The Singing Church: The Hymns It Wrote and SangLorenz, Edmund S. (Edmund Simon)
Religion
The Singing Church: The Hymns It Wrote and Sang
Lorenz, Edmund S. (Edmund Simon)
Hymns -- History and criticism
Among later American hymn writers is Mary Artemisia Lathbury
(1841-1913), who wrote “Break Thou the bread of life” (not a communion
hymn, by the way) and “Day is dying in the West,” with William F.
Sherwin’s tunes, which are to be found in all our hymnals and which
are very tender, very useful.
The American Episcopal Church has supplied some admirable hymns
through Bishop Arthur Cleveland Coxe (1818-1896), who wrote “Oh, where
are kings and empires now,” the almost apocalyptic “We are living, we
are dwelling,” and the missionary “Saviour, sprinkle many nations,”
all hymns of high worth; and Bishop Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), whose
“O little town of Bethlehem” is a favorite Christmas carol.
Mrs. Frances Crosby Van Alstyne (1820-1915), familiarly known as
“Fanny Crosby,” would be the premier hymn writer of America if the
criteria were quantity and wideness of use. There can be no question
as to the evangelistic and devotional value of her hymns, whatever
their literary quality or permanent appeal may be. “Safe in the arms
of Jesus,” “Rescue the perishing,” “Blessed Assurance,” “Pass me not,
O gentle Saviour,” “Saviour, more than life to me,” “I am thine, O
Lord, I have heard thy voice,” “Jesus, keep me near the cross,” and
many others will probably be permanent in hymnals and song collections
of a popular and evangelistic type.
Valuable hymns of the same practical gospel song type have been
written by Mrs. Lydia Baxter, Philip Paul Bliss, Annie Sherwood Hawks,
Mrs. Ellen Huntington Gates, Rev. E. A. Hoffman, Miss E. E. Hewitt,
Mrs. C. H. Morris, President J. E. Rankin, D.D., and many others.
Mrs. Elizabeth Prentiss (1818-1878), daughter of the saintly and
greatly beloved Rev. Edward Payson, wrote _Stepping Heavenward_, a
book that stimulated and cheered multiplied thousands and lifted their
spiritual ideals. Of her 123 _Religious Poems_, one has won a
permanent place in our hymnals, “More love to Thee, O Christ.” It is
not a substitute for Mrs. Adams’ “Nearer, my God, to Thee,” but a
complement.
Other writers of single hymns that the Church has used with great
effect are Dr. Washington Gladden’s (1836-1918) “O Master, let me walk
with Thee,” a hymn of Christian service; Dr. Sylvanus Dryden Phelps’
“Saviour, Thy dying love;” Dr. Edward Hopper’s “Jesus, Saviour, pilot
me;” Dr. Joseph Henry Gilmore’s (1834-1918) “He leadeth me, O blessed
thought;” Ernest W. Shurtleff’s (1862-1917) “Lead on, O King eternal;”
Frank Mason North’s (1850-1935) “Where cross the crowded ways of
life”; the second, third, and fourth of the songs just mentioned have
a Gospel song origin.
More recent writers are Rev. Frederick L. Hosmer and Rev. William C.
Gannett in whose _The Thought of God_ are found hymns of deep piety
and strong religious feeling. Room is made for two stanzas of Dr.
Hosmer’s “Found,”
“O Name, all other names above,
What art thou not to me,
Now I have learned to trust thy love
And cast my care on thee?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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