Handbook to the Mennonite HymnaryHostetler, Lester
Religion
Handbook to the Mennonite Hymnary
Hostetler, Lester
Hymns, English -- History and criticism; Mennonites -- Hymns -- History and criticism
392. “Are ye able,” said the Master _Earl Marlatt_, 1892—
Written for a consecration service at Boston University School of
Religious Education, in 1926, where the author was Professor of
Religious Education.
It is based on Jesus’ question of James and John, and their answer: “Are
ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of and to be baptized
with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto Him, Lord, we
are able” (Matt. 20:22).
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.” The combination of
words and tune was adopted as one of the school songs of Boston
University School of Theology, whose students have carried it all over
the world. It was incorporated into the _Methodist Hymnal_ of 1935, from
whence it came into the _Hymnary_.
Earl Bowman Marlatt, son of a Methodist minister, was born at Columbus,
Indiana. He graduated from De Pauw University and then studied at Boston
University, Harvard, Oxford, and the University of Berlin, becoming
Professor of Philosophy at Boston University in 1923 and later Professor
of Religious Education in that institution.
_MUSIC._ BEACON HILL received its name from Beacon Hill, Boston, where
Marlatt resided when he wrote the words for this tune. The composer,
Harry Silvernale Mason, born in 1881, was a student at Boston University
when he wrote the tune. He is now serving as instructor in Fine Arts in
Religion at Auburn Theological Seminary, Auburn, N. Y.
393. Just as I am, Thine own to be _Marianne Hearn_, 1834-1909
A young people’s consecration hymn, contributed to _The Voice of
Praise_, 1887, published by the Sunday School Union of London. Verses 5
and 6, omitted here, read as follows:
With many dreams of fame and gold,
Success and joy to make me bold,
But dearer still my faith to hold,
For my whole life I come.
And for Thy sake to win renown,
And then to take the victor’s crown,
And at Thy feet to cast it down,
O Master, Lord, I come.
It was written by an Englishwoman, Marianne Hearn (_nom de plume_,
Marianne Farningham), who, in early life, was a teacher in the primary
schools, and later became a successful writer of articles for various
periodicals, including _The Christian Herald_, published by James Clarke
and Co. For a time she edited the London _Sunday School Times_. Miss
Hearn published a half dozen or more volumes of poetry and an
autobiography, _A Working Woman’s Life_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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