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; 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.
About the Organ Music:
Bellevue - Don Hustad
(c.1972, Broadman Press)
The authorship of “How Firm a Foundation” is one of the great hymnological mysteries. When John Rippon, pastor of Carter Lane Baptist Church in London, published A Selection of Hymns from the Best Authors in 1787, the attribution for this hymn appeared only as “K—.” Hymnologist William Reynolds notes that the 1822 edition designated the author as “Kn,” and the 1835 edition of the collection indicated “Keen.” Finally, an 1844 edition ascribed authorship to “Kirkham.” Robert Keene (or Keen), a close friend of Rippon’s, was the song leader at the Carter Lane Church from 1776-1793. Mr. Reynolds believes that Keene assisted Rippon in preparing the compilation. But no hymn in the early editions appears to have been written by Keene. Six tunes bear the attribution “R. Keene” or “Keene,” and logic would dictate that if Keene had written the text, this would have also been clearly indicated. It is safe to say that compilers of collections in the 18th and 19th century did not take the same care to assign authorship as we have come to expect in modern hymnals.
We know that Rippon’s Selection was very popular, with 11 editions published in England and one in the U.S. (1820) before his death in 1836. “How firm a foundation” was sung frequently in both the North and the South before the Civil War. Mr. Reynolds notes that it was a favorite hymn of Theodore Roosevelt, and that Andrew Jackson requested it be sung at his deathbed, and that Robert E. Lee asked it be sung at his funeral.
The anonymous folk tune FOUNDATION is an American contribution to the hymn that first appears with the text in Joseph Fund’s 1832 Genuine Church Music under the tune name PROTECTION. Hymnology scholar Harry Eskew has concluded that PROTECTION was a new tune and not previously published. The composer remains unknown. The tune appears in other famous American 19th-century collections such as The Sacred Harp(1844) and Southern Harmony (1854) as BELLEVUE with some melodic variations and with changes in harmony, but R.M. McIntosh’s Tabor: or, the Richmond Collection of Sacred Music (1866) provides us the present form found in most Baptist and Methodist hymnals.
Originally written with seven four-line stanzas, five are included in The United Methodist Hymnal with only one small alteration. Much of the hymn’s text is straight from The Bible, such as Isaiah 41:10, Isaiah 43:2, 2 Corinthians 12:9 and Hebrews 13:5.
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?
In every condition, in sickness, in health;
In poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth;
At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,
As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.
Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.
When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.
Even down to old age all My people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.
The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake
Don Hustad (1918-2013) was one of the giants of Christian music of the 20th century. Hustad had a distinguished ministry and a life-long profession as a recording artist, composer, arranger, teacher, conductor, hymnal editor, and author. He began work as staff musician of Chicago's WMBI in the early 1940s, worked with soloist George Beverly Shea on a weekly broadcast called "Club Time," and served for some 20 years as organist for a popular radio broadcast "Songs in the Night." He taught at Olivet Nazarene College in Kankakee, Illinois from 1946 to 1950, at which time Hustad was appointed director of the Sacred Music Department at Moody Bible Institute—a position he held until 1961. During his 11-year tenure at Moody he developed the Moody Chorale into a superior choral ensemble that achieved fame nationally and internationally. In 1961 he became Crusade organist for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and directed the Crusader Men Choir in the "Hour of Decision" broadcasts. His publications include over 100 articles and five books. Throughout his career, Hustad devoted considerable energy to music arranging and hymnal editing, serving as editorial consultant and musical advisor to Hope Publishing Company. Among his editorial contributions are fourteen hymnals and songbooks, as well as dozens of collections. In 1989, Hustad was awarded Fellow of the Hymn Society for his outstanding contribution to American hymnody. In 2008, he was honored by the American Choral Director's Association Southern Division Conference for his contributions to church music. He earned diplomas as an Associate of the American Guild of Organists (AAGO) and a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO), London, UK.
About the Piano Music:
Near to the Heart of God - Ruth Elaine Schram
(c.2006, Lorenz Publishing)
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.
About the Choral Music:
Trust in Jesus (Medley) - Derrell Billingsley
(c.1980, Broadman Press)
From her childhood, the call to missionary service was the guiding motivation for Louisa M. R. Stead (c. 1850-1917). Born in Dover, England, and converted at the age of nine, Stead came to the United States in 1871, living in Cincinnati. She attended a camp meeting in Urbana, Ohio, where she dedicated her life to missionary service. Ill health prevented her from serving initially. She married in 1875, and the couple had a daughter, Lily. Hymnologist Kenneth Osbeck describes a major turning point in the family’s life:
“When the child was four years of age, the family decided one day to enjoy the sunny beach at Long Island Sound, New York. While eating their picnic lunch, they suddenly heard cries of help and spotted a drowning boy in the sea. Mr. Stead charged into the water. As often happens, however, the struggling boy pulled his rescuer under water with him, and both drowned before the terrified eyes of wife and daughter. Out of her ‘why?’ struggle with God during the ensuing days glowed these meaningful words from the soul of Louisa Stead.”
The hymn, “’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus” was inspired by this personal tragedy.
Soon after, Lousia and Lily left for the Cape Colony, South Africa, where Louisa worked as a missionary for fifteen years. She married Robert Wodehouse, a native of South Africa. Because of her health, the family found it necessary to return to the United States in 1895. Wodehouse pastored a Methodist congregation during these years until, in 1900, they returned to the mission field, this time to the Methodist mission station at Umtali, Southern Rhodesia (present day Zimbabwe). Kenneth Osbeck records a message sent back to the United States shortly after her arrival in Southern Rhodesia:
“In connection with the whole mission there are glorious possibilities, but one cannot, in the face of the peculiar difficulties, help but say, ‘Who is sufficient for these things?’ But with simple confidence and trust we may and do say, ‘Our sufficiency is of God.’”
While the exact date of the composition is not known, Lousia Stead’s hymn was first published in Songs of Triumph (1882). The hymn might be described as a mantra on the name of Jesus. Indeed, “Jesus” is sung twenty-five times if one sings all four stanzas and the refrain.
The tune, TRUST IN JESUS, was written for this hymn by William Kirkpatrick in 1882. William James Kirkpatrick (1838-1921) was an American sacred music composer and publisher. He wrote the music for such familiar hymns as "Lead Me to Calvary," Jesus Saves!," "Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus," "We Have an Anchor," "Redeemed," and "Meet Me There." With John R. Sweney, he published over eighty Gospel song collections during a period of seventeen years.
A song which encourages us to give due consideration to that name by which we are saved is “Take The Name Of Jesus With You”. The text was written by Lydia Odell Baxter (1809-1874), who was born at Petersburg, NY. As young women, she and her sister were converted by the preaching of a traveling Baptist missionary, Eben Tucker. A little while later, the two sisters were mainly responsible for the establishment of a Baptist church in their hometown. After her marriage, Lydia moved to New York City, NY, with her husband, where she zealously continued to carry on her religious work. Due to a serious illness, she became a partial invalid and was confined to her bed much of the time, but her home was a gathering place for preachers and other religious workers who came to her for advice.
Though Lydia was simply a housewife, all who knew her said that her radiance was an inspiration to them. Because of her patient cheerfulness, people often visited her sickroom not so much to comfort her as to be blessed by her. In 1855 she published a collection of religious poetry, Gems by the Wayside. Also she produced a number of gospel songs, such as “There Is a Gate Ajar for Me,” which were widely used. In 1870 she penned “Take the Name of Jesus With You” while she was on her sickbed just four years before her death. An avid student of the Bible, she often engaged in discussions of scriptural names with her friends and felt that the very utterance of the name of Jesus carried her to a deeper understanding, saying, “When the tempter tries to make me blue or despondent, I mention the name of Jesus, and he can’t get through to me anymore.”
The tune (Precious Name) was composed by William Howard Doane (1832-1915). The song first appeared in Pure Gold, edited in 1871 at New York City for Biglow and Main, by Doane and Robert Lowry (1826-1899). This song became widely known in evangelical churches through its use in evangelistic campaigns during the latter nineteenth century by revivalist Dwight Lyman Moody and his music director Ira David Sankey (1840-1908).
Luther Burgess Bridgers (1884-1948) was a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Born in North Carolina, he attended Asbury Seminary in Kentucky. Though he did not graduate, he was the pastor of congregations in Kentucky, North Carolina, and Georgia. In addition to pastorates, he served as an evangelist in the southern United States and abroad, including mission activities in Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and Russia.
At first glance, “There’s Within My Heart a Melody” appears to be a quintessential example of a song of amazing faith born out of tragedy. Indeed, there are several famous examples of such hymns. For example, Thomas A. Dorsey's "Precious Lord, Take My Hand"was composed in 1932 shortly after his wife's death in childbirth followed by the death of the infant. Horatio G. Spafford wrote "It Is Well With My Soul" after his four daughters were tragically lost at sea in 1873. If one visits Internet sources, various heart-rending accounts exist about "There's within my heart," some with immense detail of the events surrounding the creation of this hymn. It is common for some writers about hymns to fill in the gaps in a story with imagination rather than fact. Scholars agree that Bridgers experienced an immense loss in his life. While he was preaching a revival at Middlesboro, Kentucky, Bridgers left his wife and three small sons with her parents in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. At the conclusion of the revival, March 26, 1911, he received a call that his wife, Sarah, and all three sons, ages five, three, and seven months, had lost their lives in a fire.
The date of the tragic fire -- March 26, 1911 -- is crucial because numerous writers have attempted to link the composition of the gospel song with this event. However, as hymnologist William Reynolds has demonstrated, the song was penned the previous year in 1910. The hymn was first published in The Revival No. 61 (1910) by Charlie D. Tillman, a well-known publisher in Atlanta, Georgia. When Bridgers had finished the words, he picked out the melody on the piano, and his wife's sister wrote down the notes he played to complete the song.
The author draws upon a number of metaphors to describe the story of his redemption and the joy that Jesus brought to his life. His relationship with Jesus is intimate as Jesus "whispers" a melody "sweet and low" in his heart. The words of that melody are a conflation of two passages, "Fear not, I am with thee" (Isaiah 41:10) and "Peace, be still" from the account of Jesus' calming of the storm on the lake found in the synoptic gospels (Matthew 8:23-27; Mark 4:37-41; Luke 8:23-25). Composers of gospel songs are often less systematic about how they choose and develop scriptural allusions than other hymn writers.
Perhaps the best evidence that this hymn was not written as a response to a tragic event is internal to the hymn itself. Dorsey and Spafford both composed hymn texts and tunes that come from the sorrow of loss and work through their grief in a meaningful way. Bridgers' text and tune, if it had been written immediately following the death of his entire family, would certainly not follow a normal pattern of grief with its jaunty melody. One might assume under the circumstances that the composer was in denial. While indeed hymns are sometimes forged in the fires of tragedy, this appears not to have been case here. Bridgers remarried in 1914 and continued his long ministry until his retirement in Gainesville, Georgia, in 1945. This fact does not negate the popularity of this hymn and its appearance in a wide variety of hymnals and song collections. Of the fourteen songs written by Bridgers, this is the only hymn with wide circulation, appearing 150 times.
This medley is by Derrell L. Billingsley, who was minister of music at the First Baptist Church, Columbia, Tennessee, and was Pesechool Literary/Music Design Editor in the Church Music Department of the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville, Tennessee.
’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, Just to take him at his word;
Just to rest upon his promise, Just to know, “Thus saith the Lord.”
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him! How I’ve proved him o’er and o’er.
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus! O for grace to trust him more!
Previous name, O how sweet! Hope of earth and joy of heav’n;
Previous name, O how sweet! Hope of earth and joy of heav’n.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Sweetest name I know, Fills my every longing,
Keeps me singing as I go.
I’m so glad I learned to trust him, Precious Jesus, Savior, friend;
And I know that he is with me, Will be with me to the end.
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him! How I’ve proved him o’er and o’er.
Jesus, Jesus precious Jesus! O for grace to trust him more.
About the Hymns:
How Great Thou Art
(c.1981, Manna Music)
"How Great Thou Art" is a based on a Swedish poem written by Carl Gustav Boberg (1859–1940) in Sweden in 1885. “O Store Gud” (O Great God) is a paraphrase of Psalm 8 and has nine verses. It was sung in the underground church in Sweden in the late 1800s when the Baptists and Mission Friends were persecuted. Boberg himself gave the following information about his inspiration for this hymn:
It was that time of year when everything seemed to be in its richest colouring;; the birds were singing in trees and everywhere. It was very warm; a thunderstorm appeared on the horizon and soon thunder and lightning. We had to hurry to shelter. But the storm was soon over and the clear sky appeared. When I came home I opened my window toward the sea. There evidently had been a funeral and the bells were playing the tune of “When eternity’s clock calling my saved soul to its Sabbath rest”. That evening, I wrote the song, “O Store Gud”.
Boberg first published "O Store Gud" in the “Mönsterås Tidningen” (Mönsterås News) on 13 March 1886.The poem became matched to an old Swedish folk tune and sung in public for the first known occasion in a church in the Swedish province of Värmland in 1888. It was soon published in additional hymn collections and was translated into German and Russian.
British Methodist missionary Stuart Wesley Keene Hine (1899-1989) heard the Russian translation of the German version of the song while on an evangelistic mission to the Carpathian Mountains in Ukraine, near the Polish border, in 1931. Upon hearing it, Hine was inspired to create his English paraphrase known as “How Great Thou Art". According to Michael Ireland, "Hine and his wife, Edith, learned the Russian translation, and started using it in their evangelistic services. Hine also started re-writing some of the verses --- and writing new verses (all in Russian) --- as events inspired him." Hine finalized his English translation in 1949
When the Billy Graham team went to London in 1954 for the Harringay Crusade, they were given a pamphlet containing Hine's work. They worked closely with Hine to prepare the song for use in their campaigns. They sang it in the 1955 Toronto campaign, but it didn't really catch on until they took it to the Madison Square Garden in 1957. According to Cliff Barrows (Dr. Graham's longtime associate), they sang it one hundred times during that campaign because the people wouldn't let them stop.
George Beverly Shea's recording of the beloved hymn ranks number 204 on the top recordings of the 20th century according to the Recording Industry Association of America. It was voted the United Kingdom's favourite hymn by BBC's Songs of Praise. "How Great Thou Art" was ranked second (after "Amazing Grace") on a list of the favorite hymns of all time in a survey by Today's Christian magazine in 2001.
Evangelist Billy Graham indicated: “The reason I like 'How Great Thou Art' is because it glorifies God. It turns Christian’s eyes toward God, rather than upon themselves. I use it as often as possible because it is such a God-honoring song.”
O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made,
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.
When through the woods and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur,
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze,
And when I think that God, His Son not sparing,
Sent Him to die - I scarce can take it in.
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.
When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And there proclaim: "My God, how great Thou art!"
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Truehearted, Wholehearted
Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879), daughter of the Rev. W. H. Havergal, was born at Astley, Worcestershire. In 1850, she entered Mrs. Teed's school, whose influence over her was most beneficial. In the following year she says, "I committed my soul to the Saviour, and earth and heaven seemed brighter from that moment." Rev. James Davidson said of her and her writing:
Miss Havergal's scholastic acquirements were extensive, embracing several modern languages, together with Greek and Hebrew. She does not occupy, and did not claim for herself, a prominent place as a poet, but by her distinct individuality she carved out a niche which she alone could fill. Simply and sweetly she sang the love of God, and His way of salvation. To this end, and for this object, her whole life and all her powers were consecrated. She lives and speaks in every line of her poetry. Her poems are permeated with the fragrance of her passionate love of Jesus. Her religious views and theological bias are distinctly set forth in her poems, and may be described as mildly Calvinistic, without the severe dogmatic tenet of reprobation. The burden of her writings is a free and full salvation, through the Redeemer's merits, for every sinner who will receive it, and her life was devoted to the proclamation of this truth by personal labours, literary efforts, and earnest interest in Foreign Missions.
Miss Havergal's hymns were frequently printed by J. & R. Parlane as leaflets, and by Caswell & Co. as ornamental cards. They were gathered together from time to time and published in collections, as well as appearances in hymnals of the time. “True-hearted, whole-hearted, faithful and loyal” was published in Loyal Responses (1878) with the subtitle, “Faithfulness to the Saviour”, and in the Universal Hymn Book (1885).
Truehearted, wholehearted, faithful and loyal,
King of our lives, by Thy grace we will be;
Under the standard exalted and royal,
Strong in Thy strength we will battle for Thee.
Truehearted, wholehearted, fullest allegiance
Yielding henceforth to our glorious King;
Valiant endeavor and loving obedience,
Freely and joyously now would we bring.
Truehearted, wholehearted, Savior all-glorious!
Take Thy great power and reign there alone,
Over our wills and affections victorious,
Freely surrendered and wholly Thine own.
Peal out the watchword! Silence it never!
Song of our spirits, rejoicing and free;
Peal out the watchword! Loyal forever!
King of our lives, by Thy grace we will be.
First United Methodist Church, Lewisville, Texas
A Community of Everyday People Learning to Love Like Jesus
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