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Hymn History: What A Friend We Have In Jesus

What a Friend We Have In Jesus

The Pender UMC Traditional Service Middle Hymn “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” on Sunday October 23, 2022 was played by Liz Eunji Moon on piano, accompanied on guitar by Brian Stevenson and sung the Pender Sanctuary Choir and congregation.

Pender’s pianist, Liz Eunji Sellers played this hymn in the style of ragtime during the Postlude to the Traditional service on January 23, 2022.

How does a personal poem written to a mother from a despondent son, recently immigrated from England to a relatively remote section of Canada in the mid-nineteenth century, become one of the most widely sung hymns in the world?

Joseph Medlicott Scriven (1819–1886) was born in Seapatrick, Ireland (now Northern Ireland,) and died in Ontario, Canada. After attending classes at Trinity College, Dublin, he pursued a military career, where he trained for service in India; but had to abandon that ambition because of his poor health. He returned to Trinity and graduated in 1842.

SCRIVEN’S LIFE

Scriven’s life was full of tragedy. Following the accidental drowning of his Irish fiancée the evening before their wedding, he moved to Woodstock, Canada West (now Ontario) in 1844, where he led a Plymouth Brethren fellowship and taught. Scriven organized a private school in 1850 in Brantford and preached in the area. Some scholars believe that Scriven may have composed his initial draft of “What a Friend” written during this time.

Moving near Clinton in Huron County in 1855, he read the Bible to railway construction workers who were building the Grand Trunk Railway across the Canada West. By 1857, he relocated to Bewdley, supporting himself as a private tutor to the family of Robert Lamport Pengelly, a retired naval officer. Tragedy struck again when his second fiancée, Eliza Catherine Roach, Pengelly’s niece, died in 1860 of an illness shortly before their wedding. Scriven then returned to ministry among the Plymouth Brethren in Bewdley, near Rice Lake (McKellar and Leask, Canterbury Dictionary, n.d.). Hymnologist Albert Bailey noted that Scriven, a selfless person by nature, was known as “the man who saws wood for poor widows and sick people who are unable to pay” (Bailey, 1950, p. 495).

The Dictionary of Canadian Biography describes what we know about the circumstances surrounding Scriven’s death in October 1886:

His last days were clouded with ill-health and despondency. James Sackville, his friend and fellow-believer, found Scriven ill and brought him to his house. One hot night in 1866, Scriven left his bed without disturbing anyone, probably to drink at a nearby spring: some hours later, presumably having fainted or fallen, he was found dead in the spillway of Sackville’s grist-mill, a few feet from the spring. He was buried in the Pengelly burial-ground in an unmarked grave between Eliza Roach and Commander Pengelly (Macpherson, “Scriven,” n.d.).

A few days before Scriven’s death, Sackville found the dejected Scriven “prostrate in mind and body and heard him say, ‘I wish the Lord would take me home’” (Cleland, 1895, p. 17). It was never determined if his death was accidental or a suicide. A monument was later erected over his gravesite by friends and neighbors. Joseph Medlicott Scriven’s historical marker was placed in Otanabee-South Monaghan, Ontario, Canada, marking his homestead and burial place.

ORIGINS OF ‘WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS’

Scriven published a collection of his poetic works, Hymns and Other Verses, which included seventy-one hymns “intended to be sung in assemblies of the children of God on the first day of the week and on other occasions when two or three are met together in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” These were followed by thirty-four scriptural paraphrases “not to be sung in the assembly, but to express truth, as well as convey comfort, instruction or reproof to our hearts, in order that we may walk together in obedience” (Scriven, 1869, Preface). “What a Friend,” the hymn for which he is known, does not appear in the collection, however. Why not?

Some writers have noted that the hymn was written for his mother, who was suffering from illness. Musical evangelist Ira D. Sankey (1840–1908) spread this account (cited in Bailey, 1950, pp. 495–496). This assertion is hard to verify, however. A statement from Scriven’s biography (1895) by James Cleland includes the author’s mother in the dissemination of the hymn but does not clarify other details:

When residing at the house of his friend Mr. Sackville, near Rice Lake, he composed this hymn; making two copies, one of which he sent to his mother, in Dublin, and gave the other to Mrs. Sackville, which the old lady, now over eighty years of age values highly. Probably it was through his mother that the hymn was given to the public (Cleland, 1895, p. 13).

If indeed “What a Friend” were composed as a personal poem, it may explain why it did not appear in the collection the author published in 1869. The personal first-person plural perspective contrasts with other hymns by the author. As one author noted, “almost all of his others are more firmly constructed, without emotional softness, and developed from biblical texts” (Macpherson, “Scriven,” n.d.). Carl Daw Jr. has also noted the differences between “What a Friend” and the author’s published works in Hymns and other verses, supporting the hypothesis that the poem was intended for his ailing mother rather than public use (Daw, 2016, p. 470).

Some commentaries state that the text was first published in J.B. Packard’s Spiritual Minstrel: A Collection of Hymns and Music (1857), but this is erroneous, according to hymnologist Chris Fenner (See Fenner, 2020, n.p.). The hymn appeared as we know it anonymously in three stanzas of eight lines each in Social Hymns, Original and Selected (1865), compiled by Horace Lorenzo Hastings. New England composer and church musician Charles Converse (1832–1918) then included the text in his Silver Wings (1870) with his tune under his pen name Karl Reden, a Germanization of his name (“reden” meaning “to speak” or “converse”). He states that he obtained the text from the privately produced hymnal, “Genevan Presbyterian Church (of Brooklyn) Collection.” No copy of this hymnal appears to be extant. Converse’s tune paired with the text gained prominence with Ira Sankey and spread in his revivals with Dwight L. Moody (1837–1899). Published in Sankey’s Gospel Hymns and Sacred Songs (1875), later known as Gospel Hymns No. 1., Sankey mistakenly attributed the hymn to Scottish hymnwriter Horatius Bonar (1808–1889), an assertion disputed by Bonar.

The text has remained unusually stable with few editorial alterations over the years. Edward Samuel Caswell (1861–1938) published an early manuscript version signed by Scriven that was titled “Pray without Ceasing” (from 1 Thessalonians 5:17) in 1919. It appeared in four quatrains, the first three of which are familiar. The fourth reads as follows:

Are we cold and unbelieving,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Here the Lord is still our refuge:
Take it to the Lord in prayer. (See the manuscript at Fenner, 2020, n.p.)

Of the hymn, Caswell stated that it was “beyond question the best-known piece of Canadian literature” (Macpherson, “Scriven,” n.d.).

Stanza 1 establishes that Jesus is a friend that can bear our sins and burdens. This theme appears in the eighteenth century with Charles Wesley’s “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” (1740) and John Newton’s “How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds” (1779). Nineteenth-century hymnwriters are especially known for expressing their personal friendship with Jesus. For example, see Louisa M.R. Stead’s “‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus” (1882), Elisha A. Hoffman’s “I Must Tell Jesus All of My Trials” (1894), and Fanny Crosby’s “Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine” (1873). The author uses the first-person plural perspective—perhaps indicating that he and his mother (“we”) have a bond in prayer and need not suffer sin and grief alone.

The second stanza asks two rhetorical questions—rhetorical because, indeed, all humans suffer “trials and temptations” and witness “trouble.” The answer becomes a short refrain: “Take it to the Lord in prayer.” A third rhetorical question asks, “Can we find a friend so faithful . . .?” The intimate friendship with the one who “knows our every weakness” is the source of solace. The refrain returns: “Take it to the Lord in prayer.”

The third stanza reframes the premise of the song with different questions, while the theme remains the same:

Are we weak and heavy laden,
cumbered with a load of care?
Do your friends despise, forsake you?

The answer to both questions is, “Take it to the Lord in prayer.” The closing image of Jesus enfolding his friend in his arms is also a common trope in many hymns from this era. The two most known are Fanny Crosby’s “Safe in the Arms of Jesus” (1868) and Elisha Hoffman’s “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” (1887).

Hymnologist Fred Gealy found an additional stanza published in Hastings’ Songs of Pilgrimage: A Hymnal for the Churches of Christ (Boston, 1886; Second Ed. 1888) with the following fourth stanza:

Blessed Jesus, thou hast promised
Thou wilt all our burdens bear,
May we ever, Lord, be bringing
All to thee in earnest prayer.
Soon in glory, bright, unclouded,
There will be no need for prayer;
Rapture, praise, and endless worship
Shall be our sweet portion there.

Since this seems to be the only hymnal to include this stanza, it may have been added by the editor who felt that an eschatological focus was more theologically suitable for a closing stanza.

Albert Bailey notes correctly that Scriven’s poetry is of relatively low quality with monotonous rhymes (Scriven uses five words to rhyme with “prayer”—some multiple times) and trite language. But even Bailey admits, “Our criticism is made harmless by the tremendous service the hymn has rendered. Any unlettered person can understand it; the humblest saint can take its admonitions to heart, practice prayer, find his load more bearable and [her] spiritual life deepened” (Bailey, 1950, p. 496).

Paul Westermeyer offers a critique from a Lutheran perspective, noting:

It has been a source of comfort for many who have sung it, though paradoxically it has also been a part of a Protestantism that denies its own heritage by turning prayer into work to control God’s grace. The repeated line “Take it to the Lord in prayer” relates to . . . comfort, and forfeiting peace or suffering pain “All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer” suggests our capacity to save ourselves by the work of our prayer (Westermeyer, 2010, p. 606).

Carl Daw offers a different analysis: “As a hymn of assurance, it has served as an effective reminder of the centrality of prayer in a well-rounded spirituality. Unfortunately, singing it has often been a substitute for the comprehensive prayer life it advocates, and its advice has been cherished, but not followed” (Daw, 2016, p. 471).

While other tunes appear with this text, CONVERSE by Charles Converse is the most popular. Carlton Young suggests that CONVERSE is reminiscent of Stephen Foster tunes of the era and provides a perfect musical vehicle for this prayerful text. He notes that this tune follows the same general melodic contour as Foster’s “Jeanie with the light brown hair” (Young, 1993, pp. 687–688). Converse, a Massachusetts native, was an associate of William Bradbury (1816–1868) and Ira Sankey in revivals and the Sunday school movement.

The range of recording artists who have sung this song is staggering from long-established white performers Pat Boone (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcHbzSi7fho&feature=emb_title), Rosemary Clooney, Loretta Lynn, Barbara Mandrell, Willie Nelson, and Dolly Parton to African American gospel artists Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, and Ike and Tina Turner (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay1lUmnaZfA&feature=emb_title). More recently, Contemporary Christian artist Paul Baloche has recorded the song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pJb0nUiZWc&feature=emb_title), indicating that it continues to have a witness to younger generations. Baloche’s improvisatory coda bridges the nineteenth century with the twenty-first. The hymn’s inclusion in the film Driving Miss Daisy (1969) as sung by Little Friendship Missionary Baptist Church Choir (Decatur, Georgia) confirms its iconic status in the genre.

The simple language becomes a virtue in translation, and the folk-like melody easily transcends cultures around the world. The musical treatment of CONVERSE varies in each cultural setting, but the message remains the same. There are few hymns that I have heard more regularly around the world. Scriven’s biographer, James Cleland, noted in 1895, “In the steerage of the steamer, a traveler returning from Europe, heard a mixed company, who spoke different languages, united in singing this hymn” (Cleland, 1895, pp. 5–6). One hundred years later, this author verifies hearing this song sung in various languages and renditions, including a humble congregation for people with leprosy near Ogbomosho, Nigeria; a Filipino Anglican congregation in Manila; a thriving Baptist congregation in Matanzas, Cuba; and an African American Methodist congregation in Atlanta. A modest poem, written in Canada as a private meditation for the author’s mother in Ireland, has found its way into many hearts worldwide and, undoubtedly, has been a source of comfort for millions of Christians for more than one hundred fifty years.

SOURCES

Albert E. Bailey, The Gospel in Hymns (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1950).

James Cleland, What a Friend We Have in Jesus and Other Poems by Joseph Scriven with a Sketch of the Author (Port Hope: W. Williamson, Publishers, 1895): https://pendernews.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/65ddb-scriven-whatafriend-1895.pdf (accessed December 27, 2020).

Carl P. Daw, Jr., Glory to God: A Companion (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2016).

Chris Fenner, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” Hymnology Archive (February 2020), https://www.hymnologyarchive.com/what-a-friend-we-have-in-jesus (accessed December 26, 2020).

Margaret Leask, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus, ”The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press, http://www.hymnology.co.uk/w/what-a-friend-we-have-in-jesus (accessed December 26, 2020).

Hugh D. McKellar and Margaret Leask, “Joseph Medlicott Scriven,” The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press, http://www.hymnology.co.uk/j/joseph-medlicott-scriven (accessed December 26, 2020).

Jay Macpherson, “Scriven, Joseph Medlicott,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography (Vol XI (1881–1890), http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/scriven_joseph_medlicott_11E.html (accessed December 26, 2020).

Joseph Medlicott Scriven, Hymns and Other Verses (Peterborough: James Stephens, 1869): https://archive.org/details/cihm_24372/page/n5/mode/2up (accessed December 26, 2020).

Paul Westermeyer, Hymnal Companion: Evangelical Lutheran Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 2010).

Carlton R. Young, Companion to The United Methodist Hymnal (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993).

Adapted from https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/articles/history-of-hymns-what-a-friend-we-have-in-jesus

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Posted by MaryO on January 11, 2024 in Hymn History, Ministries, Music, Music Ministry, Pender UMC, Posts of Interest, Videos

Tags: Charles Crozat Converse, faith, history, hymn, Joseph M. Scriven, liz eunji moon, pianist, piano, Preacher, video, wedding, What A Friend We Have In Jesus

Hymn History: How Great Thou Art

28 Oct

A favorite hymn is How Great Thou Art

“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable.” Psalm 145:3

“How Great Thou Art” was the opening hymn at Pender’s 9:00 am Traditional Service on October 1, 2023 It was sung by Pender’s Sanctuary choir, congregation and accompanied on piano by Heidi Jacobs.

“How Great Thou Art” is a Christian hymn based on a Swedish poem written by Carl Gustav Boberg (1859–1940) in Sweden in 1885. The melody is a Swedish folk song. Its popularity is due in large part to its wide use by gospel singers, notably George Beverly Shea of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Team.

The original Swedish text was a poem entitled “O Store Gud.” written by a Swedish pastor, the Reverend Carl Boberg, in 1886. In addition to being one of the leading evangelical preachers of his day. Boberg was also the successful editor of the periodical Sanningsvittnet. His inspiration for this text is said to have come from a visit to a beautiful country estate on the southeast coast of Sweden. He was suddenly caught in a midday thunderstorm with awe-inspiring moments of flashing violence, followed by a clear brilliant sun. Soon afterwards he heard the calm, sweet songs of the birds in nearby trees. The experience prompted the pastor to fall to his knees in humble adoration of his mighty God, He penned his exaltation in a nine-stanza poem beginning with the Swedish words “O Store Gud, nar jag den varld beskader.”

Several years later Boberg was attending a meeting in the Province of Varmland and was surprised to hear the congregation sing his poem to the tune of an old Swedish melody. It is typically characteristic of many other hymn tunes, i.e., “Day by Day” with its lilting, warm, singable simplicity.

With his original English lyrics and his arrangement of the Swedish folk melody, Mr. Stuart K. Hine published what we know today as the hymn “How Great Thou Art.” Assignments of copyrights and publication rights to an American publishing firm in 1954 helped spread the popularity of this hymn. In April of 1974 the Christian Herald magazine, in a poll presented to its readers, named “How Great Thou Art” the No. 1 hymn in America.

How Great Thou Art

Verse 1:
O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Chorus:
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

Verse 2:
When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.

Chorus

Verse 3:
And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.

Chorus

Verse 4:
When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim: “My God, how great Thou art!”

Chorus

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Posted by MaryO on October 28, 2023 in Hymn History, hymns, Ministries, Music, Music Ministry, Pender UMC, Posts of Interest, Videos

Tags: Billy Graham, Carl Gustav Boberg, George Beverly Shea, Heidi Jacobs, history, How Great Thou Art, hymn, O Store Gud, Pender Congregation, pianist, Psalm 145:3, Sanctuary Choir, video

Pender Music: Davidsbündlertänze No. 2 and No. 1

21 Sep

On Sunday, August 13, 2023 Charlie Taylor played Davidsbündlertänze No. 2 and No. 1 by Schumann during the Offertory.

Davidsbündlertänze (Dances of the League of David), Op. 6, is a group of eighteen pieces for piano composed in 1837 by Robert Schumann, who named them after his music society Davidsbündler.

The theme of the Davidsbündlertänze is based on a mazurka by Clara Wieck. The intimate character pieces are his most personal work. In 1838, Schumann told Clara that the Dances contained “many wedding thoughts” and that “the story is an entire Polterabend (German wedding eve party, during which old crockery is smashed to bring good luck)”.

The pieces are not true dances, but characteristic pieces, musical dialogues about contemporary music between Schumann’s characters Florestan and Eusebius. These respectively represent the impetuous and the lyrical, poetic sides of Schumann’s nature.

This classical piano piece was played during Pender UMC’s Traditional Service.

Charlie is 13 years old and was a student at our Pender Hill Preschool ten years ago.

God is Good!

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Posted by MaryO on September 21, 2023 in Ministries, Music, Music Ministry, Pender Hill School, Pender UMC, Special Music, Videos

Tags: Charlie Taylor, Clara Wieck, Dances of the League of David, Davidsbündlertänze, mazurka, offertory, Pender Hill Preschool, pianist, piano, Polterabend, Robert Schumann

Hymn History: His Eye Is On The Sparrow

18 Sep

“His Eye Is On The Sparrow” was the postlude at Pender’s 9:00 am Traditional Service on September 3, 2023. It was played on piano by Heidi Jacobs.

His Eye Is on the Sparrow
Civilla Martin
The Faith We Sing, page No. 2146

“Why should I feel discouraged?
Why should the shadows come?
Why should my heart be lonely
and long for heaven and home?
When Jesus is my portion?
My constant friend is he;
His eye is on the sparrow,
and I know he watches me.”

Civilla Durfee Martin (1866-1948) was born in Nova Scotia and died in Atlanta, Ga. In “His eye is on the sparrow” (1905), she has provided one of the most influential and often-recorded gospel hymns of the 20th century.

Notable versions include recordings by Shirley Ceasar, Marvin Gaye, Kirk Franklin & the Family, Mahalia Jackson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Dottie West and Barbara Mandrell.

Jessica Simpson included this song in her album Irresistible (2001). The most stirring renditions of this song are associated for many with actress-singer Ethel Waters, who loved this it so much that it became the title of her autobiography (1950).

Martin was the daughter of James N. and Irene Harding Holden, and was a schoolteacher with modest musical training. Together with her husband, Walter (1862-1935), they often wrote gospel songs for revival meetings. “Be not dismayed” (UM Hymnal, No. 130) is an example of their collaboration.

Walter Stillman Martin was a Baptist minister who received his education at Harvard. He later became a member of the Disciples of Christ, teaching at Atlantic Christian College (now Barton College) in Wilson, N.C., before moving to Atlanta in 1919, a location that became the base for revivals that he held throughout the U.S.

The song was obviously inspired by Matthew 6:26: “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

Later in Matthew (10:29-31), the Gospel writer continues on this theme: “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.” Similar thoughts are cited in Luke 12:6-7. Stanza two quotes part of John 14:1 directly, “Let not your heart be troubled…”

Civilla Martin describes the context out of which the hymn was born: “Early in the spring of 1905, my husband and I were sojourning in Elmira, New York. We contracted a deep friendship for a couple by the name of Mr. and Mrs. Doolittle—true saints of God. Mrs. Doolittle had been bedridden for nigh twenty years. Her husband was an incurable cripple who had to propel himself to and from his business in a wheelchair. Despite their afflictions, they lived happy Christian lives, bringing inspiration and comfort to all who knew them. One day while we were visiting with the Doolittles, my husband commented on their bright hopefulness and asked them for the secret of it. Mrs. Doolittle’s response was simple: ‘His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.’ The beauty of this simple expression of boundless faith gripped the hearts and fired the imagination of Dr. Martin and me. The hymn ‘His Eye Is on the Sparrow’ was the outcome of that experience.”

The next day she mailed the poem to Charles Gabriel, a famous composer of gospel songs, who wrote a tune for it.

The themes of solace in spite of sorrow, and a profound sense of being under the watch-care of Jesus, who is a “constant friend,” offered the African-American community comfort during the Civil Rights movement. The refrain seals the theme by offering an apology for singing—“I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free”—words that would speak to everyone, but especially African Americans.

There is no doubt that African American gospel artist Kirk Franklin was influenced by Martin’s song when he composed “Why we sing” (The Faith We Sing, No. 2144).

Adapted from https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-his-eye-is-on-the-sparrow

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Posted by MaryO on September 18, 2023 in Hymn History, hymns, Ministries, Music, Music Ministry, Pender UMC, Videos

Tags: autobiography, Barbara Mandrell, Civilla Martin, Dottie West, Ethel Waters, Gospel, Heidi Jacobs, His Eye Is On The Sparrow, John 14:1, Kirk Franklin & the Family, Luke 12:6-7, Mahalia Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Matthew, Matthew 10:29-31, Matthew 6:26, Pender UMC, pianist, piano, Shirley Ceasar, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the faith we sing, traditional service

Hymn History: ‘Doxology’

19 Jun

Pender’s current Doxology is “Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow”.

On May 28, 2023, Pender Pianist, Heidi Jacobs played a prelude which incorporated the Doxology into a medley of hymns.

In general usage, the Doxology is a short statement of praise, glory, and thanksgiving to God. It is often a short hymn designed to be sung by the worshiping congregation. Pender sings it to give thanks after the offering.

Chuck Knows Church — Doxology.

Chuck sings! Kinda. Bet you can’t guess the name of the most played piece of music in Protestant churches each Sunday? You looked at the title of this episode, didn’t you?

Chuck sings and explains on this his show!

“Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow”
by Thomas Ken
The United Methodist Hymnal, 95

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise him, all creatures here below;
Praise him above, ye heav’nly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Born in Hertfordshire, Bishop Thomas Ken (1637–1711) was orphaned as a child and raised by his sister Anna and her husband Izaak Walton. They enrolled him in the all-boys school at Winchester College (1651–1656). After his education there, he attended Hart Hall, Oxford, and New College, Oxford (B.A., 1661, M.A., 1664).

Ken was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1662, serving as rector to several parishes and as a chaplain to Princess Mary of Orange (1679–80), King Charles II (1683), and the Tangier Expedition (1683–84). In 1685, he was appointed Bishop of Bath and Wells. During the reign of King James II, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London for refusing to sign the Declaration of Indulgence (1687), a decree designed to promote the king’s Catholic faith. Ken was acquitted of the charge. When, however, King William III ascended to the throne, Ken refused to swear loyalty to him and resigned his office, living the rest of his life at the home of his friend, Lord Weymouth, at Longleat, Wilshire (Doyle, Canterbury Dictionary, n.p.).

The original date of composition by Ken for the text of “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow” is unknown. The first mention of the hymn is in 1674 as the presumed final stanza of two longer hymns: “Awake, My Soul and with the Sun” and “Glory to Thee, My God, this Night.” These two hymns were referenced along with a third as Morning, Evening and Midnight Hymns in a later edition of a pamphlet written for his students titled A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Scholars of Winchester College (1695). The following directive is from the first edition:

. . . be sure to sing the Morning and Evening Hymn in your chamber devoutly, remembering that the Psalmist, upon happy experience, assures you that it is a good thing to tell of the loving kindness of the Lord early in the morning and of his truth in the night season (Ken, 1675, n.p.).

This directive is most often interpreted to mean that the hymns were meant for private devotion, not the gathered assembly, and yet these four lines, often referred to as The Lesser Doxology, have “been sung more often than any other lines ever written” (Gealy, 1993, 200). The hymn texts were published later as an appendix in his 1695 pamphlet as “revised” versions.

Much of the beauty of these four lines lies in its reflection of the joyous outbursts of the psalms. Here we see both the “host” of heaven and the “creatures here below” of earth praising God as in Psalm 96:11-12a and the final jubilant line of Psalm 150:6:

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
let the field exult, and everything in it. (Psalm 96: 11-12a, NRSV)
Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord! (Psalm 150:6, NRSV)

Commonly called “The Doxology,” Ken’s acclamation of praise is actually one of many doxological declarations that appear in many hymns, often in final stanza. See, for example, the last stanzas of the fourth-century hymn “Of the Father’s Love Begotten,” William Draper’s versification (c. 1919) of a thirteenth-century poem by Francis of Assisi, “All Creatures of Our God and King,” and Catherine Winkworth’s translation (1858) of Lutheran pastor Martin Rinkart’s “Now Thank We All Our God” (1647). Though less common now, the pattern for many mainline Protestant congregations has been to sing another doxological acclamation, the “Gloria Patri,” earlier in a worship service, and Ken’s stanza at the time of the offertory. Of note is the cosmic character of Ken’s praise—“all creatures here below” and “above ye heavenly hosts”—calling on the entire cosmos to praise God.

The Trinitarian structure of Ken’s hymn has also led to its common liturgical use. The first line describes the person of God the Father as the source of all blessings (Ephesians 1:3; 2 Corinthians 1:3). The second line, though, speaks to God the Spirit through whom all creatures praise God (Psalm 104:24-30; 1 Corinthians 2:10-13). The third line points to God the Son, who is begotten of the Father, firstborn of heaven and superior to angels and the heavenly host (Hebrews 1:4). The fourth line summarizes the stanza and all of praise in general, since all praise is directed toward God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The United Methodist Hymnal pairs this text with the hymn tune OLD 100^th, which is attributed to John Calvin’s composer, Louis Bourgeois (c. 1510–1559). The first two lines of Ken’s text were later adapted with additional inclusive words by United Methodist pastor Gilbert H. Vieira (b. 1926) to be sung with LASST UNS ERFREUEN from Ausserlesene Catholische, Kirchengesänge (1623), harmonized by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Pastor Vieira’s use of inclusive language reflects his continuing strong stands for inclusive and carefully chosen language (see Vieira, 2020, n.p.).

The hymn tune MORNING HYMN was composed by François Hippolyte Barthélémon (1741–1808) for the text of “Awake, My Soul, and With the Sun.” The appropriateness of the tune works well for this final stanza, where the words of the second phrase, “Praise him, all creatures here below,” are sung by descending stepwise through an entire scale. The third phrase, “Praise him above, ye heav’nly host,” is sung through a similar ascension that returns to the highest note of the tune in the final stanza, acknowledging the Trinitarian nature of God. Sheila Doyle comments on the hymn text saying, “The language is simple and precise, and the opening images of light and rising up, appropriate to morning, pervade the hymn and convey a powerful sense of renewal and aspiration” (Doyle, “Awake, My Soul,” n.p.).

SOURCES:

Sheila Doyle, “Awake, My Soul, and with the Sun,” The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press, https://hymnology.hymnsam.co.uk/a/awake,-my-soul,-and-with-the-sun (accessed September 27, 2020).

_____, “Thomas Ken,” The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press, http://www.hymnology.co.uk/t/thomas-ken (accessed September 27, 2020).

Fred D. Gealy, Research Files for the 1970 Companion to the Hymnal [1966] quoted in Young, Carlton R. Companion to the United Methodist Hymnal (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1993), 200.

Thomas Ken, A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Scholars of Winchester College
(London: Printed for John Martyn, 1675), http://anglicanhistory.org/ken/manual.html (accessed September 27, 2020).

Gilbert H. Viera, “Let’s Watch Our Language,” United Methodist Insight (February 24, 2020), https://um-insight.net/perspectives/let-s-watch-our-language (accessed September 27, 2020).

From https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/articles/history-of-hymns-praise-god-from-whom-all-blessings-flow