Lester Hostetler

“ The Psalm was used as a processional hymn to be chanted by the people as they went up to the temple for worship.
Sclater, in The Public Worship of God, discussing opening hymns of adoration, says: “There is none better than that grand old Puritan anthem, the 100th Psalm, set to Louis Bourgeois’ noble tune,” and adds that “those who are in perplexity to find hymns which precisely fit into various parts of the service might do a great deal worse than take a look at the Scottish Metrical Psalms. They will find them peculiarly rich in the noblest and simplest form of opening adoration.” ”

“ John Keble was educated at Oxford where he was an outstandingly 14 brilliant student. Later he taught at Oxford for nine years and then spent thirteen years as curate in his father’s church in Gloucestershire. Following that he became vicar of Hursley where he rebuilt the parish church with profits from his book, The Christian Year, which passed through 90 editions during the author’s lifetime. Keble was one of the influential leaders in the so-called Oxford or Tractarian Movement in England, an effort to emphasize worthier ideas of the church and a greater dignity and beauty in worship. ”

“ Others, like Savonarola’s hymn, come from the Middle Ages. Many are chorales from the land of Luther, or metrical psalms from the Calvinistic reformers. A substantial body of our hymnody stems from the Anglican Church, while some of our best hymns are from sturdy independents like Watts and Doddridge, and still others breathe the evangelistic fervor of Wesley, Cowper, and Newton. The Quakers too have made their contribution as well as certain Roman Catholics and Unitarians. In no aspect of our church life do we attain so nearly to ecumenicity as in our worship in song. ”

“ When the Offering is for a cause—missions or a hospital or the Bible Society—a stanza from a hymn which fits the purpose may be selected for use as the dedication and be printed on the order of worship in the calendar. A minister may use a prayer in the act of dedication, but it is difficult to find variety in its expression, and the prayer should usually be comprised in a short sentence. Congregations are helped to realize that in this act they are the offerers if they join the choir in singing the dedication. ”

“ MUSIC. KREMSER is named after Edward Kremser, 1838-1914, a Viennese musician who arranged the tune from a Netherlands melody dating to 1625. The composer is not known. It is a stirring piece of music, simple in style, and easy to sing. It is equally impressive, whether sung in measured, stately tones like a chorale, or in the gayer festive mood in which young people like to sing. Children and young people usually respond to this hymn with enthusiasm. ”

“ I had no thought of sending it beyond the limits of my own circle, but, passing it on to one and another, it became a word of power, and I then published it as a leaflet. Of its future history I can only say the Lord took it quite out of my own hands. It was read from pulpits, circulated by tens of thousands, and blessed in a remarkable degree. Every now and then some sweet token was sent to cheer me in a somewhat isolated life, of its influence upon souls. ”

“ J. S. Bach, 1685-1750, who arranged the tune, is by far the greatest musician the Protestant Church has produced. Most of his life was spent in Leipzig where he labored from 1723 until his death in 1750, as cantor of the Thomas School and director of music at the Thomas and Nicolai churches. His genius as a master of the organ and composer of chorales and passion music has never been equaled. Though he lived in an age when opera flourished in Europe, he paid no attention to it, devoting all his talent to church music. ”

“ The well-known fact that Fanny Crosby was blind all her life adds pathos to the power of her songs. The hymn reveals the spiritual riches in her life notwithstanding the cross of affliction laid on her through the loss of her eyesight. Frances Ridley Havergal (See Hymn 126) , the gifted English poet and hymn writer, paid her tribute to Fanny Crosby in the following lines:
How can she sing in the dark like this?
What is her fountain of light and bliss?
With never the light of a loving face
Must not the world be a desolate place? ”

“ Mennonites have made many contributions to society through their religious life and practices, but we have produced no important hymnody of our own. Throughout the four hundred years of our existence as a church, we have been a singing people, in times of persecution as well as in times of peace. Great emphasis has always been laid upon the importance of congregational singing in our worship services. Since the beginning of the 19th century the Mennonites of various branches, in America alone, have published over fifty hymnbooks. ”

“ He wrote church music, song, opera, and oratorio, over 100 symphonies and 83 string quartets. His Creation, a sacred oratorio, is widely known. He was devoutly religious and did not hesitate to ascribe his musical scores to God’s glory. He gave as one of his reasons for writing music: “that the weary and worn or the man burdened with affairs might enjoy something of solace and refreshment.” There is a cheerfulness and optimism about his music which appeals to amateur and professional alike. Haydn was a teacher as well as composer and numbered among his pupils Mozart and Beethoven. ”

“ The unity of the Christian Church is expressed nowhere more eloquently than in the hymns we sing. Every modern hymnal, regardless of the denominational interest xxxiii it represents, reaches across the ages to gather its treasures from sources new and old; it knows nothing of the external barriers which divide Christians into denominations, but makes use of the hymns of widely divergent Christian groups. The Mennonite Hymnary is no exception. Here are found hymns from the early church, East and West, translated from the Greek and Latin fathers. ”

“ George W. Matheson, son of a wealthy merchant in Glasgow, was an able and greatly honored minister in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. He was educated at Glasgow University and licensed to preach when 24 years old. During his University course, and all the rest of his life, he had to depend on the eyesight of others, which makes his accomplishments all the more remarkable. He was a brilliant student and became a distinguished preacher and pastor. ”

“ While the German people, under the leadership of Luther, were singing chorales set to original religious poems, a large section of Protestantism, under the influence of John Calvin, confined itself to the singing of xix Psalms. To the French reformer, now preaching at Geneva, hymns were “man-made,” whereas the psalms were the inspired word of God and the only proper vehicle for the praise of God. Calvin, unlike Luther, was not a musician, and at first permitted only unison singing, unaccompanied. ”

“ The great composers, besides Bach, whose names are found in church hymnals are: Haydn, Beethoven, Handel, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Gounod, and Sibelius.
The above is only a partial list of composers of good church music. Among their works is a corpus of fine hymn tunes far greater than has been utilized by the church so far. For years to come, compilers of hymn books will have a vast reservoir of excellent tunes, old yet new, to draw from. ”

“ The world order in which war is inherent, the church exists to transform. When it supports the method of war, an end-product of the unredeemed world order, the church is not only proclaiming its own failure, but is hauling down its own flag and hoisting instead the flag of the world. ”

“ MUSIC. SERENITY is taken from a larger work entitled, Waft ye winds. Though the tune is named “Serenity,” the composer’s life was anything but serene; he was the world’s most restless and most picturesque composer. William Vincent Wallace, 1812-65, son of an Irish bandmaster, became a brilliant violinist. He loved adventure and travel and made successful concert tours to Australia, the South Sea Islands, India, South America, Mexico, the United States, and elsewhere. Wallace spent 14 years in Germany composing piano music chiefly, but also writing a number of operas. ”

“ The people are afflicted. Their enemies are pressing them hard. That solitary sentinel sadly remains at his post, peering into the unlit gloom, trying to discern signs of deliverance. But the heavens are starless, and the impenetrable clouds keep rolling on. ”

“ It is a fine enough hymn, but no poet can render this great paean of praise of love into verse to equal in poetic beauty the English of the King James Version.
Christopher Wordsworth was a nephew of the poet William Wordsworth. He was a brilliant student and a good athlete. After graduation from Cambridge, he became Head Master of Harrow for a time, then minister of a church where he proved to be a model parish priest, and later was appointed Bishop of Lincoln. Among his writings are a Commentary on the Bible, and a book of devotional poetry, The Holy Year, prepared for use in public worship. ”

“ James Montgomery, 1771-1854
A classic poem on prayer, written in 1818 at the request of the Rev. E. Bickersteth for his Treatise on Prayer. In 1825 it was published in The Christian Psalmist, headed, “What is Prayer?” The original has eight stanzas of which our hymn is a selection of 1, 2, 4, 5. Prayer is more, to be sure, than “the soul’s sincere desire,” for we sincerely desire many things that are in conflict with God’s will. But taken as a whole, the poem is an elaborate description of the nature of prayer and teaches its principles and practice with truth and power. ”

“ John 4:14; (3) “I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” John 8:12. In the hymn, these three sayings, blended into a perfect unity, have sounded down the ages by the “Voice from Galilee.”
The hymn, as C. S. Robinson reminds us, employs the personal pronoun to emphasize the intimate relationship between Christ and the individual. “Christ says, ‘Come to me,’ and the Christian says, ‘I come.’ Christ says, ‘I give the living water’; and the listener answers, ‘My thirst was quenched’; Christ says, ‘I am the light’ ”

“ George C. Stebbins, 1846-1945, was born and reared on a farm in New York. He became interested in music through the country singing school. After serving as music director at the First Baptist Church, Chicago, and Tremont Temple, Boston, he became associated with D. L. Moody and helped organize choruses for many of Moody’s evangelistic campaigns both here and abroad. He was co-editor with Ira Sankey and James McGranahan of various editions of Gospel Hymns and was himself one of the best composers of gospel hymn tunes. He lived to be nearly 100 years old. ”

“ It is a fallacy to assert that the people will respond to nothing better. Gospel Songs have a legitimate place, particularly in special services and revivals, but they leave much to be desired in the total work and worship of the church. Neither the music nor the words possess the strength and dignity entirely adequate for the worshipful praise of the Eternal. ”

“ Ein kluges Frauenzimmer gilt mir mehr als eine gelehrte Zeitung, und der niedrigste Mann von gesundem Verstande ist mir würdig genug, seine Aufmerksamkeit zu suchen, sein Vergnügen zu befördern und ihm in einem leicht zu behaltenden Ausdrucke gute Wahrheiten zu sagen und edle Empfindungen in seiner Seele rege zu machen. ”

“ The words from beginning to end are an expression of the beauty in nature and the resulting joy and spirit of praise it brings to the worshipper. The hymn was written in 1907 while the author was on a preaching visit to Williams College; it was designated to be sung to the “Hymn to Joy” in the last movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The words fit the music perfectly. It is one of the most joyful hymns in the English language.
Henry van Dyke was born in Germantown, Pa.; received his education in Princeton University and Theological Seminary ”

“ The second verse came to the author’s mind as a result of seeing the Passion Play at Oberammergau, where he was greatly moved by the scene where the dying thief turned to Jesus and said, “Remember me when Thou contest into Thy Kingdom.” “As Anton Lang, playing the part of Christ, said, ‘Today, shalt thou be with me in paradise,’” the author writes, “Immortality suddenly became as real to me as the sunlight at that moment driving the clouds from the mountains, and I knew that nothing, nothing could ever shake my faith in that vision.”
The hymn was written for the tune “Beacon Hill.” ”

“ Thomas Carlyle expressed the same thought in his old age when he said: “The older I grow, and now I stand upon the brink of eternity, the more comes back to me the sentence in the catechism which I learned when a child, and the fuller and deeper its meaning becomes: ‘What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’”
For comments on Charles Wesley see Hymn 6.
MUSIC. BOYLSTON was composed by Lowell Mason and named after one of the towns in his native state. It appeared in The Choir, 1832, set to “Our days are as the grass.” ”

“ All the earth is filled with love
When there’s love at home,
for it recognizes the wide influence of the home, the primary social institution where the first lessons of the Christian life are learned. A nation’s peace and prosperity is rooted in the quality of life found in its homes.
The words and music are by John Hugh McNaughton, who was born 1829, in Caledonia, N. Y., of Scottish parentage. His lyrics have some literary qualities and Henry W. Longfellow once wrote to McNaughton: “Your poems have touched me very much.” ”