August 9, 2015

Each week, you may find information here about the music in the traditional worship services at First United Methodist Church in Lewisville, Texas.  Some of this information is original; much of it is "borrowed" from other sources such as Wikipedia, GBOD, and hymnary.org.  It is my hope that this information will enhance your understanding and enrich your worship experience.  

About the Organ Music:

Dear Lord and Father of Mankind – Harold DeCou

This hymn’s origin is a paradox. John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) worshipped in the tradition of the Society of Friends, also known as Quakers. Whittier was one of the most important of the 19th-century American poets. The New Englander was a Quaker abolitionist, reared in a large farmhouse in the rural setting of Merrimac Valley at East Haverhill, Mass.  Traditionally, Quakers have not sung in worship, but value silence, waiting for the “still, small voice” of God.

According to accounts Whittier had been reading in Max Müller’s The Sacred Books of the East about the use of soma, a plant found in northwest India. Soma was used to prepare an intoxicating drug that was ingested in religious rituals, resulting in a state of frenzy.  This hymn began as a part of a long narrative poem, “The Brewing of Soma,” published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1872. The poem describes Vedic priests going into the forest, brewing a drink from honey and milk, and drinking themselves into a frenzy. Whittier was critical of those who believed they might find God through unbridled ecstasy, such as the hysterical camp meetings and revivals common in his day.   Whittier’s response was a 17-stanza poem, of which stanzas 12-17 have been excised to form the hymn as found in many hymnals.

English hymnologist J.R. Watson summarizes well the contribution of this hymn: “It is the opposite end of the devotional spectrum from those hymns which encourage activity and energy; but everyone experiences the need for quiet meditation at some time, and this hymn encourages an almost mystical contemplation of the peace of God ‘which passes all understanding.’” 
 

Dear Lord and Father of mankind, Forgive our foolish ways!

Re-clothe us in our rightful mind In purer lives thy service find,

In deeper reverence praise.

Drop thy still dews of quietness Till all our strivings cease;

Take from our souls the strain and stress, And let our ordered lives confess

The beauty of thy peace.

Breathe through the heats of our desire Thy coolness and thy balm;

Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire; Speak through the earthquake, wind and fire,

O still small voice of calm!

Harold H. DeCou (1932-2008) attended Temple University in Philadelphia and was long associated with Billy Graham and the Singspiration staff.  His output as artist, composer, arranger and orchestrator ensures that he will be remembered as one of the giants of Christian gospel music. He served as church organist at Grace Presbyterian Church in Peoria from 1988 to 2001. He was also an Honorary Fellow of Shenandoah Society Award.

God of Majesty and Hope – Beatrice Miller

Beatrice A. Miller (b. 1923) received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in theory and composition from Northwestern University. In addition to teaching and being a church organist/choir director, she has written music for piano, voice, choirs, and organ. She has had the distinct honor of having been Oregon’s Composer of the Year in 1997, and was commissioned to write a piano concerto for the intermediate level student. 

About the Vocal Music:

The Old Rugged Cross Made the Difference

Bill Gaither (b. 1936) is an Indiana-born kid with an insatiable love for music who grew to become an industry leader who would change the course of gospel music history through the songs he has written and through his influence as a mentor for other artists.  An avid fan of gospel quartets throughout his childhood, Bill founded his first group, The Bill Gaither Trio, in 1956, while he was a college student. He began teaching high school English in 1959, where he met Gloria Sickal (b. 1942), the French teacher.  They married in 1962, and spent the first five years of their married life juggling full-time teaching jobs, writing, singing, recording and publishing until music became their full-time career in 1967.  The collaborations of Bill and Gloria have resulted in more than 700 popular gospel songs.  The Gaithers have won eight Grammy Awards and more than a dozen nominations, and they have received more than two dozen Dove Awards from The Gospel Music Association, earning the title of Gospel Music Association’s “Songwriter of the Year” eight times.

“Our calling is not just making music… but communicating the reality of Christ. That might mean birthing a song about Him or simply offering a cup of cold water to someone who needs it. Gloria and I have never claimed to have God figured out, but we do know that if He could use two imperfect people like us to communicate His Truth to the world, He can use everyone sitting in the audience, working on our staff or singing with us. If we have done anything right over the years, I hope we have built bridges where people could connect with God and with each other. That is what started us writing and what will keep us going for the rest of our lives.”

“The Old Rugged Cross Made the Difference” is a song for all, but especially for those who do not yet believe. The lyrics tell the story of the contrast of life circumstances with and without the Lord. It encourages believers and inspires unbelievers. The Old Rugged Cross does make the difference.

          'Twas a life filled with aimless desperation Without hope walked the shell of a man;
          Then a hand with a nailprint stretched downward, Just one touch then a new life began.
          And the old rugged cross made the difference In a life bound for heartache and defeat;
          I will praise Him forever and ever For the cross made the difference for me.
          Yes, the cross made the difference for me. 

About the Hymns:

Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy

The invitation hymn “Come, ye sinners, poor and needy” dates from 1759, when it was published in Joseph Hart’s Hymns Composed on Various Subjects under the title “Come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.”  The original opening line, “Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched,” was modified by Augustus Toplady, the 18th-century author of “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me.”

Joseph Hart (1712-1768) was born in London, where he became an independent Calvinist preacher converted by the Moravians. Hart received an excellent education and, because of his knowledge of the classics and languages, became a highly esteemed teacher. For a number of years he drifted from the faith of his family, and by his own confession became a “loose backslider, an audacious apostate, and a bold-faced rebel.”  In 1757, at the age of 45, he experienced a spiritual awakening after attending a service at a Moravian chapel in London. During the two years that followed his renewal, he wrote many hymns marked by earnestness and love for Christ.

“Come, ye sinners” was included in Spence’s Pocket Hymn-Book (1785). Later in the 19th century, Ira D. Sankey, the musical partner of evangelist Dwight L. Moody, included this hymn in his famous Gospel Hymns, Nos. 1 to 6 Complete (1894), ensuring its popularity in Sunday schools and revival settings.

The anonymous refrain, beginning with “I will arise and go to Jesus,” makes a rather oblique reference to the parable of the Prodigal Son. The refrain was found in Southern hymnbooks as early as 1811.  The refrain is one of the old-fashioned camp-meeting spirituals, in which such short choruses “floated” from text to text, serving as a refrain for an appropriate longer hymn. 

Nothing but the Blood

Robert Lowry (1826-1899) has provided us with many of the most venerable nineteenth-century texts and tunes from the United States. The Philadelphia-born author and composer of this hymn was a popular Baptist preacher and educator who served churches in Pennsylvania, New York City, Brooklyn, and Plainfield, New Jersey. Lowry, a graduate of Bucknell University, was a professor of belles lettres in the University, receiving a D.D. in 1875. He became known for his gospel songs while ministering in Brooklyn, collaborating often with William H. Doane in producing some of the most popular Sunday school song collections of his day.

"Nothing but the Blood" has all the earmarks of a classic gospel song. It focuses on a single theme and hammers it home. The singer will repeat the text, "nothing but the blood of Jesus" twelve times in four stanzas. The refrain is succinct and reinforces the theme. The language is direct and obvious, with all one- or two-syllable words. The theme of cleansing from sin is prominent in gospel song literature.  Lowry adapts a call-response pattern in the stanzas that immediately engages the singer. Stanza one begins with a question: "What can wash away my sin?" The answer is resounding and definitive: "Nothing but the blood of Jesus." This is followed by a second question: "What can make me whole again?" Once more, the answer is unequivocal, "Nothing but the blood of Jesus."

Hebrews 9:22 appeared originally above the hymn in the original publication by Lowry and William H. Doane entitled Gospel Music (1876). The passage reads: "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin."  Themes of pardon, cleansing, atonement, and righteousness permeate the remaining stanzas. The United Methodist Hymnal changes one word in the refrain. The original text is "white as snow," an allusion to Isaiah 1:18, "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." The hymnal committee changed this to "bright as snow."

It is perhaps this hymn, along with others such as William Cowper’s "There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood" (UM Hymnal, No. 622) that offends the sensibilities of many twenty-first-century singers and, as a result, causes them to reject any hymn that mentions blood. A more discerning singer will look at each occurrence of the word in its context. For example, Augustus Toplady’s eighteenth-century hymn, "Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me," includes the phrase in the first stanza, "let the water and the blood,/from thy wounded side which flowed . . .." This is a description of a biblical event, the crucifixion.  Charles Wesley often used the word "blood" in his hymns. However, it is not in a gory or gratuitous sense, but as a synonym for grace. One can often sing "grace" in place of "blood" in a Wesley hymn. For example, the last line of the fourth stanza of "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing" could be sung, "his grace availed for me" and maintain its theological intent. "And Can It Be that I Should Gain" clearly equates the results of the shedding of Christ’s blood with mercy and love.

“Nothing But the Blood of Jesus” was first introduced at a camp meeting in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. Ocean Grove was established in 1869 as a place of spiritual retreat and revival and a place to escape the summer heat of northeastern cities. Over the years, many famous hymn writers came to Ocean Grove, including Fanny Crosby, William Kirkpatrick, and Eliza Hewitt, as well as Robert Lowry. Ocean Grove still hosts many famous preachers and speakers, as well as musical artists.

Grace Greater than Our Sin

Julia Harriet Johnston (1849-1919) was a Sunday school teacher at First Presbyterian Church in Peoria, Illinois, and for 41 years was head of the infant class in the children’s department.  For twenty years, Julia was president of the Presbyterian Missionary Society of Peoria which had been founded by her mother. Also a prolific author, she produced primary Sunday school lesson material for the David C. Cook Publishing Co. of Chicago, IL, and had several of her own works published, including School of the Master in 1880, Bright Threads in 1897, Indian and Spanish Neighbors in 1905, and Fifty Missionary Heroes in 1913. Furthermore, Miss Johnston is credited with about 500 hymns, set to music provided by a number of different composers.

"Grace Greater Than Our Sin" is dated 1910, and the tune (Moody) was composed that same year by Daniel Brink Towner (1850-1919), the director of the music department at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, IL  The first appearance of "Grace Greater Than Our Sin" seems to have been in Towner’s Hymns Tried and True, published in 1911 by the Bible Institute Colportage Association of Chicago.

This “marvelous, infinite, matchless grace, freely bestowed on all who believe,” finds a scriptural basis in Paul’s teaching of justification by faith in Romans 5:1-2: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

Paul continues in verses 14-16, “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift of grace. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.”