Desert Island Hymns

You may have noticed that some versions of the hymns in our series of Desert Island Hymns are different from those that appear in our current Hymnbooks. I have attempted, where possible to quote the version nearest to that penned by the author. Many hymns have passed through a number of iterations, often to hone a more theological alignment with a particular denominations belief system.

Today’s hymn, Dear Lord and Father of Mankind, is my Desert Island Hymn choice, with it’s first verse often on my lips.

It is not unique for one of our hymns to be taken from a longer poem. But the 17 verse poem that gave us this hymn by John Greenleaf Whittier a Quaker Poet, is somewhat unusual. In the 1872 April edition of the Atlantic Monthly, his poem “The Brewing of Soma” first appeared. Whittier discovered that Soma was used as a sacred ritual drink in some ancient Indian religions, and used its alleged effects as a metaphor for evoking the sensual in some expressions of Christianity. He was thinking of music, incense, vigils and trances – all very far removed from the stillness and selflessness associated with the Quakerism he himself practised. Here are just two other verses for his poem.

“Drink, mortals, what the gods have sent,

Forget you long annoy.”

So sang the priests, From tent to tent

The Soma’s sacred madness went,

A storm of drunken joy.

But then, lest his readers begin to look down their noses at such folly, Whittier makes an application to the religious extremists of his day. His words have relevance still, for those who would try to manipulate and stir up emotion in the name of worshiping God!

And yet the past comes round again,

And new doth old fulfil;

In sensual transports wild as vain

We brew in many a Christian fane

The heathen Soma still!

The poem ends with six verses that were that were adapted by Garrett Horder in his 1884 Congregational Hymns. In the United Kingdom, the hymn is usually sung to the tune "Repton" by Hubert Parry.

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,

Forgive our foolish ways!

Reclothe us in our rightful mind,

In purer lives Thy service find,

In deeper reverence, praise.

In simple trust like theirs who heard

Beside the Syrian sea

The gracious calling of the Lord,

Let us, like them, without a word

Rise up and follow Thee.

O Sabbath rest by Galilee!

O calm of hills above,

Where Jesus knelt to share with Thee

The silence of eternity

Interpreted by love!

With that deep hush subduing all

Our words and works that drown

The tender whisper of Thy call,

As noiseless let Thy blessing fall

As fell Thy manna down.

Drop Thy still dews of quietness,

Till all our strivings cease;

Take from our souls the strain and stress,

And let our ordered lives confess

The beauty of Thy peace.

Breathe through the heats of our desire

Thy coolness and Thy balm;

Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;

Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,

O still, small voice of calm.

I wonder whether Greenleaf had 1 John 4:1-3 in mind when writing his poem. “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognise the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.”

Sunday Worship Link

Online Worship from St Nicholas Methodist Church, Topsham 13/06/21

https://youtu.be/YKw5Z0gclTo

Desert Island Hymns

David Batty’s choice of hymn comes from the pen of Richard Gillard and is the contemporary hymn “Brother, Sister, let me serve you.” Charles Pavey - Organist & Choirmaster of Holy Trinity Church, Malvern commentary on this hymn says;

Brother, sister, let me serve you is an expression of the Christian call to community and friendship, marked by selfless service; walking alongside and bearing one another's joys, sorrows and fears.  The first verse to be written – on a scrap of paper – was the third verse, back in 1976.  The composer, Richard Gillard, recounted how he returned to that scrap of paper (which he had left in his guitar case) that winter and the remaining verses came quickly, although not in the same order we sing them today.  He has had little musical training but, from the age of seven began to play the ukulele and other similar instruments, often to accompany his own singing and learning by experiment.  It usually needed an expert to set out his songs and the arrangement published in Holy Trinity’s hymnal, Common Praise, is by Betty Pulkingham.  

The eldest of six children, Richard emigrated to New Zealand with his family when he was three years old.  Living on the northern island, his faith background is a mixture of the Anglican Church on his mother’s side of the family and the Pentecostal Church on his father’s.  Regarding the hymn he says it "was first published in 1978 on a record album by Scripture in Song called "Father Make Us One".  He says he prefers “the down-to-earth groundness of a guitar accompaniment and a simple folk-song treatment.  But I let go of it long ago and have very little to say any more.  And that’s as it should be.”

Although not explicit in The Servant Song, there is a biblical focus which comes from Matthew 20:26b-28: “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Brother, sister let me serve you, 

let me be as Christ to you; 

pray that I may have the grace to 

let you be my servant too. 

We are pilgrims on a journey 

and companions on the road; 

we are here to help each other 

walk the mile and bear the load. 

I will hold the Christ-light for you 

in the night-time of your fear; 

I will hold my hand out to you, 

speak the peace you long to hear. 

I will weep when you are weeping; 

when you laugh I'll laugh with you; 

I will share your joy and sorrow

till we've seen this journey through. 

When we sing to God in heaven 

we shall find such harmony, 

born of all we've known together 

of Christ's love and agony. 

Brother, sister let me serve you, 

let me be as Christ to you; 

pray that I may have the grace to 

let you be my servant too.

Reproduced here under CCLI Licence 814800

Desert Island Hymns

Today’s hymn choice for our Desert Island Hymn series comes from Carolyn Keep and comes from the pen of Frederick W. Fabre. 

Raised in the Church of England, Frederick W. Faber (b. Calverly, Yorkshire, England, 1814; d. Kensington, London, England, 1863) came from a Huguenot and strict Calvinistic family background. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and ordained in the Church of England in 1839. Influenced by the teaching of John Henry Newman, Faber followed Newman into the Roman Catholic Church in 1845 and served under Newman's supervision in the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. Because he believed that Roman Catholics should sing hymns like those written by John Newton, Charles Wesley, and William Cowper, Faber wrote 150 hymns himself.7

Calvinism was distinctive among 16th-century reform movements because of particular ideas about God's plan for the salvation of humanity, about the meaning and celebration of the sacraments, and about the danger posed by idolatry.

There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy” celebrates the wideness of God’s mercy––”like the wideness of the sea.”  It celebrates God’s welcome for the sinner and the “good” person alike.  It reminds us that “the love of God is broader than the measure of our mind”––and therefore encourages us to broaden the measure of our own love so that it might be more like God’s love.  And, finally, it calls us to “rest upon God’s word” so that “our lives (may be) illumined by the presence of our Lord.”

1 There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,

like the wideness of the sea.

There’s a kindness in God’s justice,

which is more than liberty.

2 There is welcome for the sinner,

and more graces for the good.

There is mercy with the Saviour,

there is healing in his blood.

3 But we make God’s love too narrow

by false limits of our own,

and we magnify its strictness

with a zeal God will not own.

4 For the love of God is broader

than the measures of the mind,

and the heart of the Eternal

is most wonderfully kind.

5 If our love were but more simple,

we should rest upon God’s word,

and our lives would be illumined

by the presence of our Lord.

Desert Island Hymns

Today’s Desert Island hymn choice comes from Rev’d Dr David Keep and is found in the MHB of 1954 281 “Go not my soul in search of him”. Interestingly, this hymn comes from a Unitarian Minister, Frederick Lucian Hosmer, born in Framingham, Massachusetts, on October 16, 1840, the son of Charles and Susan Hosmer. He graduated from Harvard College in 1862 and from the Harvard Divinity School in 1869. Unitarianism  is a Christian theological movement that believes that the God in Christianity is one entity, as opposed to a Trinity. Most other branches of Christianity define God as one being in three persons: the Father, Son, and Holy SpiritUnitarian Christians, therefore, believe that  Jesus was inspired by God  in his moral teachings, and he is a saviour, but he was not a deity or God incarnate.

In his earlier years he was known as a beloved pastor and an acceptable preacher, his most successful pastorate being that in Cleveland, where he built up a strong and influential church.

On October 26, 1869, he was ordained minister of the First Congregational Church (Unitarian) of Northborough, Massachusetts, where he remained for three years followed by pastorates at a number of Unitarian Churches right through to the early 1900s.  

It was not until he approached middle life that he began to write hymns and many of these were to mark special occasions, the most notable instance being his great hymn “O prophet souls of all the years,” written for the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893, to capture the vision and spirit of that watershed meeting.

It has been said of Frederick Hosmer that he "...was a man of highest ethical standards and keen religious insight. He was never married, but he was a beloved friend and a delightful companion who could entertain with witty impromptu verse as well as illuminate conversation with profound thought. Esteemed as he was as a parish minister, his hymns were the great and lasting contribution which he made to the religious life of his time."

Go not, my soul, in search of Him,

Thou wilt not find him there,

Or in the depths of shadow dim,

Or heights of upper air.

For not in far off realms of space

The Spirit hath his throne;

In every heart he findeth place

And waiteth to be known.

Thought answereth alone to thought,

And soul with soul hath kin:

The outward God he findeth not

Who finds not God within.

And if the vision come to thee

Revealed by inward sign,

Earth will be full of Deity,

And with his glory shine.

Thou shalt not want for company

Nor pitch thy tent alone;

The indwelling God will go with thee,

And show thee of his own.

O gift of gifts! O grace of grace!

That God should condescend

To make thy heart his dwelling place

And be thy daily Friend!

Desert Island Hymns

Be still my soul - inspired by the Psalm 46 and the miracle of Jesus stilling the storm is Kathy Niklaus choice, no doubt echoing her Lutheran roots. 

The formation of this hymn has the marks of three countries of Germany, Scotland, and Finland – and well over 100 years.

Little is known about the author Katharina Amalia Dorothea von Schlegel who was born in 1697. As her name suggests, she may have come from an aristocratic family. Other than that she was connected with a small court at Köthen, north of Halle, in Germany. Some historians suggest that she may have become a Lutheran nun.

The hymn appears at the time of German pietism, similar in spirit to the Wesleyan revival in England of the same era. Philipp Jacob Spener (1635-1705) led the German pietistic movement. Though not a hymn writer himself, he inspired a revival in German hymnody characterised by faithfulness to Scripture, personal experience, and deep emotional expression. Katharina von Schlegel is thought to be the leading female hymn writer of this period.

The hymn comes to us via a translation by Jane L. Borthwick (1813-1897), a member of the Free Church of Scotland. Borthwick was second only to Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878) in bringing the riches of German hymn heritage to the English language. Her translation included five of the original six stanzas, appearing in Hymns from the Land of Luther, second series (1855).

Be still my soul the Lord is on thy side

Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain

Leave to thy God to order and provide

In every change He faithful will remain

Be still my soul thy best, thy heavenly friend

Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end

Be still my soul when dearest friends depart

And all is darkened in the vale of tears

Then shalt thou better know His love His heart

Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears

Be still my soul the waves and winds shall know

His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below

Be still my soul the hour is hastening on

When we shall be forever with the Lord

When disappointment grief and fear are gone

Sorrow forgot love's purest joys restored

Be still my soul when change and tears are past

All safe and blessed we shall meet at last

Desert Island Hymns

Zsuzsi Gaylor has chosen the hymn “I the Lord of Sea and Sky”; although contemporary in style this hymn was first published on 1979. 

Songs like this were part of the response of the Roman Catholic Church to the changes brought about in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council. Prominent were the St Louis Jesuits, to whom Daniel Schutte (b.1947) belonged. Schutte grew up in Elm Grove, Wisconsin and graduated from Marquette University High School before entering the Society of Jesus. He was one of the founding members of the St. Louis Jesuits who popularised a contemporary style of church music set to sacred texts sung in English as a result of the liturgical reforms initiated by the Second Vatican Council. In addition to his Jesuit formation, Schutte holds two master of arts degrees, one in theology and one in liturgy from The Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley.

It has been noted that the three verses each reflect one person of the Trinity. The refrain combines Isaiah 6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” and the account of the call of Samuel in 1 Samuel 3. In The Singing Thing too, John L Bell of the Iona Community points out that the verses present a challenge and a question while the refrain is the response. It therefore makes more sense if soloists (possibly 3) sang the verses and the whole people the refrain.

I, The Lord Of Sea And Sky,

I Have Heard My People Cry.

All Who Dwell In Dark And Sin,

My Hand Will Save.

I Who Made The Stars Of Night,

I Will Make Their Darkness Bright.

Who Will Bear My Light To Them?

Whom Shall I Send?

Here I Am Lord, Is It I, Lord?

I Have Heard You Calling In The Night.

I Will Go Lord, If You Lead Me.

I Will Hold Your People In My Heart.

I, The Lord Of Snow And Rain,

I Have Borne My People’s Pain.

I Have Wept For Love Of Them, They Turn Away.

I Will Break Their Hearts Of Stone,

Give Them Hearts For Love Alone.

I Will Speak My Word To Them

Whom Shall I Send?

I, The Lord Of Wind And Flame

I Will Tend The Poor And Lame.

I Will Set A Feast For Them,

My Hand Will Save

Finest Bread I Will Provide,

Till Their Hearts Be Satisfied.

I Will Give My Life To Them,

Whom Shall I Send?