Frank Grammer: Songwriter, Teacher, and Publisher

In previous postings on hymnal publishing among the Churches of Christ in the Arkansas-Oklahoma-Texas region--a topic for which I must admit a native's partiality--I had encountered the name of Frank Grammer (1882-1949) a number of times. I certainly saw it enough to associate it with the region, and guessed from his associations that he was likely a member of the Church of Christ. But it was not until a descendant of his asked me for more information about his career, that it became apparent just how often his name appears, and in how many different places. Grammer's career is an illuminating study of the interconnectedness of the paperback hymnal businesses in this region. In the first half of the 20th century, Frank Grammer was involved directly or indirectly with nearly every major songwriter and hymnal publisher among the Churches of Christ west of the Mississippi.

From Arkansas to Texas

George Washington Franklin Grammer was born 4 October 1882 in Bentonville, Arkansas.(WW2 draft card) His father, John David Grammer, was born in Missouri 15 August 1854,(death certificate) though the Grammer family apparently was in Benton County early enough that Frank sometimes identified his father as a native of Arkansas. Frank's mother, Julia Ann Walters, was born in Ohio in 1861 and married John D. on 26 December, 1875 in Benton County, Arkansas.(Arkansas marriages) Frank was the third of seven children, all sisters except for Albert (b. 1886), next to Frank in birth order.(Grammer & Geyer)

Like many farming families in that era, the Grammers moved around searching for greener pastures. One of Frank's younger sisters, Mary E., may have been born in Texas in 1893.(1910 census, but cf. 1900 census) In 1900, however, the family was living in northwest Arkansas again, in the Elm Springs area of Washington County, just south Frank's birthplace in Benton County.(1900 census) Grammer would later identify his birthplace more generally as Bentonville, the larger community to the northeast.(WW2 draft card) By 1910, however, the Grammers were in North Texas to stay, living in the Collinsville community in Grayson County. Collinsville is a quiet little town on U.S. 377 (or more significantly for the times, along the M. K. & T. railroad!), roughly halfway between Gainesville and Sherman and a little south.(1910 census)

Professor Grammer, Music Teacher

The 1910 census gives Frank Grammer's occupation as "music teacher," and in the new decade his teaching, songwriting, and publishing activities give evidence of a well established career. In a 1918 newspaper article from Bonham, Texas he is referred to as "Professor Grammer," indicating an education beyond the scope of the usual one- or two-week singing schools.(Bonham Daily Favorite, 9 Mar 1918). This raises the question: where did Grammer get his education, and when?

There were at least two diploma-granting "music normals" (schools with advanced training for singing-school teachers) operating in the Arkansas-Oklahoma-Texas area at the beginning of the 20th century: the Southern Development Normal based in Waco, Texas, and the Eureka Normal School of Music based in Stigler, Indian Territory (later Oklahoma). Schools of this type were modeled on the Virginia Normal School of Music, founded in 1874 by gospel music pioneers Ruebush and Kieffer as a counterpart to their publishing efforts. Not only did it increase the number of men teaching singing schools in their relatively new seven-shape notation system, thus increasing demand for their songbooks, it was also a means to cultivate songwriting talent. And once a music normal's reputation was established, it became virtually a franchise operation, with branches operating in as many locations as business would allow.(Goff, 49ff.)

The Southern Development Normal of Waco, Texas, was founded by Frank L. Eiland in 1898. Eiland also co-founded a publishing house, the Trio Music Company, in 1895. If Grammer had happened to attend sessions in Waco during the first decade of the 1900s, he might have been classmates with Tillit S. Teddlie; during this time Eiland's school was a magnet for songwriters in the Churches of Christ in Texas.(Harp, "Eiland") The S.D.N. songwriters were also frequently involved with the hymnals published in Austin by Firm Foundation, a landmark religious journal and publishing house among the Churches of Christ--and the first songbook Grammer is known to have edited, Zion Melodies, was published in 1910 by Firm Foundation. The Southern Development Normal is also known to have conducted sessions in other locations; there is a wonderful picture on Flickr of an S.D.N. session at Farmersville, Oklahoma (north of Tipton in the western part of the state?), and a session was taught in Golden, Texas in the summer of 1902.(Democrat (McKinney, Texas), 21 August 1902) Golden (home town of Tillit Teddlie!) is more than 100 miles from Collinsville, but this does show that the S.D.N. had a presence in North Texas and beyond.

The Eureka Music Normal was founded by Stephen Jesse Oslin (1858-1928), a Methodist minister from Rockford, Alabama. He married Mollie P. Highfill in 1881 in Waldron, Arkansas,(marriage certificate) and during the early 1890s published a music journal titled Tempo in nearby Fort Smith.(American Newspaper Directory, 1894, p. 30) A search of Worldcat.org shows that he published through the Ruebush-Kieffer Company in the 1890s, and co-wrote Harmony, Composition, and Versification, with Twelve Lessons on Rudimental Class-Teaching with J. H. Ruebush.(Worldcat 24837703) In 1911 Oslin persuaded Ruebush, one of the most famous shape-note teachers and publishers in the nation, to hold a music normal in Whitefield, Oklahoma, suggesting a personal relationship between the two.(Haskell County Leader, 25 May 1911)

Oslin certainly copied the Ruebush-Kieffer business model, setting up the Eureka Publishing Company in tandem with the Eureka Normal Music School, and editing the Eureka Messenger, "a monthly journal of music, poetry, religion, and literature."(Haskell County Leader, 28 September 1911). According to local historians, Oslin founded his "Eureka" businesses in Stigler, Indian Territory in 1898, with incorporation in 1901. Within the next couple of years a fine brick building was constructed, which later became the Eureka Hotel after Oslin's company moved to Arkansas.(Haskell County History, 56)

The earliest instance I have found of the Eureka Music Normal is a session held by J. R. McEwing in Jacksboro, Texas (northwest of Fort Worth) in February 1900.(Jacskboro Gazette, 1 Feb 1900). Oslin had already conducted a music normal in Commerce, Texas (northeast of Dallas) in 1896, though it is unknown whether he used the "Eureka" name.(Holmes) There was also a Eureka music normal in Scott County, Arkansas in 1901,(Echoes) and in Enterprise, Indian Territory (15 miles west of Stigler), the Eureka Normal Music School was already in "annual" sessions by 1902.(Checotah Enquirer 22 August 1902, p. 8) One of Oslin's star pupils, William W. Slater, taught a Eureka Normal in Little Cedar, Arkansas (southeast of Fort Smith) in 1907.(Advance Reporter, 12 July 1907) Did Frank Grammer attend the Eureka Normal School of Music, before his association with that company as an editor and songwriter in the late 1910s? (He certainly did advanced studies there later; his family is in possession of diplomas from 1923.) Until further evidence is uncovered, I can only point out that he had ample opportunity in his youth to encounter Stephen J. Oslin, and was within reasonable traveling distance of places where the Eureka Schools are known to have been held, both when he was living near Arkansas and after he moved to Texas.

Frank Grammer and the Firm Foundation Hymnals

The earliest published work by Frank Grammer that I have found is Zion Melodies (Austin, Texas: Firm Foundation, 1910), which he co-edited with Austin Taylor, G. H. P. Showalter, and J. S. Dunn. It was only the second hymnal to come from this press, and the first edited by Taylor and Showalter, whose work would dominate the Firm Foundation hymnal tradition over the following decades (see my post on Firm Foundation hymnals). It contained at least two songs with music by Grammer: "On the rock of ages" and "Peace in my soul," both written to lyrics by Austin Taylor. (Copyright Entries 1910, Music, 689, 842) Grammer wrote both words and music for "Hear the Savior calling," a song copyrighted by Firm Foundation in 1911.(Copyright Entries 1911, Music, 996) It is not indicated what book this appeared in, if any. His "Dew of mercy" appeared in the 1913 Firm Foundation book Select Songs, edited by Austin Taylor and J. M. Hagen.(Copyright Entries 1913, Music, 1175) His last known collaboration with this publisher was "Believing in my Savior's word," which appeared in the popular New Gospel Song Book, edited by Taylor and Showalter in 1914.(Copyright Entries 1914, Music, 318)

His career by this time becoming well established, Frank also began a family; on 17 June 1911 he married Virgie Reaves (b. 1885) from Savoy, Texas (near Bonham). Interestingly, they were married across the river in Durant, Oklahoma by a minister of the Church of Christ.(Marriage license) Their first child, Austin Larimore Grammer, was born in Sherman, Texas in 1912.(Death certificate) The name "Austin," of course, has long been popular as a boy's name in Texas, though it is tempting to suppose that Frank named him after Austin Taylor. "Larimore" may have been the prominent preacher T. B. Larimore, who taught at the short-lived Gunter Bible College in Grayson County, Texas, less than 20 miles from the Grammer family home in Collinsville. He also co-edited the New Christian Hymnal with William J. Kirkpatrick, one of the best of the early Gospel Advocate hymnals.(Harp, "Larimore">)

According to the information submitted for the copyrights noted above, the Grammers lived in or near Sherman, Texas at least through 22 September 1914, when their second child (a daughter, Frankie Edgel Grammer) was born.(Geyer & Grammer Family Tree) At some point, however, he moved east to Bonham, Texas; the birth certificate of Jessie Verbal Grammer, born 21 March 1918, says that her father Frank was employed as a voice teacher in Bonham. "Prof. Frank Grammer" is mentioned in the local newspaper on the 9th of the same month, speaking to the Board of Trade (Chamber of Commerce?) about bringing the Fannin County Singing Convention to Bonham.(Bonham Daily Favorite, 9 March 1918, p. 4) He is mentioned in the newspaper again that summer as the president of the Fannin County Singers, Teachers, and Music Publishers Association.(Bonham Daily Favorite, 25 July 1918, p. 7) The Grammer family resided in Bonham at least through 1920, when they were listed by the U.S. Census.

The Eureka Normal School of Music and Publishing Company

As his career progressed and his family grew, Grammer began to branch out in his associations with publishers. His next works are found in the Eureka Sacred Banner, published by a branch of the Eureka Publishing Company in Seymour, Texas in 1914. (Seymour is west of Wichita Falls, Texas; it would be interesting to know if Grammer were connected with this Texas wing of the Eureka Company.) Grammer's songs in this book were "Dear Lord, indeed, Thy love I need," "I from sin have been made free," and "Softly falls the dew at evening."(Eureka Sacred Banner, Hymnary.org)

Soon after he began to serve as a co-editor along with Will Slater (another important songwriter/editor from the Churches of Christ), and the boss, Stephen Jesse Oslin. Along with other songwriters, they produced the Eureka songbooks Christian Hymnal(1916) and Eureka Joy Carols (1918), published in Stigler, Oklahoma. Other songs by Grammer during this period included: "I am persuaded now to believe" and "We are marching on to Canaan's fair shore" from the Eureka Song Climax, 1916; and "I cannot see for blinded eyes," with lyrics by Grace Stoddard Dennstedt, in the Eureka Highway Songs, 1918.

By the fall of 1918, the Eureka company moved across the state line to Mena, Arkansas.(MTR 19 Oct 1918, p. 13) The first Eureka publication with a Mena imprint was Eureka Highway Songs in 1918, and from that point forward there are no more known publications from Oklahoma. And though it is not clear what Grammer's official role was during the preceding years, in 1919 he was selected as 2nd Vice President of the company, subordinate only to Slater and Oslin.(MTR1 Nov 1919, p. 5) His business was still conducted long-distance at this time, however; the 1920 U.S. Census shows the Frank Grammer family still living in Bonham, Texas.

But eventually Grammer's involvement with the Eureka Music enterprises led him to move the family to Mena, Arkansas, where the company was headquartered. The Adair Gleaner (Adair County, Oklahoma) of 22 June 1923 stated the following news:

Prof. Frank Grammer of Mena, Ark. will open an 18 day session of the Eureka Normal School of Music at Westville next Monday. Prof. Grammer taught a school at Starr and one at Horn this spring ... We hope that a goodly number will attend this.(p. 18)

The borderlands of Oklahoma, though sparsely settled, proved fertile ground for the Eureka schools. Westville, Oklahoma is just west of the Arkansas border, north of Fort Smith; the Horn community and the Starr School (to which this may refer) were near Stilwell, the county seat. The newspapers of eastern Oklahoma were full of notices, for a time, of the newly relocated Eureka Company. Frank was also busy with the editing and publishing side of the Eureka Company after his move to Arkansas. In 1921 he edited Eureka Sacred Carols with Oslin and Slater, which included his original songs, "I once was lost and doomed to die," "Is the Savior crowded out of your busy life today?," and "There's a beautiful land, 'tis the land of the blest." Grammer took up a catch-phrase from World War One in the title of another song, "Over the top for the Savior today."

"Marching On" first published in Eureka Song Climax, 1916

Parting Ways

The Grammer family continued to grow with the birth of Harrietta in 1925, the only one of the children born in Arkansas.(Virgie Grammer household, 1930 U.S. Census) Around this same time Frank was involved with Will Slater in another publishing project, the Herald of Song no. 1 (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: Herald of Truth Association, 1925?). Grammer and Borden had worked together earlier on a revision of the Eureka book Songs of Truth, published by Borden in Oklahoma City in 1920. Borden was a significant gospel preacher and debater among the Churches of Christ in Oklahoma. (N.B. His Herald of Truth was not related to the later radio/television broadcast of the same name.) This association may also have brought Grammer into contact with Rue Porter, another prominent Oklahoma preacher, who would be co-editor of Grammer's last books.

Business apparently was good during the 1920s, but like much of the American economy, the Eureka Music Company faded away at the end of the decade. The latest mention of the company I have found is an advertisement in the 24 October 1929 issue of the Evening News from Ada, Oklahoma.(Evening News, 24 Oct 1929, p. 5) Changes were also afoot among the leadership of the company; Stephen Jesse Oslin passed away in 1928, and Will Slater started his own publishing house, Slater Music Company, around the same time. The last documented connection of Grammer to the Eureka company is 1923; Grammer's next hymnal,Tidings of Joy, was published in 1928 by the Fort Smith Music Company.

Near the end of the 1920s there was also a major change within the Grammer family; Frank and Virgie divorced. The 1930 U.S. Census shows Frank back in Sherman, Texas with his brother-in-law Andrew Dooley, teaching voice; his son Austin Larimore went with him. Virgie remained in Mena, Arkansas with the girls, supporting herself by working as a nurse.(Virgie Grammer household, 1930 U.S. Census) No further account of the split has been forthcoming. Both remarried; Frank married Blanch Willis of Sherman on 2 August 1930 (oddly enough, they went to Durant, Oklahoma, where he had married Virgie).(Grammer-Willis marriage certificate) Virgie married Eugene Richey of Amarillo, Texas on 9 March 1932.(Richey-Grammer marriage certificate) Frank and Blanch lost their first child, a son who was born prematurely, but later had other children.("Blanch Grammer," Geyer & Grammer) Frank and his new family stayed in Sherman, Texas until at least 1935, with Frank working at least part of that period as a salesman.(Sherman City Directory 1935, p. 133)

New Connections: The Hartford Music Company

Despite setbacks in his personal life and career, Frank continued to press forward during the 1930s, establishing relationships with other publishers. In 1931 he was credited as a co-editor (along with many others) in Garden of Song published by the Hartford Music Company in Hartford, Arkansas. In 1933 he edited the Herald of Song no. 2 with E. M. Borden, Will Slater, and others (though this apparently does not indicate a publisher, it seems likely that it was connected with Borden's Herald of Truth Publishing in Oklahoma City. In 1936 he edited Songs of Praise and Devotion with Will Slater, published by the Slater Music Company in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

His songwriting continued as well, collaborating with Don Hooper in "Some Happy Day" in 1933 and with D. M. Rice in "My life was once all stained with sin" in 1935. Grammer also wrote both words and music for "With Christ the Lord who leads the way," published in 1935. These publications also demonstrate a developing association that would figure prominently in Grammer's life throughout the 1930s: the first song appeared in The Wonderful Message, and the latter two in Charming Melodies, both of which were publications of the Hartford Music Company in Hartford, Arkansas.

The Hartford Music Company and Hartford Music Institute were founded in 1918 by Eugene M. Bartlett (best remembered for the song "Victory in Jesus") in Hartford, Arkansas, halfway between Fort Smith and Mena. The most famous alumnus of the school was Albert Brumley, who also served on the faculty and later bought the company. Bartlett retired in 1931, leaving the management of the business to his long-time partner John A. McClung.(Gibson & Way) Grammer, after serving as one of a large number of co-editors on the 1931 Garden of Song, was McClung's only partner in editing The King's Pilot in 1938 and God's Billows of Love in 1941.

Around this time Frank and Blanch relocated to northwestern Arkansas, presumably to work more directly with the Hartford Music Company. An announcement in the Fayetteville Daily Democrat said that "Frank Grammer of St. Paul will teach a session of the Hartford Musical Institute at Greenland Church of Christ, beginning Monday, March 22."(20 March 1937, p. 7) Greenland is a little to the south of Fayetteville, and St. Paul to the southwest on the edge of the Ozark National Forest.

A notice in the Northwest Arkansas Times, 2 Aug 1938, p. 7, shows that they had moved yet again. This is a more elaborate advertisement than most, and helps us imagine the setting. If only I had a time machine!

ALL-DAY SINGING AT OAK GROVE AUG. 7

There will be an all-day singing at Oak Grove three miles west of Springdale, Sunday Aug. 7th. The singing will be at the shed on the school grounds where there is plenty of good shade and parking ground, also plenty of good water.

Prof. Frank Grammer of Huntsville will have charge of the singing. All singers and lovers of good music are invited to be there.

Huntsville is about 23 miles north of St. Paul, lying more directly west from Fayetteville. Presumably Frank had other employment that led him to these out-of-the-way locations, none of which were particularly convenient to the Hartford Music headquarters.

California and the Church Music Company

Like many a person from the Depression-stricken central part of the United States, Frank Grammer found his way to California. He was in Bakersfield in the fall of 1941,(Bakersfield Californian, 11 October 1941, p. 7) and since his last hymnal with Hartford Music (God's Billows of Love) appeared the same year, it seems likely that he moved from Arkansas to California that year. Frank resided in Fullerton from 1942 until his death in 1949.(Death certificate) His 1942 draft registration indicates that he worked as a fruit packer for the Mutual Citrus Product Company in Anaheim; but his first love, gospel music, was never far away. The Bakersfield Californian advertised the following interesting method of church outreach:

FREE MUSIC LESSONS

Free music instruction is offered by the Magunden Church of Christ which has procured Frank Grammer of the Eureka Normal School of Music in Tennessee to conduct a course of voice culture and harmony. The church school is held in Magunden hall.(15 October 1941, p. 12)

Magunden is a neighborhood of Bakersfield. The reference to Tennessee seems to be an error; I can find no evidence that either Grammer or the Eureka Company was ever in Tennessee.

The difficulties of a wartime economy were doubtless discouraging to the many small gospel music publishers spread across the United States during the early 20th century. Grammer does not appear to have been involved with any new hymnals until after the war, when the More Perfect Gospel Hymnal appeared. This was published by Ditler Brothers in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1946, but was a revision of Hall's earlier Cross and Resurrection in Song, first published in 1917.(Copyright Entries 1946, Part 1 (Books), p. 454) Samuel Henry Hall (1877-1961) was one of the most prominent evangelists among the Churches of Christ in the southeastern United States, and also in California, where he relocated in the 1940s. He was also a significant songwriter and hymnal publisher.(Harp, "Hall")

Grammer edited another hymnal published in 1946, this time through the Church Music Company of Fullerton, California: Favorite Songs of the Church. This was followed by Favorite Songs of the Church, no. 2 in 1948. Besides these two I have found only one other publication connected with this company: Church Praises, published by a Church Music Company in Neosho, Missouri in 1952. It was edited by Rue Porter along with Albert E. Brumley and W. N. Bohannon. According to the Grammer family, Porter was a partner in the Church Music Company, and took it over after Frank's death. Though he was not able to keep it actively publishng, he managed its copyright affairs and made sure Blanch received the royalties.

Grammer's last hymnal, Favorite Songs of the Church, no. 2, is a fitting testimony to his goals as a music teacher, songleader, songwriter, and editor. I own a copy, and in an earlier post I gave a more complete description of this book along with an author-title index. The title page of Favorite Songs of the Church, no. 2, lists Springdale, Arkansas and Pine Apple, Alabama as places of publication in addition to Fullerton, California; according to the Grammer family, Rue Porter was handling the Church Music Company business back in the gospel heartland.

The title page of this songbook is a who's who of songwriters and preachers of the Churches of Christ during this period. I have linked these names to their pages at Scott Harp's Restoration Movement website where possible. Contributing songwriters included:

Rue Porter W. N. Bohannan C. E. McCord Clarence C. Gobbel Arval Tackett Floyd B. Lee Owen Humphries Mrs. May Thompson Maurice Claymore

Albert E. Brumley Lee Pennington Earl E. McCord P. A. Crum Earnest N. Edwards V. A. Shoke Mrs. G. W. Nichols A. C. Carpenter Mildred Siskowski

Flavil Hall W. A. Harrison Palmer Wheeler Florence Wing R. N. Hogan Mrs. Bertha Hall J. R. McClung U.A. Carruth W. E. Williams

Topping the list, of course, are Porter and Brumley, old friends and associates. Flavil Hall was a Georgia colleague (though apparently not a relative) of Grammer's partner S. H. Hall. Palmer Wheeler was another prominent songwriter among the Churches of Christ. An interesting name to find here as well is R. N. Hogan, one of the greatest African American evangelists in the Churches of Christ.

"Associate authors and compilers" included:

G.H.P. Showalter Austin Taylor T. Y. Morrison J. M. McCaleb L. O. Sanderson J. H. Fillmore Gardner S. Hall Attress McNoble

James L. Neal Horace W. Busby Austin Hazelwood W. H. Dunagan E. M. Borden Will G. Hager Ira Y. Rice* N. W. Allphin

Tillit S. Teddlie Will W. Slater Albert Lovelady Mrs. Frank Grammer Mrs. Palmer Wheeler George W. DeHoff L. F. Martin Henry Skaggs

*Probably Rice, Sr., who was a music teacher as well as preacher, and not his better-known son, Ira Rice, Jr., the missionary and founding editor of Contending for the Faith.

What exactly is meant by "associate authors and compilers" is a good question. High on the list are Showalter, Taylor, Teddlie, and Slater, old associates of Grammer, and also E. M. Borden from the Herald of Truth songbook days. Albert Lovelady, one of the pillars of the Churches of Christ in California during the 20th century, was also heavily involved. But J. H. Fillmore died in 1936--unless Grammer refers to James Henry Fillmore, Jr. (1881-1956), who was much better known as a trombonist and bandleader. The editorial contribution may have consisted in Grammer using quite a few of the elder Fillmore's songs!

The introduction to this hymnal also expressed Grammer's deep concern about the words of the songs. Every song, he promised, was gone over carefully by himself, by James L. Neal, a preacher and business partner from Springdale, Arkansas, by Rue Porter, a preacher known throughout the country, and by Albert Lovelady, one of the most prominent ministers in the Churches of Christ in California.

Frank Grammer passed away on the 4th of July, 1949. Fullerton, California was home to many immigrants from the central part of the United States, and for a number of years there was an "Arkansas Picnic Festival" on the Independence Day holiday. According to the Grammer family, Frank was there to lead singing and promote his new hymnal when he collapsed on the stage. It seems fitting that he died among "home folks" gathered for fellowship and song.

Conclusion

In the course of his career, Frank Grammer edited hymnals with Austin Taylor and G.H.P. Showalter at the Firm Foundation, and with Will Slater, first at the Eureka Music Publishing Company and then through Slater's own publishing house. Through his work with the Hartford School of Music, Grammer was likely in contact with Albert E. Brumley. He also published with Rue Porter and S. H. Hall, and was probably at least occasionally in contact with Tillit Teddlie and perhaps Lloyd O. Sanderson. He seems to have interacted with almost every publisher of hymnals for the Churches of Christ in this country during his lifetime, with the exception of Elmer Jorgenson (Great Songs of the Church), who was less associated with the Southern Gospel scene.

Though Frank Grammer worked for years with Stephen J. Oslin, a Methodist, and with Hartford Music, which was generally Baptist in orientation except for Brumley (so far as I know), he obviously had a real interest in uniting and cultivating the songwriting and publishing efforts of members of the Churches of Christ. For half a century he spent his efforts in this field, from the 1910s work with the Firm Foundation to his final hymnal, a grand collaboration with many old friends. Though he never made the "big time," and even if he had to work as a salesman or a fruit packer on the side, Frank Grammer was ever faithful to his commitment to promoting gospel music--and in particular, promoting the gospel.

Following Frank: This interactive map lists most of the places mentioned in the post, and may help to show the geographic proximity of so many of these activities.

View Frank Grammer - Locations in a larger map

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List of hymnals edited by Frank Grammer

List of songs written by Frank Grammer

Because of the large number of sources used for this post, I have made the References list available as a separate document:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ARqCbY23LUBLL1N3T6hHET6AD77vztcaj7aLyUHOl6Q/edit

Crossing the Bar

Praise for the Lord #117

Words: Alfred Tennyson, 1889
Music: Lloyd O. Sanderson, 1935

N.B. There are several famous choral settings of this text, most notably by Hubert Parry, Charles Ives, and Joseph Barnby. The musical setting discussed here is by Lloyd O. Sanderson, copyrighted by Gospel Advocate in 1935 and to my knowledge used only among the Churches of Christ.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), poet laureate of the United Kingdom and one of the most widely quoted poets of the English language, wrote this poem late in life and under somber circumstances. He was 80 years old, and became seriously ill while crossing the Solent (the strait between England and the Isle of Wight). According to his own account, the words "came in a moment." It was a very meaningful work to the elderly poet; before his death Tennyson instructed his son to place this text last in all publications of his poems.(Hill, 496)

For those of us from land-locked places, the concept of "crossing the bar" needs some explanation. Rivers that empty into the sea sometimes deposit an underwater wall of sediment where their currents meet the tidal forces. Over time this builds up into shoals or sandbars. This is both a blessing and a curse: the bar makes a natural harbor, deflecting the rougher forces of the outside seas, but it is often a formidable barrier to cross. Not only is its sounding depth affected by the interaction of the tide and the river flow, but its configuration is subject to change through the endless process of silting and erosion. The video below shows a dramatic bar crossing by a small fishing boat, which has to ride the incoming swells to pass over the bar into the harbor.

Given the complex and changing nature of such bar harbors, commercial vessels long ago began using local harbor pilots who come aboard to take the ships in and out. A shipwreck report on the loss of the Coila in 1885 indicates the critical nature of such operations. While waiting to cross the bar out of Poole Harbour into the English Channel, the Coila's master told the harbor pilot to press on ahead of schedule. The pilot warned that he did not believe the tide was high enough yet to give them depth to clear the bar, but the ship's master insisted they go ahead in spite of the risk. The Coila grazed the bar, inflicting damage below the waterline that eventually caused her loss at sea.

For Tennyson, his fellow Britons, and all other sea-faring peoples, the perils of crossing a bar were quite familiar. In the video above it is obvious that there is a point of no return when the pilot has committed to cross and will either pass safely over or meet disaster. For a boat leaving the harbor, as in Tennyson's poem, the same is true; once the ship has begun its crossing there is no turning back.

Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar
When I put out to sea.

But such a tide as moving seems a sleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell
When I embark.

For, though from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.

There is a very fine analysis of this poem written by a Cambridge student, Claire Wilkinson, that brought out a number of features I had never noticed. First is the finality with which Tennyson discusses his impending death. Each stanza uses the term "when"--"When I put out to sea," "When that . . . turns again home," "When I embark," "When I have crossed the bar." There is no "if" in his mind; it is a departure that may be delayed but never canceled. This is emphasized on a larger level by the openings of the first and third stanzas: "Sunset and evening star" give way to "Twilight and evening bell / And after that the dark!" He has seen the progression day by day throughout his life; it has always been so, and now he sees the same advance toward the close of his own life's day.

Wilkinson also notes the elements of uncertainty: "And may there be no moaning of the bar," "And may there be no sadness of farewell;" the poet wishes this to be so, but does not know this will be the case. These are elements of uncertainty because they lie within the free will of the poet and his audience (suggested by "our" in the last stanza). In the final stanza, however, we read that "The flood may bear me far," and that the poet "hopes" to see his Pilot "face to face." These are beyond the control of the poet, and unknowable (at least in the fullest sense) until experienced.

Finally, Wilkinson notes the capitalization of just three words in this poem: "Time," "Place," and "Pilot," all of which occur in the final stanza. Time is passing in the poem, from sunset to twilight to darkness. Place is also in transition; it is a shifting, unseen shoal, right at the transition point from the known harbor to the unknown sea. Even the poetic rhythm Tennyson uses--a rambling arrangement of 6-, 10-, and 4-syllable lines--suggests the ever-evolving patterns of the waves. But the Pilot, introduced abruptly in the penultimate line, stands outside this cycle; He is the unseen second character in this story, whose role is well worth understanding.

Ms. Wilkinson closes her essay by inviting comment on who the Pilot might be. Some have suggested that Tennyson was speaking of Arthur Hallam, a fellow poet and close friend from his youth, whose death at the age of twenty-two grieved Tennyson the rest of his days. But the far more obvious explanation--though I do not fault Ms. Wilkinson for challenging us to draw conclusions for ourselves--is what Tennyson himself said. According to the poet, the Pilot is "that Divine and Unseen Who is always guiding us . . . The Pilot has been on board all the while, but in the dark I have not seen him."(Hill, 496)

This is not to say that Tennyson was a traditional Christian; in "Tennyson and religion," Ms. Wilkinson notes that the poet described himself at least once as a kind of "pantheist." But the image of the Pilot in the poem is very particular: He is a person, not a force; He can be known "face to face." And if "crossing the bar" is death, who better for the Harbor Pilot than Jesus Christ, who has made the crossing before? I wonder if Tennyson found himself, as many people do, looking again for comfort in the faith of his youth at the end of life's day.

Tennyson was absolutely right about one thing: we will all "cross the bar" someday. There is no "if," but only "when," in regard to that statement. "It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment."(Hebrews 9:27) That is an appointment no one will miss; no one will even be late. Now, we may not wish to think about it; I do not like to contemplate the fact of my eventual death any more than anyone else. When I was a boy I used to assume for some reason that Jesus would come back before I died, and that I would not have to go that route myself; but as years pass and I go to more and more funerals, I realize that I have no more reason to suppose I will escape death by that means than any of the other billions who are living and have lived on this earth. I cannot cheat death, and there is no good in denying its reality. What I can do, is to "put my house in order"(2 Kings 20:1) so that I am ready when the time comes.

And what of the "moaning of the bar?" Some have interpreted this as the moaning of people who have come to see the ship off, who might gather near the bar, that being the furthest point to sea they could reach. This harks back to the earlier line of the "sadness of farewell." But in context, I believe it refers to the speaker's own experience--he explicitly says that, instead of a "moaning of the bar," he prefers "a tide as moving seems a sleep." He wishes for a peaceful transition; and I believe he is speaking of the experience of death itself, not of the reactions of others.

Perhaps Tennyson wished, as we sometimes hear expressed in prayer, for "a quiet hour in which to pass"--a death free from physical turmoil and suffering. But the entire poem is so reflective of the poet's frame of mind toward death, I would suggest that he really wishes for a calm spirit at the moment of departure--that he would not be "moaning of the bar," but instead surrender himself serenely into the hands of God.

Scripture gives us many scenes of the end of life, some noble and some ignoble; but when we are looking for examples of how to meet that appointment we all shall keep, we can do no better than those given by Jesus and His apostles who followed in His footsteps. Peter knew for years--ever since Jesus told him on the shore of Galilee--that he would die at the hands of men.(John 21:18-19) By the time of the writing of 2 Peter he could say, "I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me."(2 Peter 1:14)

What then was his thinking about his impending death? "I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder . . . and I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things."(2 Peter 1:13,15) He was busily working for the kingdom, doing what he could for the glory of God and the benefit of the church. There is no retirement plan in Christ's kingdom; we are at our posts until relieved. Age slows us down, but as long as we can teach and encourage, as long as we can pray, there is work to be done and we are needed!

The apostle Paul thought about his death frequently, not surprising for someone who seems always to have been just a step ahead of a lynch mob. I believe the key to Paul's serene attitude toward his mortality is revealed in his statement to the Christians at Philippi:

It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.(Philippians 1:20-24)

You cannot break a man like Paul; he cared about one thing only, and no amount of threatening, beating, or stoning could take it away from him. His only reservation about death was the loss of his usefulness to the cause of Christ in this world; other than that, he found it a gain in every way.

When I come to the end of my life, I pray that I will be able to face death like Paul. At the close of 2 Timothy, Paul sounds very much like a tired old man, but his words are still full of that martial vigor: "I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith."(2 Timothy 4:7) He never said that he had won every battle, or that he came in first in every race. But he kept the faith. He had fought as well as he could, and never abandoned the field; and whether he finished the race running, walking, or crawling, he crossed the finish line.

Of course our greatest example of all, in this as in all things, is Jesus Christ himself. And though we obviously cannot imitate Him in every aspect of His unique death, we can be comforted and advised by considering the attitude with which He approached it. He gave His disciples a preview of His distinctly different thinking when He said,

For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from My Father."(John 10:17-18)

We do not have such mastery and foreknowledge of our own departures, but we can remind ourselves that death is a part of our Father's plan to bring us back to Him, and submit trustingly to His will just as Jesus did. Jesus did not cling to His life, begging for mercy; He "yielded up His spirit."(Matthew 27:50). He "bowed His head and gave up His spirit."(John 19:30) But consider first the last words Jesus spoke before this act: "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit!"(Luke 23:46) This was a quote from Psalm 31:5, and at least as far back as the Mishnah was part of the prayers a faithful Jew would say every evening before going to sleep. One scholar notes,

The custom to pray before going to sleep reflects man's need for protection in a state of suspended consciousness and vulnerability, especially since sleep was held in ancient times to be similar to death.(Blumenthal)

Traditionally one would recite the Shema first (Deuteronomy 6) as a reminder of and recommitment to the Torah; but some rabbis held that those who studied the Torah daily were already in such a state, and needed only to recite the invocation from Psalm 31:5. Jesus, living as He did in constant subjection to and awareness of His Father's will, said only the customary bedtime prayer before giving up His life.

One of the saddest lines in all of poetry is from Dylan Thomas's famous poem about death: "Rage, rage against the dying of the light / Do not go gently into that good night." When all is finished, what does that attitude accomplish? What is gained? How much better to lay our heads down to sleep as little children, committing our spirits to God who has promised to keep us in His care? Here is my own desire for myself; and I believe this is what Tennyson's poem reaches for as well.

Finally, it is interesting to compare Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar" to the well-known hymn "Jesus, Savior, pilot me," written by Edward Hopper in 1871. Hopper speaks of Jesus as the Pilot who guides us home: "When at last I reach the shore / And the fearful breakers roar." Tennyson, however, speaks of the Lord as a Pilot who is taking us out from the familiar harbor into the unknown sea. Certainly both uses of the metaphor are valid and meaningful in their own ways; but "crossing the bar" to Tennyson is the beginning of the journey, not the end. This life is not the ocean, but just a harbor where we prepare for the great adventure, where "that which drew from out the boundless deep"--the eternal part of us, made in the image of our Father--"turns again home."

About the music:

My wife and I have a number of ongoing debates about music, some dating back to our courtship nearly 30 years ago. (These debates will never be resolved, but they do serve to sharpen one's thinking!) Many of these take the form of, "What is the best song by 'X'?" When it comes to Lloyd O. Sanderson, though, we have always been fairly well agreed: "Be with me, Lord" is his best song overall, in terms of its longstanding value to so many people, but his prettiest song, far and away, is his setting of Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar."

It reminds us that, though Sanderson is always associated with the more workaday materials of hymnals for congregational singing, he also had a background in classical choral music. He began his music career as a choir director for the Methodist Church in his home town, and in the 1920s directed the chorus at Harding University. He also made the most of the education opportunities that were available to him, taking college courses in music through Southwest Missouri State and the University of Arkansas as his work permitted.("Autobiography")

Sanderson's setting of "Crossing the bar" first appeared in Christian Hymns no. 1, published in 1935 by the Gospel Advocate in Nashville, Tennessee and by Firm Foundation in Austin, Texas. It was one of a number of new songs written by Sanderson, who was hard-pressed to fill out the hymnal given the Gospel Advocate's limited funds for purchasing copyright permissions. Ironically, these songs were (in my opinion) Sanderson's very best work!

What Sanderson accomplished in this setting is proof that the thoughtful application of a few simple, timeworn rules of thumb is the path to great craftsmanship and sometimes to exceptional brilliance. The opening phrase pair ("Sunset and evening star / And one clear call for me") give us first a plagal ("Amen") cadence, then an imperfect authentic cadence (ending on the tonic chord, but with MI in the soprano instead of DO--it doesn't sound quite as finished as it might). These are just short sallies away from the home key; but then the next phrase pair ("And may there be no moaning of the bar / When I put out to sea") brings us firmly to a cadence on the dominant chord of the key (SOL-TI-RE).

I am always hesitant to say what a composer was thinking, but I believe Sanderson may have been illustrating the text here; the opening is serene but in motion, then there is a determined move away from the home key--when we reach then end of the phrase "When I put out to sea," there is no question that we have left the tonic chord and are headed somewhere else!

In the second half of the setting, Sanderson builds the tension through each successive sub-phrase by the placement of the highest notes of the melody. We already heard the high "TI" or leading tone of the key on the word "I" in "When I put out to sea;" that TI is left hanging, begging to be resolved up to DO. Sanderson touches it again in the next phrase: "But such a tide as moving seems a sleep." He ups the ante in the phrase that follows, passing up DO to peak on RE: "Too full for sound or foam." Now comes the highest note of the entire piece, one step higher yet, then striding firmly back down the scale: "When that which drew from out the boundless deep." The final phrase ("Turns again home, turns home") is an anticlimax, actually monotone in the melody but with chords moving quietly underneath.

Now, did Sanderson intend to paint a picture of "crossing the bar" in the second half? A phrase reaches toward the top of the scale but falls short; another phrase reaches a little higher; then there is the triumphant third try that resolves into calm. I think this may well have been his plan. It is also interesting to see how well the words of the final pair of stanzas fit the music the second time around. Of course, Tennyson wrote his poem with that kind of parallelism; but Sanderson had the good sense to follow it!

There are only minor adjustments to the text here and there, particularly the repetition in the lines "Turns again home, turns home" and "When I, when I embark." In both cases Sanderson had to smooth out the irregularities of Tennyson's varying line lengths, in order to make the music fit both sets of words. Necessary and permissible, since the repetition of the music fits the parallels in the poetry!

I wish I could find a recording of this work to post here; if anyone knows of one (that can be used legally!) please link it in the comments section.

---

References:

Hill, Robert W. Tennyson's Poetry. New York: Norton, 1971.

Wilkinson, Claire. "Practical criticism: Tennyson's 'Crossing the bar.'" Cambridge Authors. Cambridge University, 2012.
http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/cambridgeauthors/tennyson-practical-criticism-of-crossing-the-bar

Wilkinson, Claire. "Tennyson and religion." Cambridge Authors. Cambridge University, 2012.
http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/cambridgeauthors/tennyson-and-religion

Blumenthal, H. Elchanan. "Night Prayer." Jewish Virtual Library. American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, 2012.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0015_0_14841.htm

Sanderson, Lloyd O. "'The Lord has been mindful of me': an autobiography of L. O. Sanderson." Gospel Advocate 146/9 (September, 2004), pages 26-28. http://www.therestorationmovement.com/sanderson.htm

Consider the Lilies

Words: Matthew 6:28-29, arr. E. H. Packard, 1890
Music: E. H. Packard, 1890

N.B. There are two other better-known settings of this text with the same title: the southern gospel song written by Joel Hemphill, and the newer choral setting by Roger Hoffman (popularized by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir). This is a choral/congregational anthem setting little known outside the Churches of Christ.

E. H. Packard was a composer of short choral anthems and gospel songs, whose works appeared chiefly during the 1890s in connection with the Chicago publishing house of Edwin O. Excell. Most of Packard's works that I have been able to discover are available through two online sources: Excell's Anthems (Chicago: Excell, 1886-1899) and Triumphant Songs no. 3 (Chicago: Excell, 1892). Two additional anthems are found in Winnowed Anthems: For Quartet and Chorus Choirs, ed. M. L. McPhail (Chicago: Hope Publishing, 1916).

Packard's anthems, like most of those in Excell's collections, are often resettings of familiar hymn lyrics with no reference to the commonly associated tunes. Little of the material in these collections is likely to have survived in current use; easy choral music has a very high turnover rate. Here is a list of Packard's works that I have found thus far:

Anthems

Cast thy bread (Excell's Anthems, vol. 3, p. 100)
Christmas hymn
Consider the lilies (Excell's Anthems, vol. 3, p. 6)
Great is the Lord (Excell's Anthems, vol. 3, p. 156)
I was glad (listed in advertisement for Excell's Octavo Anthems)
I will lift up mine eyes (Excell's Anthems, vol. 3, p. 39)
In the cross of Christ (U.S. Copyright Office, Catalogue of Title Entries, 1899)
The Lord is my Shepherd (Excell's Anthems, vol. 3, p. 18)
O be joyful in the Lord (Excell's Anthems, vol. 3, p. 72)
One sweetly solemn thought (U.S. Copyright Office, Catalogue of Title Entries, 1899)
Praise the Lord (Excell's Anthems, vol. 3, p. 127)
Stand up, stand up for Jesus

Gospel Songs
(All from Triumphant Songs no. 3, and with lyrics by William H. Gardner)

#14 Mother's prayer
#64 Loyalty to Christ
#84 It is well
#92 Leave it all to Jesus
#99 Something for Thee
#105 In His name

Once again the 19th-century penchant for going by initials, instead of full given names, has driven me to despair; there are at least two "E. H. Packards" who were writing music around 1880-1910. I am fairly sure that the E. H. Packard who graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1907, and who was much involved in musical productions and glee songs there, was too young in 1890 to be writing anthems at such a prodigious pace. A more likely candidate is Elmer H. Packard (1858-1918).(Bodine Genealogy) With his brother-in-law Lester Bodine writing lyrics, this E. H. Packard (as he always identified himself in print) published a number of parlor songs during the 1890s through S. Brainard's Sons in Chicago:

The deacon went astray
A home for two
Little Queen Irene
My first dance (Worldcat record)

Though these are far afield in subject matter and melodic style from the anthems, the harmonic vocabulary is fairly similar, and I could imagine the same composer writing both.

"Consider the lilies" is one of the relatively few anthems (through-composed works, not repeating music for successive stanzas) that have captured a consistent place in hymnals used by the Churches of Christ. (Others include "O Lord, our Lord" by Horatio Palmer and "The Lord bless you and keep you" by Peter Lutkin.) "Consider the lilies" owes its introduction to the Churches of Christ, so far as I know, to Elmer Jorgenson's original 1921 edition of Great Songs of the Church. If my identification of Elmer H. Packard as the composer is correct, Jorgenson and the composer might have even come into contact, as both lived in Nebraska during the 1910s.(Bodine Genealogy) I have only rarely heard this anthem sung by a congregation, though perhaps it was more popular in previous decades.

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow,
Consider the lilies off the field, how they grow;
They toil not, they toil not,
They toil not neither do they spin.
(Repeat last two lines)

And yet I say unto you:
And yet I say unto you,
That even Solomon in all his glory
Was not arrayed, was not arrayed,
Like one of these, like one of these.
(Repeat last four lines)

Commentators have argued for centuries about the identity of the "lily of the field" referenced by Jesus in Matthew 6:28, and it probably can only be guessed at to a reasonable degree. Though it is more than a century old, the article written by George E. Post for Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible gives as clear and thorough a discussion of the subject as I have seen.

Gladiolus atroviolaceus growing in a cultivated field in Jordan.
Used by permission from commons.wikimedia.org

Post, a pioneering botanist in the Bible lands, notes that the Greek krinon used by Matthew and Luke to record Jesus' words is the term commonly used in the Septuagint to translate the Hebrew shushan or shoshan. He suggests that this term is best understood as equivalent to the Persian and Arabic susan, a generic word descriptive of the lily, iris, gladiolus, and similar flowers. Post then asks which flowers of this general description, growing "in the field" or wild, would have been familiar to the audience or perhaps even presently in view when Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount.

Lilies as we define the term do not seem to fit the bill, but among several possible flowers in the larger definition, he notes the several varieties of Gladiolus native to Palestine which commonly grow among the grain fields. These are tall plants with reedy stalks and long leaves that might very well be bundled and "thrown into the oven."(Matthew 6:30) They are also unusually colorful, and some (such as pictured) have the luxurious purple color associated with wealth and royalty, inviting comparison to Solomon. But we can never be certain, of course; and the point made by Jesus would apply equally well to any of the many beautiful wildflowers with which God has graced our world!

The Scripture passage that is the basis of Packard's short anthem lies within Matthew 6:19-34, a section of the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus addresses a number of aspects of the Christian's relationship to material wealth. He begins by extolling the permanent quality of heavenly treasures compared to earthly things:

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.(Matthew 6:19-21)

The final sentence puts the focus, however, on the practical point of the passage: Where is your heart? Material things themselves, impermanent as they may be, are neither good nor bad in themselves. Our problem with them arises from how we choose to look at them:

The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!(Matthew 6:22-23)

Jesus brings up one of His favorite metaphors, spiritual blindness. The person who chooses to see only the material world is trapped within its mean, petty confines; the person who chooses to follow after perishable material things will give up the eternal spiritual treasures. Jesus could heal physical blindness, but He could not (against their will) change the hearts of the spiritually blind.

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.(Matthew 6:24)

As the story goes, a little boy was asked to explain why we do not practice bigamy today as in the ancient times; his answer was the verse above, "No man can serve two masters!" Misapplied as it may be, the thought is correct. If we are part of Christ's church, we are part of the bride of Christ,(2 Corinthians 11:2) and He is as jealous as any other husband not to share her with another. We cannot be married to Christ and to the material world--we have to choose. We will choose to be filled either with light or with darkness; to pursue the perishable or the imperishable; to see or to remain blind.

Having pointed out the dilemma, Jesus then tells us how to live in the world without being "of the world."(John 17:14-15)

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life. 

And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?" or "What shall we wear?"(Matthew 6:25-31)

Of course He is not forbidding making reasonable preparation for material needs. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for creating loopholes that tried to negate the responsibility to support elderly parents,(Mark 7:11) and 1 Timothy 5:8 says, "But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." Additionally, we can see in the book of Acts that Paul and others carried out a long-range plan to gather funds for famine relief.

We sometimes see very wealthy people who do a lot of good with their money. I have heard that A. M. Burton, founder of Life & Casualty Insurance in Nashville, Tennessee, expressed the wish to die with an empty bank account. He was one of the wealthiest men in the Southeast U.S. during the Great Depression, and gave liberally to help the poor and to further the cause of Christ; Lipscomb University, in particular, might not have survived that period at all without his deep pockets. But for every such example, what multitudes more could be cited who have sold their souls, grasping after the almighty dollar! Jesus concludes His lesson with this pithy thought:

For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.(Matthew 6:32-34)

So what is the lesson of the lilies? Trust that God will care for you, and accept with gratitude His provision of simple needs. Now, we do not see the lilies at work, but we understand that they are always active, processing the sun's energy, the air around them, and the nutrients of the soil into the necessary food to continue their short lives. The birds of the air, too, are among the busiest of God's creatures. But God gave the lily its beauty, and the birds their songs. Life is about more than simple survival; and if God lavished such beauty on these simple things, how much more does He give to us--and expect from us--who are made in His image?

Remember, too, the fleeting life of the lily. It is here, it serves God's purpose, then it is gone. But even this simple creation that serves God's purpose as it is intended is more beautiful than "Solomon in all his glory." Solomon was fabulously wealthy, but in the end his was not a happy life, and there is much to fault in his legacy. Like the lilies of the field, an humble person whom the world considers unimportant may in fact serve God with more glory than Solomon, if that person puts God's kingdom first.

About the music:

Interestingly, the second volume of Excell's Anthems begins with a setting of "Consider the Lilies" by Excell himself rather than Packard, and it sounds slightly similar in the opening motif and some of the rhythms. Excell's anthem is copyrighted 1888, so if there is a connection it was appears to be Packard "borrowing" from Excell, though it is hardly an egregious case.

Comparing the two, I have to prefer Packard's setting, which if nothing else has the comparative virtue of brevity. It is very much in that vein of Victorian church music that might be described as overly "precious" in style. Writing the soprano and alto in parallel 3rds is a sound and easy-to-sing technique, but Packard takes it to an extreme and dresses it up in syrupy chromaticism.

WARNING: EXTREME MUSIC THEORY CONTENT AHEAD

The setting of the text "was not arrayed" is interesting, however. In the first instance of the phrase, the bass adds a D-flat on the last syllable, turning the E-flat major tonic chord to an E-flat 7th chord, which has a strong dominant pull to A-flat. But instead of that chord, the next phrase (repeating "was not arrayed") begins with a C minor chord; the D-flat in the bass (the 7th of the preceding chord) resolves down, but the overall harmony is not what we expected. At the end of this phrase, where the fermata occurs, the bass steps down chromatically again into a C-flat major chord.

At the beginning of the final phrase "like one of these," the soprano introduces an A-natural. (This note is often sung as a B-flat, however!) The chord Packard wrote here is thus A-natural / C-flat / E-flat / G-flat, an alternate spelling of a German augmented 6th chord (C-flat / E-flat / G-flat / B-double-flat). As is typical for this chord, the notes of the augmented 6th (C-flat and A-natural) move in opposite directions into B-flats and set up the final cadence. This respelling is common in American "barbershop" writing, and is called the "American" or "Western" augmented 6th in a few sources. Curiously, though Packard avoids the classic trap of writing parallel 5ths coming out of the German augmented 6th, he carelessly (and unnecessarily) writes parallel 5ths between bass and tenor going into it!

Looking at this musical passage overall, however, there is much to recommend it. The chromatic descent of the bass covers a multitude of evils--you can hold together far more outrageous harmonies than these, if the bass is moving in a predictable stepwise fashion. And the arpeggio in the soprano, building up to the high E-flat at the fermata, is a good touch--this is the highest note in the piece, occurring simultaneously with the most chromatically adventurous harmony.

I confess that my strongest association with this song is a very silly rendition of it that my sister and I used to sing, with the parts reversed. I would sing soprano in a warbling falsetto, and she would turn her lovely alto voice to a foggy bass. The entire thing was done with vibrato a mile wide. No recordings of that version are known to exist, and it is best that way.

---

References:
"Elmer H. Packard." Dave's Bodine Genealogy Web Site.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bodine/f13691.html

Post, George E. "Lily." Plants of the Bible. Norfolk, Virginia: Old Dominion University. Reprinted from Hastings' Dictionary.
http://www.odu.edu/~lmusselm/post/dictionary/hastings_dic/pages/lily.shtml

Crown Him with Many Crowns

Praise for the Lord #115

Words: Matthew Bridges, 1851; stanza 2, Godfrey Thring, 1874
Music: DIADEMATA, George Job Elvey, 1864

Matthew Bridges (1800-1894), the author of the original text of this hymn, was raised in the Anglican church; but like many Anglican scholars of his day, he was heavily influenced by his contemporary John Henry Newman and the Tractarian or Oxford Movement. Bridges was a prolific and gifted author from an early age, writing on topics of Biblical history as well as producing poetry.(Hatfield, 96) Some of his early historical writings had included pointed attacks on Catholicism, yet in 1848 he published a set of Hymns of the Heart, for the Use of Catholics, and said in the preface that he wished to "[express] his poignant and unmitigated regret, for having ever used his feeble pen against that holy and Apostolic church, which by divine grace he has lately been enabled to join."(p.3ff.)

A search of Worldcat.org shows that Bridges's publishing fell off after 1865. He is known to have lived in Quebec, but I have had an unusually difficult time finding out when he may have emigrated. The Canadian 1881 Census shows him farming in the vicinity of Sherbrooke, east of Montreal. His son Henry, the only child still at home, was 16 years old and born in England, so the move could not have been prior to 1865. At some point Bridges returned to England, where he died in 1894.(Baptist Quarterly)

"Christ's thorn" jujube
(Zizyphus spina Christi)
A common fruit tree in Israel,
traditionally the source of
the crown of thorns.
Used by permission from
PROTA4U.

The text of this hymn is from The Passion of Jesus, a Collection of Original Pieces Corresponding with the Five Sorrowful Mysteries in the Rosary of Our Blessed Lady. This collection of devotional poetry was first published in London in 1852. For those of us (myself included) who are not familiar with the traditions of the rosary, there is a good concise explanation at NewAdvent.org. The prayers are said in sets of tens, each focused on a "mystery" concerning the life of Christ; the mysteries themselves are in groups of five: the "Joyful Mysteries" concerning Christ's birth and childhood, the "Sorrowful Mysteries" concerning His death, and the "Glorious Mysteries" concerning the Resurrection and events following. (In the 20th century the "Luminous Mysteries" of Christ's earthly ministry were added.) Bridges's collection was dedicated to the five Sorrowful Mysteries: Christ's agony in Gethsemane, His scourging, the crown of thorns, Christ carrying His cross, and finally the Crucifixion itself. "Crown Him with many Crowns," therefore, was a reflection on the central mystery of the original 15 mysteries of the rosary. Bridges employs an unexpected approach to the topic, however, taking the cruel mockery intended by that original crown and turning it on its head.

Stanza 1:
Crown Him with many crowns,
The Lamb upon His throne;
Hark how the heav'nly anthem drowns
All music but its own!
Awake my soul and sing
Of Him who died for thee,
And hail Him as thy matchless King
Through all eternity!

In contemplating the glorious coronation of Christ in heaven, each stanza of this hymn addresses a different aspect of His worthiness to receive these honors. The first stanza seems clearly to invoke Revelation 5:11-14, one of the most awe-inspiring passages in all Scripture:

Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!" And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, "To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!" And the four living creatures said, "Amen!" and the elders fell down and worshiped.

A lamb, the picture of innocence and inoffensiveness, was the sacrifice on many of the earliest recorded altars in Genesis, and took on a special meaning under the Sinai Covenant as the Passover offering through which God spared His people from the terrible final plague.(Exodus 12) A lamb was later prescribed as an offering for personal sins.(Leviticus 5) John the Baptizer tied all these together when he said of his cousin Jesus, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!"(John 1:29) Christ is our "Passover Lamb,"(1 Corinthians 5:7) "without blemish or spot."(1 Peter 1:19)

It is altogether fitting, then, that John's first vision of Christ enthroned in heaven was in the form of a Lamb, and that this would be the most common designation for Christ throughout the Revelation: "And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth."(Revelation 5:6) The paradox of such a meek figure in the midst of such heavenly acclamation is another of those instances that Brother Johnny Ramsey once termed, "Truth standing on its head to get our attention." Jesus described himself as "meek and lowly in heart,"(Matthew 11:29) and now we see how truly the kingdom of heaven belongs to the One who was above all "poor in spirit."(Matthew 5:3)

Bridges's original poem has the following two stanzas next:

Crown Him the Virgin's Son
The God Incarnate born,
Whose arm those crimson trophies won
Which now His Brow adorn!
Fruit of the Mystic Rose
As of that Rose the Stem:
The Root, whence Mercy ever flows,
The Babe of Bethlehem!

Crown Him the Lord of Love!
Behold His Hands and Side,
Rich wounds, yet visible above
In beauty glorified:
No angel in the sky
Can fully bear that sight,
But downward bends his burning eye
At mysteries so bright!

In the latter stanza Bridges begins to develop his theme along a consistent line from stanza to stanza, identifying Jesus' lordship over different aspects of existence. Of course His sovereignty is indicated foremost; but in applying the title "Lord of" to abstract concepts, Bridges ties into an old tradition of expressing the subject's preeminence in various qualities as well. Revelation 19:9 declares Jesus "Lord of Lords," and other passages in the New Testament identify Him as "Lord of the Sabbath,"(Matthew 12:8) "Lord of Glory,"(1 Corinthians 2:8) "Lord of Peace,"(2 Thessalonians 3:16--though this might refer to the Father) and "Lord of All."(Acts 10:36) Bridges begins stanzas in this hymn by calling Jesus "Lord of Love," "Lord of Peace," "Lord of Years," and "Lord of Heaven."

The "Mystic Rose" line would raise some eyebrows outside of Catholic circles--in some interpretations, that expression has a particular theological interpretation having to do with Mary's relationship to the Trinity. The stanza referring to the wounds of Jesus as "mysteries" might also have called to mind the tradition dating from the Middle Ages of venerating the wounds of Christ. But it was too good a hymn to pass up entirely; a search of Hymnary.org shows that it began to appear in Protestant collections during the 1860s, sometimes with these stanzas deleted.

At some point, however, Henry Wollaston Hutton, Priest-Vicar of Lincoln Cathedral and an important editor of hymnals himself, encouraged hymnwriter Godfrey Thring to write a few stanzas on Bridges's theme to serve as replacements. The Church of England Hymn Book gives an example of another hybridization of Bridges and Thring stanzas. Thring was a prolific writer and popular in his day, though most of his hymns, like David, "served the purpose of God in his own generation."(Acts 13:36) (His most remembered hymn by far is "Lord, dismiss us with Thy blessing.") Yet no author in his own right, I suppose, likes to be thought of as a mere reviser of the works of others; Thring actually wrote an entirely new hymn as a substitute for that of Bridges, using the same meter and basic plan of successive stanzas extolling Jesus' lordship over various domains. The following stanza is the one most commonly plugged in to replace the deleted stanzas from Bridges's orginal.

Stanza 2:
Crown Him the Lord of Life,
Who triumphed o'er the grave,
Who rose victorious in the strife
For those He came to save!
His glories now we sing,
Who died and rose on high,
Who died eternal life to bring,
And lives that death may die!

Looking again to those great scenes of the Revelation, we find "the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb."(Revelation 22:1) We cannot read of "water of life" without thinking back to a quiet scene by Jacob's Well, where the Son of God spoke to a lowly, sinful, but attentive listener: "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."(John 4:10) Christ as the source of eternal life is a consistent theme in John's writings; the prologue to his gospel account states, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men,"(John 1:4) and his first epistle opens with the statement that, "the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us."(1 John 1:2)

As the Lord of Life, Jesus came to overthrow the power of death, but He went about it in the most unexpected way imaginable--by undergoing it Himself. Godfrey Thring (our "guest author" for this stanza) emphasized this amazing juxtaposition in the final two lines, cleverly transposing the order of the key words: "Who died eternal life to bring, / And lives that death may die!" The Lord of Life died, "that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery."(Hebrews 2:14-15) In what should have been the hour of Satan's triumph, he was utterly crushed (as promised in Genesis 3:15!), as Jesus "disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame."(Colossians 2:15)

Christ's victory over death was also a victory for all those in His kingdom: "We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God."(Romans 6:9-10) This puts a responsibility on us, as we think of the prize He won at such awful cost: "So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."(Romans 6:11) We have the victory over spiritual death already in hand, if we have been baptized into Christ's death; and we have the promise of the victory over physical death as well:

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.(1 Corinthians 15:54-57)

Stanza 3:
Crown Him the Lord of Peace!
Whose pow'r a sceptre sways
From pole to pole, that wars may cease
Absorbed in prayer and praise:
His reign shall know no end,
And round His pierced feet
Fair flowers of Paradise extend
Their fragrance ever sweet.

One of the most beautiful titles of the Messiah is "Prince of Peace."(Isaiah 9:6) And lest we forget, this peace is shalom--not just an absence of conflict, but the presence of wholeness and soundness.(Strong's H7965) We can be in the midst of conflict on the outside, but have this peace on the inside; we see that quality often in the life of Jesus.

Peace was proclaimed by the angels at Jesus' birth,(Luke 2:14) and "Peace be with you" was His greeting after the Resurrection.(John 20:26) He "made peace by the blood of His cross," reconciling a sinful world to a holy God.(Colossians 1:20) This was the first and greatest of His works of peacemaking; but it was not the last.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility.(Ephesians 2:13-14

By bringing about peace between the individual and God, Jesus also brought about peace between people who had formerly been irreconcilable enemies. It began with the preaching of the gospel to the Samaritans, and continued to the full acceptance of both Jew and Gentile in the body of Christ. Can we not do the same today, where race, language, or nationality divide us? Our God is He who "makes wars cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; He burns the chariots with fire."(Psalm 46:9) The balance of this stanza emphasizes the unity and harmony that comes about when we are "absorbed in prayer and praise." It is worthy and admirable work when people spend their efforts in resolving conflicts and seeking peaceful settlement of disputes--"blessed are the peacemakers," Matthew 5:9--but in the end it is only when the spirit of Christ prevails in our actions that "wars may cease." To the extent that this happens, we see the blessed fulfillment of Micah's vision:

He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide for strong nations far away; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.(Micah 4:3)

And when the day comes that Jesus returns, "every knee shall bow"(Philippians 2:10, cf. Isaiah 45:23)--in that moment, we truly will see peace from "pole to pole."

Bridges pursues his theme in one more stanza before the conclusion, though omitted in many hymnals:

Crown Him the Lord of Years!
The Potentate of Time,
Creator of the rolling spheres,
Ineffably sublime!
Glass'd in a sea of light,
Whose everlasting waves
Reflect His Form, the Infinite!
Who lives, and loves, and saves.

I am a little sorry not to have this stanza available, though it may be best after all to avoid humorously quaint words such as "ineffably." But the theme is well considered; Jesus is the Son of Man, yet He was the Creator of this universe in which humanity exists, and He is therefore the Creator of the very concept of time. Psalm 90 grandly states the disconnect between our limited, finite understanding of time and God's absolute indifference to it:

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting You are God. You return man to dust and say, "Return, O children of man!" For a thousand years in Your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.(Psalm 90:2-4)

One of the most awe-inspiring statements in the Bible is when God reveals His name to Moses: "I AM." We humans, of course, live under the tyranny of time. Our yesterday is past, and we cannot get it back; our future is out of reach and altogether uncertain; we have only the present, delivered to us moment by moment. To deal with this handicap we learn to speak of past, present, and future--"I was, I am, I will be." But for God, the "Ancient of Days,"(Daniel 7) there is no such limitation. He just is, at all times and places; "the same yesterday and today and forever."(Hebrews 13:8) Jesus knew exactly what He was saying (and so did His outraged opponents) when He said "before Abraham was, I AM!"(John 8:58)

Stanza 4:
Crown Him the Lord of Heav'n!
One with the Father known,
And the Blest Spirit through Him giv'n
From yonder glorious Throne!
All Hail! Redeemer, Hail!
For Thou hast died for me:
Thy praise and glory shall not fail
Throughout Eternity!

Here again is the ultimate irony to which Bridges points in this hymn: the Roman soldiers who mockingly placed a crown of thorns on Jesus' head were unwittingly foreshadowing the triumphal return of the King of Kings to His heavenly throne. For a little while He walked among His subjects as though one of them, not like Henry V who wanted to know the minds of his troops, but as the Servant of all and ultimately the One whom they cruelly mistreated and crucified.

Who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.(Philippians 2:7-11)

"He was in the beginning with God,"(John 1:2) and made the Father known to us in His most perfect revelation,(John 1:18) saying, "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him."(John 14:7) He also made known to us the Holy Spirit or Comforter,(John 14:26, etc.) thus unfolding the mystery of the Trinity to a new and greater extent than in any prior era of revelation. Bridges's original 4th line in this stanza gave greater emphasis to this fact: "From yonder triune throne." It may be better to avoid that arcane expression, but we should not miss the point of Christ's revelation to us of the nature of the Trinity, only hinted at in earlier eras.

Once again I am struck by the contrast Bridges has drawn by juxtaposing the crown of thorns and the Crucifixion with the Christ's enthronement in heaven. Matthew tells us,

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before Him. And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head and put a reed in His right hand. And kneeling before Him, they mocked Him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they spit on Him and took the reed and struck Him on the head.(Matthew 27:27-30)

John adds what happened afterward:

So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, "Behold the Man!" When the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, "Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him."(John 19:5-6)

But in his hymn we are made to see the reality of the siuation:

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever." And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, "We give thanks to You, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for You have taken Your great power and begun to reign.(Revelation 11:15-17)

Perhaps some of those very soldiers who placed the crown of thorns on Christ's head later repented and became Christians; perhaps none did; we do not know, beyond legends. But at the beginning of the Revelation John reminds us, "Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him."(Revelation 1:7) The truth will then be out; the King will be revealed to all the world, crowned in all His glory. Will we own Him as our King now, so that we can meet that day with joy?

John's vision of Christ, Revelation 1; woodcut by Albrecht Dürer, 1497-98
Image used by permission from Wikimedia Commons

Excursus: "Crowning" Jesus in Hymns

This hymn introduces a theme that I have not yet addressed in this blog: the poetic trope of "crowning Jesus King." It may be surprising to some readers that the appropriateness of such an image is ever questioned, but in my experience we spend far too little effort in thinking about what our hymns are really saying. I have seen versions of Perronet's "All hail the power of Jesus' name" that change "crown Him Lord of all" to "praise Him Lord of all." Some brethren whom I very much respect have objected to the use of such language in any of our hymns; but I believe there is a logical defense of this hymn trope, at least as it in many hymns.

The objections I have heard do not address this hymn but rather the praise song "We bow down" by Twila Paris, yet the argument would be largely the same. The argument runs thus: If we sing that we are going to crown Jesus King, and say that "King of all Kings you will be," we are necessarily implying that Jesus is not already King of Kings. We might even be lending credence to the false premillennial idea that Jesus will return to this earth to be crowned King and take up a literal physical reign in Jerusalem.

In respect to "Crown Him with Many Crowns, " Bridges clearly states that this is a poetic description of the scene of Revelation 19:12--"His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems, and He has a name written that no one knows but Himself." The author places this scripture at the head of his poem.(Bridges, 63)  He is also writing in the larger context of the Crucifixion, and at this particular point is contemplating the crown of thorns. Between the crown of thorns at Calvary and the many diadems of the Conquering King of the Revelation, lies the scene of Christ's coronation by the Father, described in the second chapter of Hebrews:

You made Him for a little while lower than the angels; You have crowned Him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under His feet." Now in putting everything in subjection to Him, He left nothing outside His control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Him. But we see Him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.(Hebrews 2:7-9)

It is correct that the Father crowned the Son long ago in heaven, and that in this august scene the Father delivers the honors to the Son; He receives nothing from us in this setting. But in this hymn, I suggest we are simply imagining that scene again, and offering up our praises and acclamations to the worthiness of Christ to receive these crowns. In this way we are like the angel chorus that shouted, "Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created."(Revelation 4:11) They were not declaring Him worthy by their authority; they were agreeing with the Father's judgment. In this hymn we are praising and acknowledging the coronation of Jesus in the same fashion as did the angels, as though we were witnessing that past event.

This involves a certain amount of poetic license, and I am reminded of a statement made by one good brother: "There may be such a thing as poetic license, but some poets ought to have their licenses revoked." (Whether you agree with his positions or not, you have to admit that is funny!) But the New Testament writers used figurative and imaginitive language as well; Jesus in the Revelation is not literally a lamb, or a lion. When Paul said, "Christ, our Passover Lamb, is sacrificed for us,"(1 Corinthians 5:7) we do not understand him to say that Christ is literally a lamb (nor, for that matter, does this teach that He is literally sacrificed again and again in the taking of the Lord's Supper). And though we do not literally see the scene of Christ's coronation by His Father, in this hymn we imagine it with the mind's eye, and celebrate that glorious and fitting consummation of His work.

This touches on another objection to the "coronation trope" that deserves mention as well: is it appropriate to sing as though we ourselves are crowning Jesus? It is generally true that the lesser must be crowned by the greater. The President of the United States, though not receiving a crown, is sworn into office by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, as representative of the authority of the Constitution on which the President's powers depend. Western Kings and queens are typically crowned by a high-ranking church official who stands as representative of God's authority. Napoleon famously crowned himself to avoid such complications! But there is another way in which one may receive a crown--when it is surrendered by the lesser to the greater, as has happened throughout history when a vanquished king surrenders to his conqueror.

And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who is seated on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, "Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created."(Revelation 4:9-11)

Many hymns use this image as a figure for humbling ourselves and submitting to Christ's rule. Perhaps the most direct example is in "Lead me to Calvary" by Jennie Hussey: "King of my life, I crown Thee now / Thine shall the glory be." There is no thought here of granting something to Christ as an earthly king might grant a donation to a subordinate; this is surrendering authority to Jesus, and the glory is all for Him.

In the passage quoted above from Hebrews chapter 2, there is this interesting statement at the end of verse 8: "At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Him." No, this does not mean that His kingdom is yet in the future, or that some great coronation scene awaits Him at His Second Advent. It tells us that, though He is by rights King of all, there is one part of His creation that is holding out against His rule--us. When we sin and rebel against Him, we are insurgents against His reign, but He does not take back the rule of our lives by force. In His grace, love, and patience He has extended an offer of pardon if we will accept His rule again, willingly surrendering the crown of our souls back to Him to whom it belongs, and who alone can rightfully and wisely rule us.

About the music:

This is the other well-known hymn tune by George Job Elvey, the first of which reviewed was ST. GEORGE'S WINDSOR ("Come, ye thankful people, come"). DIADEMATA appeared in the second edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern, published in 1868.(Lightwood, 315) For those who want to look further into the career of Elvey, the Life and Reminiscences of George J. Elvey, written by his widow, is available online.

DIADEMATA is in the mold of that stately sort of British march that is so distinct from its American cousin; no dotted rhythms are necessary to stir excitement, just full, clear harmonies proceeding in measured, stately dignity. A brass choir could play this music, with no arranging at all, and make a marvelous ceremonial piece of it. The melody is not as simple and winsome as that of ST. GEORGE'S WINDSOR ("Come, ye thankful people, come," being driven more by the progress of the harmony.

Several little techniques lend strength to this writing that are worth noting. First, the opening phrase, which sets the signature line of text from which the hymn develops, unfolds in contrary motion between the highest and lowest voice. At the same time, the harmony moves down a series of 3rds, from tonic (DO) to submediant (LA) to the subdominant (FA). The introduction of the minor submediant chord is a point of tension, logically resolved into the reassuring subdominant. ("Reassuring" may sound silly, but there is a degree of tension to certain chords within a key; the dominant chord (SOL-TI-RE) has a strong need to resolve, whereas the subdominant (FA-LA-DO), though it is not the home chord or tonic of the key, is much more restful. It is the subdominant to tonic progression that makes the standard "Amen" at the end of some hymns.)

Another interesting technique is the phrase sequence used at the beginning of the second half of the hymn (corresponding to the 5th and 6th lines of text). Just as he did in ST. GEORGE'S WINDSOR, Elvey repeats an entire two-measure subphrase at a higher pitch; but in this case, it is sequenced up a step, increasing the harmonic tension. The melody is a little tricky at this spot: SOL-SOL-MI-RE-DO-LA / LA-LA-FI*-MI-RE-TI (*FA sharped, A# if the hymn is in E major as I have usually seen it). The raised 4th step of the scale, "FI," naturally wants to go up to SOL, but instead is left by stepwise descent to MI and RE. The principle of repetition with variation is so strong, however, that once the ear recognizes this as a sequence of the preceding two measures, it is much easier to hear. Finally, after all of this buildup, Elvey lets the melody hit the high "DO," the top of the scale, to begin the final two lines of text.

---

References:

Hatfield, Edwin F. The Poets fo the Church: A Series of Biographical Sketches with Notes on their Hymns. New York: Anson D. F. Randolph, 1884. http://archive.org/stream/poetschurchaser00hatfgoog#page/n108/mode/2up

Editorial, Baptist Quarterly [Baptist Historical Society, UK] 16:5 (January 1956), pp. 193-195.
http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/bq/16-5_193.pdf

Strong's H7965. BlueletterBible.org. http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H7965

Lightwood, James T. Hymn-Tunes and their Story. London: Charles H. Kelly, 1905.
http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7106809M/Hymn-tunes_and_their_story