Hymns in Human ExperienceHart, William J. (William John)
Religion
Hymns in Human Experience
Hart, William J. (William John)
Hymns -- History and criticism
“The Glory Song” attained a marvelous popularity soon after it was
published in 1900. In less than five years it was being sung in many
languages all over the world. Several interesting incidents are related
of its influence but one that Homer Rodeheaver wrote in _Zion’s Herald_,
Boston, is worthy of note:
“I have heard it in a number of instances sung by over ten thousand
people, but the most impressive rendering I ever heard given to it was
by a certain audience of over one thousand men. These men were all
dressed in steel gray suits, and sat with folded arms; the man who
played the organ and the man who held the baton and led the song were
dressed in exactly the same way. Down the right side, across the rear
and up the left side of the chapel room, on high stools, sat a row of
men in blue uniforms, holding heavy canes across their knees, these men
seemed never for an instant to take their eyes from certain spots in
front of them. Not a man whispered during the service—for it was a
state’s prison. Among the congregation of 1077 men, 256 were there for
life—there to live and die—and on each of their cell doors, where they
would read it every time they left and re-entered, was that startling
word ‘Life.’
“How strangely their voices impressed me—these men without a country,
without a home, without a name, deprived of every privilege accorded to
all men by the Almighty, and known only by a number. As I sat before
them, the prison pallor of their faces against its background of gray
within that frame of blue, made a picture never to be forgotten. With
few exceptions, every man sang. Here sat one with downcast eyes, there
another with mute lips, while yonder near the center a large, strong
fellow was weeping like a little child—but silently. They told me he had
been there but a short time, and I wondered if he had heard the song
before, under different circumstances—and where, for he had a kindly
face. Softly they sang that last stanza:
‘Friends will be there I have loved long ago;
Joys like a river around me will flow;
Yet, just a smile from my Saviour, I know,
Will through the ages be glory for me.’
The song ended, the chaplain said a brief prayer, and that great crowd
of men, at signals from the guards in blue, marched out squad by squad,
keeping step to the music of the organ played by the man in gray.”
Their deepest feelings are portrayed in
The Hymn of the Prisoner
Describing a chapel service in Auburn (New York) prison, a newspaper
correspondent wrote:
“One of the hymns the men sang was ‘Pardon the Debt and Make Me Free.’
They sang that over and over again, and it seemed to express the
feelings of every convict.”
The extraordinary circumstances in which a hymn was used are described
in this incident when
A Condemned Man Wanted “Face to Face” Sung
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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