Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,

that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor,
so that you by his poverty might become rich.

2 Corinthians 8:9 ESV

I first heard this beautiful carol shortly before Christmas 1991, at a carol service at Christ Church Beckenham.  It's been my favourite carol ever since.  It deserves to be far more widely known, although Keith and Kristyn Getty's version, released in 2016, has helped to bring it to a wider public.

The words to Thou who wast rich were written by Bishop Frank Houghton (1894 - 1972).  In 1920, as a young Anglican priest, Houghton joined the China Inland Mission.  He served in China until 1928, and after six years back in the UK, returned there as a Bishop in 1934.  He was General Director of China Inland Mission 1940 - 1951, and then spent the final 10 years before his retirement as a Vicar back in the UK.

In December 1934, two young CIM missionaries, John and Betty Stam, were captured and killed by Chinese Communists.  In the wake of these murders, and those of other missionaries in China at the time, Frank Houghton decided to set out on a tour of missionary outposts in the country.  As he travelled through the mountains of southwest China, he was inspired by the words of 2 Corinthians 8:9 (quoted above), to write this beautiful carol.

Dr John Tweeddale comments that this hymn focusses on Christ.  Each verse is a meditation on a different aspect of his work: verse 1 on his humiliation; verse 2 on his incarnation; and verse 3 on his exaltation.  His comments continue:

[Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour] reminds us that Christmas is about a gift beyond our comprehension.  In his humiliation, the Son of God exchanged a throne for a manger, celestial courts for a stable floor, and riches for poverty (Philippians 2:5-8).  In his incarnation, the Son of God became a man in order to redeem his people from their sins (cf Matthew 1:21-23; John 1:1,14).  In his exaltation, Christ is the object of our love and adoration (Philippians 2:9-11) . . . this carol . . . reminds [us] that the only fitting response to the Christ of Christmas is worship.

Christmas is about a gift beyond all splendour, all praising, all telling.  [We] simply cannot fathom how magnificent this gift is . . . Christmas is about the greatest, and costliest, gift of all - the gift of Christ himself.  

For me, Houghton's words touch my soul every time I hear or sing this carol.  If you don't know it, I hope and pray that you will follow one of the links, and find that Houghton's carol moves you to worship our Lord and Saviour anew.

The tune which I know for Thou who wast rich is a traditional French melody, usually called 'Fragrance' in English hymnbooks, but in French, 'Quelle est cette odeur agréable?'  It's a wonderfully simple tune, which carries these words to perfection.  

Sadly, I don't think that the Getty's version of this carol (see link above) does it justice.  There's a lyric video here, and another version, without the lyrics on screen, here.  

Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!
(2 Corinthians 9:15) 

Photo by Pro Church Media on Unsplash

Lo, he comes with clouds descending

 

Behold, he is coming with the clouds 

and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, 

and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him.  

Even so.  Amen. 

(Revelation 1:7, ESV)

This is my favourite Advent hymn.  It anticipates Christ's Second Coming, which is one of the major themes of Advent - the others being preparation to celebrate his First Coming at Christmas, and the individual believer's preparation to receive him in their heart.   Michael Dougherty comments that this hymn, which is a complete reworking of a previous hymn by John Cennick, shows "the facility with which Charles [Wesley] uses the English language and how he effortlessly mirrors the images of the book of Revelation . . . " (cf the verse quoted above).  C Michael Hawn comments that "this poem comes as close as poetic verse can in scaling the heights of spendour, majesty, and mystery as described in Revelation."

The earlier hymn was published by John Cennick in the fifth edition of his Collection of Sacred Hymns in 1752.   You can see the text as quoted by John Julian here (scroll to page 681).  Julian goes on to quote Wesley's version of the hymn, which was published in 1758 in Hymns of Intercession for All Mankind.  Modern hymn books follow this text, with one or two alterations.  It's interesting to note that in the Methodist hymn books of 1933, 1983 (Hymns and Psalms) and 2011 (Singing the Faith), the last line of the first stanza is Wesley's "God appears on earth to reign", while the Anglican hymn books from the Ancient and Modern stable, published in 1922, 1950 and 2013 all replace "God" with "Christ" in that line.  (The second and third stanzas, with their references to the Messiah's death, pierced and nailed to a tree, make it clear that Wesley was indeed referring to the Second Person of the Trinity at the end of the first stanza).  The other common change is in the penultimate line of stanza 4, which successive Methodist hymnals have replaced with "Hallelujah!" or "Come, Lord Jesus!", while Ancient and Modern has consistently used, "Alleluia!  Thou shalt reign, and thou alone" for the final two lines.  Other versions use "O come quickly!" (which was the wording in Cennick's version) in the penultimate line.  John Julian's (see link above) entry on Lo, he comes, as published in 1907, gives details of various other reworkings of this hymn, but it seems to me that Wesley's version, with a couple of alterations, is what is in common use today.

Charles Wesley's hymn, as it was first published in 1758

As I said, this is my favourite Advent hymn.  In Anglican hymnals it usually appears in the Advent section.  Methodists place it under Advent in 2011, but in earlier hymn books it was under "The Lord Jesus Christ: his kingdom, present and future" (1933), and "Christ's Coming in Glory" (1983).  But as Hawn (see above) points out, "the context in which it appears in John Wesley's collection [1758] offers a very different understanding of the text."  He goes on to say, "the hymns in Hymns of Intercession for All Mankind address in amazing detail various categories of intercessory prayer."

Lo, he comes appears near the end of Wesley's collection, under the heading "Thy Kingdom Come!"  This is one of the petitions which Jesus commands us to pray near the beginning of the Lord's Prayer.  Hawn comments on the collection, and the place of Lo, he comes within it, 

Charles Wesley, having enumerated a comprehensive list of intercessory needs, establishes that God, in Christ, is the cosmic "monarch" of all earthly kings, nations, institutions, individuals in need, and all religions and theologies, and philosophies found on earth, even if they do not recognize God.

Lo, he comes is almost always sung (at least, in my experience!) to the tune Helmsley, which is attributed in modern hymn books as follows: 'Select Hymns with Tunes Annext (1765)', a book published by John Wesley, where the tune is called 'Olivers'.  It's been attributed to Thomas Olivers (1710-1778), but its origins are obscure.  However, in Hawn's words, "it is a magnificent pairing with this majestic text."  Dougherty comments further,

When sung together, this text and tune help the worshipping community observe with wonder the events of Jesus' crucifixion.  Well-place tune-driven repeats of text create a sense of excitement and urgency.  This drives us toward the . . .  day when we sing,   

Yea, Amen! Let all adore thee,

high on thy eternal throne;

Saviour, take the power and glory,

claim the kingdom for thine own.

Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!

Everlasting God, come down!  

You can hear this hymn here.

For more information about Charles Wesley, see my post on O, thou who camest from above.

Photo by Jeff Jacobs on Pixabay

Make me a channel of your peace

 

Most hymn books tell us that this song is based on the Prayer of St Francis, so I was fascinated to discover that the prayer concerned is entirely absent from his writings, and can be traced back no further than 1912, when it was published anonymously in France in a small Catholic spiritual magazine called La Clochette, under the title Belle prière à faire pendant la messe (A beautiful prayer to say during the Mass).  The original text of the prayer, with an English translation taken from Wikipedia, is as follows: 

Not only was this prayer not written by St Francis, but according to one biographer, "Noble as its sentiments are, Francis would not have written such a piece, focused as it is on the self, with its constant repetition of the pronouns 'I' and 'me', the words 'God' and 'Jesus' never appearing once."

Dr Christian Renoux, who wrote a study of the origins of this prayer, says that it was first attributed to St Francis in 1927 by a French Protestant movement, Les Chevaliers du Prince de la Paix.  The earliest known English translation dates to the same year, and was also attributed to St Francis.  It became very popular in America during the Second World War, and has remained so ever since.  Although written in a Catholic Christian context, it has been widely adopted by people of many different faiths.  According to Kevin Flannagan of the United Methodist Church, this has been possible because of the "broadly inclusive language" of the prayer.

The hymn based on this prayer, Make me a channel of your peace, was written by Sebastian Temple (1928 - 1997), and published in 1967.  Temple was born in South Africa, spent some time living in London  working for the BBC, and moved to America in 1958, where he joined the Franciscan Third Order.  He wrote Make me a channel of your peace as one of a collection of songs commissioned by the Franciscans.  In a letter quoted by Ian Bradley in his book, The Daily Telegraph Book of Hymns (p 277), Temple described writing the song:

I wrote so easily and so prolifically that I took for granted that I could write music to the peace prayer of St Francis . . . its strange form drove me crazy.  I could not come up with anything that sounded like music to my ears . . . Finally, I was disgusted, looked at the little statue of St Francis on my shelf and said angrily, 'Well if you want it, YOU do it.  I can't.'  I got up, went to the kitchen, made a cup of tea and drank it.  When I returned to the guitar, I picked it up, had the tape running, and the song fell out of my mouth as it was recorded a few days later.

The hymn is well-known and very popular in the UK.  Both GodSongs.net  and Kevin Flannagan (see above) put that popularity down to its inclusion in the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997.  However, it appeared in British hymn books well before that: Mission Praise (1983) and Songs of Fellowship (1991) both include it.

This week, as we mark the anniversary of the end of World War One, (Remembrance Day in the UK and Commonwealth, Veterans Day in the US, Armistice Day in France, Volkstrauertag in Germany), it seemed appropriate to choose a song based on a prayer for the grace to bring peace and all that is good into our relationships and dealings, one with another.    

You can hear Sebastian Temple's original recording of Make me a channel of your peace here.  There's a Songs of Praise recording with lyrics, featuring Tessera, here. 

A word about the picture above (link and accreditation below): When I found this picture, and read the notes with it, I decided that it was perfect to illustrate this post.  The photo was taken in the Philippines on 26 June 2020.  The photographer was enjoying the sunset on his/her way home from work:  

And then I saw a kid approaching with his bike.  I quickly grabbed my phone, hoping I'd catch him . . . He looked so safe and secure.  There's so much beauty, peace, and calmness.  A little different from what the world is going through right now.  Fear.  Hate.  Injustice.  Pain.  Despair.  Confusion.  Unbelief.  The list can go on.  But that doesn't mean that we can no longer live like the kid in the photo.  We still can.  Think of the beauty that's still left.  Have Faith.  Believe.  Hope.  The world needs you.  Us.  Keep praying.  Remember, peace is not the absence of chaos.  It is that despite the chaos, we still surprisingly experience extraordinary, unexplainable peace . . . only God can give us that kind of peace.  The peace that transcends all understanding!   

Picture: Peace undeniable.  Calm so tangible; trimmed. by Arch.elam  CC BY-SA 4.0.

We plough the fields and scatter

I've been intending to write this post for a few weeks now, and it's a bit late for Harvest, but having had it on my mind, I thought I'd write it up anyway.  Actually, in some parts of the British Isles, the harvest won't be completed gathered in until the end of this week.  I always remember my grandmother, who lived in rural Suffolk, saying that it was strange to be holding a harvest festival in late September or early October, singing "all is safely gathered in" (from Come, ye thankful people, come), when the harvest of the main local crop, sugar beet, didn't start until the beginning of October, and lasted until the end of the month!

I've been singing this hymn since I was a child, but it's only now that I've learned that this favourite of British harvest festivals was originally a German poem called Im Anfang war's auf Erden, which was published in 1782.  The poem was written seven years previously, by Matthias Claudius (1740-1815), a journalist who also wrote and published poems.  Claudius' father was a pastor, and he was brought up in the  Lutheran church.  As a young man, he rejected his faith, but in 1777, he suffered a severe illness, and realised that his life was spiritually empty.  John Julian writes that "he once more became in faith as a little child."  While he was ill, he occupied himself by writing some poems.  In 1782, he was invited to a party, and asked to bring one of his poems to read aloud.  Im Anfang war's auf Erden, based on Psalm 144, was the poem he chose.  His poems were popular, because they were written in simple German, which appealed to ordinary people.

Claudius' original poem was in stanzas of four lines, with a chorus between each.  It was published in volume 4 of Claudius' collected works, Asmus omnia sua secum portans; oder sämmtliche Werke des Wandsbecker Bothen (Asmus was Claudius' penname).  It appears as part of a 'sketch' called Paul Erdmanns Fest, which describes a rural harvest festival attended by both gentlemen and farm workers.  The poem Im Anfang war's auf Erden is a peasants' song, sung by the farm workers in the sketch, with the verses sung by a soloist, and all the farm workers joining in the chorus.  These are the original words.  After the first 13 verses, there's a bit of dialogue (in square brackets), which basically says, "My Lord, we've added something for today.  May we sing that as, well?" with the reply, "Why not?"  The last few verses are then praising God for his goodness to their host, Paul Erdmann.  

The hymn as we know it in English has three verses of eight lines, as does the German hymn as it is sung today.  In both English and German, the hymn is usually set to a tune written especially for it: Wir pflügen by Johann Abraham Peter Schulz (1747-1800).  The first verse of the German hymn consists of verse 3 of Claudius' poem (Wir pflügen . . .), followed by verse 5 (Der sendet . . .); the second verse is verse 7 (Was nah ist . . ) followed by verse 8 (Von ihm sind . . .); with the third verse continuing with verses 9 and 10 of the original.  Words have been slightly altered in places.

Wir pflügen und wir streuen was translated into English as We plough the fields and scatter by Jane Montgomery Campbell (1817-1878).  Miss Campbell was a gifted linguist and a German scholar.  She did not attempt to translate the hymn literally, but she did keep the theme of thanksgiving for the harvest.  Her first verse is quite close in meaning to the first verse of the German hymn, although the lines aren't in exactly the same order.  The beginning of her second verse is very similar in meaning to the beginning of verse 2 of the German hymn, but the translation becomes freer, and the final line is close in meaning to the final line of verse 3 in the German.  Miss Campbell's final verse bears very little direct relation in meaning to any of the German verses.  According to The Conservative Woman, she taught the English version of the hymn to children at the Church of England parish school where her father was the Rector, before it was first published in 1861 in A Garland of Songs; or an English Liederkranz by Revd Charles Sandford Bere.

When I was at secondary school, our school did a big production of the musical Godspell, which includes a version of this hymn, set to a tune written for the musical, and omitting the second verse.  You can hear that version here.

There's a Songs of Praise recording of the hymn sung to the traditional tune here.

We plough the fields, and scatter
the good seed on the land,
but it is fed and watered
by God's almighty hand:
he sends the snow in winter,
the warmth to swell the grain,
the breezes, and the sunshine,
and soft, refreshing rain.

All good gifts around us
are sent from heaven above;
then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord,
for all his love.

He only is the maker
of all things near and far;
he paints the wayside flower,
he lights the evening star;
the winds and waves obey him,
by him the birds are fed;
much more to us, his children,
he gives our daily bread.

We thank thee then, O Father,
for all things bright and good,
the seed-time and the harvest,
our life, our health, our food.
Accept the gifts we offer
for all thy love imparts,
and, what thou most desirest,
our humble, thankful hearts.

References
St Martin's Methodist Church, Woolston  
Griggs 
John Julian 
Wikipedia entries: Matthias Claudius, We plough the fields and scatter, and Wir pflügen und wir streuen 
The LiederNet Archive for the original German words
The Conservative Woman

Jesus, lover of my soul (It's all about you)

Jesus, lover of my soul was a favourite song at St Stephen's Gateacre when I was a curate there in the late 1990s.  It was first published in 1995, and must have made it into the Spring Harvest songbook for at least one of the following couple of years.  In those pre-internet days, Spring Harvest was one of the main avenues for new songs to gain popularity and enter local church repertoires.  This song has remained popular, and is probably Oakley's best known song.  

For a long time, Paul Oakley was one of the worship leaders at the New Frontiers Church in Brighton.  Currently known as Emmanuel Church, it began life in the late 1970s as Brighton and Hove Christian Fellowship, and has been known at times as Clarendon Church, and the Church of Christ the King.  Oakley worked alongside a host of singer-songwriters there, among them Lou and Nathan Fellingham, and Stuart Townend.  Until 2011, the church was led by Terry Virgo, who has written about Oakley as follows (see riveroflifecbs.com):

As a man in touch with the Holy Spirit, Paul Oakley is wonderfully gifted to draw people into the presence of God.  His love for the Lord is expressed through the great songs that he has written.  I, for one, love singing them, not only at big events but also when I am alone with the Lord.

Oakley himself says (following on from the above in the same article):

The main focus of my writing comes from my walk with God.  I’ve seen God and I don’t want to write about anything else.  Like Isaiah I felt like I’ve had a radical encounter with God and "I’m ruined, I’m undone!"  When you’ve seen God what else is there to write about?  He is everything!  He’s awesome and He’s jealous for His glory in every aspect of our lives.  So whatever I go through, I walk through it with Him and I hope that comes out in the songs.  Music, as well as being a precious gift from God, is for Him as well.  There’s almost a sense in which music itself is more complete when it’s to Him and for Him.  That’s not to say there isn’t a place for entertainment or performance songs because it all points to a Creator and brings glory to God.  I want God at the centre of what I’m saying and writing because He’s totally changed my life.

The opening phrase of this song was first used by Charles Wesley in his hymn, Jesu, lover of my soul.  According to John Julian, many have found difficulty in the use of:

. . . the term 'lover' as applied our Lord.  From an early date this tender expression was felt by many to be beneath the solemn dignity of a hymn addressed to the Divine Being.  Attempts have been made to increase the reverence of the opening line by the sacrifice of its pathos and poetry. 

Julian points to the Wisdom of Solomon 11:26 in defence of Wesley's turn of phrase - a source which, being found in the Apocrypha, will not satisfy some!

Be that as it may, Oakley has borrowed the phrase for the first line of his song.  It's a song which reminds us that our lives as Christians are not about ourselves: they're all about glorifying the Lord Jesus.

You can hear a powerful version of this song, sung by Stuart Townend, here.  

 

What a friend we have in Jesus

Image: 'My Friend' by Helen Thomas Robson; © 2010; used with permission; https://www.htrbydesign.com/

I'm currently reading God on Mute by Pete Greig, in which he includes the story of how Joseph Scriven (1819 - 1886) came to write the hymn, What a friend we have in Jesus.  It's certainly not the only Christian hymn written following intense suffering in the life of the author - in fact, I began this blog with a post on another: It is well with my soul.  

For many older folk, What a friend we have in Jesus is a favourite from Sunday School days.  It always went down well with the clients of St Mary's Care Centre in Halewood, when it was included in one of their weekly services when I was Vicar at the Church there.  I can't remember when I first learned it, but I'm sure it wasn't when I was a child.  

There are a number of retellings of Joseph Scriven's life story which I've found online.  They don't all agree on the details, but the broad outline is that he was born and grew up in County Down in Ireland.  He studied at Trinity College Dublin.  He'd fallen in love and was engaged to be married, but tragically, his fiancée died in an accident not long before their wedding was due to take place. 

As he struggled to come to terms with what had happened, Scriven decided to leave Ireland.  He emigrated to Canada, where he settled in Ontario.  It's believed that he originally wrote the words of What a friend we have in Jesus to send to his mother in Ireland, because he couldn't afford to travel back there at a time when she was in great need of comfort.  He never intended his poem to be published, although he did publish Hymns and Other Verses in 1869 - 115 of his own compositions, but not including What a friend we have in Jesus.  

The usual tune for What a friend we have in Jesus is called Converse, after the composer, Charles Crozat Converse (1832 - 1918).  It was first published in 1870, five years after the words are first known to have been published. 

What a friend we have in Jesus became popular after Ira Sankey included it in Gospel Hymns and Sacred Songs, published in 1875.  Sankey erroneously attributed it to Horatius Bonar (author of Fill thou my life, O Lord my God and I heard the voice of Jesus say).  When Scriven was asked about the hymn, he's reported to have replied, "The Lord and I did it between us."

Eventually Scriven fell in love and became engaged for a second time.  It seems unbelievably cruel that once again, he suffered the bereavement of his fiancée.  Eliza Roach fell ill and died before she and Scriven could be married.  

Scriven's experiences of loss and hardship combined with his knowledge of Scripture, as expressed in this hymn, continue to provide comfort and hope to struggling believers today: 

What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
everything to God in prayer! 
O what peace we often forfeit!
O what needless pain we bear!
All because we do not carry
everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged;
take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend to faithful
who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness;
take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy-laden,
cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Saviour, still our refuge,
take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer;
In his arms he'll take and shield thee,
thou wilt find a solace there.

 You can listen to this hymn here.

After looking at a number of websites which came up when I searched for What a friend we have in Jesus, most information here comes from Chris Fenner on Hymnology Archive, and from Hymnary.org.

He came to earth (King of kings)

From Altar to Throne by Signe Flink; used with permission

I first remember hearing this song while I was at theological college in the mid-1990s.  It's not an easy one to sing; in fact the Church of Scotland advises: 

There are pitfalls in this passionate song when sung by congregations, and accompanists need to handle the 'empty bars' with skill and resolution, particularly when the arpeggio chords do not 'point to' the note on which the singers come in.

The language of the song isn't necessarily very easy either.  The Singing the Faith plus website of the UK Methodist Church comments:

[Pantry] uses language understood (or maybe not!) by those already bound up in the Church and Christian conversation.

With most hymns and songs, what draws us to them (or not!) is the combination of words and music.  This may not be the easiest song, but it is passionate and powerful, and beautiful when sung well.  Singing the Faith plus points out that He came to earth is a highly personal response to Jesus' self-sacrifice for our sakes.  That response is required of every Christian believer.  I guess these were all factors in my decision to have it sung as a solo during the signing of the registers at my wedding in 1997.  

John Pantry was born in Harrow in 1946.  He originally trained and worked as a recording engineer, and became a Christian in the early 1970s as a result of the influence of Christian artists for whom he produced albums.  He'd already started writing his own songs, and had released one album, but after becoming a Christian, he says, his secular work "just seemed to fold up  . . . the phones stopped ringing."  He continued working in many roles, mainly in the Christian music scene.  In 1993, he was ordained as a Non-Stipendiary (ie not paid) Minister in the Church of England, and in 1995, he joined the staff of Premier Christian Radio as a presenter.  He recently (June 2020) retired from his position as presenter of Inspirational Breakfast on Premier Christian Radio, after 24 years, which made him the longest-serving national breakfast radio presenter in Britain (see Keep the Faith). 

There is much more information about John Pantry's career (up to 2009) here.  

I can't find any information which relates specifically to this song, which was originally released on Pantry's album The Church Invincible in 1992.  Neither have I been able to source a lyric video.  You can see the lyrics of He came to earth here, where you'll also find a link to play the song on Youtube.  

From heaven you came (The Servant King)

Back in July, I commented about the fact that it had taken me several months to include a hymn by Charles Wesley in this blog. I find it equally difficult to understand that this is the first time I've mentioned Graham Kendrick! Whether you love Kendrick's songs or hate them (and I know people who fall into both those groups), it's impossible (in the contemporary church in the UK at least) to ignore someone whose "songs and hymns are sung by millions of people in numerous languages around the world" (last.fm).

Graham Kendrick is the son of a Baptist minister.  He was born in Northamptonshire in 1950, and grew up in Essex and Putney (south-west London).  Kendrick "took a step of faith at the age of 5", and taught himself to play the piano before he learned to read music.  He began composing songs when he was 15, although after he left school, he trained to be a teacher.  In his late teens, he was part of what Tony Cummings, in an article on Cross Rhythms, calls a "psych folk rock" group called Whispers of Truth.  According to Roger Pearse, they played in Christian coffee bars etc, but they were also in the line-up of "the first paid-for Christian music event in the UK," at Westminster Central Hall on 20 May 1967.  (You can read about it by following the Cross Rhythms link above).  Whispers of Truth contributed five tracks to an album called Alive!, released in 1969.  One review, whose author says he has usually "steered well clear of records that have had that 'Xian' label attached to them," calls Whispers of Truth "a fantastic British Invasion sounding Rock band," with each of their four tracks on Alive! being "of exceptional quality.  Loads of psychedelic effects, Zombies/Beatles like harmonies and melodies.  They are really a terrific band with great Pop/Psych songs."  All four of those songs were written by Graham Kendrick. 

In 1972, Kendrick completed his teacher training, and joined an evangelistic team touring schools and colleges.  He worked with various Christian youth organisations, while releasing solo albums, beginning with Footsteps on the Sea in 1972.  According to Wikipedia, he has become "probably the most influential Christian songwriter of his generation."  In 2009, Stuart Townend wrote of Graham Kendrick:

He was one of the pioneers of the modern worship song, and he set the standard that that those of us who have followed on have been trying to match. I have no doubt that in 100 years time the name of Kendrick will be alongside Watts and Wesley in the list of the UK’s greatest hymnwriters.

The depth of understanding in his lyrics, and the poetry, I think, is outstanding. And he writes about the whole gospel. If you’re looking for a song on a particular bible verse, the chances are Graham has written one.

I was fortunate enough to be in Graham’s band for a few years, and it was fascinating during that time to see how hard he worked at crafting his lyrics. It’s not unusual today to hear people slag off modern hymns as superficial rubbish – well, people who say that clearly haven’t looked at Graham Kendrick’s songs.

The Servant King was written to reflect the theme for Spring Harvest in 1984.  Kendrick researched the theme using concordances, commentaries and other biblical research tools, and found it very inspiring.  On his website, he's quoted as follows: 

It was a challenge to explore the vision of Christ as the servant who would wash the disciples' feet but who was also the Creator of the universe.

On Songfacts, he adds:

'Servant King' was the title for Spring Harvest and it was sent out to several writers . . . I just found that funny phrase inspiring . . . If you are a lyricist, opposites always kickstart ideas; those two words don't normally sit together.  So I just started to unpack that whole story.  The obvious part of the story is the incarnation, 'From heav'n You came, helpless Babe . . .' and it sort of unfolded from there.

I remember learning The Servant King as a student in the late 1980s, and being taught actions to go with it (I can no longer remember the actions!).  The song has remained popular - in fact, we included it in our online church service this last Sunday, and I commented to my son that I've been singing this song for over 30 years.  It's full of paradoxical truths about who Jesus is; about how he expects us to respond to him, enthroning him in our lives as we serve other people, and so to serve him.  I don't know whether it inspired the title of the Bible Society's book published for Queen Elizabeth II's 90th birthday in 2016, but I do know that we sang The Servant King in our church service to mark the event!  See The Servant Queen and the King she serves.

There's a lyric video here.

Fill your hearts with joy and gladness

 

When I wrote about Timothy Dudley-Smith's hymn, Name of all Majesty, I said that I would no doubt include a few more of his hymns in future posts.  It's taken four months to get there (!), and I've chosen Fill your hearts with joy and gladness.  

As its first line indicates, it's a joyful hymn.  So it demands a joyful tune!  According to his notes in A House of Praise (Oxford University Press, 2003,
pp 393-395), TDS suggested two possible tunes: Regent Square or Unser Herrscher (Neander).  Kevin Mayhew hymnbooks have a habit of setting it to Ode to Joy, which in my opinion doesn't work as a congregational tune - it needs a full choir and orchestra fully to express the joy of its title.  Another tune, which we often used for Fill your hearts in my previous church, is called Laus et Honor.  It worked particularly well with a saxophone playing the melody!  Sadly, the only recording of that tune I can find online is a sample verse here.

Fill your hearts with joy and gladness is based on Psalm 147.  As TDS notes (see reference above), "This is a psalm linking the wonders of creation with the glories of providence and grace."  Michael Wilcock (The Message of Psalms 73-150, IVP, 2001, p 277) points out that the psalm celebrates, "the Lord as both Creator and Redeemer, who cares alike for his world and for his people."  It's good to be reminded of these facts, and so to allow the Lord to encourage us, as we struggle with the problems of the world around us right now.  Fill your hearts with joy and gladness reflects all the themes of the psalm, and gives a vehicle to praise our Lord, who has created this universe and all that is in it, who provides abundantly for his people through the crops we harvest, and who also cares tenderly for his people on an individual level.    

You can hear a recording of this hymn here.

There's a lyric video here.

Calon Lân

I don't think I'd ever come across the Welsh song Calon Lân before moving here 10 years ago.  But I quickly discovered that as a Vicar, it's one song which I need to be able to sing in Welsh (the other being the National Anthem).  It's a common choice for funerals and, at least in my experience, Calon Lân is never sung in English.

Before going any further, here are the words, in Welsh with an English translation, courtesy of Wikipedia:

The words of Calon Lân were written by Daniel James (1848 - 1920).  He was born in Treboeth, a village which is now a suburb of Swansea.  His father died when he was 13, which forced Daniel to leave school and begin work as a labourer.  He studied Welsh poetry in his spare time, taught by D W Thomas of Mynyddbach Chapel.  He began to write poetry, and took the Bardic name Gwyrosydd (so he's generally referred to as Daniel James Gwyrosydd).  He published three books of his poetry: Caneuon Gwyrosydd (1885); Caniadau Gwyrosydd (1892); and Aeron Awen Gwyrodsydd (1898).   

Daniel had a hard life; having supported his mother and family after his father died, he married twice, and had a total of seven or eight children of his own.  In addition, he took on five step-children when he married his second wife.  He was widowed twice, and supported his large family by working in steel and tin works, and subsequently as a miner, until he was 68 years old.  He then worked as a cemetery caretaker, before retiring a couple of years before he died.   

The words of Calon Lân were published in Gwyrosydd's second book in 1892.  He was well known for spending much time in the pub.  There are descriptions of him sitting amongst friends and admirers, in an unusually high chair, composing verses which he would then exchange for drinks.  There's a strong tradition that Calon Lân was originally written at such time, on the back of a cigarette packet.

The tune which is synonymous with Gwyrosydd's words was written by John Hughes (1872 - 1914) - not to be confused with John Hughes (1873 - 1932), who wrote the tune Cwm Rhondda!  The tune Calon Lân was written for and inspired by the words, although it seems that it was sung to several other tunes before this became the standard.  John Hughes was born in Pembrokeshire, but spent most of his life in the Swansea area, and knew Gwyrosydd personally.  

As I've mentioned previously, the tune Calon Lân is very similar to the tune Dim ond Iesu (see previous post Dyma gariad fel y moroedd/Here is love vast as the ocean).  I once had an argument with my children, who insisted that the two tunes were actually one and the same.  It was only after I'd shown them the score of each that they accepted that they are two different tunes.  I can find no suggestion as to whether or not John Hughes was inspired by Dim ond Iesu, which was first published in America in 1877.

By the time of the Welsh Revival of 1904-05, Calon Lân had become a favourite with Welsh congregations, and it was one of the most popular hymns sung during the Revival.  Today, it's a popular choice for funerals here in Wales, and is also a rugby anthem, sung before almost every match played by the Welsh national Rugby Union team.  It's known as Wales' second national anthem.  My children were taught it at primary school, and I assume that almost every child who attends school in Wales will learn Calon Lân at some point.  The song is such an important part of Welsh culture that it has both a society dedicated to promoting and preserving its history and heritage, and its own centre at the Mynyddbach Chapel, where Gwyrosydd attended worship as a young man, and where he is buried.  

David writes in Psalm 24 (here quoted from the ESV):

Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
     And who shall stand in his his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
    who does not lift up his soul to what is false
    and does not swear deceitfully.
He will receive blessing from the LORD
    and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
Such is the generation of those who seek him,
    who seek the face of the God of Jacob.

Calon Lân could be a meditation on these words - what a song to be so deeply embedded in Welsh culture!

With my Liverpool connections, I couldn't resist sharing this recording by the Liverpool Welsh Choral!  

Picture: 'Proverbs 4:23' by Leonard J Matthew licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0 (with frame and background added)

As well as the sites linked above, in preparing this post I have also consulted the following blog posts: Felin Fach, Resolven History Society, and Garw Valley Heritage Society. 

The heart of worship

As churches are beginning to reopen after the Corona virus lockdown, one of the things which makes lots of us very sad is that we're not allowed to sing together as part of our communal worship.  It's a sensible precaution to help prevent potential infections within our congregations, but many might be wondering, 'How can we worship without music?'  For many Christians, 'a time of worship' means a period in a service which is given over to singing praises to God.

I love singing, and I find that the words of many of the songs and hymns we sing express my praises and prayers so much more eloquently than I ever could.  Words set to music tend to stick in our heads much more than words without music, so what we sing is important because that's the way our congregations learn theology.  It will be difficult to gather for our Church services over the coming weeks without expressing our worship through singing together.

BUT ask yourself, as Mike Pilavachi asked his congregation in Watford more than 20 years ago, "When you come through the doors on a Sunday, what are you bringing as your offering to God?"  We don't come to church primarily for our own satisfaction, for our own comfort, for our own enjoyment, for entertainment (although we might well find all those things in church).  Primarily, we come to join our Christian family in worshipping the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; in the words of Common Worship (copyright © The Archbishop's Council, 2000) 'Morning Prayer on Sunday':

to offer our praise and thanksgiving,
to hear and receive God's holy word,
to pray for the needs of the world,
and to seek the forgiveness of our sins,
that by the power of the Holy Spirit
we may give ourselves to the service of God.

I spent some time with my church a few years ago, thinking about our own worship services.  We started out thinking about what worship is, and we learned the following:

• We can't worship God if we don't know him personally, because our worship is our response for all he's done for us - he's made himself known to us and rescued us from our own rebellion against him.
• Our response is made both in the rituals in which we participate (congregational worship), and in our behaviour (our obedience to the Lord's commands about how we should live our lives).  
• In Hebrew, the same word means both 'service' (behaviour) and 'worship' (ritual).  So worship is what we do with our whole lives in thanksgiving to God for his love and concern for us.
• In the New Testament, worship means to believe the good news about Jesus Christ; to respond by serving him with all that we are and all that we have; and to do all this in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Just as the OT people of God in Malachi's day were robbing God by not bringing the whole tithe into the storehouse (Malachi 3:8-10), so we rob God if we worship only with our mouths, and not with our hearts and minds and lives; if we treat what happens in church as a performance; or if we think that somehow our rituals can earn his favour. 

Coming back to Mike Pilavachi's congregation in Watford in the late 1990s . . . At the time, the musicians there were on a creative high, writing songs which were sung in many other churches.  They had a great band, fantastic equipment, and church services sounded amazing.  But something was missing, and Pilavachi decided that for a season, they would gather without a band, sound system, worship songs . . . .

The 'worship leader' (ie the person who led the music) at Pilavachi's church was Matt Redman.  As he struggled with his own loss of role, he says,

That made me ask some questions.  What are my motives when I'm up there on the stage?  Am I doing this as a service, or am I trying to build my own little thing?  It was a great moment for me, as a musician and as a worshipper, to refocus . . . 

As part of his response to all this, Redman wrote the song, The heart of worship.  According to this article from Crosswalk, he remembers writing the song quickly in his bedroom, simply as his personal, subjective response to what he was learning about worship.  (Echoes of Vikki Cook writing the tune Before the throne for her own personal use - see previous post).  But when Redman shared the song with Mike Pilavachi, he suggested making a few adjustments to the lyrics so that any member of the church could relate to it.  Not long afterwards, it was recorded as the title track of Redman's album, The Heart of Worship, released in 1999.  It has since become very well known, sung in churches around the world.  Covers have been recorded by a number of other artists.   In the Crosswalk article, Redman says, "It nearly didn't go any further than my bedroom.  But I love that . . ."

You can watch a lyric video here.

As well as the article from Crosswalk linked above, I read the following in preparing this post: Heart of Worship: The Story Behind The Song; The Heart of Worship story behind the song and reflections on listening to 20 years of modern worship; The story behind the song 'Heart of Worship'

O thou who camest from above

I can't really understand how it is that I've been writing this blog for nearly four months and I haven't yet included a hymn by Charles Wesley!  John Julian writes that Charles Wesley "is said to have written no less than 6500 hymns".  According to Wikipedia, Singing the Faith (the current authorised hymn book of the Methodist Church in the UK) includes 89 hymns by Wesley, out of a total of 748.  Even Ancient and Modern: Hymns and Songs for Refreshing Worship (the most recent edition of the traditional Anglican hymn book) includes 24 of Wesley's hymns out of a total of 847 - the only two authors who have more in that book are Timothy Dudley-Smith at 41, and John Bell at 33.

Charles Wesley was the 18th of 19 children born to Rev Samuel Wesley, Rector of Epworth in Lincolnshire, and his wife Susanna.   Eight of his siblings had already died, and at his birth in December 1707, it looked as if baby Charles would quickly follow them to the grave.  But the Lord clearly had other ideas!

The Wesley children received a thorough education in the Christian faith from their mother, and Charles and his sister Mehetabel (Hetty) inherited their father's gift for poetry, as did (to a lesser extent) their brothers Samuel and John.

Charles graduated from his mother's home school to Westminster School in 1716, and went up to Oxford in 1726.  While he was a student, he decided (in the words of Faith Cook, Our Hymn Writers and their Hymns, [Darlington, Evangelical Press, 2005/2015], p 99) "to give up the light-hearted company he had been enjoying and devote himself to the pursuit of a life pleasing to God."  He spent approximately the next 10 years trying to please God by his own efforts, to earn his salvation.  He was ordained into the ministry of the Church of England in 1735, and travelled with his brother John as a missionary to Georgia, although he soon returned to England.  It was on Sunday 21 May 1738 (by the pre-1752 Julian calendar) that he says in his journal,

I now found myself at peace with God, and rejoiced in hope of loving Christ . . . I saw that by faith I stood; by the continual support of faith kept from falling, though by myself I am ever sinking into sin (quoted by Faith Cook, op cit, pp 99-100).

Charles very quickly began to express the joy of his new-found spiritual freedom in verse, and continued to do so until the end of his life.

O thou who camest from above was published by Charles Wesley in 1762 in a book called Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures.  According to S T Kimbrough, John Wesley usually edited Charles' poetry before it was published, but this publication was an exception.  Kimbrough describes Short Hymns as "a collage of Biblical allusions", beginning with Genesis and working through to Revelation.

John Julian, Vol 1, p 852 points out that O thou who camest from above originally appeared in two verses of eight lines each (as shown here - scroll to p 66 of the PDF), rather than the four verses of four lines with which we're more familiar today.  However, looking the page scans on Hymnary.org (the earliest dated 1797), it seems that the four verse arrangement quickly became more usual.  It's one of a series of hymns inspired by texts from Leviticus.  The particular verse shown with this hymn is Leviticus 6:13: Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out (ESV).  In the hymn, Charles uses this image, but the fire becomes 'sacred love' burning 'on the mean altar of my heart', to the Lord's glory.  Rather than the burnt-offering which is the context for the Leviticus passage, the sacrifice in the hymn is the life of the believer, in his or her work, speech, thought, use of gifts, doing the Lord's perfect will in acts of faith and love. 

It seems that many people had a problem with the word 'inextinguishable' in the sixth line of the hymn.  Bishop E H Bickersteth commented in The Hymnal Companion to the Book of Common Prayer (see here):

The Editor believes that this admirable hymn would have been far more popular if it had not been for the very long word "inextinguishable."  Words of five syllables must be admitted into hymns sparingly; but for a whole congregation to be poised on six, practically leads to a hymn being passed by.   

The United Methodist Church 'History of Hymns' entry states that John Wesley himself edited this line to read, 'There let it for thy glory burn with ever bright undying blaze.'  So if Charles hadn't published Short Hymns independently of his brother, we might never have known the original!
I can't say I've ever found it to be a problem!  The hymn books with which I was familiar in the 1980s and early 1990s, when I first sang this hymn, all use Charles Wesley's original word.   I love the sense of the Lord kindling a flame of love on my heart and keeping it burning, the sense of committing my whole life 'in humble prayer and fervent praise', looking forward to the day when 'death thy endless mercies seal'.  None of these things would be possible without the Lord working by his Spirit in my heart and mind and life.

Given that Charles published O thou who camest from above independently from his brother John, it's fascinating to read the following in 'A Sketch of Mr Wesley's Character' by the Rev Samuel Bradburn (scroll to p 20), which was published in 1791 as an introduction to John Wesley's Select Letters, Chiefly on Personal Religion:

His modesty prevented his saying much of his own experience . . . he did not, when speaking of doctrines, produce himself as an evidence . . . Yet he was sufficiently explicit among his friends.  He told me, when with him in Yorkshire, in the year 1781, that "his experience might almost any time be found in the following lines:-

O Thou who camest from above,

The pure celestial fire t'impart,

Kindle a flame of sacred love

On the mean altar of my heart!

There let it for thy glory burn

With inextingishable blaze,

And trembling to its source return,

In humble love and fervent praise."

On another occasion, according to Edwin D Mouzon in The Fundamentals of Methodism (p 68), 

The nearest [John Wesley] is known to have come to professing [that he'd attained perfect love] was when to the question whether he had ever experienced the blssing of perfect love he replied by quoting Charles Wesley's hymn:

Jesus, confirm my heart's desire,
To work, and speak, and think, for thee;
Still let me guard the holy fire,
And still stir up thy gift in me;

Ready for all thy perfect will,
My acts of faith and love repeat,
Till death thy endless mercies seal,
And make the sacrifice complete. 

Faith Cook (op cit, p 114) comments that 'it is thought that Charles usually composed his words with a tune in mind.'  It would be interesting to discover whether that is the case for O thou who camest from above, and what that tune might have been.  For me, the only tune to which I remember singing these words is Hereford which was composed by Charles Wesley's grandson, Samuel Sebastian Wesley, and which seems to fit the words perfectly. 

There's a lyric video here, sung to the tune Hereford.  A Youtube search will show up videos of this hymn sung to other tunes, such as Wilton or Stopford.

Be still, for the presence of the Lord

Last Sunday, BBC1 rebroadcast Songs of Praise: the UK's Favourite Hymn, which was first shown in September last year.  They counted down and sang the top 10, and at number 9 was Be still, for the presence of the Lord.  The songwriter, David J Evans, spoke to introduce the hymn, and the soloist leading the singing was one of my favourite singers, Lesley Garrett.  So I decided that this would be the subject of my next post on this blog.

At St Mary, Halewood, where I was Vicar for 8 years, we sang the last verse of this hymn as our introit every Sunday, reminding us that the power of the Lord was present and at work among us as we gathered to worship him.  So it has a particular place in my heart for that reason.

On the programme, the presenter, Aled Jones, asked David Evans if he remembered the first time it was performed.  This was his response:

We had a big Christian conference coming up that my church is involved in, and I thought, "Maybe I might see if people want to sing it there."  So, I performed it to a group of musicians.  And I was just absolutely stunned by the response.  Half the group were kneeling and several were weeping gently.  And I thought, "Gosh, this is a bit scary."  Cos I'd never really experienced anything like that before.  It was then that I began to realise that maybe I'd written actually something that had a bit of power to it.  

Favourite Hymns: 2000 Years of Magnificat (Marjorie Reeves and Jenyth Worsley, Continuum, 2001, p 197) tells us that David Evans is a musician and a teacher.  He was involved in the early house church/charismatic movement in the 1970s, and wrote this song in 1985 in response to his feeling that

Like Jacob at Bethel (Genesis 28) . . . that we were asleep on holy ground . . . I felt that our contemporary worship had been largely oblivious to the awesomeness of God's presence within it.

I think that one reason this song is so popular is, as the Revd Ian Poulton points out in his blog,  that it 'is both profound and very simple'.  He comments further that 'the breadth of Biblical theology encompassed in this single song is vast'.  As well as the story of Jacob in Genesis 28, the song reflects the story of Moses at the burning bush, Jesus' Transfiguration, and the ascended Lord Jesus in Revelation, and many more.  'Be still' is a command which we hear in Psalm 37:7, Psalm 46:10 and Zechariah 2:13.  As we are still before the Lord, so he has a chance to be heard as he speaks to us.

The Songs of Praise programme is available on BBC iPlayer in the UK until Saturday 8 August.  The section on Be still, for the presence of the Lord begins just over seven minutes into the programme.

There is a lyric video here.

Will you come and follow me?

After looking at an old hymn set to a new tune, I thought I'd take a new hymn set to an old tune for this post.

"Why should the devil have all the good tunes?" is a question attributed to a number of people (eg Martin Luther, John Wesley, George Whitfield, William Booth) to make the point that there's no reason why good, popular tunes shouldn't be used with Christian words to praise the Lord.  (Of course, such tunes have to be old enough to be out of copyright before that can happen!).  Before going any further, it seems that the most reliable attribution of the quote above is to the Revd Rowland Hill.  According to the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, E W Broome wrote in his book The Rev. Rowland Hill (1881), 'He did not see any reason why the devil should have all the good tunes'.

The earliest lyrics associated with the tune of Kelvingrove are about a young woman, forced to marry the man who had raped her because she became pregnant as a result.  According to Traditional Tune Archive, this song was published in the second volume of The Scottish Minstrel (c 1811).  The tune was there called Kelvin Water, "although the tune is much older than that volume."  The name of the tune comes from Kelvingrove, which was described in The Book of Scottish Song (1843) as 'a picturesque and richly wooded dell through which the river Kelvin flows, [which] lies a very short distance to the north-west of Glasgow'.  It was a popular place for lovers' trysts.  In 1852, the land was purchased by Glasgow Town Council, and used to create West End Park, now known as Kelvingrove Park.

At least two more sets of words (each more sanitised than the last!) were written for the tune in the early nineteenth century.  The version of the words which appeared in The Harp of Renfewshire (1821) refers to the tune as Bonnie lassie, O.  It seems that this tune is best described as a traditional Scottish tune, whose origins (before 1811) are lost in the mists of time.

The advantage of using a traditional tune like this, especially one with its origins in the oral folk tradition, is that its very 'singable', and already fairly well known.  As Dr C Michael Hawn (see link below) points out, Scottish (along with Welsh and Irish) folk tunes provide a Celtic flavour, which is currently popular.  Kelvingrove appears to have originally been played in 2/4 time, but there is a 3/4 version which is often used with Will you come and follow me?  (In Anglican Hymns Old and New (Kevin Mayhew, 2008), versions in both time signatures are given).

The lyrics Will you come and follow me? were written by John Bell and Graham Maule of the Iona Community.  John Bell also arranged the 3/4 version of the tune, although I don't know if the time signature was original to him.  The copyright date for the hymn is 1987.  The words take the form of a dialogue between Jesus and his followers - the first four verses  of the hymn are Jesus' challenge to those who would follow him, and the final verse their (our) response.  The hymn emphasizes the radical nature of the Lord's call on our lives, a call which Jesus himself describes in these words: If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (Mark 8:34).   Dr C Michael Hawn, in his article in the United Methodist Church History of Hymns, calls the text 'prophetic', and points out that it uses 'many words not usually found in traditional hymns'.

In the three decades plus since the publication of Will you come and follow me? it has become a very popular hymn, which lends itself to both traditional and contemporary worship.  I find it both highly challenging (there's no room for compromise in following Christ's call), but also very enjoyable to sing.

I found two Songs of Praise videos of this hymn.  Sadly, they both omit the third verse.

• This one was recorded in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, where I was ordained priest in 1998 - I even spotted a few members of my former church family in St Mary Halewood amongst the congregation!

• I've also included this one, because it was recorded in Glasgow, where the tune Kelvingrove originates.  

If you want to hear all five verses, there's a lyric video here.

Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash

Before the throne of God above

I learned this hymn while I was a Curate in Liverpool in the late 1990s.  In preparing to write this post, I've learned that the tune we sing it to was only written in 1997, so it was a very new addition to the modern repertoire!  It's a powerful and emotional hymn, reminding us that we can't possibly approach the throne of Almighty God on the basis of anything we have done, or anything we are, but only on the basis of the work of Jesus Christ, his death on the cross, his resurrection and ascension to heaven, where he is ever interceding (praying) for us.

The words of Before the throne of God above were written by Charitie Lees Smith/Bancroft/De Cheney (1841 - 1923).  She was born Charitie Lees Smith in Ireland.  Her father was a clergyman.  She married Arthur Bancroft in 1869, and was widowed in 1881.  Charitie later emigrated to California, where she married again in 1891: she and Frank De Cheney divorced in 1915.  All three of her surnames are used in different hymn books.

Before the throne of God above was first published in England in 1863, and in America in 1865.  Charles Spurgeon included it in Our Own Hymn Book in 1866, and he clearly memorised the words, because he quoted part of this hymn in his last public address (quoted by Chris Fenner, taken from The Sword and the Trowel) (London: Passmore & Alabaster, February 1892), p 51):

Though I have preached Christ crucified for more than forty years, and have led many to my Master's feet, I have at this moment no ray of hope but that which comes from what my Lord Jesus has done for guilty men.

                           Behold him there! the bleeding Lamb!
                           My perfect, spotless Righteousness,
                           The great unchangeable "I AM,"
                           The King of glory and of grace.

Miss Smith included this hymn as the title piece in her own collection of 26 poems, Within the Vail and Other Sacred Poems in 1867.  She wrote the following preface to the book:

The following hymns and verses, illustrative of some phases of a believer's experience, have been written at various intervals during the last few years.  With some of them the public is already acquainted, and the favour with which these have been received, in their separate form, has emboldened the author to offer this unpretending little collection to the reader.

May these verses find an echo in other hearts, and be of help, especially in hours of trial, by reminding of a Saviour's sympathy and a Father's love.  May they help some to take humbly and patiently the chastisement which is sent, not less in tenderness than in wisdom.  We are 'not as yet come to the rest, and the inheritance.'  Thank God, we shall soon enjoy both!

The author will make but one, it is hoped, reasonable request, namely, that those who are disposed to reproduce any of the following pieces, will do so without altering the form in which, after consideration, the writer has thought it best to leave them.

This shows how the hymn appeared in the author's own book:-

Before the recent tune was written in 1997, Before the throne of God above was set to many different tunes.  Hymnary.org lists or gives page scans showing it set to: Dunedin, Breslau, Sweet Hour, Festus, Jerusalem, Intercession, Galilee, Duke Street and Darley.  

Chris Fenner, in his comments on Hymnology Archive quotes a letter from Vikki Cook, who composed the modern tune, Before the throne.  She tells of how she first heard the hymn in 1997.  She was part of the worship team in  her church, who learned the hymn to the tune Jerusalem and taught it to the congregation.  It didn't go down well!  The tune wasn't familiar to American ears, and as Vikki says, "it was not a very good match for these words and did nothing to highlight the truths being communicated.  I didn't care for the melody much either, but I fell in love with the words!"

Vikki took a copy of the words home with her, and stuck them in her Bible, so she could read them in her quiet times.  She continues, "I spent many mornings with God weeping over those lyrics.  I had to find a way to sing these words to God, even if it was only for myself.  When I made up my mind to write a new melody it came surprisingly quick, in about an hour."  She played the tune to her husband, and then to their worship leader, and it began to take off.  "I'm amazed at how God has used this song in the church at large, especially when I think that I just wrote this new melody so that I could worship God in my quiet times with Him.  Even though it has been several years, I still weep when I sing the part that says, "for God the Just is satisfied to look on Him, and pardon me."

If you know the modern version of the hymn, you'll have probably noticed that Vikki Cook made some minor changes to the words in her version.  She's also written a fourth verse, which appears in Anglican Hymns Old and New (Kevin Mayhew, 2008).  It was written to be included in Jesus Son of God: A Dramatic Musical for Easter (Nashville: LifeWay, 2003), created and arranged by Gary Rhodes, but isn't usually included in hymn books or recordings.  (I'm grateful to Chris Fenner for researching this and letting me know).  I include the words to that verse here, with the author's permission:

            I bow before the cross of Christ,
            and marvel at this love divine;
            God's perfect Son was sacrificed
            to make me righteous in God's eyes.
            This river's depths I cannot know
            but I can glory in its flood,
            the Lord Most High has bowed down low
            and poured on me his glorious love,
            and poured on me his glorious love.

You can hear Vikki's original recording of Before the throne of God above here.

There's a lyric video here.