel written by Anna Warner’s sister Susan. Mr. Bradbury came across the lyrics and added music and a chorus.

Amy Carmichael, the Irish missionary to India, was converted after hearing “Jesus Loves Me” at a children’s mission in Yorkshire, England.

Wikipedia: “In 1943 in the Solomon Islands, John F. Kennedy’s PT-109 was rammed and sunk. Islanders Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana who found Kennedy and the survivors remembers that when they rode on PT boats to retrieve the survivors, the Marines sang this song with the natives, who learned it from missionaries.”

John Stott: “The love of Christ is an immense subject, shallow enough for a child to paddle in; “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.” But deep enough for giants to wade in: “how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ!” “the love of Christ is ‘broad’ enough to compass all mankind (especially Jews and Gentiles, the theme of these chapters), ‘long’ enough to last for eternity, ‘deep’ enough to reach the most degraded sinner, and ‘high’ enough to exalt him to heaven.”

Glimpses of Christian History: “When Mao Tse Tung founded the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the Christian church was severely persecuted, with little information coming to the outside world. In 1972 some Americans received an unusual message from China–that the “This I know” people were well! The Chinese authorities thought the message nonsensical, so they let it through. The Americans clearly understood the reference to Anna Warner’s simple hymn–“Jesus Loves Me.”

One Sunday at the close of a church service at Swiss L’Abri, Francis Schaeffer asked the congregation to sing, “Jesus Loves Me.” He smiled and added, “Some of you may realize that this is my favorite hymn.”

And on it goes. As a “Sunbeam” I earned to sing the chorus to “Jesus Loves Me” in Spanish, in Chinese, in Japanese, and probably in several more languages. I don’t remember any of the language versions except for the Spanish, but I do remember the point my teachers were trying to make: the gospel of Jesus, who loves us all, is for all people everywhere.

Ms. Warner’s little song continues to preach the gospel around the world in all sorts of languages and in many, many places. It’s been parodied, mocked, translated, taught, added to, revised, and sung all over the earth. This simple little hymn with even simpler chorus captures the essence of the gospel and, especially in Ms. Warner’s second and fourth verses, presents who Jesus is and what He did for us in terms so simple that any child, or child-like adult, who is willing to listen can understand and respond.

Lyrics: Carolina W. Sandell-Berg, translated from Swedish to English by Ernst W. Olson.

Music: TRYGGARE KAN INGEN VARA, Swedish melody, arranged by Oskar Ahn­felt.

Theme: Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. I John 3:1.

The View From the Porch: “‘Children of the Heavenly Father’ is a sweet and lovely lullaby that is traditionally heard at Swedish funerals in these parts. When the small family group rose to sing this song as the service started, I knew I was in trouble. I held my own with only my chin trembling, until they sang the last verse… in Swedish. That was it. The tears flowed and it was so beautiful.”

Garrison Keillor: “I once sang the bass line of Children of the Heavenly Father in a room with about three thousand Lutherans in it; and when we finished, we all had tears in our eyes, partly from the promise that God will not forsake us, partly from the proximity of all those lovely voices. By our joining in harmony, we somehow promise that we will not forsake each other.”

Lina Berg, as she was known to her friends, wrote and published hymn lyrics even as a child. She was a sickly child and at the age of ten had to stay at home while the rest of her family attended the Lutheran church where her father was a pastor. When Lina was twenty-three, she accompanied her father on a boat trip and watched as he fell from the boat and drowned before her eyes.

After that experience, Lina wrote the other hymn for which she is most known in the English-speaking world, Day By Day.

Sources:
Christian History Institute: Lina Berg.
Luther Products: Children of the Heavenly Father, the Story of Lina Sandell.

Lyrics: Robert Bridges, 1899, based on a German hymn by Joachim Neander.

Music: MICHAEL by Herbert Howells, 1935.

Theme: Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.
Psalm 127:1.

Robert Bridges: “And if we consider and ask ourselves what sort of music we should wish to hear on entering a church, we should surely, in describing our ideal, say first of all that it must be something different from what is heard elsewhere; that it should be a sacred music, devote to its purpose, a music whose peace should still passion, whose dignity should strengthen our faith, whose unquestion’d beauty should find a home in our hearts, to cheer us in life and in death.”

All my hope on God is founded;
he doth still my trust renew,
me through change and chance he guideth,
only good and only true.
God unknown,
he alone
calls my heart to be his own.

Pride of man and earthly glory,
sword and crown betray his trust;
what with care and toil he buildeth,
tower and temple fall to dust.
But God’s power,
hour by hour,
is my temple and my tower.

God’s great goodness aye endureth,
deep his wisdom, passing thought:
splendor, light and life attend him,
beauty springeth out of naught.
Evermore
from his store
newborn worlds rise and adore.

Daily doth the almighty Giver
bounteous gifts on us bestow;
his desire our soul delighteth,
pleasure leads us where we go.
Love doth stand
at his hand;
joy doth wait on his command.

Still from man to God eternal
sacrifice of praise be done,
high above all praises praising
for the gift of Christ, his Son.
Christ doth call
one and all:
ye who follow shall not fall.

I had never heard of this hymn, but the name Robert Bridges did ring a bell: he was Poet Laureate of England from 1913 to 1930. From Wikipedia:

Bridges made an important contribution to hymnody with the publication in 1899 of his Yattendon Hymnal, which he created specifically for musical reasons. This collection of hymns, although not a financial success, became a bridge between the Victorian hymnody of the last half of the 19th century and the modern hymnody of the early 20th century.
Bridges translated important historic hymns, and many of these were included in Songs of Syon (1904) and the later English Hymnal (1906). Several of Bridges’ translations are still in use today

Here’s a sample of one of his poems, simple, sweet, not terribly profound, certainly not in a “modern” (T.S. Eliot) style, but I rather like it.

Absence

WHEN my love was away,
Full three days were not sped,
I caught my fancy astray
Thinking if she were dead,

And I alone, alone:
It seem’d in my misery
In all the world was none
Ever so lone as I.

I wept; but it did not shame
Nor comfort my heart: away
I rode as I might, and came
To my love at close of day.

The sight of her still’d my fears,
My fairest-hearted love:
And yet in her eyes were tears:
Which when I question’d of,

‘O now thou art come,’ she cried,
”Tis fled: but I thought to-day
I never could here abide,
If thou wert longer away.’

Mr. Bridges considered entering the ministry in the Church of England, but he decided to become a doctor instead. He met poet Gerard Manley Hopkins at Corpus Christi College, and the two poets became lifelong friends and correspondents.

Herbert Howells was an organist and musician, and the particular tune paired here with Bridges’ lyrics was written in honor and memory of Howells’ son Michael who died of polio at the age of nine. Howells was a friend of the famous English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Sources:
Poetry Foundation: Robert Bridges.

Finally, while researching this hymn online, I found this list of “The Top 20 Desert Island Hymns of Anglicans Online Readers.” I must not have had enough Anglican voters because only twelve of the twenty are on my list.

Lyrics: Charles Wesley

Music: Felix Mendelssohn, adapted by William H. Cummings.

Theme: But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Galatians 4:4-5.

Patricia at Always Chasing Boys: “Call it doctrinal, call it whatever you want. I would not like to attend a church that does not include this hymn in its Christmas services. I love how this hymn relates directly to one of my favorite Bible verses, Luke 2:10.”

There are three more traditional Christmas hymns on this list, coming in at #66, #51, and #47. Can you guess them?

Also, Mr. Wesley, prolific hymn writer that he was, wrote the lyrics for numbers 60, 57, 31, 30, 15, and 9. A virtual prize to anyone who names the six other Wesley hymns that made the list.

Semicolon Author Celebration of Charles Wesley.

An excellent sermon built on the words and music of Hark, The Herald Angels Sing.

Lyrics: Henry Francis Lyte

Music: HYFRYDOL by Rowland Prichard. Or since the meter is 8.7.8.7D(ouble), it can be sung to any number of alternate tunes.

Theme: And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.
Luke 9:23-24

Hannah: ” . . . a heavy commitment into a joyous sacrifice.”

1. Jesus, I my cross have taken, all to leave and follow Thee.
Destitute, despised, forsaken, thou from hence my all shall be.
Perish every fond ambition, all I’ve sought or hoped or known.
Yet how rich is my condition! God and heaven are still my own.

2. Let the world despise and leave me, they have left my Savior, too.
Human hearts and looks deceive me; Thou art not, like them, untrue.
O while Thou dost smile upon me, God of wisdom, love, and might,
Foes may hate and friends disown me, show Thy face and all is bright.

3. Man may trouble and distress me, ’twill but drive me to Thy breast.
Life with trials hard may press me; heaven will bring me sweeter rest.
Oh, ’tis not in grief to harm me while Thy love is left to me;
Oh, ’twere not in joy to charm me, were that joy unmixed with Thee.

4. Go, then, earthly fame and treasure, come disaster, scorn and pain
In Thy service, pain is pleasure; with Thy favor, loss is gain.
I have called Thee Abba Father; I have stayed my heart on Thee.
Storms may howl, and clouds may gather; all must work for good to me.

5. Soul, then know thy full salvation; rise o’er sin and fear and care
Joy to find in every station, something still to do or bear.
Think what Spirit dwells within thee, think what Father’s smiles are thine,
Think that Jesus died to win thee, child of heaven, canst thou repine.

6. Haste thee on from grace to glory, armed by faith, and winged by prayer.
Heaven’s eternal days before thee, God’s own hand shall guide us there.
Soon shall close thy earthly mission, soon shall pass thy pilgrim days.
Hope shall change to glad fruition, faith to sight, and prayer to praise.

Mr. Lyte wrote at least two more well known hymns, but this one reads to me the most “evangelical” of the three, with its emphasis on the cross and self-sacrifice. He was an Anglican clergyman, suffered most of his life from asthma and tuberculosis, and died while trying to convalesce in NIce, France at the age of 54.

The faith expressed in the lyrics is especially poignant when one reads that Lyte was deserted by his father at the age of ten and that his mother died not too long afterwards. The headmaster of his school, a Dr. Burrowes, paid his school fees and effectively adopted the young boy, having him spend holidays with the Burrowes family.

Lyrics: George Matheson, 1882.
Music: ST. MARGARET (PEACE) by Albert Peace, 1884.
Or here for the Christopher Minor tune/version. We sing this one at my church.
Theme: Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. Romans 6:8

David Phelps singing these lyrics to the traditional tune:

1. O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

2. O light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.

3. O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.

4. O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.

George Matheson was the eldest of eight children. When he was twenty years old, he became blind, but he studied for the ministry anyway and became a pastor in Edinburgh, Scotland. O Love That WIlt Not Let Me Go is the only one of his lyrics that has lasted to this day. He said of its genesis:

“It was the night of my sister’s marriage, and the rest of the family were staying overnight in Glasgow. Something happened to me, which was known only to myself, and which caused me the most severe mental suffering. The hymn was the fruit of that suffering. It was the quickest bit of work I ever did in my life. I had the impression of having it dictated to me by some inward voice rather than of working it out myself. I am quite sure that the whole work was completed in five minutes, and equally sure that it never received at my hands any retouching or correction. I have no natural gift of rhythm. All the other verses I have ever written are manufactured articles; this came like a dayspring from on high.”

For quite a bit more biographical information on Mr. Matheson, aka The Blind Preacher, try this informative blog post.

Lyrics: Darlene Zschech
Music: Darlene Zschech.
Theme:

I’m copying the entire song lyrics here even though I think it’s still under copyright —you can find the lyrics posted in full all over the internet. I’m as fuzzy about copyright law and what constitutes “fair use” as I am about the difference between a hymn, a gospel song, and a worship song. You can read a discussion of the latter issue here at Conjubilant With Song (see the comments).

Anyway, this contemporary worship song/hymn is beautiful, and I remember when I first heard it. Eldest Daughter came home from a retreat and taught me this song that she learned. That was probably ten or more years ago. I’ve enjoyed singing it ever since.