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Best Church Hymns - Louis Fitzgerald Benson · The Best Short Stories of 1917

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  Speaker 1: Preface of The Best Church Hymns. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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  Speaker 1: by David Wales. The Best Church Hymns by Lewis F.
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  Speaker 1: Benson Preface. This little book had its origin in two
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  Speaker 1: papers prepared at the request of the editor of the
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  Speaker 1: Sunday School Times, and printed in that journal in the
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  Speaker 1: autumn of eighteen ninety seven. They are now, by his
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  Speaker 1: courteous permission, substantially reproduced here as there recorded. The collation
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  Speaker 1: covered ninety eight heyn books, and is now brought down
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  Speaker 1: to cover nine more, not then at hand or since published.
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  Speaker 1: It is interesting to note that this enlargement of the
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  Speaker 1: material effected no change in the list of the best hymns,
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  Speaker 1: except in some cases a change in their relative order,
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  Speaker 1: and the edition of one more to their fellowship. But
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  Speaker 1: the better part of the book is the hymns themselves.
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  Speaker 1: As far as practicable, they are printed as their authors
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  Speaker 1: wrote them, such accepted alterations as it seemed necessary to adopt,
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  Speaker 1: being referred to in the notes. The text of the
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  Speaker 1: hymns reproduces in all respects that prepared by the editors
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  Speaker 1: for the Hymno of the Presbyterian Church, published in eighteen
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  Speaker 1: ninety five. Each hymn is preceded by the title given
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  Speaker 1: to it by the author, which often helps us to
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  Speaker 1: read the hymn from his point of view, and the
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  Speaker 1: hymn is followed by a very brief sketch setting forth
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  Speaker 1: something of its history, and by notes intended to explain
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  Speaker 1: any words which are not at once clear, as well
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  Speaker 1: as to call attention to the scriptural allusions of the hymn.
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  Speaker 1: A word of apology perhaps should be spoken for the
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  Speaker 1: simplicity of these annotations. They must be understood as intended
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  Speaker 1: to appeal to the minds of the children, who, it
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  Speaker 1: is hoped, may be encouraged to lay up these hymns
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  Speaker 1: in their memories. It being the intention of the publishers
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  Speaker 1: to issue the pages containing the hymns and annotations, apart
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  Speaker 1: from the preliminary discussions, for use as a textbook, with
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  Speaker 1: that desirable end in view. End Preface Introduction Part one
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  Speaker 1: of the Best Church Hymns by Lewis F. Benson. This
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Introduction Part one
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  Speaker 1: What are the best hymns. Much of what is written
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  Speaker 1: upon the character and quality of our hymns fails either
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  Speaker 1: to enlighten or convince, and this is because the writer,
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  Speaker 1: or it may be the reader, does not clearly distinguish
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  Speaker 1: the two points of view from which hymns may be regarded.
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  Speaker 1: For hymnity is at once a branch of literature and
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  Speaker 1: a branch of liturgics, and the characteristics of a hymn
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  Speaker 1: are not the same in the two departments. In literature,
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  Speaker 1: for example, both Coleridge and Shelley are looked upon as
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  Speaker 1: skilled in the right use of English words, and the
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  Speaker 1: one published a hymn before Sunrise in the Veil of Cheminee,
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  Speaker 1: and the other a hymn to intellectual beauty. Yet from
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  Speaker 1: the liturgical point of view, these pieces are not in
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  Speaker 1: any sense to be recognized as hymns. Again, a piece
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  Speaker 1: of verse properly spoken of from a liturgical point of
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  Speaker 1: view as a good hymn may seem to a mere
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  Speaker 1: literary critic quite unworthy of any such distinction. The methods
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  Speaker 1: and ends of poetic literature are one thing, and the
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  Speaker 1: uses of God's house or another. And while they do
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  Speaker 1: not necessarily conflict. They do establish different scales of excellence,
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  Speaker 1: and they do demand differing criteria of judgment. Unless we
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  Speaker 1: are to have confused, one or the other. Point of
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  Speaker 1: view should be distinctly chosen and then persistently maintained the
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  Speaker 1: title of this book suggests that we are dealing now
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  Speaker 1: with hymns for church use, and that among such hymns
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  Speaker 1: we are seeking the best. But the mere announcement of
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  Speaker 1: that point of view is not enough. It must be
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  Speaker 1: adhered to. And just here it is that confusion so
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  Speaker 1: often creeps in. Someone starts out to test the quality
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  Speaker 1: of church hymns, and then at once proceeds to test
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  Speaker 1: them not by a study of the actual experience of
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  Speaker 1: the church in their use, but by applying to them
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  Speaker 1: his personal opinions and judgment of what a good hymn
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  Speaker 1: ought to be. He is followed by other critics, each
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  Speaker 1: with the same aim and method, but with differing judgments,
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  Speaker 1: and each one discovers the hymns that are best in
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  Speaker 1: his opinion. Out of it all comes confusion, and no
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  Speaker 1: standard is established, but the fluctuating one of personal preference.
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  Speaker 1: And now, when an interest in hymns is so widely felt,
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  Speaker 1: is a good time to insist that the quality of
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  Speaker 1: a church hymn cannot be determined in that way. The
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  Speaker 1: hymn is the people share in God's praise, and is
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  Speaker 1: intended for congregational use. It can be tested only by
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  Speaker 1: the results of actual use in the worship of the Church.
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  Speaker 1: And to propose any other test, such as the opinions
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  Speaker 1: of critics, is again to confound literature with liturgics. In
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  Speaker 1: the case of an untried hymn, no man can say
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  Speaker 1: that it will prove to be a good hymn. In
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  Speaker 1: the case of hymns that have been fully offered to
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  Speaker 1: the church and set before her to sing, and yet
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  Speaker 1: have failed to attain any real position in her hymnity,
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  Speaker 1: that result may be said to mark the end of
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  Speaker 1: their career. As hymns. Such hymns have been actually tried
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  Speaker 1: by the only competent tribunal, have, for some reason or other,
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  Speaker 1: possibly for none that is quite apparent, been found wanting
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  Speaker 1: here and there. A hymn book editor with a happy
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  Speaker 1: nones knak may light upon one of them which he
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  Speaker 1: thinks has not had a fair trial, and he may
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  Speaker 1: even start it upon a new career. Mated to some
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  Speaker 1: tune that shall help it at last to win its
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  Speaker 1: way to the hearts of God's worshippers. But this is
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  Speaker 1: not to change the tribunal which decides the ultimate fate
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  Speaker 1: of all hymns. It is only to gain a new
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  Speaker 1: hearing before that same tribunal in the specific case, and
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  Speaker 1: from the decision of that tribunal. There is no appeal
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  Speaker 1: in the matter of hymns. A good hymn is one
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  Speaker 1: that commends itself to the church, voices the religious feeling
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  Speaker 1: of the worshippers, and stands the test of congregational use.
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  Speaker 1: And just because God's people in all the different branches
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  Speaker 1: of the Church make but one larger congregation with common
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  Speaker 1: needs and feelings. Therefore, the only hymns we are entitled
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  Speaker 1: to call the best church hymns are those which commend
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  Speaker 1: themselves to this larger congregation and have come into actual
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  Speaker 1: use over the widest area and by consent of the
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  Speaker 1: largest number of Christians in the different churches. A so
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  Speaker 1: called gospel hymn which has temporary vogue in certain quarters,
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  Speaker 1: but which the great bodies of Christians reject from their worship,
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  Speaker 1: is not one of the best hymns. A wooden translation
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  Speaker 1: from the Latin Dear to the advanced section of the
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  Speaker 1: Anglican Church, is not one of the best hymns. Neither
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  Speaker 1: are our own personal favorites necessarily entitled to that distinction
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  Speaker 1: which only the Church at large can confer. If then
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  Speaker 1: the Church alone decides which hymns are the best, and
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  Speaker 1: her decision is necessarily final. What remains to us is
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  Speaker 1: the simple finding of the individual hymns which, as a
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  Speaker 1: matter of fact, have won widest approval and largest use.
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  Speaker 1: It would be interesting in several ways if we could
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  Speaker 1: pick them out of the mass, if we could get
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  Speaker 1: before us a group of hymns which, according to our definition,
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  Speaker 1: are beyond doubt the best church hymns. The only practicable
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  Speaker 1: way of doing this is by the study of the
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  Speaker 1: hymn books in present use in the churches. These books,
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  Speaker 1: in the case of each denomination, are the last of
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  Speaker 1: a series which have been successively used there They have
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  Speaker 1: grown up by a slow process of dealing with hymns
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  Speaker 1: by way of selection, and addition, they contain all the
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  Speaker 1: hymns now actually sung in their worship. By taking the
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  Speaker 1: whole number of these hymn books, then we have the
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  Speaker 1: entire body of hymns in actual use in the church
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  Speaker 1: worship of English speaking Christians, and by collating their contents,
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  Speaker 1: we could determine what hymns are common to a smaller
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  Speaker 1: or greater number of books, Giving to each book one vote.
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  Speaker 1: The number of books in which a given hymn is
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  Speaker 1: found would determine the status of that hymn in the
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  Speaker 1: whole English speaking church, and we should finally arrive at
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  Speaker 1: a group of hymns which, being found in the widest
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  Speaker 1: actual use, are properly called the best church hymns. This coalation,
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  Speaker 1: however fascinating, is a painful task. Fortunately, it has been
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  Speaker 1: largely done for us already. One doctor Robert L. S.
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  Speaker 1: Thompson has made such a collation of thirty representative hymn
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  Speaker 1: books of the different bodies of Christians in the United States,
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  Speaker 1: certifying which hymns have received the votes of the seven
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  Speaker 1: chief churches of American Protestantism. These hymns, one hundred and
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  Speaker 1: fifty four in number, are our American candidates for the
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  Speaker 1: distinction of being the best hymns. Two. Mister King has
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  Speaker 1: done a light work for the Anglican Church, collating fifty
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  Speaker 1: two collections chosen as representative of the hymn books use
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  Speaker 1: in that church and its branches in Scotland, Ireland and
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  Speaker 1: the colonies. His list of hymns as representing at once
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  Speaker 1: the English and the liturgical points of view, may be
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  Speaker 1: set against doctor Thompson's. It will then appear that, out
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  Speaker 1: of doctor Thompson's one hundred fifty four hymns, forty eight
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  Speaker 1: are not found in mister King's list, reducing the number
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  Speaker 1: of our candidates to one hundred and six three. These
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  Speaker 1: two collations I have supplemented by a third, covering one
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  Speaker 1: recent Church of England collection, twelve representative books used in
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  Speaker 1: the Church of Scotland and in the Nonconformist churches of England,
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  Speaker 1: Scotland and Canada, and twelve important American books, published most
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  Speaker 1: of them since the date of doctor Thompson's list. The
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  Speaker 1: whole number of books collated is thus brought up to
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  Speaker 1: one hundred seven. As we are seeking the hymns in
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  Speaker 1: widest use only, we may take eighty per cent as
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  Speaker 1: the proportion of books in which a given hymn must
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  Speaker 1: occur to attain the first rank, And we then find
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  Speaker 1: no less than thirty two of our one hundred six
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  Speaker 1: hymns fulfilling that requirement. In view of the diversities of creed, ritual,
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  Speaker 1: and nas taste represented in these hymn books, this is
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  Speaker 1: a remarkable result. It seems not unreasonable or unsafe to
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  Speaker 1: say that, at the present time we may call these
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  Speaker 1: thirty two the best church hymns. The following list gives
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  Speaker 1: their first lines and the number of votes for each.
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  Speaker 1: One Rock of Ages cleft for me one hundred and
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  Speaker 1: six two when I survey the wondrous Cross one hundred
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  Speaker 1: and four three, Jesus, Lover of my soul, one hundred
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  Speaker 1: and four four, All praise to THEE my God this
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  Speaker 1: night one hundred and three five. Jesus, I my cross
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  Speaker 1: have taken one hundred three six, Son of my soul.
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  Speaker 1: Thou Savior dear one hundred and three seven. Awake my soul,
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  Speaker 1: and with the sun one hundred and one eight, Hark
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  Speaker 1: the herald angels sing one hundred and one nine. Abide
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  Speaker 1: with me fast falls the eventide one hundred and one ten. Jerusalem,
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  Speaker 1: my happy home, one hundred and one How sweet the
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  Speaker 1: name of Jesus sounds one hundred and one twelve Nearer
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  Speaker 1: my God to THEE. One hundred thirteen from Greenland's icy
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  Speaker 1: Mountains one hundred fourteen. Our God, our help in ages past,
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  Speaker 1: one hundred fifteen. Jerusalem the Golden ninety nine sixteen. Lo
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  Speaker 1: He comes with clouds descending ninety four seventeen. Jesus shall
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  Speaker 1: reign where'er the sun ninety four eighteen. Glorious things of
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  Speaker 1: thee are spoken ninety three nineteen. Hark the glad sound
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  Speaker 1: the Savior comes ninety two twenty. Come let us join
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  Speaker 1: our cheerful songs ninety two twenty one. All Hail the
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  Speaker 1: power of Jesus Name. Ninety two twenty two. Hail to
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  Speaker 1: the Lord's Anointed ninety one twenty three, Oh, Worship the
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  Speaker 1: King ninety one twenty four, Christ, the Lord has risen
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  Speaker 1: today ninety twenty five. A guide me, o, Thou Great Jehovah,
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  Speaker 1: ninety twenty, Just as I am without one plea ninety
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  Speaker 1: twenty seven. God moves in a mysterious way ninety twenty eight. Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: the very thought of thee eighty nine twenty nine, Children
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  Speaker 1: of the Heavenly King eighty seven thirty. There is a
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  Speaker 1: land of pure delight eighty seven thirty one. Thou whose
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  Speaker 1: almighty word eighty six. Thirty two Brief Life is here
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  Speaker 1: our portion eighty six. We may read this list with
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  Speaker 1: much satisfaction, with a new confidence also in the tribunal
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  Speaker 1: which gave such a decision. Time will work changes in
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  Speaker 1: this list, but it seems likely that they will be
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  Speaker 1: by way of addition rather than of subtraction. Hebre's Holy Holy,
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  Speaker 1: Holy Lord God Almighty and Newman's Lead Kindly Life, for instance,
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  Speaker 1: will apparently very soon range with these others. But of
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  Speaker 1: the thirty two few indeed seem likely to be superseded
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  Speaker 1: in our time. None could now be spared. A competent
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  Speaker 1: editor of a hymn book for church use at the
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  Speaker 1: present time would hesitate before omitting any one of them.
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  Speaker 1: They are indeed the best church hymns, and now that
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  Speaker 1: we have them clearly before us, two uses of this
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  Speaker 1: list suggest themselves. One A duty is suggested to those
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  Speaker 1: who are concerned in the conduct of public worship. The
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  Speaker 1: leader of public worship has few responsibilities greater than the
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  Speaker 1: choice of hymns to be sung. The influence of familiar
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  Speaker 1: hymns is very great, and these certainly would seem to
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  Speaker 1: be the hymns that should become familiar by a reasonably
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  Speaker 1: frequent use. Two, an opportunity is suggested to those who
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  Speaker 1: are interested in the religious training of children. How could
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  Speaker 1: more be done for the spiritual enrichment of a child
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  Speaker 1: than by storing its memory with the best hymns. If
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  Speaker 1: the good old custom of memorizing hymns has fallen into obeyance,
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  Speaker 1: it may have been from the embarrassment of riches the
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  Speaker 1: discouraging length of the list of available hymns. But here
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  Speaker 1: is a short list of the best, only presenting a
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  Speaker 1: task not too great for the average scholar, making frequent
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  Speaker 1: review possible, and offering a treasure which will grow only
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  Speaker 1: the greater as life lengthens out and until its close.
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  Speaker 1: It is not surely a thought to be lightly passed over.
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  Speaker 1: As mister Ellerton has said, it is not without a
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  Speaker 1: lesson of deep significance for us all that our divine
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  Speaker 1: Master sustained his spirit upon his awful death bed, not
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  Speaker 1: with any new utterance of devotion, not with aspirations come
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  Speaker 1: fresh from the lips of Him who spake as never
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  Speaker 1: man spake, but with the familiar words of his church's psalmody,
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  Speaker 1: the broken fragments of the Hymno of his childhood. It
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  Speaker 1: will be of interest also to examine the hymns included
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  Speaker 1: in our list, so as to gain an impression of
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  Speaker 1: what the qualities are which make up the standard of
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  Speaker 1: a hymn that the Church approves and loves to use.
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  Speaker 1: End of introduction, Part one. Introduction, Part two of the
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  Speaker 1: Best Church Hymns by Lewis F. Benson. This LibriVox recording
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  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Introduction Part two. What is
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  Speaker 1: today the standard of the best church hymns? We have
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  Speaker 1: now reached an understanding as to what may rightly be
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  Speaker 1: called the best church hymns. We have seen that while
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  Speaker 1: everyone is at liberty to choose the hymns that are
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  Speaker 1: best to him, only the Church decides which are the
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  Speaker 1: best church hymns. The church hymn is intended for church use,
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  Speaker 1: and the best hymns are those which do, as a
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  Speaker 1: matter of fact, fulfill that use. Those, in other words,
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  Speaker 1: which have won the widest approval and use by the Church.
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  Speaker 1: We have before us a list of the thirty two
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  Speaker 1: best hymns. What remains is to examine the characteristics of
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  Speaker 1: these hymns so as to gain an answer to the question,
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  Speaker 1: what is today the standard of the best church hymns.
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  Speaker 1: Of these thirty two hymns, only two are of the
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  Speaker 1: seventeenth century. Bishop Kins Awake my soul and with the
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  Speaker 1: Sun and His all praise to Thee my God this
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  Speaker 1: night of the eighteenth century, Doctor Watts leads with five,
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  Speaker 1: when I survey the wondrous cross, our God, our help
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  Speaker 1: in ages past. Come, let us join our cheerful songs.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus shall reign where'er the sun, and there is a
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  Speaker 1: land of pure delight. Charles Wesley follows with four. Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: Lover of my soul. Hark the herald angels sing Christ
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  Speaker 1: the Lord has risen today, and lo he comes with clouds,
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  Speaker 1: descending John Newton with two, how sweet the name of
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  Speaker 1: Jesus sounds, and glorious things of thee are spoken, And
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  Speaker 1: these others with one each Toplody Rock of Ages Doddridge,
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  Speaker 1: Hark the glad sound the Savior comes, parnet all hail
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  Speaker 1: the power of Jesus name. Cooper a God moves in
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  Speaker 1: a mysterious way. Williams guide me O Thou Great Jehovah,
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  Speaker 1: and senec children of the Heavenly King. Of the nineteenth century,
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  Speaker 1: Light leads with two abide with me and Jesus I
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  Speaker 1: might cross at Daikon. And these writers have one each.
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  Speaker 1: Keebul son of my soul. Adams Error my God to
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  Speaker 1: thee hebre from Greenland's Icy Mountains, Montgomery Hail to the
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  Speaker 1: Lord Anointed Grant O worship the King, Marriott thou whose
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  Speaker 1: almighty word Eliot, just as I am, and the anonymous
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  Speaker 1: recast of an older hymn Jerusalem My Happy Home of
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  Speaker 1: the nineteenth century. Also are three versions of Latin hymns
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  Speaker 1: Kneels Jerusalem the Golden and Brief Life is here our
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  Speaker 1: portion and Caswall's Jesus the very Thought of Thee. The
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  Speaker 1: first thing the reading of this list suggests is the
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  Speaker 1: Catholicity of the Church's judgment for Roman Anglican, Independent, Moravian, Wesleyan,
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  Speaker 1: and Unitarian alike are allowed to contribute to it. The
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  Speaker 1: Church's unity, indeed, is foreshadowed in her Hymnity. One is
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  Speaker 1: impressed also with the absence from this list of all
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  Speaker 1: recent hymns, the latest of them was in print by
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  Speaker 1: eighteen fifty one. At first, this would seem to indicate
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  Speaker 1: the judgment of the Church that in Hymnity the old
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  Speaker 1: is better. But the fact is rather that a hymn
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  Speaker 1: makes its way slowly, and naturally. It takes a great
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  Speaker 1: while for any hymn to attain a use so general
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  Speaker 1: and widespread, and among so many branches of the church.
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  Speaker 1: One seeking now the characteristics of these best church hymns,
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  Speaker 1: we may begin with their lyrical quality. They are adapted
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  Speaker 1: for setting to music and singing, with the exception perhaps
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  Speaker 1: of Watts's Jesus shall reign, you would choose to sing
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  Speaker 1: them rather than to read them. We put this lyrical
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  Speaker 1: quality first, as most naturally to be expected of a hymn,
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  Speaker 1: but historically it was by no means the first to
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  Speaker 1: be insisted upon. Our fathers began with versions of the
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  Speaker 1: psalms which were anything but lyrical, and the hymns which
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  Speaker 1: succeeded them were often hardly more singable. Some of these linger.
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  Speaker 1: Yet Watts's go Preach my Gospel is as honest prose
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  Speaker 1: as man ever wrote. And in the case of a
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  Speaker 1: class of hymns such as 'tis a point I long
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  Speaker 1: to know. And how sad our state by nature is
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  Speaker 1: nothing but an inherited tradition could account for a proposal
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  Speaker 1: to sing any one of them. Gradually, with the growth
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  Speaker 1: of musical feeling, the heavy hymns are being left behind.
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  Speaker 1: Already the Church has decided that only lyrics can find
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: a place among the best hymns. Two. We note again
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: the literary excellence of all these hymns. No less than
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: eleven of the thirty two are included by mister Palgrave
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: in his very exclusive Treasury as literature Poetry for Poetry's sake,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: and three others by mister Stedman in his Victorian Anthology,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: including Nearer My God to Thee, the faultiest of them
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: all but saved in an art sense by the beauty
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: of its interwoven refrain. One other. When I survey, et cetera,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: Matthew Arnold considered the finest hymn in the language, and
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: of the remainder, representing such writers as Wesley, Watts, Heber, Montgomery, Cooper, Caswell,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: Neil and Grant, there is none without distinct literary merit.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: Analyzing this literary excellence, we find that each one has
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: a single theme, giving unity to the hymn and a
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: proper development of it, giving life and movement to the verses.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: The weaker and less sung verses of Jesus Lover of
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: my soul being an exception, these themes are poetically sound,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: and their treatment is interesting. The language is refined and beautiful,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: the images happy, with an occasional lapse, as in the
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: unfortunate stony griefs of Nearer my God to thee. And
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: in all and over all that when in grace of simplicity,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: simplicity always stands for much. But in a hymn which
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: must have the gift of a quick appeal to many
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: differing minds, simplicity stands for fundamentals. Literary excellence, then, is
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: a marked common feature of the best hymns. This means
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: that the Church at large has not accepted a hymn
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: of in inferior literary qualities, and in view of the
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: advance of general culture, it leaves the very comfortable assurance
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: that she never will. Three. We note again that each
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: of these hymns has liturgical propriety, both in the subject
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: matter and in the form. They keep within the subjects
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: proper to public devotions, but within that limit they range
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: freely through the whole sphere of worship. Now, praise is
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: the chief act of worship, but it is by no
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: means the only one. Prayer is an act of worship,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: and the expression of our aspirations is an act of worship.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: These hymns include both. The element of praise is not
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: quite absent from any of them. Perhaps, but not many
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: could be classed as technically hymns of praise. This fact
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: has its own importance just now, for in the reaction
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: from the use of sentimental and egotistical hymns that make
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: much of ourselves and little of God and his Christ,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: quite a party has grown up which maintains that the
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: only proper theme of a hymn is the adoration and
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: praise of God. Didactics and invitation, supplication and intercession, they say,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: are provided for elsewhere in the service, and they would
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: return to the definition of Saint Augustine that hymns are
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: the praise of God with song welcome. As is the reaction,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: the movement, while in the right direction, is too radical.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: It needs to be corrected by the verdict of the Church,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: and this verdict must settle the liturgical office of a hymn.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: A good hymn is not necessarily a form of pure praise,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: but rather a form of worship, and it may take
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: its theme from any of the proper parts of public worship.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: Let us go now a little deeper to look for
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: the spiritual qualities which have given these hymns so long
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: a life, so universal acceptance. These seem especially to be two.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: One of them is reverence and the other is reality.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: For that tone of reverence pervades every one of these hymns.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: It sounds all the way from the majestic heights of
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: Watts's Our God, Our Help in ages past, which celebrates
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: his eternity and unchangeableness, to the familiar levels of kins
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: morning and evening hymns, in which the little things of
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: life are brought into that same august presence. Any One
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: can test this quality of reverence for himself in several ways.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: The most natural way would be to read or sing
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: the hymn over and observe the effect upon himself, how
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: that they clothe his own mood with reverence. Another way,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: more effective, if one cared to try it, were that
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: of singing any of these hymns to trivial melodies in
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: rapid time and with careless manner. But the test is
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: rather that one would not care to do that. The
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: quality of the hymn makes the performance irreverent. And it
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: is no doubt this quality of reverence, which gives to
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: a hymn its hemnic character, makes it suitable for use
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: in the church's worship. Whether it be directly addressed to God,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: or whether it be in the form of praise or
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: of prayer, is not the real test of the hymns fitness,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: but whether it be of the quality of reverence. And
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: just here, just where the best hymns are strong, is
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: where so many of the hymns which are in current
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: evangelistic use begin to fail. They fail in other things,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: but they begin to fail at the very foundation. For
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: in the worship of God there is no other foundation
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: laid than is already laid in reverence. And a hymn
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: may not be so gross as to be irreverent. And
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: yet it may lack reverence in conception and in expression,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: and especially in the feelings it tends to excite in
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: those who sing or hear it. A hymn may lack reverence,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: but a good him cannot lack it. The best hymns
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: are thrilled with it through and through five. Then there
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: is that other of these deeper qualities which are common
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: to all our group, the quality of spiritual reality. It
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: has two sides, one turned outward toward the world of
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: things spiritual, the side of truth, and one turned inward
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: towards spiritual experience, the side of sincerity. And only so
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: would God be worship in sincerity and in truth. A hymn, therefore,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: as an acceptable act of worship, must be true to facts,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: and must be sincerely spoken by the singers. There are
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: untrue hymns, and an untrue hymn is no better because
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: the misrepresentations are veiled under poetic diction. Addisons, how are
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: thy servants blessed o Lord? In the altered form as
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: used in the hymn books and drapers Ye Christian heralds
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: go proclaim as generally used in the original text, are
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: examples of untrue hymns. And there are many hymns which
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: put into the mouths of an ordinary congregation are quite insincere.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: The hymns, for instance, which express a desire for immediate death,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: or more generally, which say to God things which the
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: singers do not feel or do not believe. A congregation
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: will sing such hymns thoughtlessly if they are set to
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: music that is seductive, But certainly it is a serious
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: responsibility to place such hymns in the order of worship.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: There are untrue hymns and insincere hymns, but the best
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: Church hymns, as they are now set before us, are neither.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: They are marked by spiritual reality. They express, that is
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: to say, spiritual truths which are within the people's apprehension
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: and sound spiritual feelings which which are not beyond the
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: experience of the average Christian worshiper. This is true of
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: them in a very marked degree. But are there no exceptions.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: We turn instinctively to the new Jerusalem hymns Jerusalem the
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Golden and Jerusalem My Happy Home. Canon Kingsley protested against
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: such hymns as unreal, but surely it is carrying the
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: manly and robust type of religion pretty far to exclude
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: aspirations after Heaven from our Christian mnity. It is rather
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: the class of hymns represented by Fober's Oh Paradise that
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: are open to such objection. It is interesting to compare
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: this recast Jerusalem My Happy Home, probably Montgomery's, with the
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: earlier Oh Mother, Dear Jerusalem on which it is based,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: just to see how the right feeling of the recastor
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: has given reality to what was hard more than a
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: mood of individualistic transcendentalism, having poetic truth rather than congregational fitness.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: This spiritual reality in the substance and not a mere
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: plural form, is what makes a hymn congregational, which fact
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: has its importance to us who are so often reminded
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: that a good hymn must use the plural forms We
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: us our and not I me mine. Our list contradicts
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: the dictum. Many of these hymns use the singular pronouns throughout,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: but they are still the best congregational hymns congregational because
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: they express experiences natural and proper to the average Christian,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: and if they express them in an individual form, they
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: are all the more true to life, for our spiritual
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: experiences also are individual. With this last note, the answer
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: to our question what is today the standard of our
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: best to ture CH's hymns seems to be complete. These
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: are the five elements which enter into that standard. First
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: the lyrical quality, second literary excellence, third liturgical propriety, fourth reverence,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: fifth spiritual reality. It was interesting to discover which hymns
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: are the best, and if our examination of them is
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: careful and true. It is an added gain to know
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: what it is that makes them best. The verdict of
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: the Church is conclusive, but it covers only the hymns
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: old enough to have secured a full and wide trial.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: We are left more to our own judgment in dealing
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: with the great body of more recent hymns. And from
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: that very fact arises the advantage in determining the standard
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: of the hymns known to be the best, so that
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: we may measure the newer candidates for favor by that
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: same standard. End of introduction, Part two Hymns one, two,
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: and three of the Best Church Hymns by Lewis F. Benson.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. One a
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: living and dying prayer for the holiest believer in the world.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Rock of Ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: riven side which flowed be of sin. The double cure
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: cleanse me from its guilt and power. Not the labors
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: of my hands can fulfill thy law's demands. Could my
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: zeal no respite? Know? Could my tears forever flow all?
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: For sin? Could not atone thou must save, and thou
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: alone nothing in my hand. I bring simply to Thy cross.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: I cling nay, Come to THEE for dress helpless. Look
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: to THEE for grace, foul I to the fountain, Fly
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: wash me Savior, Or I die while I draw this
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: fleeting breath. When my eyelids close in death, when I
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: soar to worlds unknown, see THEE on thy judgment, throne,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: rock of ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: in THEE. This hymn properly stands first, for it has
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: had great power over the minds of men. Its author
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: was an English clergyman, the Reverend Augustus Montague Topldy, born
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: in seventeen forty. He was a man of feeble body
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: but of intense feelings, and earnestly opposed the Methodist movement
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: in the Church of England see under number three. The
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: hymn was first printed at the end of an article
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: in the number for March seventeen seventy six of the
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: Gospel Magazine, of which Toplady was editor. He died in
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: seventeen seventy eight. Two Crucifixion to the world by the
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: Cross of Christ Galatian six fourteen. When I survey the
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died. My
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: richest gain I count, but loss and poor contempt on
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: save in the death of Christ, my God, all the
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: vain things that charm me most, I sacrificed them to
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: His blood. See from his head, his hands, his feet,
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: sorrow and love flow mingled down? Did ere such love
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: and sorrow meet? Or thorns compose? So rich a crown?
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: Were the whole realm of nature? Mine? That were a
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: present far too small? Love so amazing, so divine demands
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: my soul, my life, my all. A great literary critic
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: Matthew Arnold thought this the finest hymn in the English language.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: It was written by doctor Isaac Watts, a prominent independent
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: clergyman of England born sixteen seventy four died seventeen forty eight.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: Doctor Watts set himself to improve the character of the
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: hymns used in dissenting churches. In seventeen o seven to
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: nine he published a book containing three hundred and sixty
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: five of his hymns, of which this is one, and
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: in seventeen nineteen another volume of free versions or imitations
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: of the psalms. They became very popular, and for a
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: long time no other hymns than those of doctor Watts
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: were sung in a great many churches in England and
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: this country. He is often called the father of English hymnis.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: This hymn is founded on the text ingalations referred to
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: in its title. The thought in both him and text
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: is that worldliness dies in my heart when I look
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: on the world's maker dead for me on the cross.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: There were five verses in the hymn as doctor Watts
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: published it, one of which is generally omitted. Three in temptation, Jesus,
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom, fly
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: while the nearer waters roll, while the tempest still is high.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: Hide me, o, my Savior, Hide till the storm of
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: life is past. Safe into the haven. Guide, Oh, receive
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: my soul at last, other refuge. Have I none hangs
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: my helpless soul on thee. Leave ah, leave me not alone.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: Still support and comfort me. All my trust on thee
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: is stay'd o my help from thee I bring cover
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: my defenseless head with the shadow of thy wing. Wilt
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: thou not regard my call, wilt thou not accept my prayer.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: Lo I sink I faint, I fall lo on THEE.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: I cast my care, reach me out thy gracious hand,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: while I of thy strength receive, hoping against hope, I
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: stand dying, and behold I live Thou, O Christ, art
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: all I want more than all in THEE. I find
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: raise the fallen, cheer the faint, heal the sick, and
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: lead the blind. Just and holy is thy name. I
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: am all unrighteousness, false and full of sin. I am
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: Thou Art, full of truth and grace, plenteous grace. With
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: THEE is found grace to cover all my sin. Let
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: the healing streams abound, make and keep me pure within
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: Thou of life the fountain art freely. Let me take
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: of THEE. Spring Thou up within my heart. Rise to
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: all eternity. Of all the hymns in the English language,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: this no doubt is loved the best. It was written
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: in seventeen forty by the Reverend Charles Wesley born seventeen
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: o seven died seventeen eighty eight. He was a clergyman
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: of the Church of England and took an active part
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: in the Methodist movement, in which his brother John was
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: the leader and out of which all the Methodist churches
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: have grown. The Wesleys put great faith in the power
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: of hymns to teach religious truths to the people and
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: to reach their hearts. Charles Wesley wrote more than six
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: thousand hymns. Some were printed in hymn books to be
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: sung at the Methodist meetings, and some in tracts to
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: be read and committed to memory at home. He was
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: among the greatest of all hymn writers, and many of
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: his hymns are sung in all branches of the church.
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: Note verse one, line three. Nearer waters. In a wide
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: expanse of waters, a distant part may be lashed into
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: fury by a passing storm, whilst around a given ship
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: there is perfect calm. Or the nearer waters may be
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: affected while the distant waters are sleeping in the silent air.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: In life, as in nature, storms are local, and men
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: cry for help not against distant dangers, but out of
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: their immediate troubles. Their life is amid the nearer waters
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: of temptations, and to them the lover of souls is indispensable. J.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: Julian end of Part one Hymns four, five and six
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: of the Best Church Hymns by Lewis F. Benson. This
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. For an evening hymn,
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: All praise to THEE my God this night for all
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: the blessings of the light. Keep me O, keep me
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: king of kings, beneath Thine own almighty wings. Forgive me Lord,
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: for thy dear son. The ill that I this day
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: have done, that with the world, myself and THEE. Ay
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: ere I sleep at peace, May be teach me to live,
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: that I may dread the grave as little as my bed,
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: to die, that this vile body may rise glorious at
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: the awful day. Oh, may my soul on THEE repose
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: and with sweet sleep mine eye's clothes, sleep that made
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: me more vigorous. Make to serve my God when I awake,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: when in the night I sleepless, Lie my soul with
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: heavenly thoughts. Supply, let no ill dreams disturb my rest,
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: no powers of darkness me molested. Oh when shall I
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: an endless day forever? Chase dark sleep away and the
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: hymns with the supernal choir, incessant sing, and never tire.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: This hymn, as also number seven, was written more than
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: two centuries ago by Thomas Ken. He was born in
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: sixteen thirty seven, was educated at Winchester College and Oxford,
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: and became a clergyman. We do not know just when
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: he wrote the hymns, but he printed them in a
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: little book of prayers he made for the scholars at Winchester.
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: Ken was a good man in a bad time. His
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: holy life shines like a good deal in a naughty world.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: He was made Bishop of Bath and Wells by King
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: Charles the Second, who respected him because he was brave.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: But his life was filled with troubles until he died
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: in seventeen eleven. His Morning and evening hymns still live
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: in millions of hearts. There are twelve verses in all
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: in this him five Lo, we have left all and
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: followed THEE Jesus I my cross have taken all to
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: leave and follow THEE. Destitute, despised, forsaken Thou from hence
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: my all shall be perish. Every fond ambition, all I've sought,
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: or hoped or known. Yet, how rich is my condition?
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: God and Heaven are still my own. Man may trouble
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: and distress me twill, but drive me to thy breast
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: life with trials hard may press me. Heaven will bring
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: me sweeter rest. O tis not in grief to harm me,
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: while thy love is left to me. O twere not
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: in joy to charm me? Were that joy unmix't with THEE?
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: Take my soul thy full salvation. Rise o'er sin and
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: fear and care, joy to find in every station something
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: still to do or bear? Think what spirit dwells within THEE.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: What a father's smile is thine? What a savior died
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: to win THEE child of heav'n? Shouldst thou repine haste?
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: Then on from grace to glory, Arm'd by faith and
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: winged by prayer. Heaven's eternal days before THEE, God's own
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: hand shall guide THEE. There soon shall close thy earthly mission.
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: Swift shall pass thy pilgrim days. Hope shall change to glad, fruition,
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: faith to sight, and prayer to praise. This hymn was
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: printed as early as eighteen twenty four in six verses,
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: but it was many years before even the name of
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: the author was known. He was the Reverend Henry Francis,
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: Light Curate of an English parish made up mostly of
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: fishermen and sailors, and himself a victim of consumption. But
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: now every one knows and honors his name, for he
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: wrote not only this beautiful hymn of consecration, but many others.
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: And best of all, abide with me fast falls the
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: even tide. See under number nine six evening Saint Luke
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: twenty four twenty nine, Son of my soul, Thou Savior, dear,
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: it is not knight if thou be near. Oh, may
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: no earth born cloud arise to hide THEE from thy
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: servant's eyes. When the soft dews of kindly sleep, My
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: wearied eye lids gently steep be my last thought, How
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: sweet to rest forever on my Saviour's breast. Abide with
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: me from morn till eve. For without THEE I cannot live.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: Abide with me when night is nigh. For without THEE
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: I dare not die. If some poor wandering child of
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: Thine have spurned to day the voice divine, now Lord,
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: the gracious work begin. Let him no more lie down
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: in sin, Watch by the sick, enrich the poor with
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: blessings from thy boundless Dore be every morner's sleep to night,
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: like infant's slumbers, pure and light come near and bless
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: us when we wake ere through the world our way
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: we take till in the ocean of Thy love we
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: lose ourselves in heaven above. In eighteen twenty seven, the
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: Reverend John Keeble, an English clergyman and a true poet,
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: published a book of his verses. He called it the
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: Christian Year because it had a poem for each Sunday
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: in the year, and for all other days and times
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: for which his church appointed services. Our beautiful and familiar
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: hymn is taken from the second poem in that book,
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: called Evening end of Part two Hymns seven, eight and
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: nine of the Best Church Hymns by Lewis F. Benson.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Seven a
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: morning hymn. Awake my soul and with the sun thy
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: daily stage of duty, run, shake off dull sloth and
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: joyful rise to pay thy morning, sacrifice thy precious time misspent.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: Redeem each present day, thy last esteem, improve thy talent
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: with due care for the great day thyself prepare by
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: influence of the light divine. Let thy own light to
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: others shine reflect all Heaven's propitious rays in ardent love
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: and cheerful praise, wake and lift up thyself my heart,
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: and with the angels bear thy part who all night long, unwearied, sing,
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: I praise to the eternal King. All praise to THEE
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: who safe hast kept and hast refresh'd me whilst I slept.
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: Grant O Lord, When I from death shall wake, I
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: may of endless light partake direct control. Suggest this day
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: all I design or do, or say, that all my power,
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: with all their might in thy sole glory, may unite.
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. Oh, praise him,
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: all creatures here below, Praise Him above, Ye heavenly Host.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: Praise Father's Son and Holy Ghost. This is the other
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: of Bishop Ken's immortal poems spoken of under number four.
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: There are fourteen verses in all, the last verse it
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: is the last verse of number four, also is used
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: separately as the long meter doxology, and is oftener sung
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: than any verse in the language. In Harper's Magazine for
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: December eighteen ninety seven, Richard Harding Davis gives an account
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: of its splendid effect as sung at the Queen's Jubilee
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: open air service before Saint Paul's Cathedral in London. In
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: June of that year, there were ten thousand people singing
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: praise God, from whom all blessings flow as loudly as
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: they could, and with tears running down their faces. There
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: were princesses standing up in their carriages, and black men
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: from the Gold Coast, Maharajahs from India, and red coated Tommies,
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: and young men who will inherit kingdoms and empires, and
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: archbishops and cynical old diplomats and soldiers and sailors from
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: the land of the Palm and the Pine, and from
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: the Seven Seas, and women and men who were just
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: subjects of the Queen and who were content with that.
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: There was probably never before such a moment in which
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: so many races of people, of so many castes and
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: of such different values to this world saying praises to
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: God at one time and in one place, and with
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: one heart eight him. For Christmas Day, Hark the herald
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: angels sing glory to the new born King, Peace on
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: earth and mercy, mild God and sinners reconciled, joyful, All
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: ye Nationians rise joined the triumph of the skies with
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: the angelic host proclaim Christ is born in Bethlehem. Hark
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: the Herald Angels sing glory to the new born King
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: Christ by highest Heaven, Adored Christ, the Everlasting Lord. Late
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: in time, behold him, come offspring of the Virgin's womb,
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: veiled in flesh, the godhead Sea. Hail the incarnate Deity,
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus Our Immanuel.
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: Hark the Herald Angel, sing glory to the new born King.
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: Hail the heaven born Prince of Peace. Hail the Son
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: of Righteousness, Light and life to all he brings, risen
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: with healing in his wings. Mild he lays his glory
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: by born, that man no more may die, born, to
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: raise the sons of earth, born, to give them second birth.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: Hark the Herald Angels sing glory to the new born King.
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: In seventeen thirty nine appeared the first of the hymn
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: books which the Wesleys prepared for the Methodists see under
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: number three. In this book was a Christmas hymn by
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: Charles Wesley, beginning Heart how all the Welkin rings. From
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: time to time changes were made in the hymn by
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: one editor and another, until in eighteen ten it took
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: the form here printed in which it is sung in
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: so many churches at Christmas time. Nine. Abide with us,
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: for it is toward evening and the day is far spent.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: Saint Luke twenty four twenty nine. Abide with me, fast
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: falls the eventide, the darkness deepens, Lord with me. Abide
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: when other helpers fail and comforts flee help of the helpless.
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: Or abide with me. Swift to its close ebbs out
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: life's little day, Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away,
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: change and decay in all around. I see, O thou,
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: who changest, not abide with me. I need thy presence
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: every passing hour. What but thy grace can foil the
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: tempter's power? Who, like thyself my guide and stake can
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: be through cloud and sunshine. O Abide with me. I
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: fear no foe, with thee at hand to bless hills,
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: have no weight and tears, no bitterness. Where is death's sting?
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: Where grave thy victory? I triumph still. If thou abide
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: with me, hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes,
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: Heaven's morning breaks and Earth's vain shadows. Flee in life
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: in death O Lord, abide with me. This hymn was
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: written by the Reverend Henry Francis Light see under number five,
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: a few weeks before his death, and had eight verses
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: in all. His daughter tells us that on September fourth,
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: eighteen forty seven, he preached for the last time in
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: the village church, having been ordered to a warmer climate
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: as his only chance of living through the winter, and
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: on the evening of that day he placed the hymn
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: in the hands of one of his family. It is
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: the prayer of one who feels the night of death
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: closing around him, and is not afraid while the Master
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: stays beside him. Mister Light died at Nis, Italy on
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: the twentieth of November, following end of part three Hemns ten,
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: eleven and twelve of the Best Church Hymns by Lewis F. Benson.
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Ten the
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: Heavenly Jerusalem Revelation twenty one and twenty two Jerusalem my
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: happy home name, Ever dear to me, When shall my
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: labors have an end in joy and peace and thee
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: When shall these eyes thy heaven built walls and pearly
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: gates behold thy bulwarks, with salvation strong, and streets of
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: shining gold. There happier bowers than Eden's bloom, nor sin
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: nor sorrow, no blessed seats. Through rude and stormy scenes,
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: I onward press to you, why should I shrink at
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: pain and woe, or feel at death dismay? I've Canaan's
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: goodly land in view, and realms of endless day apostles
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: martyr's prophets. There a round my savior stand, and soon
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: my friends in Christ below will join the glorious band Jerusalem,
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: my happy home. My soul still pants for thee. Then
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: shall my labors have an end? When I thy joy
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: shall see. In the British Museum in London, there is
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: a manuscript book as old as Queen Elizabeth's time, which
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: contains a copy of a hymn beginning like this one,
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: and it bears the title A song made by F. B. P.
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: To the tune of Diana. Some one took the words
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: and thoughts of a few verses out of the old
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: hymn and made them over into this hymn, which was
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: printed about seventeen ninety six in a little Hymn Book
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: for the use of Eckington Church in England. James Montgomery
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: the Poet edited the Little Hymn Book, and very likely
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: it was he who rewrote the hymn eleven the Name
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: of Jesus Solomon's song one three. How sweet the name
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear. It soothes his sorrows,
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: heals his wounds, and drives away his fear. It makes
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: the wounded spirit whole and calms the troubled breast. Tis
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: manner to the hungry soul and to the weary rest.
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: Dear name the rock on which I build my shield
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: and hiding place, my never failing treasury, filled with boundless
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: stores of grace. By THEE my prayer's acceptance gain although
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: with sin defiled Satan accuses me in vain, and I
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: am owned a child. Jesus my shepherd, brother, friend, my prophet,
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: priest and king, my Lord, my life, my way, my end.
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: Accept the praise I bring. Weak is the effort of
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: my heart, and cold my warmest thought. But when I
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: see THEE as thou art, Thou praise THEE as I ought,
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: Till then I would thy love proclaim with every fleeting breath,
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: And may the music of Thy name refresh my soul
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: in death. It is touching to think that this hymn
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: by the Reverend John Newton, so filled with love and
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: tender reverence, was written by one whose earlier life was
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: wild and profligate, who was a deserter from the English
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: Navy and then engaged in the slave trade. During a
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: terrible storm at sea, he turned his back upon that
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: old life and gave his heart to Christ. Returning to England,
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: he was ordained to the ministry in seventeen sixty four
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: at the age of thirty nine, and became curate of
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: the village of Olney. There he became intimate with the
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: poet Cooper, and they both wrote hymns to be sung
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: at weekly prayer meetings, which Newton held in an ena
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: empty house. In seventeen seventy nine, three hundred and forty
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: eight of these hymns were published in a book called
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: Only Hymns. Two hundred and eighty of them, including this one,
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: were by Newton, and sixty eight were by Cooper. Newton
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: lived to be eighty two years old. Twelve Nearer my
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: God to thee, Nearer, my God to thee Nearer to
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: thee e'n. Though it be a cross that raiseth me, Still,
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: all my song shall be nearer my God to THEE,
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: nearer to THEE. Though like the wanderer, the sun gone down,
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: darkness be over me, my rest a stone, Yet in
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: my dreams I'd be nearer my God to THEE, nearer
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: to THEE. There let the way appear, steps unto heaven.
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: All that thou sendest to me in mercy, given angels
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: to beckon me nearer my God to THEE, nearer to THEE. Then,
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: with my waking thoughts, bright with thy praise out of
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: my stony griefs Bethel oul raise so by my woes,
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: to be nearer my God to THEE, nearer to THEE.
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: Or if on joyful wing, cleaving the sky, sun, moon
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: and stars forgot upwards, I fly still, all my song
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: shall be nearer my God to THEE, nearer to THEE.
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: An English lady, missus Sarah Flower Adams, wrote this hymn
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: for a hymno published by her pastor in eighteen forty one.
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: She was a good woman who wore out her own
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: life in ministering to an afflicted sister. She was an Unitarian,
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: which explains why the hymn does not appeal to Christ,
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: whom we love to think of as the way to God.
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: To understand the second, third and fourth verses, it is
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: necessary to know the story of Jacob's dream as told
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: in Genesis twenty eight, end of Part four Hymns thirteen,
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: fourteen and fifteen of the Best Church Hymns by Lewis F. Benson.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Thirteen before,
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: a collection made for the Society for the Propagation of
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: the Gospel. From Greenland's icy Mountains, from India's coral strand,
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: where Afric's sunny fountains roll down their golden sand, From
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: many an ancient river, from many a palmy plain, they
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: call us to deliver their land from Error's chain. What
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: though the spicy breezes blow soft, or Ceylon's isle, though
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: every prospect pleases, and only man is vile, in vain,
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: with lavish kindness, the gifts of God were strown. The heathen,
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: in his blindness, bows down to wood and stone. Can we,
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: whose souls are lighted with wisdom from on high? Can we,
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: two men benighted the lamp of life deny salvation O
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: Salvation the joyful sound proclaim till each remotest nation has
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: learned Messiah's name. Waft waft ye winds his story, and
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: you ye waters roll till like a sea of glory,
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: it spreads from pole to pole, till o'er our ransomed nature,
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: the lamb for sinner's slain redeemer, King Creator in bliss
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: returns to reign. Reginald Heber born seventeen eighty three wrote this,
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: stirring him one Saturday in eighteen nineteen, for a missionary
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: service to be held next day at the church in Wrexham, England,
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: of which his father in law was pastor. When he
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: read it aloud, his father in law said, there that
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: will do very well, and it has done very well
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: ever since. Doctor Theodore Kayler once said that Heber did
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: more for the spread of the Gospel by writing this
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: hymn than if he had founded a board of missions.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: It is only one of many good hymns which Hebre wrote.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: He was afterwards Bishop of Calcutta, where he did noble
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: work for Christ until his death in eighteen twenty six.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: Fourteen Psalm ninety, verses one through five, first part Man
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: frail and God Eternal our God, our help in ages
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: past our hope for years to come, our shelter from
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: the stormy blast, and our eternal home under the shadow
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: of Thy throne. Thy saints have dwelt secure. Sufficient is
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: thine arm alone, and our defense is sure before the
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: hills in order stood, or Earth received her frame from
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: everlasting Thou art God, to endless years the same A
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: thousand ages in thy sight are like an evening gone short,
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: as the watch that ends the night before the rising sun.
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: The busy tribes of flesh and blood, with all their
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: lives and cares, are carried downwards by thy flood and
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: lost in following years time Like an ever rolling stream
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: bears all its suns away, they fly forgotten as a
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: dream dies at the opening day. Our God, our help
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: and ages past our hope for years to come, be
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: Thou our guard while troubles last, and our eternal home.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: This is a part of one of the free versions
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: or imitations of the psalms see under number two, which
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: doctor Watts published in seventeen nineteen. It is one of
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: the very best of all the hymns he wrote. To
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: understand the hymn, it is only necessary to read the
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: earliest verses of the ninetieth Psalm fifteen. Jerusalem, the Golden Jerusalem,
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: the golden with milk and honey, blessed. Beneath thy contemplation
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: sink heart and voice oppressed. I know not, Oh, I
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: know not, what joys await us there? What radiancy of glory,
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: what bliss beyond compare they stand those halls of Zion,
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: all jubilant with song, and bright with many an angel,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: and all the martyr throng. The Prince is ever in them,
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: The daylight is serene, The pastures of the blessed are
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: decked in glorious sheen. There is the throne of David,
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: and there from care released the song of them that triumph,
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: the shout of them that feast. And they who with
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: their leader have conquered in the fight forever and forever,
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: are clad in robes of white. O mine, my golden Zion,
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: O lovelier far than gold, with laurel girt battalions and safe,
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: victorious fold, O, sweet and blessed country. Shall I ever
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: see thy face, O, sweet and blessed country, Shall I
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: ever win thy grace? Exalt o dust and ashes? The
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: Lord shall be thy part, his only and forever thou
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: shalt be, and thou art exalt o dust and ashes.
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: The Lord shall be thy part his only, and forever
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: thou shalt be, and thou art. In the twelfth century, Bernard,
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: a monk in the French abbey of Clooney, wrote a
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: long Latin poem which contrasted the evils of the world
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: with the happiness and beauty of heaven. An English clergyman,
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: doctor John Mason Neil, in eighteen fifty one, published a
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: translation of four hundred lines of the poem, and from
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: this the verses are taken which make up our hymn.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: Doctor Neil lived to see the hymn become the most
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: popular of all hymns about heaven. But what pleased him
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: most was to be told that a little child, who
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: was a great sufferer, became so fond of the verses
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: that he would lie without a murmur or moroption while
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: the whole four hundred lines were read to him. End
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: of Part five Hymns sixteen seventeen and eighteen of the
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: Best Church Hymns by Lewis F. Benson. This LibriVox recording
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Sixteen Thy Kingdom Come, Lo,
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: He comes with clouds descending once for favored sinners, thousand
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: thousand saints attending swell the triumph of his train. Allelujah,
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: God appears on earth to reign. Every eye shall now
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: behold him robed in dreadful majesty. Those who said at
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: naught and sold him pierced and nailed him to the tree,
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: deeply wailing. Shall the true Messiah sea, every island, sea
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: and mountain, heaven and earth shall flee away. All who
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: hate him must confounded hear the trump proclaim the day
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: come to judgment, Come to judgment, Come away now, redemption
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: long expected, Sea, in solemn pomp appear. All his saints,
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: by man rejected now shall meet him in the air. Allelujah,
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: See the day of God appear. Answer Thine own bride
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: and spirit. Hasten Lord, the general doom the new heaven
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: and earth to inherit. But take thy pining exiles home,
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: All creation travails, groans and bids thee come yea amen,
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: Let all adore Thee high on Thine eternal throne. Savior,
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: take the power and glory, Claim the kingdom for thine own. Oh,
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: come quickly, Allelujah, Come Lord, Come. Parts of three separate
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: hymns are woven together in this. In seventeen sixty the
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: reverend mister Madden was making a hymn book for the
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: Church of England, and wished to him upon the second
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: coming of Christ. He took these first, second, and sixth
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: verses from one and the fifth verse from another hymn
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: of Charles Wesley see under number three, and the third
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: and fourth from a hymn by John Kennick see under
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: number twenty nine, and then made several changes in them
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: before his hymn suited him. It seems like a strange
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: way of making a hymn, but the hymn is among
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: the best we have on the subject. Seventeen Psalm seventy two,
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: second part, Christ's kingdom among the gentiles. Jesus shall reign
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: where'er the sun does. His successive journeys run. His kingdom
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: stretch from shore to shore, till moons shall wax and
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: wane no more for him shall endless prayer be made,
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: and praises strong to crown his head. His name like
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: sweet perfume, shall rise with every morning sacrifice. People and
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: realms of every tongue dwell on his love with sweetest
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: song and infant voices shall proclaim their early blessings on
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: his name. Blessings abound where'er he reigns. The prisoner leaps
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: to lose his chains, the weary find eternal rest, and
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: all the suns of want are blessed. Let every creature
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: rise and bring peculiar honors to our King. Angels descend
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: with songs again, and earth repeat the loud amen. This
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: is another of the imitations of the Psalms which doctor
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: Watts published in seventeen nineteen. See under number two. An
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: incident will best illustrate the meaning of the hymn. One
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: day in eighteen sixty two, King George of the South
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: Sea Islands was to give a new constitution to his people,
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: exchanging a heathen for a Christian form of government. Under
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: the spreading branches of the Banyan trees sat some five
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: thousand natives assembled for divine worship. Foremost among them all
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: sat King George himself. Around him were seated old chiefs
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: and warriors, but old and young alike rejoiced together in
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: the joys of that day. It would be impossible to
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: describe the deep feeling manifested when the solemn service began
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: by the entire assembly singing the hymn Jesus shall reis
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: where e'er the sun who so much as they could
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: realize the meaning of the poet's words, For they have
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: been rescued from the darkness of heathenism and cannibalism. And
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: they were that day met for the first time under
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: a Christian constitution, and with Christ himself reigning in the
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: hearts of most of them. That was indeed Christ's kingdom
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: set up in the earth. Eighteen Zion, or the City
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: of God Isaiah chapter thirty three, verses twenty to twenty one.
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: Glorious things of thee are spoken as Zion, city of
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: our God, He whose word cannot be broken, afformed thee
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: for his own abode on the rock of ages founded.
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: What can shake thy sure repose? With Salvation's walls surrounded,
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: thou mayst smile at all thy foes. See the streams
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: of living waters springing from a eternal love well supply
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: thy sons and daughters, and all fear of want remove
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: who can faint while such a river ever flows their
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: thirst to assuage grace, which, like the Lord the Giver,
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: never fails from age to age round each habitation hovering,
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: see the cloud and fire appear for a glory and
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: a covering, showing that the Lord is near. Thus deriving
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: from their banner light by night and shade by day.
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: Safe they feed upon the manna which He gives them
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: when they pray savior. If of Zion City, I, through
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: grace a member, am let the world deride or pity,
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: I will glory in Thy name. Fading is the Worldling's pleasure,
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: all his boasted pomp and show solid joys and lasting treasure.
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: None but Zion's children know. This is another of the
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: hymns which the Reverend John Newton published in Only Hymns
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: see under number eleven. The poet thinks of the Church
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: of Christ as a great city in which God has
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: his dwelling, and in which all Christians are fellow citizens.
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: And he thanks God for the privilege and honor of
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: being a member of his church. End of Part six
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: Hymns nineteen twenty and twenty one of the best Church
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: Hymns by Lewis F. Benson. This LibriVox recording is in
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Nineteen Christ's Message from Luke four verses
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: eighteen to nineteen hark the glad sound. The Savior comes,
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: the Savior promised long. Let every heart prepare a throne
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: and every voice a song on him. The spirit, largely poured,
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: exerts its sacred fire, wisome and might and zeal and love.
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: His holy breast inspire. He comes the prisoners to release
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: in Satan's bondage, held the gates of brass before him,
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: burst the iron fetters yield. He comes from the thick
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: films of vice to clear the mental ray, and on
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: the eyeballs of the blind to poor celestial day. He
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: comes the broken heart to bind the bleeding soul, to cure,
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: and with the treasures of his grace, to enrich the
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: humble poor. Our glad Hosannas Prince of Peace, Thy welcome
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: shall proclaim, and Heaven's eternal arches ring with thy beloved name.
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: The Reverend doctor Philip Doddridge born seventeen o two died
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: seventeen fifty one wrote this hymn, but it was never
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: printed till after his death. He was a great friend
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: of Doctor Watts and wrote very many hymns, of which
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: this perhaps is the best. It is a song of
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: welcome to greet the coming advent of Christ to be
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: our savior, just as if the poet had been present
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: in the Nazareth Synagogue when Jesus read the prophet's words
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: about himself, and the poet had taken those words from
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: his mouth and made them into a psalm. See Saint
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: Luke four eighteen nineteen twenty. Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God,
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: worshiped by all the creation Revelation five verses eleven, twelve
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: and thirteen. Come, let us join our cheerful songs with
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: angels round the throne. Ten thousand thousand are their tongues,
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: but all their joys are won worthy the Lamb that died.
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: They cry to be exalted. Thus worthy the lamb our
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: lips reply, for he was slain for us. Jesus is
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: worthy to receive honor and power, divine and blessings more
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: than we can give. Be Lord forever Thine. Let all
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: that dwell above the sky and earth and air and
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: seas conspire to lift Thy glories high and speak thine
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: endless praise. The whole creation join in one to bless
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: the sacred name of Him that sits upon the throne,
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: and to adore the Lamb. This is another of Doctor
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: Watts's hymns see under number two. He calls upon us
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: to join in the worship of the angels about God's
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: throne in heaven, of which Saint John tells us in
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: the verses from Revelation referred to in the title of
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: the hymn twenty one on the Resurrection. The Lord is King, All,
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: hail the power of Jesus name. Let angels prostrate fall,
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: bring forth the royal diadem, and crown him Lord of all.
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: Crown him, ye, morning, stars of light, who fixed this
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: floating ball. Now hail the strength of Israel's might, and
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: crown him Lord of all. Crown him, ye, martyrs of
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: your God, who from his altar call extol the stem
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: of Jesse's rod, and crown him Lord of all. Ye
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: seed of Israel's chosen race, Ye ransomed of the fall,
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: Hail him who saves you by his grace, and crown
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: him Lord of all sinners, whose love can ne'er forget
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: the wormwood and the gall Go spread your trophies at
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: his feet and crown him Lord of all. Let every kindred,
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: every tribe on this terrestrial ball to him, All majesty,
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: ascribe and crown him Lord of all O that with
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: yonder sacred throng we at his feet may fall, will
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: join the everlasting song and crown him Lord of all.
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: This is often called the Coronation Hymn. It appears in
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: the Gospel Magazine for April seventeen eighty and was written
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: by Edward Parnet. He was born in seventeen twenty six,
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: was brought a in the Church of England, and became
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: one of John Wesley's helpers theonder number three. Afterward he
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: was pastor of an independent church in Canterbury, where he
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: died in seventeen ninety two and was buried in the
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: cloisters of the famous cathedral. In life he was full
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: of fire and enthusiasm, and some of it burns. Yet
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: in his spirited hymn, the sixth verse as almost always
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: sung now, and as printed here was a good deal
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: changed from what Parnet wrote by an editor, doctor Rippin,
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: in seventeen eighty seven, and he added this seventh verse
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: to the hymn end of port seven hymns twenty two,
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: twenty three and twenty four of the best church hymns
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: by Lewis F. Benson. This LibriVox recording is in the
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: public Domain twenty two. The Reign of Christ on Earth
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: Psalm seventy two. Hail to the Lord's anointed Great David's
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: greater son, Hail in the time appointed his reign on
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: Earth begun. He comes to break oppression, to set the
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: captive free, to take away transgression and rule inequity. He
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: shall come down like showers upon the fruitful earth, and love, joy, hope,
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: like flowers spring in his path to birth. Before him
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: on the mountains shall peace the herald go, and righteousness
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: in fountains from hill to valley flow Kings shall fall
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: down before him, and gold and incense bring. All nation
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: shall adore him his praise. All people sing, for he
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: shall have dominion or river, sea, and shore, far as
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: the eagle's pinion or dove's light wing can soar. For
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: him shall prayer, unceasing and daily vows ascend his kingdom,
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: still increasing, a kingdom without ai. The mountain dew shall
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: nourish as seed in weakness sown, whose fruit shall spread
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: and flourish and shake like Lebanon for every foe victorious,
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: He on his throne shall rest from age to age
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: more glorious, all blessing and all blessed the tide of time,
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: shall never his covenant remove. His name shall stand forever.
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: That name to us is Love. James Montgomery, the author
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: of this hymn, was born in seventeen seventy one and
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: was for many years editor of a newspaper in Sheffield, England.
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: He was also quite celebrated as a poet. His poems
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: are not much read now, but some of his hymns
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: are among the best we have. This one was written
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: in eighteen twenty one, and Montgomery used sometimes to recite
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: it at the close of a speech at a public
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: missionary meeting. It was very appropriate at such a time because,
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: like the seventy second Psalm, of which which it is
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: an imitation, it draws a picture of the glad time
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: when Christ's kingdom shall cover all the earth. Twenty three
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: Psalm one hundred and four, Oh worship the King, O
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: glorious above, O gratefully sing his power and his love,
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: our shield and defender the ancient of days, pavilioned and
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: splendor and girded with praise. O tell of his might,
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: O sing of his grace, Whose robe is the light,
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: whose canopy space, his chariots of wrath, the deep thunder
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: cloud's form, and dark is his path on the wings
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: of the storm. The earth, with its store of wonders, untold, almighty,
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: Thy power hath founded of old, hath established it fast
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: by a changeless decree, And round it hath cast like
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: a mantle the sea, Thy bountiful care. What tongue can recite.
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: It breathes in the air, It shines in the light.
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: It streams from the hills. It descends to the plain
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: and sweetly distills in the dew and the rain. Frail
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: children of dust, and feeble as frail in thee, do
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: we trust nor find THEE to fail. Thy mercies, how tender,
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: how firm to the end, our maker, defender, redeemer and friend,
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: O measureless might, ineffable love, While angels delight to him.
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: Thee above the humbler creation, though feeble there lays with
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: true adoration, shall lisp to Thy praise. This hymn gives
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: us some of the thoughts about God's greatness and love
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: that are contained in the one hundred and fourth Psalm.
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: It was written by Sir Robert Grant, who in eighteen
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: thirty four was appointed English Governor of Bombay, India. And
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: died there in eighteen thirty eight twenty four him for
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: Easter Day. Christ, the Lord is risen to day. Sons
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: of men and angels, say, raise your joys and triumphs high,
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: sing ye, Heavens and Earth reply vain, the stone, the watch,
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: the seal. Christ has burst the gates of hell, death
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: in vain forbids his rise. Christ has opened, Paradise lives again,
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: our glorious King. Where O death is now thy sting
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: once he died, our souls to save, Where thy victory
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: O grave sore. We now where Christ has led, following
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: our exalted Head, made like him, Like him, we rise
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: ours the cross, the grave, the skies. Hail the Lord
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: of Earth and Heaven. Praise to Thee. By both be
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: given thee We greet triumphant. Now hail the resurrection Thou.
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: This is part of one of the hymns of Charles
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: Wesley and was printed in the same book as his
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: Christmas Hymn Number eight end Part eight Hemns twenty five,
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: twenty six and twenty seven of the Best Church Heymns
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: by Lewis F. Benson. This LibriVox recording is in the
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: public domain. Twenty five Praying for strength, Guide me, o,
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: Thou Great Jehovah, pilgrim, through this barren land. I am weak,
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: but Thou art mighty. Hold me with thy powerful hand.
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: Bread of Heaven, feed me till I want no more.
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: Open now the crystal fountain, whence the healing stream doth flow.
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: Let the fire and cloudy pillar lead me all my
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: journey through. Strong deliverer, Be thou still my strength and shield.
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: When I tread the verge of Jordan, Bid my anxious
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: fear subside death of deaths and Hell's destruction. Land me
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: safe on Canaan's side. Songs of praises I will ever
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: give to thee. This hymn was first written in the
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: Welsh language by the Reverend William Williams, a clergyman of Wales,
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: and was printed in his Book of Hymns in seventeen
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: forty five. About twenty seven years afterward, he printed this
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: English version of his hymn. The first verse of it
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: made by his brother, the other verses by himself. The
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: writer thinks of our life as a march across the
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: desert to the better land, like that journey of the
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: Israelites of which we read in exod Us, and he
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: thinks of God as leading us and feeding us now
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: as he did his people. Then twenty six him that
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: John six thirty seven, just as I am, without one plea,
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: but that Thy blood was shed for me, and that
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: thou bidst me. Come to THEE, O Lamb of God,
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: I come just as I am, and waiting not to
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: rid my soul of one dark blot, to THEE whose
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: blood can cleanse each spot, O Lamb of God, I
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: come just as I am, though tossed about with many
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: a conflict, many a doubt, fightings, and fears within without,
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: O Lamb of God, I come just as I am, poor, wretched,
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: blind sight riches healing of the mind. Yea all I
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: need in THEE to find, O Lamb of God, I
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: come just as I am. Thou wilt receive, wilt, welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve,
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: because thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God, I
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: come just as I am. Thy love unknown has broken
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: every barrier down now to be thine yea thine alone,
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: O Lamb of God, I come. The authoress of this hymn,
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: Miss Charlotte Elliot of Brighton, England, was born in seventeen
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: eighty nine and was an invalid nearly all her life
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: till her death in eighteen seventy one. This is one
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: of several hymns she wrote for a little book she
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: made in eighteen thirty six, intended to help and comfort
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: other sick people. She never dreamed that it would come
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: to be loved by everybody. Twenty seven Light shining out
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: of darkness. God moves in a mysterious way his wonders
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea and
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable minds of never
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: failing skill, he treasures up his bright designs and works
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: his sovereign will ye fearful saints, fresh courage, Take the
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: clouds ye so much dread, are big with mercy, and
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: shall break in blessings on your head. Judge not the
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: law or by feeble sense, but trust Him for his grace.
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. His
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower.
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: Blind unbelief is sure to err and scan his work
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: in vain. God is his own interpreter, and he will
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: make it plain. The famous poet William Cooper born seventeen
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: thirty one died eighteen hundred wrote this hymn straight from
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: the heart. It was first printed in seventeen seventy four
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: in a little book of Letters on religious subjects, which
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: Cooper's friend John Newton published while they were living together.
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: In Only See under number eleven. There are times in
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: the life of everyone when the ways of God's providence
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  Speaker 1: seem dark and hard to understand. But Cooper's lot was
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  Speaker 1: made particularly hard by brain trouble, which made him subject
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  Speaker 1: to fits of insanity. Under the shadow of one of
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  Speaker 1: these dreadful attacks, he wrote this hymn of trust in
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  Speaker 1: God's Providence end Part nine Hymns twenty eight, twenty nine
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  Speaker 1: and thirty of the Best Churchymns by Lewis F. Benson.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Twenty eight
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  Speaker 1: The Most Holy Name of Jesus, Jesus, the very thought
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  Speaker 1: of THEE with sweetness fills my breast, but sweeter far
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  Speaker 1: thy face to see, and in thy presence rest nor
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  Speaker 1: voice can sing, nor heart can frame, nor can the
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  Speaker 1: memory find a sweeter sound than Thy blessed name. O
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  Speaker 1: Savior of mankind, O hope of every contrite heart, O
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  Speaker 1: Joy of all the meek to those who fall, How
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  Speaker 1: kind thou art, how good to those who seek? But
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  Speaker 1: what to those who find? Ah, This nor tongue nor
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  Speaker 1: pen can show the love of Jesus what it is.
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  Speaker 1: None but his loved ones know Jesus our only joy.
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  Speaker 1: Be thou, as thou our prize wilt be Jesus. Be
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  Speaker 1: Thou art glory now and through eternity. Like number fifteen,
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  Speaker 1: this hymn is translated from the Latin, and the original
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  Speaker 1: of this, as of that, was written by a monk,
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  Speaker 1: and the name of the writer of each was the
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  Speaker 1: same Bernard, But the other Bernard was an obscure monk
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  Speaker 1: in the abbey of Pluney, while the writer of this,
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  Speaker 1: Bernard of Clervaux born ten ninety one died eleven fifty three,
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  Speaker 1: was head of the abbey of that name, an orator,
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  Speaker 1: scholar and statesman, and indeed one of the most prominent
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  Speaker 1: figures in the history of the Middle Ages. He had
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  Speaker 1: beautiful thoughts in his heart and expressed some of them
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  Speaker 1: in lovely hymns. These five verses are from a translation
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  Speaker 1: of his Hymn upon the Name of Jesus, made by
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  Speaker 1: the reverend Edward Caswell in eighteen forty nine. Caswell was
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  Speaker 1: then a clergyman in the Church of England, but in
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  Speaker 1: the next year joined the Roman Catholic Church. Twenty nine
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  Speaker 1: A hymn for the children of God in the days
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  Speaker 1: of their pilgrimage, Children of the Heavenly King, As ye
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  Speaker 1: journey sweetly sing, seeing your saviors worthy praise, glorious in
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: his works and ways. We are traveling home to God
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  Speaker 1: in the way the fathers trod. They are happy now,
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  Speaker 1: and we soon their happiness shall see. Shout ye little flock,
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  Speaker 1: and blest ye on. Jesus Throne shall rest there. Your
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  Speaker 1: seat is now prepared there your kingdom and reward. Lift
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  Speaker 1: your eyes, ye, sons of light. Zion City is in sight. There,
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  Speaker 1: our endless home shall be there, our Lord, We soon
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  Speaker 1: shall see. Fear not, brethren will stand on the borders
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  Speaker 1: of your land. Jesus Christ, your Father's son, bid you undismayed,
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  Speaker 1: go on, Lord, obediently, we go gladly, leaving all below
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  Speaker 1: only Thou, our leader, be, and we still will follow
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  Speaker 1: thee The author of this hymn was the Reverend John
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  Speaker 1: Chinnik born seventeen eighteen. He was at one time a
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  Speaker 1: helper of the Wesleys in the Methodist meetings see under
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  Speaker 1: number three, and afterward a clergyman in the Moravian Church.
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  Speaker 1: He published this in seventeen forty two with many other hymns,
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  Speaker 1: and died at the early age of thirty eight years.
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  Speaker 1: It is pleasant to think of him as safely home
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  Speaker 1: while we travelers sing his cheerful hymn thirty. A prospect
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  Speaker 1: of heaven makes death easy. There is a land of
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  Speaker 1: pure delight, where saints immortal reign, infinite day excludes the night,
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  Speaker 1: and pleasures vanish pain. There ever, life, dusting spring abides,
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  Speaker 1: and never withering flowers death like a narrow sea, Devise
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  Speaker 1: this heavenly land from ours. Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood,
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  Speaker 1: stand dressed in living green, so to the Jews. Old
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  Speaker 1: Canaan stood while Jordan rolled between. But timorous mortals start
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  Speaker 1: and shrink to cross this narrow sea, and linger shivering
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  Speaker 1: on the brink and fear to launch away. Oh, could
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  Speaker 1: we make our doubts, remove those gloomy doubts that rise
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  Speaker 1: and see the Canaan that we love with unbeclouded eyes.
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  Speaker 1: Could we but climb where Moses stood and view the
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  Speaker 1: landscape ore. Not Jordan's stream nor Death's cold flood should
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  Speaker 1: fright us from the shore. Another hymn by doctor Watts
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  Speaker 1: see under number two, one of the first he wrote,
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  Speaker 1: but published with the others in seventeen o seven. This
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  Speaker 1: hymn carries forward the thought of number twenty five. God
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  Speaker 1: has led now the children of Israel all the way
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  Speaker 1: to the river Jordan, which alone separates them from the
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  Speaker 1: promised land. And they should not be afraid that He
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  Speaker 1: will not take them safely across, nor fear to step
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  Speaker 1: into the waters. And the crossing of Jordan has been
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  Speaker 1: ever since an image of the Christian's death, and Canaan
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  Speaker 1: an image of heaven. We need not be afraid of
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  Speaker 1: death while we look toward Heaven. End Part ten. Himns
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  Speaker 1: thirty one and thirty two of the best Church hymns
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  Speaker 1: by Lewis F. Benson. This LibriVox recording is in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. Thirty one Missionary him Thou whose almighty word
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  Speaker 1: chaos and darkness heard and took their flight. Hear us
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  Speaker 1: We humbly pray and where the Gospel's day sheds not
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  Speaker 1: its glorious ray. Let there be light, Thou who didst
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  Speaker 1: come to bring on thy redeeming, winging, healing and sight,
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  Speaker 1: health to the sick and mind, sight to thee inly blind.
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  Speaker 1: Owe now to all mankind. Let there be light, Spirit
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  Speaker 1: of truth and love, life giving, holy dove. Speed forth
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  Speaker 1: thy flight move o'er the water's face, bearing the lamp
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  Speaker 1: of grace. And in Earth's darkest place, let there be light,
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  Speaker 1: holy and blessed. Three glorious Trinity, wisdom, love, might, boundless
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  Speaker 1: as ocean's tide, rolling in fullest pride through the world
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  Speaker 1: far and wide. Let there be light. This hymn was
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  Speaker 1: written about eighteen thirteen by the Reverend John Marriott, pastor
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  Speaker 1: of a country church in England. In Genesis one, two
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  Speaker 1: and three, we are told how the Spirit of God
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  Speaker 1: moved over the waters before the earth had taken shape,
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  Speaker 1: and how God's voice called through the dark, let there
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  Speaker 1: be light. And now the poet praise that God will
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  Speaker 1: send his Holy Spirit, with the light of Christ's Gospel
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  Speaker 1: to all places in the world that are dark with
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  Speaker 1: sin and shame. Thirty two Brief life is here our
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  Speaker 1: portion brief life is here our portion, brief sorrow, short
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  Speaker 1: lived care, the life that knows no ending, The tearless
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  Speaker 1: life is there, Oh, happy retribution, short toil, eternal rest
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  Speaker 1: for mortals and for sinners, a mansion with the blest
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  Speaker 1: And now we fight the battle, but then shall wear
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  Speaker 1: the crown a full and everlasting and passionless renown. And
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: now we watch and struggle, And now we live in hope.
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  Speaker 1: And Zion, in her anguish with Babylon, must cope. But
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  Speaker 1: he whom now we trust in, shall then be seen
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  Speaker 1: and known, and they that know and see him shall
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  Speaker 1: have him for their own. The morning shall awaken, and
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  Speaker 1: shadow shall decay, and each true hearted servant shall shine
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  Speaker 1: as doth the day. Yes, God, my King and portion,
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  Speaker 1: in fullness of His grace, we then shall see forever
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  Speaker 1: and worship face to face. This, the last, but certainly
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  Speaker 1: not the least beautiful of our thirty two hymns, was
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  Speaker 1: not written as a separate and complete hymn. It consists
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  Speaker 1: of verses taken from doctor Neil's translation of the poem
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  Speaker 1: of Bernard, from which Jerusalem the Golden also was taken,
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  Speaker 1: and which is described under that hymn number fifteen and
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  Speaker 1: part eleven. Here ends the Best Church Hymns by Lewis F.
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  Speaker 1: Benson