Handbook to the Mennonite HymnaryHostetler, Lester
Religion
Handbook to the Mennonite Hymnary
Hostetler, Lester
Hymns, English -- History and criticism; Mennonites -- Hymns -- History and criticism
A midnight hymn, depicting the darkness and sadness of Gethsemane. It is
often sung at communion services held on Thursday evening before Good
Friday.
William Bingham Tappan, a clock maker, was an influential leader in
Sunday school work in the Congregational Church in America. In early
manhood he taught school in Philadelphia, and then from 1826 until his
death he was in the employ of the American Sunday School Union as
manager and superintendent at Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Boston. He
wrote and published eight or ten volumes of poetry of no special
significance.
_MUSIC._ OLIVET’S BROW was composed for this hymn and was first
published in _The Shawm_, 1853, by Bradbury and Root.
William Batchelder Bradbury, 1816-68, was born in York, Maine. After
many struggles, due to poverty, he learned music from Lowell Mason and
G. J. Webb and began conducting singing classes. He did outstanding work
in New York City in teaching music to children. His Juvenile Music
Festivals at the Baptist Tabernacle became an important feature of New
York’s musical life and gave a powerful stimulus to the introduction of
music into the public schools. In 1847, he went abroad for further study
in music. Upon returning to America, he became associated with Geo. F.
Root, Thos. Hastings, and Lowell Mason in musical Normal Institute work.
The group collaborated in the production of a new type of church music,
known as gospel songs, which swept the country during the revivalistic
work of Moody and Sankey.
104. There is a green hill far away _Mrs. Cecil Frances Alexander_,
1823-95
A popular hymn on the atonement, written for children but appropriated
for general use with all ages. It was first published in the author’s
_Hymns for Little Children_, 1848, her most famous book which ran into
100 editions. The accuracy of the first line may well be questioned for
the Gospels do not state that Jesus was crucified on a hill, only that
it was a place called “the skull” (Lk. 23:33). In any case, the
sun-baked Judean hills are seldom green.
Cecil Frances Humphrey, daughter of Major John Humphrey, was a native of
Ireland. Her father was an Englishman who, as a landowner and government
agent, went to reside in Ireland. In 1850, she married the Rev. Wm.
Alexander who, after spending many years in obscure parish work, was
elected Archbishop of Armagh and later Primate of all Ireland. Mrs.
Alexander was preëminently a writer for little children, her verses
being characterized by simplicity and tenderness and poetic beauty; but
she also contributed some notable church songs, e.g., “Jesus calls us
o’er the tumult” (140).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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