July 26, 2020

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 Piano Music:

Near to the Heart of God - Ruth Elaine Schram

Clcland B. McAfee (1866-1944) is known for this one hymn, his “one-hit-wonder”.  McAfee wrote “Near to the Heart of God” and its tune MCAFEE in 1903, after two daughters of his brother Howard died of diphtheria within 24 hours of each other.  The choir of Park College went to Howard McAfee’s quarantined house and sang it outside the window to encourage the grieving family.  McAfee was at Park College, Parkville, MO, for almost 20 years, serving on the faculty and as college chaplain and choir director.  He then pastored in Chicago, IL and Brooklyn, NY.  He was also on the faculty at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and directed the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions.

There is a place of quiet rest, Near to the heart of God;

A place where sin cannot molest, Near to the heart of God.

There is a place of comfort sweet, Near to the heart of God;

A place where we our Savior meet, Near to the heart of God.

There is a place of full release, Near to the heart of God;

A place where all is joy and peace, Near to the heart of God.

O Jesus, blest Redeemer, Sent from the heart of God;

Hold us, who wait before Thee, Near to the heart of God.

Ruth Elaine Schram (b. 1952) wrote her first song at the age of twelve, and her first octavo was published twenty years later, in 1988. In 1992, she became a full-time composer and arranger and now has over 2,000 published works.  Over seventeen million copies of her songs have been purchased in their various venues, and she has been a recipient of the ASCAP Special Award each year since 1990.  In addition to her choral music for church and school choirs, her songs appear on thirty albums (four of which have been Dove Award Finalists) and numerous children's videos, including sixteen songs on four gold videos, and four songs on one multi-platinum video.  Her songs have also appeared on such diverse television shows as "The 700 Club" and HBO's acclaimed series "The Sopranos.”  Schram began piano and theory lessons at the age of five. She studied music at Lancaster Bible College and Millersville State College and taught Elementary Music in Pennsylvania for several years. She now lives in Birmingham, Alabama.

Like a River Glorious - Lloyd Larson

A hymn which talks about the peace of God that flows like a river is “Like a River Glorious”.  The text was written by Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879).  She is the author of a number of well-known hymns including “Take My Life, and Let It Be” and “True-Hearted, Whole-Hearted”.  When Frances Havergal was vacationing in the south of Wales, 1876, she caught a severe cold, accompanied by inflammation of the lungs. Hearing how ill she was, and that she might die, she replied, "If I am really going, it is too good to be true." Her friends were amazed at how peacefully she received this information. She did survive that illness, and later that year she wrote the hymn "Like a River Glorious" in which she pointed to the source of her perfect peace: "Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed, finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.”  Havergal, a devout Bible scholar, echoed Isaiah in "Like a River Glorious" in which God promises "peace like a river." She also incorporated Isaiah 26:3, which states "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You." "Like a River Glorious" paints the picture of this peace.

The tune (WYE VALLEY) was composed by James Mountain (1844-1933), who was born in Yorkshire, England.   After attending Gainford Academy near Darlington, Rotherham College, Nottingham Institute, and Chesthunt College, he became a minister at Great Marlow in Buckinghamshire.  However, he had to leave local church work due to ill health and began conducting evangelism campaigns throughout Britain from 1874 to 1882. In 1876, Mountain published his Hymns of Consecration and Faith, and Sacred Songs for Missions, Prayer and Praise Meetings which included this hymn. 

Like a river glorious is God’s perfect peace,

Over all victorious, in its bright increase;

Perfect, yet it floweth fuller every day,

Perfect, yet it groweth deeper all the way.

Hidden in the hollow of His blessed hand,

Never foe can follow, never traitor stand;

Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care,

Not a blast of hurry touch the spirit there.

Every joy or trial falleth from above,

Traced upon our dial by the Sun of Love;

We may trust Him fully, all for us to do;

They who trust Him wholly find Him wholly true.

Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest

Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.

Lloyd Larson (b. 1954) is an active composer and arranger for several major publishing companies of church and school music. His compositions and arrangements include well over 1,000 published works—including choral anthems, numerous extended Christmas, Easter and non-seasonal works, keyboard collections, vocal solo and duet collections, instrumental works for solo and ensembles, orchestrations, and handbell settings. It is Lloyd's work in his local church that continues to be the catalyst for much of his writing. He currently directs the adult choir in his home church in addition to being involved in worship planning and leadership.

About the Vocal Solo Music:

For Those Tears I Died - Marsha Stevens

    Paul Burnett, soloist

Marsha Stevens-Pino (b. 1952) is a singer, musician, songwriter and recording artist of Christian songs.  Shortly after professing Christianity at sixteen years of age, Stevens-Pino wrote "For Those Tears I Died (Come to the Water)", a song that was to become widely known and sung in Charismatic Christian churches and youth-groups across the United States. Utilizing her songwriting and singing talents with sister Wendy Carter and friends Peter Jacobs and Russ Stevens, the Contemporary Christian Music group known as "Children of the Day" was formed. An entry in the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music states: “If Larry Norman is to be called the father of Christian Rock, then Marsha Stevens certainly deserves to be known as the mother of contemporary Christian music ... She was the leader of what is considered to be the world's first contemporary Christian music group, Children of the Day, and she has continued as a solo artist to produce albums of worship-oriented and edifying adult contemporary pop. As such, she remains the progenitor of what, by 2002, would become the single most popular genre in the contemporary Christian music market.”

The album "Come to the Water" was recorded with money borrowed from Calvary Chapel, whose minister Chuck Smith supported Stevens-Pino's career. However, her memoir accounts that he enforced female subordination, including appointing a male bandmate as leader of the band. Stevens-Pino married Russ Stevens in the 1970s and they were together for seven years before divorcing. The judge gave Russ Stevens half the royalties of all her songs, as well as custody of their children.

When she came out as a lesbian after her divorce from Stevens, she faced much vitriol from the conservative Christian community. Smith's mentoring ended and he suggested that she hadn't "married the right man.”  She continues to receive hate mail including copies of “For Those Tears I Died” torn out of hymnals and songbooks. She married Cindy Stevens-Pino in August 2003, and they run a music ministry training school for LGBT+ Christians at King of Peace MCC in St. Petersburg FL. They currently lead BALM Ministries and attend Pass-a-Grille Community Church.

You said You'd come and share all my sorrows,

You said You'd be there for all my tomorrows;

I came so close to sending You away,

But just like You promised You came there to stay;

I just had to pray!

Your goodness so great I can't understand,

And, dear Lord, I know that all this was planned;

I know You're here now, and always will be,

Your love loosed my chains and in You I'm free;

But Jesus, why me?

Jesus, I give You my heart and my soul,

I know that without God I'd never be whole;

Savior, You opened all the right doors,

And I thank You and praise You from earth's humble shores;

Take me, I'm Yours.

"Come to the water, stand by My side,

I know you are thirsty, you won't be denied;

I felt ev'ry teardrop when in darkness you cried,

And I strove to remind you that for those tears I died."

About the Hymns:

Fill My Cup, Lord

Richard Eugene Blanchard Sr. (1925-2004) was born in 1925 in Chungking, China, to Methodist missionary parents. When the Blanchard family returned home to the United States, Richard grew up as a child and youth in Indiana and North Carolina.  Blanchard was ordained in 1950, after serving two years as pastor of the Snellville-Grayson circuit of the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church. Transferring to the Florida Conference in 1950, Blanchard completed 40 years in the ministry of the United Methodist Church. 

Certainly Blanchard's most famous song was "Fill My Cup, Lord". During the 1970s the song was popularized throughout much of the United States by Blanchard's close friend, musician and evangelist Rev. Ray Vaughn.  Our United Methodist Hymnal only has the chorus.  The verses are as follows:

Like the woman at the well I was seeking
For things that could not satisfy;
And then I heard my Savior speaking:
"Draw from my well that never shall run dry".

There are millions in this world who are craving
The pleasures earthly things afford.
But none can match the wondrous treasure
That I find in Jesus Christ my Lord.

So, my brother, if the things this world gave you
Leave hungers that won't pass away,
My blessed Lord will come and save you,
If you kneel to Him and humbly pray.

Fill my cup, Lord; I lift it up, Lord;

Come and quench this thirsting of my soul.

Bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more.

Fill my cup; fill it up, and make me whole.

O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee

In the years following the Civil War and the birth of the Industrial Revolution, the social gospel emerged. Washington Gladden (1838-1918) was one of the most distinguished clergymen of his era and a leader in the social gospel movement. Gladden was a native of Pennsylvania, and served churches in New York and Massachusetts before accepting a call to First Congregational Church, Columbus, Ohio, a parish he served for 32 years. Educated at Owego Academy and Williams College, he was the moderator of the National Council of Congregational Churches from 1904-1907. He served as one of the editors of the Pilgrim Hymnal (1904). As editor of the Independent, he made important contributions to the cause of social justice. While a pastor in Massachusetts, Gladden began preaching about labor-management problems, encouraging cooperation between employers and employees. This theme aroused opposition from those who felt the role of a minister was “to save souls, not to regulate business.” Furthermore, he challenged the idea that the Bible was inerrant in matters of science and history. Albert Bailey notes that “he found his fellow-clergymen without courage to follow him, for heresy trials were beginning in the Congregational Church.” From the Ohio pulpit, Gladden found willing listeners to his message at the State University of Columbus. He received invitations to deliver lectures at a number of universities including the Yale Divinity School. His tracts, Social Facts and Forces (1897) and Organized Labor and Capital (1904), were very influential.

Perhaps this hymn is a paradox. Few realize that behind the relatively peaceful words of Gladden’s poem, sung to a placid Victorian melody, one can find the witness of a champion for social justice. This hymn was published in 1879 in three eight-line stanzas in Sunday Afternoon, a magazine prepared by the author, under the title “Walking with God.” C.H. Richards discovered the poem and included it in his 1880 hymnal, Christian Praise.

After various tunes had been set to this text, Gladden insisted on the use of MARYTON. Composed by H. Percy Smith (1825-1898), the tune was originally published as a setting for John Keble's "Sun of My Soul" in Arthur S. Sullivan's Church Hymns with Tunes (1874).  Henry Percy Smith was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, England, and ordained a priest in the Church of England. He served five churches, including St. Michael's York Town in Farnborough, Great Barton in Suffolk, Christ Church in Cannes, France, and the Cathedral in Gibraltar. MARYTON is his only tune found in contemporary hymnals and is thought to be the only tune he published.

First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas

A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus