Handbook to the Mennonite HymnaryHostetler, Lester
Religion
Handbook to the Mennonite Hymnary
Hostetler, Lester
Hymns, English -- History and criticism; Mennonites -- Hymns -- History and criticism
James Edmeston, a member of the Church of England, was an eminent London
architect and surveyor who had a great love for and interest in children
and possessed a gift for writing sacred poetry. He had the habit of
writing a hymn every Sunday and reading it at family worship.
During the Boxer uprising in China in 1900, in which many Americans lost
their lives, a group of missionaries, beleaguered outside of Shanghai,
found in this hymn the expression of their feelings, as well as a great
source of comfort. One of them wrote:
Separated from home and friends, facing death in a far-off land, and
full of tenderest feelings, we lifted our hearts in song:
“Though destruction walk around us,
Though the arrows past us fly:
Angel guards from Thee surround us;
We are safe if Thou art nigh.”
Out of the storm each soul, renewing its strength, mounted up with
wings as eagles and found peace in the secret of His presence. Our
Saviour breathed, in very deed, “an evening blessing,” the fragrance
of which remains even unto this day. The last verse of the hymn,
“Should swift death this night o’ertake us,” was omitted. It seemed
too probable that it might. We wanted only to think of the
safe-keeping, and such, thank God, it proved to be.
_MUSIC._ The tune EVENING PRAYER was written by Stebbins while music
director at Tremont Temple, Boston, as a response to be sung after the
morning prayer. Two years later it was set to this evening hymn by the
composer himself, for use in an evangelistic campaign in Providence, R.
I. Stebbins writes, “I arranged to have a male choir of 20 voices sing
the music as set to the beautiful hymn, and to my gratification found
they were admirably suited to each other. Since then the hymn has been
used in many gospel hymn books and church hymnals, both here and abroad.
It has been used also in St. Paul’s Cathedral, in London.”
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.
The hymn is also set to the tune “Ringe Recht” (147) in some hymnals.
39. Unheard the dews around me fall _Anonymous_
This hymn, emphasizing the silences of God as manifested in the world
without and within, is of anonymous authorship. It is found in _Hymns of
the Spirit_ but most of the other modern hymnals have overlooked it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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