Each week, you may find information here about the music in the worship services at Trinity United Methodist Church in Duncanville, Texas. Some of this information is original; most of it is copied from other websites such as Wikipedia, GBOD, and hymnary.org. It is my hope that this information will enhance your understanding and enrich your worship experience.
Praise Him! Praise Him! - Mark Hayes
(c.2006, Lorenz Publishing)
Frances Jane Crosby (1820-1915) became blind at the age of six weeks from maltreatment of her eyes during an illness. At the age of fifteen she entered the New York Institution for the Blind, where she received a good education. She became a teacher in the institution in 1847, and continued her work until March 1, 1858. She taught English grammar, rhetoric and American history. This was the great developing period in her life. She wrote the words to many songs for Dr. George F. Root, then the teacher of music at the blind institution, including the cantatas “The Flower Queen” and “The Pilgrim Fathers”, all of which were very popular in their day, though it was not generally known at the time that she was the author. She wrote under her own name and over 200 pseudonyms, many of which were men’s names to assist in recognition and publication
While teaching at the institution she met Presidents Van Buren and Tyler, Hon. Henry Clay, Governor Wm. H. Seward, General Winfield Scott, and other distinguished characters of American history. In connection with her meeting these notable men, we might add that Miss Fanny Crosby had the honor of being the first woman whose voice was heard publicly in the Senate Chamber at Washington. She read a poem there on one occasion. In addition to the thousands of hymns that she has written (about eight thousand poems in all), many of which have not been set to music, she published four volumes of verses. It is as a writer of Sunday-school songs and gospel hymns that she is known wherever the English language is spoken, and, in fact, wherever any other language is heard. She began to write Sunday-school hymns for Wm. B. Bradbury in 1864. She resided in New York City nearly all her life, where, she says, she is "a member of the Old John Street Methodist Episcopal Church in good standing." She spent regular hours on certain days at the office of The Biglow & Main Co., the firm for which she did most of her writing, and for whom she has composed over four thousand hymns. Fanny loved her work, and was happy in it. She was always ready either to sympathize or join in a mirthful conversation, as the case may be. The secret of this contentment dates from her first composition at the age of eight years. "It has been the motto of my life," she says. It is:
"O what a happy soul am I!
Although I cannot see,
I am resolved that in this world
Contented I will be.”
This continued to be her philosophy. She said that had it not been for her affliction she might not have so good an education, nor so great an influence, and certainly not so fine a memory. She knew a great many portions of the Bible by heart, and had committed to memory the first four books of the Old Testament, and also the four Gospels before she was ten years of age.
The tune, JOYFUL SONG, was written by Chester Gilbert Allen (1838-1878), an American music educator, compiler, and hymn composer. He taught music in the Cleveland, Ohio, public schools and edited or co-edited Sunday-school songbooks that shaped the gospel repertoire of his day. Allen is best remembered for the tune JOYFUL SONG, written for Fanny J. Crosby’s hymn “Praise Him! Praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer” and first published in Bright Jewels (1869). His lively, march-like melodies typify mid-nineteenth-century American gospel hymnody and remain in use today.
Praise Him! Praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer!
Sing, O earth– His wonderful love proclaim!
Hail Him! Hail Him! highest archangels in glory;
strength and honor give to His holy name!
Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard His children;
in His arms He carries them all day long.
Praise Him, praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer!
For our sins He suffered, and bled, and died.
He, our Rock, our Hope of eternal salvation—
Hail Him! Hail Him! Jesus, the Crucified!
Sound His praises! Jesus, who bore our sorrows!
Love unbounded, wonderful, deep, and strong.
Praise Him! Praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer!
Heav’nly portals loud with hosannas ring!
Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever and ever.
Crown Him! Crown Him! Prophet, and Priest, and King!
Christ is coming, over the world victorious;
pow’r and glory unto the Lord belong! [Refrain]
Refrain:
Praise Him! Praise Him! Tell of His excellent greatness.
Praise Him! Praise Him ever in joyful song!
Mark Hayes is an award-winning concert pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. His personal catalog, totaling over 1,000 published works, includes work for solo voice, solo piano, multiple pianos, orchestra, jazz combo, small instrumental ensembles, and choruses of all kinds. Mark received a Bachelor of Music degree summa cum laude in Piano Performance from Baylor University in 1975. He has conducted the SWACDA and MCDA Community and Church Honor Choir, and served as guest conductor at Carnegie Hall, featuring his Te Deum and Magnificat. In 2010, Baylor University Center for Christian Music Studies awarded Mark the Award for Exemplary Leadership in Christian Music. Mark arranged and orchestrated the music for Civil War Voices, which won six awards including "Best Musical" in the 2010 Midtown International Theatre Festival in New York. He conducted the world premiere of his work for chorus, orchestra and narrator, The American Spirit, at Lincoln Center in May 2011 and the world premiere of his Requiem in Lincoln Center in May 2013. Whether concertizing on the other side of the globe or composing at his home in Kansas City, Missouri, Mark is blessed to live out his mission "to create beautiful music for the world”.
To God Be the Glory
Fanny Jane Crosby (1820-1915), born in New York and died in Connecticut, wrote over 8,500 gospel hymns. In 1972, Hope Publishing Co. found over 1,000 unpublished manuscripts. Her work defined what it meant to be a successful writer of gospel hymns. By the age of six weeks, Fanny Crosby was completely blind. She entered the New York School for the Blind at age twelve. She began writing hymns and poetry at age twelve. Her collaborators in publishing gospel hymns included the most successful and popular composers of her day, including William Bradbury, William Doane, Robert Lowry, Ira Sankey, and William Kirkpatrick. Crosby used numerous pen names in publishing her songs, including: Ella Dale, Mrs. Kate Gringley and Miss Viola V. A. She married blind musician Alexander Van Alstyne, and the British most often refer to her by her married name rather than Fanny Crosby. She was a lifelong Methodist and her contributions to The United Methodist Hymnal (1989) include: “Blessed Assurance,” “Close to Thee,” “I Am Thine, O Lord,” “Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross,” “Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior,” “Rescue the Perishing,” and “To God Be the Glory.”
This text is unique from Crosby’s other hymns because, rather than focus on our experience of God, the words are wholly about God and His perfect glory. In a sense, the hymn perfectly displaces us, removing us from the pedestal on which we so often place ourselves. This displacement is one of the great paradoxes of the Christian faith. It feels very natural for us to seek attention, approval, and our own glory. We like to be in control and present our own image to the world, an image we seek to improve through any means possible. On the other hand, there is great comfort in knowing that the image we try to make for ourselves doesn’t matter. We are made in the image of God, which means that whatever we do has to bring Him and Him alone glory. Our lives are wrapped up in God, and so too are the mistakes we make, the wounds we inflict, and all of our shortcomings. These are the things we try to avoid while we maintain control of our lives. But what a joy and a comfort to know that though these things may happen, because God is ultimately in control, and because our own image does not matter, God is still glorified. While we should still try to live a holy and upright life, we should do so to bring God glory, not ourselves. What a beautiful freedom that is.
Frances Jane Crosby’s hymns have historically been among the most popular songs sung by Methodists. The tune TO GOD BE THE GLORY was written and the refrain was added by George Washington Doane (1799-1859). “To God be the glory” was included in William Doane’s Songs of Devotion in 1870. Ira Sankey probably saw the hymn in Doane’s collection and incorporated it into the first edition of his Sacred Songs and Solos (1875). Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey helped to establish the hymn’s popularity during their revivals in Great Britain in the late 19th century. It also appeared in some British hymnals including the Methodist Hymn Book (1933).
However, it was not until the 1954 Billy Graham Crusade in Nashville that Cliff Barrows introduced this song to congregations in the United States. Mr. Graham and Mr. Barrows had learned the song during the 1952 revivals they had conducted in Great Britain. Hymnologist William J. Reynolds, writing in his hymnal companion Hymns of Faith (1964), documented the return of this hymn to the USA: “It is most extraordinary that this long-forgotten American gospel song should have been imported from England and become immensely popular during the last decade.”
To God be the glory, great things He hath done,
So loved He the world that He gave us His Son,
Who yielded His life an atonement for sin,
And opened the life gate that all may go in.
Oh, perfect redemption, the purchase of blood,
To every believer the promise of God;
The vilest offender who truly believes,
That moment from Jesus a pardon receives.
Great things He hath taught us, great things He hath done,
And great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son;
But purer, and higher, and greater will be
Our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear His voice!
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the people rejoice!
Oh, come to the Father, through Jesus the Son,
And give Him the glory, great things He hath done.
Gloria Patri
Many congregations may take these words, sung weekly, for granted. Like many parts of liturgy, their roots extend to the deepest levels of our praise and prayer.
The text of the Gloria Patri falls into the broader category of doxology – in the Greek doxologia or “words of glory.” Doxology finds its roots in the Hebrew liturgy and the psalms as the kaddish. The kaddish is a doxology recited after the verses of a song. Its recitation signals the conclusion of one of the sections of the liturgy and has many different forms and purposes. In the Jewish context, a doxology blesses the One God and God’s everlasting nature. For example, Psalm 41:13 states: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen and Amen” (KJV). This is a form of berakhah (blessing or benediction) that pervades Jewish liturgy and life. The Sh’ma is the most famous and prevalent statement in Reform Jewish liturgy that addresses these criteria:
Sh’ma Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Eḥad (שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָֽד):
“Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.” (Deuteronomy 6:4)
Baruch shem k’vod malchuto l’olam vaed (בָּרוּךְ שֵׁם כְּבוֹד מַלְכוּתוֹ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד):
“Blessed is/be the name of the glory/honor of His kingdom forever and ever.”
The “Baruch” is a berakhah added in the rabbinic tradition. It is very similar to Psalm 72:19: “Blessed be His glorious name forever.”
Given this heritage, early Christians adapted the Jewish form to include the Triune God and the Trinity’s eternal nature – “world without end.” Scholars suggest that the opening trinitarian formula is taken from the Great Commission in Matthew: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (28:19). Any trinitarian affirmation at the conclusion of a prayer became known as a “doxology.”
The Lesser Doxology has for centuries been chanted in Latin at the conclusion of psalms and canticles, especially in the daily monastic prayers:
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto,
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper,
et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
The Greater Doxology is the fourth-century hymn Gloria in excelsis Deo, the incipit (opening line) of which was drawn from the angel’s canticle, Luke 2:14. This non-biblical canticle was introduced during the fourth-century Christological controversies as a corrective to Arianism – a doctrine attributed to Arius (c. 256–336) claiming that Jesus was subordinate to God the Father. The Gloria became a stable part of the ordinary (fixed) sections of the Roman Catholic mass except during Advent and Lent when it is omitted.
Protestants often limit the doxology to a single stanza from morning and evening hymns composed by Anglican Bishop Thomas Ken (1637–1711) for a resident boys’ school. While the four lines of this well-known stanza are Trinitarian, Ken does not specifically mention the eternal nature of the Trinity. However, he references the cosmic perspective of our praise to God – taking place both on earth and in heaven:
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise him, all creatures here below;
Praise him above, ye heav’nly host,
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
The Gloria Patri, also known in English as the Glory Be to the Father or, colloquially, the Glory Be, is also referred to as the Minor Doxology (Doxologia Minor) or Lesser Doxology, to distinguish it from the Greater Doxology, the Gloria in Excelsis Deo. The lesser doxology is of Syrian origin:
shubho labo w-labro wal-ruho qadisho
men 'olam w'adamo l'olam olmin, Amin.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
from everlasting and for ever and ever (literal translation).
The Greek wording is as follows:
Δόξα Πατρὶ καὶ Υἱῷ καὶ Ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι,
καὶ νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
Both now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
The Latin version differs from the Greek version because of the insertion of "sicut erat in principio", which is now taken to mean "as it (glory) was in the beginning", but which seems originally to have meant "as he (the Son) was in the beginning", and echo of the opening words of the Gospel according to John: "In the beginning was the Word". In 529, the Second Synod of Vasio (Vaison-la-Romaine) in Gaul said in its fifth canon that the second part of the doxology, with the words "sicut erat in principio", was used in Rome, the East, and Africa, and ordered that it be said likewise in Gaul. Writing in the 1909 Catholic Encyclopedia, Adrian Fortescue, while remarking that what the synod said of the East was false, took the synod's decree to mean that the form originally used in the West was the same as the Greek form. From about the 7th century, the present Roman Rite version became almost universal throughout the West.
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto,
sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in sæcula sæculorum. Amen.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, and now, and forever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
The following traditional form is the most common in Anglican usage and in older Lutheran liturgical books:
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.
The translations of "semper" as "ever shall be", and "in saecula saeculorum" as "world without end" date at least from Thomas Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer (1552).
Congregations use several traditional musical settings. One is by Charles (Christoph) Meineke (1782–1850), a German-born organist who moved to England around 1810 and then to Baltimore in 1820. He served as organist of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church for several decades. Meineke authored Music for the Church . . . Composed for St. Paul’s Church, Baltimore (1844). His musical setting, included in this collection, is usually given the name MEINEKE.
Alleluia! Sing to Jesus - Paul Tate
(c.2006, GIA Publications)
Most British hymn writers in the nineteenth century were clergymen, but William C. Dix (1837-1898) was a notable exception. Trained in the business world, he became the manager of a marine insurance company in Glasgow, Scotland. Dix published various volumes of his hymns, such as Hymns of Love and Joy (1861) and Altar Songs: Verses on the Holy Eucharist (1867). A number of his texts were first published in Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861).
One of the most loved Welsh tunes, HYFRYDOL was composed by Rowland Hugh Prichard (1811-1887) in 1830 when he was only nineteen. It was published with about forty of his other tunes in his children's hymnal Cyfaill y Cantorion (The Singers' Friend) in 1844. Prichard (sometimes spelled Pritchard) was a textile worker and an amateur musician. He had a good singing voice and was appointed precentor in Graienyn. Many of his tunes were published in Welsh periodicals. In 1880 Prichard became a loom tender's assistant at the Welsh Flannel Manufacturing Company in Holywell. HYFRYDOL (Welsh for "tuneful" or "pleasant") is often set to Charles Wesley's "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" and William C. Dix's "Alleluia! Sing to Jesus".
Alleluia! Sing to Jesus; His the scepter, His the throne.
Alleluia! His the triumph, His the victory alone.
Hark! The songs of peaceful Zion thunder like a mighty flood:
"Jesus out of every nation has redeemed us by His blood."
Alleluia! Not as orphans are we left in sorrow now.
Alleluia! He is near us; faith believes, nor questions how.
Tho' the cloud from sight received Him when the forty days were o'er,
shall our hearts forget His promise, "I am with you evermore"?
Alleluia! Bread of heaven, here on earth our food, our stay.
Alleluia! Here the sinful flee to You from day to day.
Intercessor, Friend of sinners, earth's Redeemer, hear our plea
where the songs of all the sinless sweep across the crystal sea.
Paul A. Tate, a graduate of the University of Georgia, is a professional musician living in Sugar Hill, Georgia. As an active workshop presenter and concert performer, Paul has released a dozen recordings and published over 100 original songs and arrangements. His liturgical compositions appear in a number of hymnal resources, and his voice has been heard around the world on Sirius Satellite Radio.
Just As I Am
At the age of 32, Charlotte Elliott (1789-1871) suffered a serious illness that left her a semi-invalid for the rest of her life. Within a year, she went through a spiritual crisis and confessed to the Swiss evangelist Henri A. Cesar Malan that she did not know how to come to Christ. He answered, "Come to him just as you are." Thinking back on that experience twelve years later, in 1834, she wrote “Just as I Am" as a statement of her faith. Hymn writing provided a way for Elliot to cope with her pain and depression – she wrote approximately 150 hymns, which were published in her Invalid's Hymn Book (several editions, 1834-1854), Hymns for a Week (1839), and Thoughts in Verse on Sacred Subjects (1869). Many of her hymns reflect her chronic pain and illness but also reveal that faith gave her perseverance and hope.
“Just as I Am" was first published in the 1836 edition of Invalid's Hymn Book with the subheading "Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37). She added a seventh stanza that same year, when the hymn was also published in her Hours of Sorrow Cheered and Comforted (1836). Widely translated, this hymn has brought consolation to millions.
Sixty years later, in 1931, a 31-year-old man riding in the sidecar of his brother's motorcycle in England finally came to the end of his internal struggle against whether Christ was indeed the Son of God. He finally knew in his soul that indeed Jesus was just who He said He was! He realized that God calls us to Him "just as we are". When C.S. Lewis stepped out of the sidecar, he was a new man, saved by grace!
Ninety-nine years after Charlotte Elliott penned her words, and 3 years after Lewis’ conversion, the 16-year-old son of a dairy farmer listened intently as he heard the message of salvation preached at a revival service in Charlotte, NC. When the song, “Just As I Am,” was sung at the end, young Billy Graham went forward to accept Christ.
Twenty years later, Billy Graham had become a successful evangelist and was invited to speak at Cambridge University in England. His nervousness over the event nearly led him to cancel it. But he was introduced to a kind man named C.S. Lewis who encouraged him to disregard the critics who had spoken out against him, and to continue with the revival. Rev. Graham went on to speak to an overflow crowd of 2,000 each night of the revival, and when he returned to England in 1989, he addressed a crowd of 80,000 at England’s Wimbley Stadium! As always, he closed the event with the same song that brought him to Christ, “Just As I Am.”
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, though 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;
Yes, all I need, in Thee to find, 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.
Just as I am, Thy love unknown broken every barrier down;
Now, to be Thine, yea, Thine alone, O Lamb of God, I come, I come!
Surely the Presence of the Lord is in this Place
(c.1977, Lanny Wolfe Music)
Lanny Wolfe (born 1942) is a Christian songwriter who has won numerous awards. Wolfe served for a number of years as the Dean of the School of Music at Jackson Bible School, Jackson College of Ministries, but his most significant influence has been introducing black Gospel music to Pentecostal churches.
"Surely the Presence of the Lord Is in This Place" is based on Jesus promise, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst" (Matthew 18:20). It emphasizes the senses––feeling, hearing, touching, and seeing. We can feel the presence of the Lord––and hear the brush of the angel's wings––and see glory on each face. Wolfe was inspired to write this song in 1977 when a friend invited The Lanny Wolfe Trio to sing at a dedication service for a new building. "Surely the Presence" is the song that the Trio sang for that occasion.
Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place;
I can feel his mighty power and his grace.
I can hear the brush of angels’ wings, I see glory on each face;
Sure the presence of the Lord is in this place.
Let Us Break Bread Together
(c.1989, United Methodist Publishing House)
This spiritual was formed in the West African Gullah/Geechee slave culture that developed in the costal areas of South-Eastern colonial America, including St Helena Island, Beaufort, and Charleston, South Carolina. The text of the version that is commonly sung in the United States was first published in The Journal of American Folklore (1925). The Journal included spirituals, as well as African American folk tales and proverbs that were collected by students at the Penn School on Saint Helena Island, South Carolina. A second version appeared in Saint Helena Island Spirituals (1925) by Nicholas Ballanta, a very significant collection that included 103 Gullah spirituals.
Some of the stanzas of this African American spiritual may date back to the eighteenth century. Other stanzas have been added by oral tradition. A look through modern hymnals will reveal an array of variations on the text. The most notable alteration in the Psalter Hymnal is the phrase "to the Lord of life" in place of the original "to the rising sun," in which "rising sun" was a metaphor referring to the Son rising. The song's use at communion services probably dates from after the American Civil War. Miles Mark Fisher notes in Negro Slave Songs in the United States (1953): [Originally the hymn] relates hardly at all to holy communion, which does not necessarily require early morning administration or a devotee who faces east. It was a signal song of Virginia slaves during the eighteenth century who used it and similar ones to convene their secret meetings.
The text describes participation in the Lord's Supper as a humble act in which we not only eat the bread and drink the wine, but also praise our God "on our knees." The refrain ends with a prayer for mercy, an African-American Kyrie that reminds us of the tax collector's prayer in Luke 18:13.
African American composer John Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954) arranged the first solo version with the three stanzas that are common to most hymnals in the United States. He also established the precedent of singing the final stanza up the octave. This practice is observed in several hymnals including The United Methodist Hymnal. This version of the spiritual was popularized by notable African American soloists in the mid-twentieth century such as Paul Robeson, Roland Hayes, and Marian Anderson.
Let us break bread together on our knees, let us break bread together on our knees.
When I fall on my knees with my face to the rising sun, O Lord, have mercy on me.
Let us drink wine together on our knees, let us drink wine together on our knees.
When I fall on my knees with my face to the rising sun, O Lord, have mercy on me.
Let us praise God together on our knees, let us praise God together on our knees.
When I fall on my knees with my face to the rising sun, O Lord, have mercy on me.
Blessed Assurance
Fanny Jane Crosby (1820-1915), born in New York and died in Connecticut, wrote over 8,500 gospel hymns. In 1972, Hope Publishing Co. found over 1,000 unpublished manuscripts. Her work defined what it meant to be a successful writer of gospel hymns. By the age of six weeks, Fanny Crosby was completely blind. She entered the New York School for the Blind at age twelve. She began writing hymns and poetry at age twelve. Her collaborators in publishing gospel hymns included the most successful and popular composers of her day, including William Bradbury, William Doane, Robert Lowry, Ira Sankey, and William Kirkpatrick. Crosby used numerous pen names in publishing her songs, including: Ella Dale, Mrs. Kate Gringley and Miss Viola V. A. She married blind musician Alexander Van Alstyne, and the British most often refer to her by her married name rather than Fanny Crosby. She was a lifelong Methodist and her contributions to The United Methodist Hymnal (1989) include: “Blessed Assurance,” “Close to Thee,” “I Am Thine, O Lord,” “Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross,” “Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior,” “Rescue the Perishing,” and “To God Be the Glory.”
Phoebe Knapp (1839-1908) was a composer of music for hymns and an organist. Knapp was born in New York City. Her parents were Walter C. Palmer and Phoebe Worrall Palmer. She married Joseph Fairchild Knapp, one of the founders and the second president of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, and he had a pipe organ installed in their apartment. She and her husband were members of the John Street Methodist Episcopal Church in New York City. The hymn writer Fanny Crosby was also a member of that church and a friend of the Phoebe’s. She wrote over 500 hymn tunes, the most familiar being the tune now called ASSURANCE for Fanny Crosby's lyrics “Blessed Assurance”.
Crosby was visiting her friend Phoebe Knapp as the Knapp home was having a large pipe organ installed. The organ was incomplete, so Mrs. Knapp, using the piano, played a new melody she had just composed. When Knapp asked Crosby, "What do you think the tune says?", Crosby replied, "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine." The hymn appeared in the July 1873 issue of Palmer's Guide to Holiness and Revival Miscellany, a magazine printed by Dr. and Mrs. W. C. Palmer.
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.
Perfect communion, perfect delight, visions of rapture now burst on my sight.
Angels descending bring from above echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
Perfect submission, all is at rest. I in my Savior am happy and bless’d,
watching and waiting, looking above, filled with his goodness, lost in his love.
Refrain:
This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
Sent Forth by God’s Blessing
This Catholic hymn from 1964 was written to direct the congregation out into the world as they depart the sanctuary. A song about transitions, it was also written at a time of great transition. Less than a year earlier, the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) released a document called Sacrosanctum Concilium. Best known for allowing the use of the vernacular language in Mass, it also encouraged the use of congregational music—psalms, responses, and even hymns—to increase the participation and unity of the whole church. It flung open the doors of Catholic worship and practice, elevating and blessing local expressions of tradition, encouraging the involvement of all believers, and focusing that involvement both in the church and outside its walls
No event, however, especially one this large, is the result of a single moment. Even before the council was convened, ideas about different ways to live their faith and traditions were welling up in Catholic laity and clergy. Omer Westendorf (1916-1997), organist and choirmaster at St. Bonaventure Catholic Church in Cincinnati and author of this hymn alongside other familiar hymns of this era such as “You Satisfy the Hungry Heart” and “Where Charity and Love Prevail”, a translation of the classic Latin hymn Ubi Caritas, was one such lay Catholic who was hard at work spreading new music. Inspired by a trip to Holland, Westendorf started the World Library of Sacred Music (now World Library Publications) in his garage in Cincinnati in 1950 to bring European music to America. He published The People’s Hymnal (1955), the first hardbound English hymnal to be used in the Mass.
What began with a trickle of Catholic authors writing music in their vernacular language for their local situations became a massive flood of hymns and liturgies with the release of the Sacrosanctum Concilium. It gave permission for dramatic change in the liturgy because of pastoral concerns, as seen in its opening lines from which it also takes its name: “This sacred Council (literally Sacrosanctum Concilium) has several aims in view: it desires to impart an ever increasing vigor to the Christian life of the faithful; to adapt more suitably to the needs of our own times those institutions which are subject to change; to foster whatever can promote union among all who believe in Christ; to strengthen whatever can help to call the whole of mankind into the household of the Church.” To these ends, it focuses on the liturgy, “the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed,” and the “full and active participation by all the people” in that liturgy and liturgical life. It calls for education of clergy and laity, reforms of the rites, calendar, and daily worship schedules of Catholic life, and allows for the use of local cultural music and instruments, and the use of the common tongue alongside the traditional use of Latin, Gregorian chant and organs.
Most important, for “Sent Forth by God’s Blessing,” it also calls for “composers, filled with the Christian spirit, should feel that their vocation is to cultivate sacred music and increase its store of treasures”. With the experience, publisher, and connections needed, Westendorf moved quickly to answer that call. In 1964, less than a year after the Sacrosanctum Concilium, the People’s Hymnal was transformed to the People’s Mass Book, and expanded with settings for the mass and newly-written, specifically Catholic hymns.
“Sent Forth by God’s Blessing,” written in 1964 for that publication of the People’s Mass Book, was composed under the name pen name J. Clifford Evers. Despite this initial unenthusiastic reception among congregations, the People’s Mass Book sold over two million copies in three years and was instrumental in introducing ecumenical hymnody to its Roman Catholic audience.
“Sent Forth by God’s Blessing” is in many ways the direct child of the Sacrosanctum Concilium, not only by its very existence, but in its contents and usage. This is a bit clearer in its original text, much of which has been adapted for a more ecumenical and modern audience. The original text refers to the Eucharist, part of every mass, by noting “God’s sacrifice ended.” Some have adapted this to “the supper is ended.” Others, including The United Methodist Hymnal, avoid the reference to the Eucharist altogether and have changed the phrase to “the service is ended.” Most non-Catholics wouldn’t find much familiar in singing about “the fruits of this Mass” which is adapted to “the fruits of our worship.” The original text, however, consists of almost direct quotations from the papal document itself. The second stanza’s focus on the unity of a people who were fed together, and now live “as one in this life that we share” for the purpose of “God’s children of each tribe and race” also reflects the unifying and evangelical purpose of the reforms. The metaphor of seeds blossoming in “receptive souls” echoes the parable of the sower, conforming to the instruction to “[draw] chiefly from holy scripture and from liturgical sources”.
“Sent Forth by God’s Blessing” also faithfully follows the directions of the Council to direct attention and “proper dispositions” to the liturgy. Singing a closing hymn following the Eucharist was initiated with Vatican II. This new practice served to extend the rather terse traditional closing, “It missa est” (the Mass is ended), and provide a direction for the assembly as they concluded the liturgy. It has a distinct place within the liturgy as a sending hymn, and it sums up what has happened in that liturgy and its purpose as the congregation moves out into the world. It balances neatly between the world within the church walls where God’s word is planted and the world without where that word grows by actions out of the good soil of our hearts.
Westendorf’s choice of music helps with this movement. ASH GROVE, an upbeat and flowing Welsh harp tune already familiar to many when it was paired with the popular text “Let All Things Now Living” by Katherine K. Davis (1892-1980) as an anthem, sends people out energized and encouraged for action.
“Sent Forth by God’s Blessing” is a song that moves the church forward in daily life and in history. As the effects of the Second Vatican Council have spread over the world, bringing new life and vigor (and challenges) to the whole Christian world, it calls for us be sent forth as well, empowered to change the world we meet outside our doors.
Sent forth by God's blessing, our true faith confessing,
the people of God from this dwelling take leave.
The service is ended, O now be extended
the fruits of our worship in all who believe.
The seed of the teaching, receptive souls reaching,
shall blossom in action for god and for all.
God's grace did invite us, and love shall unite us
to work for God's kingdom and answer the call.
With praise and thanksgiving to God ever living,
the tasks of our everyday life we will face.
Our faith ever sharing, in love ever caring,
embracing God's children of each tribe and race.
With your grace you feed us, with your light now lead us;
unite us as one in this life that we share.
Then may all the living with praise and thanksgiving
give honor to Christ and that name which we bear.
Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise - Bruce Greer
(c.1996, Van Ness Press)
Walter C. Smith based this text on 1 Timothy 1: 17: "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever." The six-stanza text was published in Smith's Hymns of Christ and the Christian Life (1867) and, after having been revised by Smith, in W. Garrett Horder's Congregational Hymns (1884). Further revisions were made by the Psalter Hymnal Revision Committee.
"Immortal, Invisible" is a strong text of praise to God, who created and sustains the lives of all his creatures. The text focuses on the Creator of the universe, the invisible God whose visible works in nature testify to his glory and majesty. "Light" is the prevailing image in stanzas 1, 2, and 4 (see also Ps. 104:2); our inability to see God is not because of insufficient light but because the "splendor of light hides [God] from view.”
Walter Chalmbers Smith (1824-1908) was educated at the University of Aberdeen and New College, Edinburgh, and became a Presbyterian pastor in the Free Church of Scotland in 1850. He served four congregations, including the Free High Church in Edinburgh (1876¬-1894). Moderator of his denomination in 1893, Smith was a man of wide interests. His poetry was published in some six volumes entitled Poetical Works (1902), and his hymn texts were published in Hymns of Christ and the Christian Life (1886).
ST. DENIO is based on "Can mlynedd i nawr" ("A Hundred Years from Now"), a traditional Welsh ballad popular in the early nineteenth century. It was first published as a hymn tune in John Roberts's Caniadau y Cyssegr (Hymns of the Sanctuary, 1839). The tune title refers to St. Denis, the patron saint of France.
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.
Thou reignest in glory, thou dwellest in 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!
Bruce Greer (b.1961) is an American pianist, singer and composer. Greer recalls arranging hymns for choir and piano by age twelve. By the time he was in high school, his compositions were being performed by his church and school choirs. During his senior year at Longview High School, his school choir used one of his pieces, "We Are Thy People," for UIL competition. Another choral composition, "Prayer of Joy," which was also written for his high school choir, went on the following year to become his first published work. This interest in musical composition lead Greer to Baylor University where he graduated in 1984 with a Bachelor of Music degree in Theory and Composition. Upon graduation, Greer went to work as a Creative Director for Word Records, the world's largest producer of Christian music. He spent six years as a songwriter, arranger and producer for Word Music, recording several projects as a piano artist. In 1990, he left Word to pursue a full-time writing and concert career. He currently serves as Chief Accompanist at First Baptist Church Dallas.
Trinity United Methodist Church, Duncanville, Texas
