Origins of Songs

I love that song, rlvaughn!

 

Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
1745 A.D.

The Great Awakening of the 1700s was a heaven-sent revival to many parts of the world. In America, the preaching of George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards renewed Christian zeal and swept multitudes into the Kingdom. In England, the open-air evangelism of Whitefield and the Wesley brothers did the same. In Wales, it was the electrifying preaching Howell Harris and his convert, William Williams.

Williams, son of a wealthy farmer, graduated from the university as a physician, intending to become a medical doctor. But hearing a sermon that Harris preached while standing on a gravestone in Talgarth churchyard, he was converted. Soon thereafter, he changed professions to become a physician of the soul - a preacher.

During his 43 years of itinerant ministry, Williams traveled over 95,000 miles, drawing crowds of 10,000 or more. Once he spoke to an estimated 80,000, noting in his journal "God strengthened me to speak so loud that most could hear."

Williams is best remembered , however, for his hymns. He has been called the "Sweet Singer of Wales" and the "Watts of Wales." In all, he composed over 800 hymns, his best known being this autobiographical prayer with its many Old Testament allusions, which first appeared in Williams' collection of Welsh hymns, Alleluia (1745), entitled "Strength to Pass Through the Wilderness."

Williams lived as a pilgrim, pressing through the snow of winter, the rains of springtime, and the heat of summer. He was both beaten by mobs (once nearly dying)and cheered by crowds, but in all his travels he sought only to do the will of God until his death at age 74.

Many years later, when President James Garfield was dying of an assassin's bullet, he seemed to temporarily rally and was allowed to sit by the window. His wife began singing this hymn, and the President, listening intently began to cry. To his doctor, Willard Bliss, he said, "Glorious, Bliss, isn't it?"

This hymn was also sung at the funeral of England's Princess Diana.

Several stanzas of this hymn are today seldom sung. One of the best reads:

Musing on my habitation, musing on my heavenly home;
Fills my soul with holy longings: Come, my Jesus, quickly come.
Vanity is all I see; Lord, I long to be with Thee.

 

O Happy Day, That Fixed My Choice
1755 A.D.

Eighteen of Monica Doddridge's nineteen children died in infancy. When number twenty wrrived on June 26, 1702, he, too, appeared stillborn. But while being laid aside, he cried out. Monica determined then and there to raise Philip for the Lord. As a young child, he sat on her knees at the fireplace, which was lined with Delft tiles illustrating the history of the Bible. Using those tiles, Monica taught her son the lessons of Scripture.

When he was later orphaned, Philip wrote in his diary, "God is an immortal Father, my soul rejoices in Him; He hath hitherto helped me and provided for me; may it be my study to spprove myself a more affectionate, grateful, and dutiful child."

But he was destitute, and though he longed to be a minister, there seemed no way to afford the necessary education. Friends advised him to prepare for another profession, but before making a final decision, Philip set apart a day for earnest prayer. While he was praying, the postman arrived with a letter from a wealthy benefactor offering to finance his training. It was such a timely answer that Philip resolved henceforth to live a life of prayer, and he trained himself to pray without ceasing, even while getting washed dressed in the morning.

At age 27, Philip was asked to become the head of a seminary for Dissenting (non-Anglican) ministerial students in Northampton, England. His health was frail, and he didn't think he was well enough for the new responsibilities. But while passing a house, he overheard a child reading from Deuteronomy 33:25: "As your days, so shall your strength be." He took it as from God and accepted the call.

The reputation of Northampton Academy radiated through England, and students flocked there, in part, because of Philip's chapel sermons and his powerful prayer life. For twenty-two years, Philip trained students, and his books became "must reading" for the Christians of his day - and ours.

By age 48, however, he was exhausted. Consumption struck his lungs, and he traveled to Lisbon for a therapeutic holiday. There he passed away on October 26, 1751.

Today Philip is best remembered for his book, The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, and for his collection of nearly 400 hymns, published posthumously in 1755, and which included "O Happy Day."

 

That's a good point there, rlvaughn. I'll have to check my notes. The source I pulled that from, and even Cyber Hymnal list it as a verse. But I'll go back and see. Thanks for keeping me in check!

No side-tracking is looked upon un-favorably! I want to make sure that I'm right!

 

My favorite...

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
1758 A.D.

Robert Robinson had a rough beginning. His father died when he was young, and his mother, unable to control him, sent him to London to learn barbering. What he learned was drinking and gang-life. When he was 17, he and his friends reportedly visited a fortune-teller. Relaxed by alcohol, they laughed as she tried to tell their futures. But something about the encounter bothered Robert, and that evening he suggested to his buddies they attend the evangelistic meeting being held by George Whitefield.

Whitefield was one of history's greatest preachers, with a voice that was part foghorn and part violin. That night he preached from Matthew 3:7: "But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" Bursting into tears, Whitefield exclaimed, "Oh, my hearers! The wrath to come! The wrath to come!"

Robert immediately sobered up and sensed Whitefield was preaching directly to him. The preacher's words haunted him for nearly three years, until December 10, 1755, when he gave his life to Christ.

Robert soon entered the ministry, and three years later at age 23, while serving Calvinist Methodist Chapel in Norfolk, England, he wrote a hymn for his sermon on Pentecost Sunday. It was a prayer that the Holy Spirit flood into our hearts with His streams of mercy, enabling us to sing God's praises and remain faithful to Him. "Come, Thou Fount" has been a favorite of the church since that day.

Robinson continued working for the Lord until 1790, when he was invited to Birmingham, England, to preach for Dr. Joseph Priestly, a noted Unitarian. There, on the morning of June 8, he was found dead at age 54, having passed away quietly during the night.

Take a few moments to offer this hymn as a personal prayer, especially remembering those last insightful lines:

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it for Thy courts above.

 

Father, Whate'er of Earthly Bliss
1760 A.D.

The Lord never wastes suffering in the lives of His children; He always blesses their sacrifices. That's the lesson of this once-widely-sung, now-seldom-heard hymn.

Anne Steele was born in Broughton, England, in 1716, the oldest daughter of a timber merchant. She faced her first tragedy at age three when her mother died. Her father, however, raised her for the Lord. Growing affluent in his business, he was able to pastor Broughton's Baptist church without salary, serving forty years. Anne joined the church at age 14, and became her dad's co-worker.

When she was 19, a severe hip injury left her an invalid. She nonetheless fell in love with one Robert Elscurot, who proposed to her. But he drowned the day before their wedding.

Out of her suffering, Anne began writing devotional material, and her ministry alongside her dad to the people of Broughton blossomed. In her mid-forties, Anne submitted her Poems on Subjects Chiefly Devotional for publication. Her father wrote in his diary, "This day Annie sent part of her composition to London to be printed. I entreat a gracious God, who enabled and stirred her up to such a work, to direct in it and bless it for the good of many.... I pray God to make it useful and keep her humble."

So many of these poems were converted to hymns that Anne is remembered as one of the foremost women hymnists of the eighteenth century. Her best-known hymn, "Desiring Resignation and Thankfulness," was written as a personal prayer:

Father, whate'er of earthly bliss / Thy sovereign will denies, /
Accepted at Thy throne, let this / My humble prayer, arise:

Give me a calm and thankful heart, / From every murmur free; /
The blessing of Thy grace inpart, / And make me live to Thee.

Let the sweet hope that Thou art mine / My life and death attend, /
Thy presence through my journey shine, / And crown my journey's end.

The prayer of the final stanza was answered on November 11, 1778, the day of her death. As her weeping friends gathered around, she closed her eyes and whispered her last words: "I know that my Redeemer liveth."

 

There is a Fountain
1772 A.D.

Williams Cowper is one of God's gracious gifts to those suffering from depression. Like the Psalmist who cried, "Why are you cast down, O my soul?" (Psalm 42:5), Cowper shows us that our emotional struggles often give us heightened sensitivity to the heart of God and to the needs of others.

Cowper (pronounced Cooper), born in 1731, was the fourth child of a British clergyman and his wife. William's three siblings died, then his mother died while giving birth to the fifth child. William was six when he lost his mother, and it was a blow from which he never recovered. Years later, when someone sent him a picture of her, he wrote:

My mother! when I learned that thou wast dead,
Say, wast thou conscious of the tears I shed?
Hover'd thy spirit o'er thy sorrowing son,
Wretch even then, life's jounrey just begun?...
I heard the bell toll'd on thy burial day,
I saw the hearse that bore thee slow away,
And, turning from my nursery window, drew
A long, long sigh and wept a last adieu!

William, emotionally frail, was sent to a boarding school where for two years he was terrorized by a bully which further shattered his nerves. From ages 10 to 18, he had a better experience at Westminster School, developing a love for literature and poetry. His father wanted him to be an attorney, but, preparing for his bar exam, he experienced runaway anxiety. Concluding himself damned, he threw away his Bible and attempted suicide.

Friends recommended an asylum run by Dr. Nathaniel Cotton, a lover of poetry and a committed Christian. Under Dr. Cotton's care, Williams slowly recovered. In the asylum in 1764, he found the Lord while reading Romans 3:25: "...whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood, through faith...." His life was still to hold many dark days of intense depression, but at least he now had a spiritual foundation. As he later put it:

There is a fountain filled with blood / Drawn from Immanuel's veins, /
And sinners plunged beneath that flood, / Lose all their guilty stains.

 

Rock of Ages
1776 A.D.

On November 4, 1740, a baby in Farnham, England, was given the formidable name of Augustus Montague Toplady. His father died in a war, his mother spoiled him, his friends thought him "sick and neurotic," and his relatives disliked him.

But Augustus was interested inthe Lord. "I am now arrived at the age of eleven years," he wrote on his birthday. "I praise God I can remember no dreadful crime; to the Lord be the glory." By age 12 he was preaching sermons to whoever would listen. At 14 he began writing hymns. At 16 he was soundly converted to Christ while attending a service in a barn. And at 22 he was ordained an Anglican priest.

As a staunch Calvinist, he despised John Wesley's Arminian theology and bitterly attacked the great Methodist leader. "I believe him to be the most rancorous hater of the gospel-system that ever appeared on this island," Augustus wrote.

"Wesley is guilty of satanic shamlessness," he said on another occasion, "of acting the ignoble part of a lurking, shy assassin."

In 1776 Augustus wrote an article about God's forgiveness, intending it as a slap at Wesley. He ended his article with an original poem:

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Save from wrath and make me pure.

Augustus Toplady died at age 38, but his poem outlived him and has been called "the best-known, best-loved, and most widely-useful" hymn in the English language. Oddly, it is remarkably similar to something Wesley had written 30 years before in the preface of a book of hymns for the Lord's Supper: "O Rock of Salvation, Rock struck and cleft for me, let those two Streams of Blood and Water which gushed from Thy side, bring down Pardon and Holiness in my soul."

Perhaps the two men were not a incompatible as they thought.

 

All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name
1779 A.D.

In November, 1799, issue of The Gospel Magazine, edited by Augustus Toplady, there appeared an anonymous hymn entitled "On the Resurrection, the Lord is King":

All ahil the power of Jesus' name! Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown Him Lord of all.

The author, it was later revealed, was Rev. Edward Perronet.

Edward's Protestant grandparents had fled Catholic France, going first to Switzerland, then to England. Edward's father had become a vicar in the Anglican Church, and Edward followed in his footsteps.

For several years, he became closely allied with the Wesleys, traveling with them and sometimes caught up in their adventures. In John Wesley's journal, we find this entry: "Edward Perronet was thrown down and rolled in mud and mire. Stones were hurled and windows broken."

In time, however, Edward broke with the Wesleys over various Methodist policies, and John Wesley excluded his hymns from the Methodist hymnals. Edward went off to pastor a small independent church in Canterbury, where he died on January 22, 1792. His last words were: Glory to God in the height of His divinity! Glory to God in the depth of His humanity! Glory to God in His all-sufficiency! Into His hands I commend my spirit."

Edward Perronet's hymn, "All Hail the Power," has earned him an indelible place in the history of church music. It also has a place in missionary history, being greatly used in evangelistic endeavors. Rev. E.P. Scott, for example, missionary to India, wrote of trying to reach a savage tribe in the Indian subcontinent. Ignoring the pleadings of his friends, he set off into the dangerous territory. Several days later, he met a large party of warriors who surrounded him, their spears pointed at his heart.

Expecting to die at any moment, Scott took out his violin, breathed a prayer, closed his eyes, and began singing, "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name!" When he reached the words, "Let every kindred, every tribe," he opened his eyes. There stodd the warriors, some in tears, every spear lowered. Scott spent the next two years evangelizing the tribe.

 

Amazing Grace
1779 A.D.

It's hard to shake off a mother's influence. John Newton's earliest memories were of his godly mother who, despite fragile health, devoted herself to nurturing his soul. At her knee he memorized Bible passages and hymns. Though she died when he was about seven, he later recalled her tearful prayers for him.

After her death, John alternated between boarding school and the high seas, wanting to live a good life but nonetheless falling deeper and deeper into sin. Pressed into service with the British Navy, he deserted, was captured, and after two days of suspense, was flogged. His subsequent thought vacilated between murder and suicide. "I was capable of anything," he recalled.

More voyages, dangers, toils, and snares followed. It was a life unrivaled in fiction. Then, on the night of March 9, 1748, John, 23, was jolted awake by a brutal storm that descended too suddenly for the crew to foresee. The next day, in great peril, he cried to the Lord. He later wrote, "That tenth of March is a day much remembered by me; and I have never suffered it to pass unnoticed since the year 1748 - the Lord came from on high and delivered me out of deep waters."

The next several years saw slow halting spiritual growth in John, but in the end he became one of the most powerful evangelical preachers in British history, a powerful foe of slavery, and the author of hundreds of hymns.

Here are some things you may not know about Newton's most famous hymn. His title for it wasn't originally "Amazing Grace" but "Faith's Review and Expectation." It is based in Newton's study of 1 Chronicles 17:16-17: "King David... said: "Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house, that You have brought me this far? And yet... You have also spoken of Your servant's house for a great while to come, and have regarded me according to the rank of a man of high degree...."

And here's a nearly forgotten verse that Newton added near the end of "Amazing Grace." Try singing it for yourself:

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, the sun forbear to shine;
But God, Who called me here below, shall be forever mine!

 

How Firm a Foundation
1787 A.D.

Talk about long pastorates! John Rippon pastored Carter's Lane Baptist Church in London for 63 years, beginning in 1775. He had been born in 1751, so he was in his mid-twenties when he first mounted the Carter's Lane pulpit following his education at the Baptist College in Bristol, England.

During the years of Carter's Lane, John develped a vision for a church hymnal, which he edited, assisted by his Minister of Music, Robert Keene. The resulting volume, A Selection of Hymns from the Best Authors, Intended to Be an Appendix to Dr. Watts' Psalms and Hymns, was published in 1787. It was a runaway hit, especially among the Baptists, going through eleven British editions during Rippon's lifetime. An American edition appeared in 1820.

"How Firm a Foundation" first appeared here. No one knows it's author, for the line reserved for the author's name simply bore the letter "K." Many scholars attribute the composition to Keene.

The unique power of this hymn is due to the fact that each of the seven original stanzas were based on various biblical promises. The first verse established the hymnist's theme - God's Word is a sufficient foundation for our faith. The author then selected precious promises for the Bible, and converted these into hymn stanzas, among them:

* Isaiah 41:10 - Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
* Isaiah 43:2 - When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you.
* 2 Corinthians 12:9 - My grace is sufficient for you, fo My strength is made perfect is weakness. Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
* Hebrews 13:5 - For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."

No wonder this hymn was first published under the title, "Exceedingly Great and Precious Promises."

 

There is a Balm in Gilead
circa 1800

The first Africans on American shores arrived in chains. Their hellish voyage aboard slave ships was only the beginning of their sorrows. The breakup of their families, the oppression of bondage, the whips and shackles, their loss of dignity... it all combined to kill both body and spirit.

But the souls of the slaves found release through singing, and a unipque form of music evolved called the "Negro Spiritual." Spirituals differed greatly from the hymns we've thus far studied. The classics of English hymnody were largely written by pastors like Isaac Watts and John Newton out of their studies of Scripture. African-American slaves, on the other hand, composed their songs in the fields and barns, the words dealing with daily pain and future hope.

Often the slaves were allowed to sing while working. If, for example, they were hauling a fallen tree, they would combine muscles and voices, using the musical rhythms for a "heave-ho" effect. Other times, risking the lash or branding iron, they'd slip into torch-lit groves to worship the Lord. With swaying bodies, they would stand, eyes half-closed, singing, "Go Down, Moses," "Roll, Jordan, Roll," "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands," and the classic "There is a Balm in Gilead" based on Jeremiah 8:22.

"Hymns more genuine than these have never been sung since the psalmists of Israel relieved their burdened hearts," wrote Edith A. Talbot.

Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, was established after the Civil War, and the famous Fisk Jubilee Singers popularized these Negro spirituals around the world. Composers began arranging spirituals in a way that appealed to the larger population and this gave rise to another type of Christian music, tagged by composer Thomas A. Dorsey as "gospel songs."

Few Negro spirituals can be precisely dated, nor are many specific authors known, but they have mightily influenced American Christian music, even our "children's songs." The roots of the children's Sunday School chorus, "Do Lord," for example, is in this old spiritual:

O do, Lord, remember me!
For Death is a simple thing,
And he go from door to door
And he knock down some, and he cripple up some,
And he leave some here to pray.
O do, Lord, remember me!

 

Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken
1824 A.D.

Just as the most beautiful skies combine billowing clouds with shimmering sunlight, Henry Francis Lyte's colorful, bittersweet life contributed to the pensive depth of his beautiful hymns. Henry was born in Scotland in 1793. His father, Captain Thomas Lyte, moved the family to Ireland, then abandoned them, and young Henry was raised by his mother who taught him the Bible and instructed him about prayer. After he entered Portora Royal School in Northern Ireland, his mother died, leaving Henry a nine-year-old orphan with no means of support.

Portora Royal School was superintended by wise and kindly Rev. Robert Burrows, who saw something special in Henry. He invited him into his home, accepted him as part of the family, and paid for his education. Henry excelled. At age 16, he was awarded financial assistance to Trinity College in Dublin, and he traveled there intending to enter the medical school. But something was pulling him toward the ministry, and he wound up instead in the Divinity School.

By this time, Henry had grown into a handsome teenager, six feet tall with dark curly hair and a winning personality. He proved a hard worker, a brilliant student, and a gifted poet who repeatedly won awards for his compositions.

After college, Henry, 21, was ordained and began preaching at St. Munn's Church in Taghmon, Ireland, an inland city south of Dublin. There he made friends with another pastor, Rev. Abraham Swanne. When Swanne became critically ill, Henry cared for him and for his family, spending long hours talking to the dying man. The two clergymen realized they were both blind guides, lost, without adequate personal relationships with Christ. As they searched the Scriptures together, both Henry and his dying friend came to a deeper faith. He later wrote, "I began to study my Bible and preach in another manner that I had done previously." It was this incident that inspired his wonderful hymn, written in 1824 (revised in 1833):

Jesus, I my cross have taken, / All to leave and follow Thee. /
Destitute, despised, forsaken, / Thou from hence my all shall be.

Man may trouble and distress me, / 'Twill but drive me to Thy breast, /
Life with trials hard may press me, / Heaven will bring me sweeter rest.

 

Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty
1826 A.D.

Reginald Heber was born April 21, 1783, to a minister and his wife in an English village. After a happy childhood and a good education in the village school, he enrolled at Oxford where he excelled in poetry and became fast friends with Sir Walter Scott. Following graduation, he succeeded his father as vicar in his family's parish, and for sixteen years he faithfully served his flock.

His bent toward poetry naturally gave him a keen and growing interest in hymnody. He sought to lift the literary quality of hymns, and he also dreamed of publishing a collection of high-caliber hymns corresponding to the church year for use by liturgical churches. But the Bishop of London wouldn't go along with it, Heber's plans were disappointed.

He continued writing hymns for his own church, however, and it was during the sixteen years in the obscure parish of Hodnet that Heber wrote all 57 of his hymns, including the great missionary hymn, "From Greenland's Icy Mountains," which exhorted missionaries to take the gospel to faraway places like "Greenland's icy mountains," and "India's coral strand."

From Greenland's icy mountains, / From India's coral strand, /
Where Afric's sunny fountains / Roll down their golden sand; /
From many an ancient river, / From many a palmy plain, /
They call us to deliver / Their land from error's chain.

This hymn represented an earnest desire for Reginald, for he felt God was calling him as a missionary to "India's coral strand." His desire was fulfilled in 1822, when at age 40, he was appointed to oversee the Church of England's ministries in India.

Arriving in Calcutta, he set out on a 16-month tour of his diocese, visiting mission station across India. In February of 1826, he left for another tour. While in the village of Trichinopoly on April 3, 1826, he preached to a large crowd in the hot sun, and afterward plunged into a pool of cold water. He suffered a stroke and drowned.

It was after his death that his widow, finding his 57 hymns in a trunk, succeeded in publishing his Hymns Written and Adapted to the Weekly Service of the Church Year. In this volume was the great Trinitarian hymn based on Revelation 4:8-11, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty."

 

My Faith Looks Up to Thee
1830 A.D.

In the early 1830s, Lowell Mason moved to Boston from Savannah, where for sixteen years he had worked in a bank while directing church choirs on the side. In relocating to Boston, he wanted to focus exclusively on his musical interests. Soon he was directing three choirs, publishing hymns, compiling a songbook, and trying to get music education in the Boston public schools.

One day in 1832, he bumped into Ray Palmer. Palmer, 24, was exhausted. For years, he had burned the candle at both ends, working as a clerk in a dry good store, attending classes at Yale, teaching at a girl's school in New York City, and preparing for the ministry.

Now Mason wanted Palmer to write for him, to compose some hymns for his projected hymnbook.

Palmer, too tired to produce anything new, hesitatingly opened his little leather journal and showed Mason a poem he had written two years before. It was a personal prayer for renewed zeal and courage, composed in his rented room one night in 1830 when he had felt sick, tired and lonely.

He later explained that he had wept that winter's evening upon finishing this poem: "The words for these stanzas were born out of my own soul with very little effort," he said. "I recall that I wrote the verses with tender emotion. There was not the slightest thought of writing for another eye, least of all writing a hymn for Christian worship."

After reading these words, Mason ducked into a nearby store for a piece of paper and hurredly copied them down. That evening in his studio, he poured over this poem, hammering out the perfect tune for it. Shortly after, the two men met again and Mason told the young man, "Mr. Palmer, you may live many years and do many good things, but I think you will be best known to posterity as the author of 'My Faith Looks Up to Thee.'"

Lowell Mason was right. Ray Palmer did go on to do many good things and to write many fine hymns. But he is remembered by posterity for his first hymn, one written before he had even entered the ministry.

 

O For a Faith That WIll Not Shrink
1831 A.D.

This hymn strikes a chord in most Christian, for we often find ourselves worrying when we should be worshipping and waiting. The German Christian, George Mueller, was a man who learned to replace fear with faith. When asked about his ability to trust God in crisis, he replied, "My faith is the same faith which is found in every believer. It has been increased little by little for the last 26 years. Many times when I could have gone insane from worry, I was at peace because my soul believed the truth of God's promises. God's Word, together with the whole character of God, as He has revealed Himself, settles all questions. His unchangeable love and His infinite wisdom calmed me.... It is written, 'He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things.'"

If your faith needs bolstering, make this hymn your own personal prayer. It was written by William Bathurst, who was born near Bristol, England, on August 28, 1796. He grew up in privileged surroundings. His father, Charles Bragge, a member of Parliament, changed his name to Bathurst when he inherited the family estate at Lydney Park, Gloucestershire.

After graduating from Oxford, William became an Anglican minister in a village near Leeds, England, for 32 years (1820-1852). But he grew uncomfortable with the Anglican Church, especially regarding the baptism and burial practices demanded by the Book of Common Prayer. He eventually resigned his pulpit and assumed the family estate at Lydney Park. He died at the estate on November 25, 1877, and was buried in the nearby churchyard.

"O For a Faith that Will Not Shrink" is the best-known of William's 200 hymns. Originally entitled, "The Power of Faith," it was written as William studied Luke 17:5-6, where the disciples asked Jesus, "Lord, increase our faith."

O for a faith that will not shrink / Though pressed by ev'ry foe, /
That will not tremble on the brink / Of any earthly woe.

A faith that shines more bright and clear / When tempests rage without; /
That when in danger knows no fear, / In darkness feels no doubt.

 

O Worship the King
1833 A.D.

Charles Grant, director of the East India Company, was respected throughout India as one of Britain's finest statesmen. He was also a deeply committed Christian, an evangelical in the Anglican Church, who used his position in Indiato encourage missionary expansion there.

In 1778, just as England was reeling from the American Revolution, Charles returned to the British Isles to become a member of Parliament from Inverness, Scotland.

His son, Robert, six years old at the time, grew up in a world of power, politics, and privilege. But he also grew up as a devout and dedicated follower of Christ. As a young man, Robert attended Magdalene College, Cambridge, and then entered the legal profession. His intelligence and integrity were obvious. He became King's Sargent in the Court of the Duchy of Lancaster, and, in 1818, he entered Parliament. Among his legislative initiatives was a bill to remove civil restrictions against the Jews.

Ine day in the early 1830s, as Robert studied Psalm 104, he compared the greatness of the King of kings with the majesty of British royalty. Psalm 104:1 says of God: "O Lord my God, You are very great: You are clothed with honor and majesty." Verses 2-3 add that God covers Himself "with light as with a garment" and "makes the clouds His chariot." Verse 5 reminds us that God "laid the foundations of the earth." All of creation reflects God's greatness, verse 24 proclaiming, "O Lord, how manifold are Your works!" Verse 31 says, "May the glory of the Lord endure forever."

Robert filled his heart with these verses, and from his pen came one of the most magnificent hymns in Christendom:

O worship the King, all glorious above,
And gratefully sing His power and His love;
Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,
Pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise.

In 1832, Robert was appointed Judge Advocate General, this hymn was published in 1833, and he was knighted in 1834. Soon thereafter, at age 50, Sir Robert returned to India, land of his early childhood, to be Governor of Bombay. He died there on July 9, 1838. A nearby medical college was built in his honor and named for him. But his most lasting memorial is this majestic hymn of praise, calling up to worship the King of kings.