Father, We Thank Thee for the Night

Praise for the Lord #144

Words: Rebecca Weston, ca.1875?
Music: Jorgenson's Great Songs of the Church, 1930

This little morning prayer-hymn first appeared in hymnals in the 1890s, and has maintained a presence even into the present century (Hymnary.org). Though originally conceived as a children's song and published primarily in Sunday school hymnals, its simple but earnest language is suitable for adults as well, and deserves to be better known. It came into use among the churches of Christ by way of Elmer Jorgenson's Great Songs of the Church, first appearing (to the best of my knowledge) in the 1930 edition. From this source, no doubt, it came into other hymnals such as Our Leader (Austin, Texas: Firm Foundation, 1941) and L. O. Sanderson's Christian Hymns III (Nashville: Gospel Advocate, 1966), the Howard Publishing hymnals, and others. But however popular it became in the churches, "Father, we thank Thee" did not begin there--it started in the schoolroom. The origin of this hymn reaches back to the 1870s and an interesting chapter of United States history, especially as it pertains to children: the flowering of the Kindergarten movement.

Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel (1782-1852), the founder of the movement, was the son of a Lutheran minister in Germany. An intellectual jack-of-all-trades, he eventually was drawn to teaching and studied under the Swiss education reformer Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. Generations before "learning styles" entered the popular vernacular, these men recognized the value in learning through all the different senses, using play, investigation, songs, and games, in addition to the traditional tools of teaching. But after establishing his own school, Fröbel felt something was missing from the philosophy of his mentor. His evolving concept of the Kindergarten became rooted in the principle that God is the source of knowledge, and therefore, that true education should lead to God (Muelle 87-88). The spread of the Kindergarten to the United States came through the misfortune of the 1848 revolution in Germany, which prompted a tide of German immigration to the farming country of the Midwestern U.S. The first American Kindergarten was actually taught in German, by a Fröbel-trained teacher in Watertown, Wisconsin, Margarethe Schurz. This school was in existence five years before Elizabeth Peabody opened the first English-language Kindergarten in Boston in 1860. A chance meeting between the two teachers convinced Peabody to travel to Germany to study Fröbel's methods first-hand, and as the Kindergarten movement spread in the English-speaking urban centers, it retained a firm connection with its German founder (Muelle 88).

A critical point to observe in the early spread of Kindergarten in the United States was its close association with the needs of a new demographic, the urban working poor. Industrialization and immigration in the late 1800s caused the cities to swell with workers, and the uncertainties of life away from the farm made it more likely for mothers and older children to enter the workforce. Kindergarten was promoted as a way to give the younger children not only a boost in their education, but also a place to develop good moral habits and citizenship. In the early 1900s it became more aligned with emerging American education philosophies which tended toward a more secular and pragmatic approach, but in its early decades Kindergarten was seen as a spiritual as well as an intellectual education (Muelle 88-89). It is hardly surprising that a children's hymn emerged from this milieu, which paralleled the temperance movement, the Young Men's Christian Association, and other "social gospel" efforts.

Rebecca Jane Weston, who would become a pioneer in the Kindergarten movement in the U.S., was born on 31 May 1835 in Reading, Massachusetts, to James B. Weston and Rebecca (Baldwin) Weston (Massachusetts deaths). An 1885 Boston city directory gives her name as "R. Jennie Weston," and she is once referred to as "Jane Weston" (Peabody "Miss Garland's" 21). Her father James Weston of Reading was a clock dealer and maker (cf. 1850/51 city directory 324, 1850 census), a business inherited by Rebecca's brothers (1870 census). The Westons moved to Boston in 1836-37 (1837 city directory 389), so Rebecca was essentially raised in the city. She attended the Johnson Grammar School, and in 1850, at age 15, she was awarded a City Medal for scholarship (Annual report 1857 222). From 1853-1855 she attended Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary, though she does not appear to have graduated (Mount Holyoke catalogues).

Lucy H. Symonds, a fellow schoolteacher and later an associate in Kindergarten work, said that Weston taught in the Boston schools for eighteen years (M.L.G. 321). If she began her full-time Kindergarten work in 1873 ("Notes and discussions" 146), she must have begun teaching around 1855 when she was 20 years old. The earliest documentation I can find shows that she taught in the Newbern Place primary school in 1858 (Rules of the School Committee 1858 11), where she remained until 1863, when she moved to the Warren Street primary school (street name later changed to Warrenton) (Annual report 1863 92). She remained there until 1870, when she moved to the Tennyson Street primary school (later named the Starr King school after the noted Unitarian minister). At Tennyson Street she taught alongside Lucy H. Symonds (Annual report 1870 403), remaining there through 1872 (Annual report 1872 405). Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (1804-1894), the founder of English-language Kindergarten in the U.S., reckoned Weston and Symonds among "the very most valued of the primary-school teachers of Boston" (Peabody 11).

Chestnut Street, Boston, circa 1869.
Photographer unknown. From Wikimedia Commons.

Over the years Weston spent in the public schools, she became impressed by the impact of Kindergartens on the students she received from such programs. In 1872-1873 she made a life-changing choice--she left public school teaching and undertook intensive study of Kindergarten teaching under Mary Garland ("Notes and discussions" 146). Mary J. Garland (1834-1901) was a disciple of Matilda Kriege, the German founder of the first Kindergarten teacher training program in the U.S., and was also associated with such notables as Elizabeth Peabody and Mary (Mrs. Horace) Mann ("In memoriam" 199-200). (Garland's school later evolved into the Garland Junior College for women, which closed in 1976.) Upon Weston's graduation she became Garland's partner in the Kindergarten school and teacher training program ("Notes and discussions" 146), and around 1875, Rebecca moved into quarters at Garland's school on Chestnut street ("Weston, 1875"). The two women, fast friends and partners in a cause, lived and worked together for the remainder of Weston's life. The impact of their partnership was such that a eulogist of Garland described them as "a double star in the educational firmament" (Wiltse 186). Weston passed away on 7 August 1895 in Concord, Massachusetts, where she and Garland were spending the summer vacation ("Notes and discussions" 146).

Weston's interest in music education was evident early in her career. Luther W. Mason, speaking at her memorial service, remembered that during his time as music supervisor in the Boston schools, Weston was one of the strongest advocates for his efforts to introduce systematic music instruction in the primary schools (M.L.G. 321). Elizabeth Peabody's firsthand description of the graduation exercises of Garland's first class of Kindergarten teachers, which included Weston and her friend Lucy Symonds, notes that "The young ladies began with singing a hymn, which one of them had composed" (Peabody "Exhibition" 10). (Was it Rebecca?) They also read their graduation essays; Weston's was "Froebel as builder," reprinted by Peabody as the lead article in Kindergartner Messenger No. 6 (October 1873). Music was an increasingly important part of Kindergarten work in general and of Weston's contributions to its development. Songs and games for little ones (Boston: Oliver Ditson, 1887), a pioneering music book for Kindergartens, includes this statement in the preface of the 3rd edition:

Kindergartners* will find that songs and games which have hitherto been obtainable only in manuscript form, many of them kindly supplied to us by Miss GARLAND and Miss WESTON, are here newly arranged and harmonized.
     *That is, Kindergarten teachers, or "child-gardeners," in the German sense of "Gartner"--DRH.

The first song in this collection is Weston's "Father, we thank Thee." It is uncertain how many others she wrote, but in the Garland Junior College records curated by the archives of Simmons College, there is a group of notebooks described as "Songs for Kindergartens" (no author indicated), alongside a notebook containing other teaching materials by Rebecca Weston (Garland Junior College records). I am much obliged to archivist Jason Wood for searching this material on my behalf. Unfortunately it yielded no references to "Father we thank Thee," but it does provide evidence of songwriting activity in the Garland & Weston school.

There is little to no question of Weston's authorship of the text of "Father, we thank Thee." Though it often appeared without attribution, as popular songs learned by rote will do, I have found no competing claims, and those who knew Weston best testify that she wrote the song for the use of her Kindergarten classes taught in Garland's school on Chestnut Street (M.L.G. 321). The first appearance of "Father, we thank Thee" in a songbook is in the teacher's manual for the 1885 Tonic sol-fa music course for schools by Daniel Batcheller and Thomas Charmbury (Batcheller & Charmbury 18), but the text was definitely known at least a few years earlier, and most likely was written during the 1870s. It is quoted, oddly enough, in a novel by Kate Douglas (Smith) Wiggin, The story of Patsy (Wiggin 27), copyrighted 1882. The song plays out over the death scene of the woebegone titular protagonist, for whom the Kindergarten was one of the few joys of life. Though Weston is not credited, naturally enough, the story nonetheless shows the currency of this hymn in the Kindergarten curriculum:

And in a voice choked with tears, as Jim came in the door, and lifted Patsy in his arms, I sang the hymn that he had sung, with folded hands and reverent mien, every morning of his life in the Kindergarten (Wiggin 26).

(In her defense, it was her first novel, and Wiggin would more than redeem herself with her 1903 classic Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.) Wiggin's knowledge of the hymn at such an early date might have come from her period of study with Elizabeth Peabody in 1880 ("Kate Douglas Wiggin"), but it also suggests that the hymn had already become quite familiar, perhaps even at a national level. An even earlier reference to this hymn comes from Weston's associate Lucy Wheelock, who remembered hearing a Kindergarten class sing at Chauncy Hall School while she herself was a student there. It was a moment that made her determined to pursue a career in early childhood education herself (Wheelock 26). Wheelock attended Chauncy Hall during 1875 (My life 10), so if her memory some fifty years later was accurate, she heard Weston's song in use in that year.

One final note on Rebecca Weston: like many, many people who have chosen early childhood education as a career (including my grandfather, my mother, and two of my sisters), she was acting out her Christian faith. Alice H. Putnam, yet another education luminary from Weston's circle, said in her memory, "I never met her without being deeply impressed with the genuineness of her Christian character" ("Notes and discussions" 147). In a meeting of the Eastern Kindergarten Association where Weston's life and work were honored, noted minister and author Edward Everett Hale said that Weston was a teacher whose philosophy was "founded on three eternities--faith, hope and love. Religion was central in her life, she lived to bring in the kingdom of God" (M.L.G. 321-322).

Bookplate from the library dedicated in
Weston's memory at the (original) Peabody
House, an innovative center for community
education. Reprinted in the Journal of the
Ex Libris Society XIV (1904), page 93.

"Father, we thank Thee for the night" is in that unfortunately small class of really great children's hymns. (All the more reason to revive the use of the good ones, with or without the King James English). It is inherently difficult to wrap a profound truth in simple vocabulary, and much easier to write something catchy but shallow. Add to that the struggle of the adult to think in terms that relate to a child, and it is remarkably challenging. But Jesus told us: "Of such are the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 19:14). It is well worth the while of adults to consider what aspects of childhood the Savior meant by that, and this hymn touches on some of them very well.

Stanza 1:
Father, we thank Thee for the night,
And for the pleasant morning light;
For rest and food and loving care,
And all that makes the day so fair.

Thanks are given first of all for the night, usually not the child's favorite time of day. But it is quickly paired with thanksgiving for rest in the third line, gently reminding the child (and us) that we need rest, and that it is a blessing. "He gives to His beloved sleep," Psalm 127:2 tells us, and "Sweet is the sleep of a laborer" (Ecclesiastes 5:12). This is no news, of course, to those of us who wake up in the middle of the night and want nothing more than to go back to sleep! But during those times I try to remind myself how blessed I am that at least I have a bed to lie in, and peaceful nights without fear. I have known people who slept on the floor on the weekends to avoid the stray bullets passing through their neighborhoods, and too many people around the world fear a knock on the door in the night from criminal gangs (official or otherwise). My childhood nighttime fears (Boggy Creek Monster stalking the streets of Tulsa, the headless motorcyclist from Kolchak: the Night Stalker) were fantasy--would that this were true for every child! Let us appreciate the blessing of rest and peace.

The "pleasant morning light" is something so fundamental to human understanding as to need no explanation. Scripture is full of allusions to this fact. The distressed soul in Psalm 130:6 "waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning," reflecting the near-universal experience of a tense night of watching in anxiety that will only be relieved by the arrival of day. Whether it is logical or not, things often do seem better by the light of day than by the dark of night. Scripture also tells us that "joy comes with the morning" (Psalm 30:5b), and in the promise of a new day with all its potential yet untold, perhaps there is a dim echo of that creative excitement that followed the first time this occurred: "And there was evening and morning, the first day" (Genesis 1:5). (I cannot help but think of my firstborn, aged two, who announced to us one morning upon arising, "I have one hundred ideas today!") But over the years, the routine of work and the unforgiving din of the alarm clock can dull our sense of wonder at this event called "morning." When my feet hit the floor in the morning (well before the morning light actually), I try to remember to make my first thought of this--"Lord, thank You for this new day." I have often heard the sentiment, but do not know the author: "God woke you up this morning, He still has something for you to do." A variation of the proverb says, "God woke you up this morning, He is giving you another chance to get it right." No matter what the challenges we face, every day is another chance to do better; every day is another chance to glorify God. "Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul" (Psalm 143:8).

"Rest and food and loving care" are further aspects of the child's simple world that are good for adults to consider carefully. My children know this routine by heart, having heard it many times--if you have clothes on your back, food on your table, and a roof over your head, you have everything you really need, and are better off than many, many people in this world. The small child who has not yet acquired the adult qualities of avarice and self-importance is generally satisfied with simple food, comfortable clothes, and a warm blanket to sleep under. It does not occur to the child to wish for more, when there is enough. The "loving care" of a trusted guardian is the final thing needed. I remember one night distinctly when my childhood nightmares were getting the best of me, and every shadow was a monster waiting to catch me, until I made the long, dark trek to my parents room and knocked on the door. On that night, at least, my father sat up in a chair in my room until I fell asleep. I woke up later, worried, fully expecting to be alone again--then saw that he was still there, asleep in that uncomfortable chair. If he was there, what did I have to worry about? If only we could keep that childlike trust in our heavenly Father! He "will neither slumber nor sleep" (Psalm 121:4). Peter encourages us to "cast all your anxieties upon Him, because He cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7.

Stanza 2:
Help us to do the things we should,
To be to others kind and good;
In all we do in work or play,
To grow more loving every day.

The second stanza of Weston's morning hymn turns from thanksgiving to supplication, and it is the best kind of supplication--asking God's help to live our lives in a manner pleasing to Him. "Help us to do the things we should" reminds us that sin is not just a matter of wrong done, but of good neglected. The familiar old lines from the General Confession in the Book of Common Prayer put it well: "We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done." One can avoid active evildoing all day long, yet fail to be "kind and good." One proof of kindness, as it is described in Scripture, is to whom it is demonstrated. Jesus described the Father in Luke 6:35 as "kind to the ungrateful and the evil." Our treatment of those who mistreat us shows the active presence of this godly kindness in our lives, because as Jesus points out, "If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them" (Luke 6:32). Ephesians 4:32 also associates kindness with the ability to rise above the other person's behavior: "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." It is easy to be kind to the coworker whose company I enjoy, or the cashier in the store who is always friendly. It is much harder to go out of my way to be kind to the difficult and critical coworker, or to the cashier who is always surly.

Weston concludes, naturally enough for a Kindergarten teacher, with the wish for continued growth. Among the metaphors Scripture uses to describe the Christian life (a walk, a race, a fight) one of the most prominent is the metaphor of biological growth. Some of Christ's most memorable parables--the Sower and the Soils, the Mustard Seed, the Wheat and the Tares--set the precedent for this imagery, where the gospel seed unfolds progressively in the life of a Christian. The body of Christians as a whole is compared to a growing physical body, differentiated yet united:

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love (Ephesians 4:15-16).

We recognize the necessity of growth and progress in the physical realm. Though we might wish in a way that our children could stay little just a while longer, in reality, we are concerned (often unreasonably so!) if they do not reach the expected milestones of physical and mental development on schedule. If we plant fruit trees, but get little or no fruit at the expected times, we examine the health of the trees and the soil, and try to make changes to increase the yield. Would that there were equal concern for spiritual growth! In the beginning of John's third epistle, he wishes for Gaius: "that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul" (3 John 2). I wonder sometimes how I would look, if my physical health actually reflected my spiritual health? God help us to pay closer attention to our spiritual growth, which is eternal, so that we can say with Paul, "Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day" (2 Corinthians 4:16).

It is worth noting in conclusion that Weston placed the desired growth of her Kindergarten pupils in the context of "work and play." Part of the lasting contribution of Fröbel and the Kindergarten movement was the understanding that learning takes place, not only through the passive reception of knowledge via teacher-student instruction, but also through the many different activities of life in which that knowledge is put into practice. In the same way, spiritual growth occurs not only through reception of knowledge--though that is absolutely necessary--but also through actively applying that knowledge in every aspect of life. Colossians 3:17 tells us, "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." Often the discussion of this verse is focused on the authority for practices in the Lord's church, and certainly the question is just as relevant today as ever--"By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?" (Matthew 21:23); "By what power or by what name did you do this?" (Acts 4:7). But the context of the verse within the chapter, which addresses personal morality and interpersonal relations, shows that it applies equally to the individual Christian in every other aspect of life. Yes, the worship of the church must be done "in the name of the Lord," under His authority as delegated through His inspired writers; but so also must my business practices. The organization of the church must be "in the name of the Lord," and so also must the organization of my time and where I spend it.

Obviously if I am doing something in my personal life that is overtly contrary to the Lord's will, I cannot do it "in the name of the Lord," living under His authority. But even those things that are morally neutral need to be done in a way that respects the Lord's authority over my life. I was amused recently to read in the compendium Queries and Answers (Nashville: Gospel Advocate, 1911), drawn from the editorial pages of the Gospel Advocate from more than a century ago, an article by Elisha G. Sewell in response to an earnest young Christian's question: Was it appropriate to join in the game (relatively new at that time) called "base ball?" Sewell's answer is just as timely today, and applies to pastimes never imagined in his day (video games, Facebook, etc.). All other things being equal, Sewell opined that playing a sport would be a better use of leisure time than would idleness. But would the time spent in baseball keep him from worship, or from other Christian activities? Would his participation, and the people he would associate with, help or hurt his reputation? Would he be more likely to influence the ungodly through this association, or the other way around? These questions are still important, as we strive to "take every thought captive to obey Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5), submitting to His authority over our whole lives, in "work and play" as well as in worship.

About the music:

The Hymnary.org page for "Father, we thank Thee" shows that the tune by Daniel Batchellor that first appeared with this text in 1885 has remained the most widely used. Daniel Batchellor (1845-ca. 1928), a Englishman, brought the British "tonic sol-fa" or Curwen system to the U.S. with the zeal of a religious reformer, and though he was ultimately unsuccessful in making this music-reading system a permanent part of American life, he was a strikingly innovative leader in early childhood music education (Southcott 60ff.). From what I have gathered, tonic sol-fa (the musical notation method, not the singing group) is to the U.K. what shape-notes are to the U.S., in the sense that it was invented to teach music reading as quickly as possible to those without any formal musical education, using a method of notation that signifies scale steps rather than letter-name pitches.

from Manual for teachers, and rote songs, to accompany the
Tonic sol-fa music course for schools (1885)

Below is the common four-part setting, in traditional notation:

from Childhood Songs, ed. Mabel Rowland, 1898

The upward leaps of a 6th in the opening phrase and third phrase, and the busy final phrase, make this tune a little awkward to sing, though it is pretty enough.

A few hymnals have paired "Father, we thank Thee for the night" with the tune HURSLEY (known to churches of Christ in the U.S. with the text "Sun of my soul, Thou Savior dear"), which is a charming fit. There is another setting of this text with music by Grietje Terburg Rowley (b. 1927), found in some Latter Day Saints hymnals, with very interesting harmony. There is also a setting of this text by Kate Douglas Wiggin from her Kindergarten Chimes (1885), but it borrows a little too obviously from ST. GEORGE'S WINDSOR ("Come, ye thankful people, come").

Jorgenson's setting of this text first appeared in the 1930 edition of Great Songs of the Church. A recording of "Father, we thank Thee" sung to this tune was recorded by the Harding University Concert Choir on their album Harding 100 Hymns. An MP3 version is available here.

---

Genealogical References for Rebecca J. Weston

Notice of Death, Obituaries:

"Rebecca J. Weston, 07 Aug 1895." Massachusetts deaths, 1841-1915. FamilySearch (2015), citing Concord, Massachusetts v. 455, p. 172, State Archives, Boston, FHL microfilm 961,516.
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NWQR-7QC

"Notes and discussions." Kindergarten Magazine (Chicago) VIII/2 (October 1895), 146-147.
https://books.google.com/books?id=XvpJAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA146#v=onepage&q&f=false

M. L. G. "In memory of of Miss Weston." Kindergarten News (Springfield, Mass.) V/9 (November 1895), 320-322.

https://books.google.com/books?id=n4A-AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA320#v=onepage&q&f=false

Census data:

"James Weston." U.S. Census, 1850. FamilySearch (2015), citing NARA microfilm M432, p. 612, household 45 (Massachusetts, Suffolk, Boston, Ward 10).
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDSD-Q7K

"James Weston." Massachusetts State Census, 1855. FamilySearch (2015), citing State Archives, Boston, FHL microfilm 953,959, Suffolk County, Boston, Ward 8, household 70.

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MQWK-72W

"James Weston." U.S. Census, 1860. FamilySearch (2015), citing NARA microfilm M653, p. 210, household 1627 (Massachusetts, Suffolk, Boston, Ward 10).
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZHK-WDV 

(view microfilm image: https://archive.org/stream/populationschedu523unit#page/n390/mode/1up)

"Rebecca J. Weston." Massachusetts State Census, 1865. FamilySearch (2015), citing State Archives, Boston, FHL microfilm 954,377, Suffolk County, Boston, Ward 10, household 2259.

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MQHZ-JNR

"Rebecca J. Weston." U.S. Census, 1870. FamilySearch (2015), citing NARA microfilm M593, p. 66, household 480 (Massachusetts, Suffolk, Boston, Ward 8).
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MD3G-KQD

City directories:

1837, Stimpson's Boston directory. Boston: Stimpson & Clapp, 1837. Digital version from the Collection of the Boston Athenaeum.
http://cdm.bostonathenaeum.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p16057coll32/id/34/rec/8

1850-1851, The directory of the city of Boston. Boston: George Adams, 1850. Digital version from the Collection of the Boston Athenaeum.
http://cdm.bostonathenaeum.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16057coll32/id/42

"Weston, 1875." Boston streets: mapping directory data. Tufts University (2015), citing the Boston directory (Sampson, Davenport & Co., 1875) http://bcd.lib.tufts.edu/view_text.jsp?urn=tufts:central:dca:UA069:UA069.005.DO.00020&chapter=d.1875.su.Weston

"Weston, 1885." Boston streets: mapping directory data. Tufts University (2015), citing the Boston directory (Sampson, Murdock & Co., 1885). http://bcd.lib.tufts.edu/view_text.jsp?urn=tufts:central:dca:UA069:UA069.005.DO.00012&chapter=d.1885.su.Weston

Boston Schools documents:

Annual report of the School Committee of the City of Boston, 1857. Boston: Geo. C. Rand & Avery, 1858. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32435057125239

Rules of the School Committee and regulations of the Public Schools of the City of Boston 1858. Boston: Geo. C. Rand & Avery, 1858. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiug.30112044125448?urlappend=%3Bseq=81

Annual report of the School Committee of the City of Boston, 1863. Boston: J. E. Farwell & Co., 1863. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.li2mep?urlappend=%3Bseq=364

Annual report of the School Committee of the City of Boston, 1869. Boston: Geo. C. Rand & Avery, 1870. https://archive.org/stream/annualreportsch05bostgoog#page/n472/mode/1up

Annual report of the School Committee of the City of Boston, 1870. Boston: Geo. C. Rand & Avery, 1871. https://archive.org/stream/annualreportsch04bostgoog#page/n406/mode/1up

Annual report of the School Committee of the City of Boston, 1871. Boston: Rockwell & Churchill, 1872. https://archive.org/stream/annualreportsch08bostgoog#page/n551/mode/1up/

Annual report of the School Committee of the City of Boston, 1872. Boston: Rockwell & Churchill, 1873. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.li2mf4?urlappend=%3Bseq=411

Annual catalogues of the teachers and pupils of the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary [1837-1847, 1847-1857]. [South Hadley, Mass.?]: published for the Memorandum Society, 1847-1857.

http://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101007789082

Other References

Muelle, Christina More. The history of Kindergarten: from Germany to the United States. South Florida Education Research Conference, 2015. Florida International University Digital Commons.
http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/sferc/2005/2005/1/

"In memoriam : death of friends of the Kindergarten." Seventieth annual report of the Trustees of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind, for the year ending August 31, 1901, 190-216. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/chi.098209389?urlappend=%3Bseq=206

Wiltse, Sara E., "Boston memorial service to Mary J. Garland." Kindergarten Magazine XIV/3 (November 1901), 185-187.
https://books.google.com/books?id=rfUBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA185#v=onepage&q&f=false

Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer. "Exhibition of the trained Kindergartners instructed by Miss Garland, in the Boston class of 1872-3." Kindergarten Messenger I/2 (June 1873), 9-14.
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/loc.ark:/13960/t3dz10j2h?urlappend=%3Bseq=39

Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer. "Miss Garland's Kindergarten training class of 1873-74." Kindergarten Messenger II/6 (June 1874), 20-22.
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/loc.ark:/13960/t3dz10j2h?urlappend=%3Bseq=352

Songs and games for little ones, prepared by Gertrude Walker and Harriet S. Jenks, 3rd edition. Boston: Oliver Ditson, 1887. https://books.google.com/books?id=4Oo-AAAAYAAJ

"Guide to the Garland Junior College records, 1872-1984," Simmons College Archives.
http://beatleyweb.simmons.edu/collectionguides/ManuscriptsCollection/MS104.html#adminlink

Batcheller, Daniel, and Thomas Charmbury, editors. Manual for teachers, and rote songs, to accompany the Tonic sol-fa music reader for schools. Boston: Oliver Ditson, 1885.
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000006254575;view=1up;seq=24

Smith, Kate Douglas. The story of Patsy. San Francisco: C. A. Murdock, 1883.
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t2j679h5w

"Kate Douglas Wiggin." Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
http://www.britannica.com/biography/Kate-Douglas-Wiggin

Wheelock, Lucy. "Miss Peabody as I knew her." Pioneers of the Kindergarten in America, edited by the Committe of Nineteen of the International Kindergarten Association. New York: Century Co., 1924, 26-38.

https://archive.org/stream/pioneersofthekin009710mbp#page/n55/mode/2up

Wheelock, Lucy. My life story (unpublished manuscript, 1940s). Wheelock College Library Archives. http://issuu.com/wheelockarchives/docs/my_life_story_wheelock

Southcott, Jane. "Daniel Batchellor and the American tonic sol-fa movement." Journal of Research in Music Education 43/1 (Spring 1995), 60-83.

Father, Forgive Us

Praise for the Lord #145

Words & music by Gene C. Finley, 1973

Gene Cleveland Finley was born in 1929 near Gilt Edge, Tennessee, a small farming community along the Mississippi River north of Memphis (Finley 196). He comes from a well-known family of singers, songleaders, and songwriters among the churches of Christ in Arkansas, including his brother E. D. Finley (1919-1987) and their father, Hiram Cleveland Finley (1884-1970). Brother Gene C. Finley is probably best known, however, through his book Our Garden of Song (1980), which compiled his invaluable research on songwriters among the churches of Christ in this country. Much of the information he gathered, especially on the lesser-known writers, probably would have been lost but for his efforts. Remembering that this research was conducted in the old-fashioned pre-Internet way--by letter, telephone, and traveling for personal interviews--it becomes all the more obvious what a labor of love this was.

Gene C. Finley's songs have appeared in a number of publications over the years, in hymnals used by the churches of Christ and in the yearly paperback songbooks of the Southern gospel shape-note publishers. "The wondrous city" and "Come to Jesus" (written together with his father) appeared in Stamps-Baxter collections in 1950 (Songs for All; Better Songs). Another pair of his songs was published by the Jeffress Music Co. (today Jeffress-Phillips) of Crossett, Arkansas: "Just a Few More Days to Travel" in Echoes of Heaven (1957) and "A House not Made with Hands" in Bells of Heaven (1959). Two of Finley's songs were in Alton Howard's 1971 Songs of the Church, "Oh what love!" and "Lord, dismiss us in Thy care", the latter of which has been widely used and has appeared in other more recent hymnals. "Father, forgive us" first appeared in Hymns of Praise, (1978), published by Firm Foundation in Austin, Texas (Walker).

Since it is a custom of long standing among churches of Christ to offer an invitation for individual response to the gospel at every public meeting, our hymnals have a good number of songs designed to call the unbeliever to repent. But it is a more difficult task to find songs calling the believer to repentance--and it is this subject that Brother Finley decided to address in "Father, forgive us". It is certainly an appropriate topic, for the words of Jesus to the church in Ephesus ring true all too often, on an individual and a congregational level: "Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first" (Revelation 2:5). Even the apostle Paul, the paragon of dedicated Christian service, said,

For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Romans 7:22-25).

Though he went on to express his assurance in salvation through the grace of Jesus Christ, Paul made it plain that he struggled with sin. And if he struggled, should we not be mindful of our own need to repent?

Despite his confidence in his salvation, Paul said, "I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified" (1 Corinthians 9:27). It is the Christian who thinks he or she is beyond temptation who is most at risk! In comparison to the world around us, we may have overcome many temptations (or perhaps have never been seriously tested by some of them). But we cannot afford to congratulate ourselves on avoiding the kinds of sins that would cause us to be featured on the evening news. It does not take a "big" sin to make a sinner; a "little sin" will do just as well. Perhaps it suits the devil even better to catch us that way, because a "little sin" will go longer unnoticed. It is just such "little sins" (in the world's view) that Brother Finley's hymn calls us to confess as we come before the Father.

Stanza 1:
Father, forgive us when in our weakness
We let the tempter lead us astray.
We bow our hearts in shame and in meekness,
Father, have mercy, save us we pray.

Though we should pray as Jesus taught us, "Lead us not into temptation" (Matthew 6:13), we know from the rest of Scripture (and from personal experience) that the problem is not with God's guidance but with our lack of willpower, if not our outright rebellion. God does not provide us a pathway without temptations--it is hard to conceive what such a world would be like!--but He does promise us that,

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Paul, through whom God revealed that message, knew this firsthand from his own "thorn in the flesh." As much as this unknown problem tormented Paul, he understood God's promise that "My grace is sufficient for you" (2 Corinthians 12:9). The same is true for us in facing temptations--James tells us,

Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire (James 1:13-14).

So it is quite correct when Brother Finley says, "We let the tempter lead us astray." Though Christians are promised that "neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39), we are also warned, "your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). The straying sheep that lags behind the Shepherd makes itself easy prey; for this reason Peter prefaces his comment, "Be sober-minded; be watchful." Being oblivious to temptations that enter our lives--not to mention deliberately flirting with them--is a losing proposition. As the old saying goes among the sidewalk hucksters, "Never play the other man's game."

Stanza 2:
Father, forgive us when we grow weary,
And we find time to grieve and complain.
Give us the power to see things more clearly;
Father of lights, make everything plain.

Weariness of the body and mind is a part of life. There is a satisfying weariness, of course, when we have exerted ourselves in some necessary labor and can rest a while--Ecclesiastes 5:12 remarks, "Sweet is the sleep of the laboring man." Often, however, we may be forced to press on through weariness, and it begins to compound our problems. The brain slows down, judgment becomes cloudy, and mistakes become more frequent. Worse yet, the barriers that normally restrict our behavior begin to degrade. We may become more irritable, and more likely to say or do things that we would not have said or done had we thought more clearly.

The flesh is weak, as Jesus said to his sleepy disciples (Matthew 26:41), and we need to realize its effects on us. Regular rest and exercise, a healthy diet, and moderation in all things, are necessary to keep these imperfect "earthen vessels" in working order so that we may serve God and others as effectively as possible. An improved physical state improves the mental outlook! So often a solution that seemed impossible to find in the tired hours of the evening before, falls into place in the morning with a fresh outlook; so often a discouragement that seems overwhelming at the moment, recedes into a proper perspective after a good night's sleep. Even Jesus, in the busy three years of His earthly ministry, told His disciples to "Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while" (Mark 6:31).

But sometimes there is a weariness of soul that is not so easily cured. Repeated disappointments, frustrations with people we care about who will not care for their own souls, and the seemingly overwhelming opposition to good in our world can break us down. In this case, rest may not be the answer at all, but rather the opposite. Paul reminded Christians more than once, "do not grow weary in doing good" (2 Thessalonians 3:13; Galatians 6:9). There is always something good we can do, someone who needs a visit or call, someone who needs an encouraging word. Even if it is "just" offering up a prayer for a person in need, there is something positive we can do every day. And when we find ourselves complaining, "consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted" (Hebrews 12:3).

The ability to see the situation clearly, as Brother Finley says, is a quality much to be desired. We can endure a great deal if we know it is only for a little longer, and that relief is near at hand. In 2 Kings 6:15-17 we read the wonderful incident in which Elisha's servant had his vision miraculously corrected:

When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, "Alas, my master! What shall we do?" He said, "Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Then Elisha prayed and said, "O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see." So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

God had the situation under control all along, but the young servant did not see it. In the same sense, the disciples of Jesus were unable to see clearly during the storm on Galilee (Matthew 8:23-27), when Jesus rebuked them saying, "Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?" Common sense, and the experience of professional sailors, told them to be very much afraid; but the reality of Jesus Christ and His power should have overcome their fears. We need to use our common sense, of course (see the entire book of Proverbs), but I am afraid that sometimes our "common sense" can get in the way of living by faith. Jesus calls us to do all kinds of things--loving our enemies, turning the other cheek, taking up a cross--that make no common sense. God help us to look with the eyes of faith!

Stanza 3:
Father, forgive us when in our blindness
We hurt our loved ones with things we say.
Give us the patience, give us the kindness,
Give us the love we need for today.

My brother Eddie Parrish once taught his sons a memorable lesson about our words. He gave the youngsters each a tube of toothpaste and told them to squeeze all the toothpaste out, as fast as they could. They were bewildered, but given the paternal blessing to make a mess, they proceeded to do so with vigor until every last bit of toothpaste was squeezed from the tubes. "Now," their father said, "put it all back."

This is what our words are like--they are easily spoken, but impossible to recall. And how many of them we speak! A study conducted in 2007 by Matthias Mehl et al. at the University of Arizona found that a test group of university students averaged around 16,000 words spoken per day (Science 6 July 2007 p. 82). (And contrary to popular belief, no statistically significant difference was found between men and women!) 16,000 words is a sobering thought. For a point of rough comparison, the words of Jesus recorded by Matthew, in a red-letter edition of the King James Version, run to only about 13,500. When I think how those (relatively) few words have changed the world, I shudder to imagine what nonsense I spend my words on in a day's time. The book of Proverbs has many memorable sayings on this theme: "When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent" (Proverbs 10:19). And who can forget the sharp wit of Proverbs 17:28? "Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent." But most importantly of all, we hear from Jesus himself, "I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak" (Matthew 12:36).

Brother Finley drives this home in the second line, reminding us that these careless words (or sometimes, sadly, deliberate words) can hurt others. We will answer for them, surely, but that does not take away the harm that words can do to another person. I can remember clearly--surely the reader can as well--the exact words and tone of voice when someone's speech cut me to the heart as a child. I still remember how that hurt. And yet, I confess--and I am sure the reader does as well--that I can also remember things that I have said to others, that I would do anything to take back. Even when I have asked their forgiveness, and it has been granted, I am still ashamed that it ever came between us through my carelessness or pettiness. The old song says, "You always hurt the one you love," and perhaps it is because we lower our guard at home and around our loved ones that we are sometimes prone to speak to them without thinking. Again, the Proverbs have strong advice for us: "There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing" (Proverbs 12:18). Words spoken in heat or in haste are not for the child of God. We need to inscribe the words of James on our hearts: "Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God" (James 1:19-20). It is better to speak wisely and well than to speak first; a shallow well brings the bucket to the top faster, but a deep well gives better water.

Stanza 4:
Father, forgive us when thoughts indecent
Enter our minds and we let them stay.
Cleanse us and make us fit for Thy Spirit,
In Jesus' name we earnestly pray.

Indecent thoughts are not a new problem; in every case of indecent behavior, from the book of Genesis forward, the thought preceded the action. As Jesus teaches us,

From within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person. (Mark 7:21-23).

This principle lies behind Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount about indecent thoughts: "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew 5:27-28). It was a problem, then, in ancient times as well as today. The loose morals of Greco-Roman culture in the 1st century, from the Caesars down to the servant classes, meant that many early Christians lived in a world permeated with indecency. Sadly, much of the Western world has slipped back into this lascivious lifestyle as the moral standards of past generations have lost their influence. Even if we choose to avoid the trash on television, in the movies, and on the Internet, through selective viewing, it is impossible to avoid all such temptations. How then do we deal with this problem?

Gene Finley answers this question in a thoughtful turn of words--"Father, forgive us, when thoughts indecent / Enter our minds, and we let them stay." The example of David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11 brings this into sharp focus. David was on his roof, looking down over the city, and saw a beautiful woman bathing. We cannot suppose that he went on the roof intending to peep into people's houses. We cannot even blame him much for noticing Bathsheba--if I may put this delicately, it would be nearly impossible for him to not at least notice. But at some point between seeing her (verse 2) and sending for her (verses 3-4), he did more than notice. The "thought indecent," as Finley says, had entered David's mind, and he "let it stay." He looked at her and desired her, and "desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death" (James 1:15).

But what if David had resolutely turned his gaze away as soon as he saw her, and had gone back in the palace? David, Bathsheba, Uriah, and many others could have avoided a great deal of misery. His decision to continue looking, however, fed his desire, and his desire led him to think about things that were indecent; then, having once given in to temptation in his thoughts, it was just the matter of asking a question and giving an order to have Bathsheba brought to the palace. Did David hesitate when he actually saw her there? Did he consider just once again that perhaps he shouldn't do what was in his heart? We are not told. But if he did have pangs of conscience, they were not sufficient to stop him at that point. Yes, God assures that "He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it" (1 Corinthians 10:13). But He does not promise to continue providing new ways of escape if we keep ignoring them. Ephesians 4:27 warns us, "Give no opportunity to the devil," and when David first let those thoughts linger in his mind, he gave Satan all the opportunity he needed.

Brother Finley's hymn accomplished what I believe must have been his purpose--to make us uncomfortable. There are many, many songs in the traditional gospel style that tell us to rejoice in our hope, and to be encouraged in our struggles, and these are worthy topics. This hymn, on the other hand, throws a bucket of ice-water on our heads and dares us to deny its truth. All too often we do in fact go astray, we complain, we say hurtful things, and we engage in the world's lusts. (If this is not true of you personally, please accept my apologies; but I imagine it hits close enough to home for most of us.) Songs of confession are not as common as is the need for them, and we could use more!

About the music:

The musical setting for "Father, forgive us" is reminiscent another of Finley's better-known hymns, "Lord, dismiss us in Thy care". Both keep the melody within a narrow range, no more than a sixth except for the former's downward leap in "We let the tempter lead US astray," which rather surprisingly dips below the tonic note. Both tunes are in F major, and have a certain similarity in the SOL-LA-SOL peaks at the beginnings of the 2nd and 4th phrases of each. In both settings the composer uses a descending chromatic line in an inner voice--in the alto in "Father, forgive us", and in the tenor in "Lord, dismiss us in Thy care"--which gives the harmony a similar feel. Not having access to more of Finley's songs, I cannot suggest this is a characteristic style; I suspect, rather, that it is his style when writing music for slow, contemplative songs of this sort.

---

References:

Finley, Gene C., ed. Our Garden of Song. West Monroe, La.: Howard Publishing, 1980.

Walker, Wayne S. "Father, Forgive Us." hymnstudiesblog. -https://hymnstudiesblog.wordpress.com/2009/01/13/quotfather-forgive-usquot/0

Father, Hear the Prayer We Offer

Praise for the Lord #144

Words: Love Maria (Whitcomb) Willis, 1859; alt. Samuel Longfellow, 1864
Music: ST. SYLVESTER, John B. Dykes, 1862

The original poem from which this hymn was fashioned was written by Love Maria (Whitcomb) Willis (1824-1908), an accomplished poet and editor from Hancock, New Hampshire. She was named after her mother, Love Foster, daughter of a prominent Unitarian minister (Hayward, 1001). Her father, Henry Whitcomb, and her uncle John Whitcomb were among the leading men of the community, and the families were very close. Henry and John married on the same day, and started their families in what must be the most impressive duplex ever (Hayward, 1002). But fortunate as they were in so many things, tragedy was no stranger to the Whitcomb households. By the time Maria wrote this hymn, she had lost one of her two siblings and three of her four first cousins (all of whom had grown up under the same roof) to early and unexpected deaths. The heaviest blow of all, however, was the death of her father in an accident while handling a horse. He died in 1831, at the age of 44, when Love Maria was just six years old. In the words of Hayward, who attributes his account to Love M. Willis herself, "The cloud so suddenly gathered never quite left the household" (Hayward, 1004ff).

Perhaps it was this early and frequent loss of loved ones that turned Love Maria Whitcomb towards the Spiritualist movement; or perhaps it was simply the current of the times, fueled further in her case by the liberal theology of her upbringing. (How ironic that so many in that generation began by turning away from the inspiration of  the Living Word, and ended up seeking for messages from the dead!)  Love M. Whitcomb wrote extensively for the Spiritualist magazine Tiffany's Monthly (edited by the abolitionist lawyer Joel Tiffany), including essays on such diverse topics as aesthetics, theology, logic, philosophy, and psychology. (Several of her articles and poems may be read in the 3rd volume of the magazine, available through Google Books.) She was later the editor of the children's department in Banner of Light, a Spiritualist magazine in Boston (Hull, back matter), and co-edited the New York department of The Present Age, a Chicago-based Spiritualist journal (The Present Age, 11 December 1869, p. 2).

Among the acquaintances that Maria Love Whitcomb made in the Spiritualist movement was Frederick D.H. Willis, a childhood friend of the famed Alcott sisters, and believed by some to have been the inspiration for the character Theodore "Laurie" Laurence in the book Little Women. Frederick Willis had promising prospects as a minister, but his growing involvement in Spiritualism led to his expulsion from Harvard Divinity School in 1857 (Morris, 27).  He would spend the next several years re-educating himself for a career in medicine, graduating from the New York Medical College in 1865 (Directory of Alumni, 1902, 62).

It was during the throes of this event that Maria Love Whitcomb first published the poem simply titled "Prayer," the first line of which read, "Father, hear the prayer I offer" (Tiffany's monthly, vol. 3 (1857), p. 359). The same volume contained a defense of Frederick Willis, and a critique Harvard's action, by the prominent Unitarian minister and anti-slavery activist Thomas Wentworth Higginson, (p. 283-285). And in 1858, just a year into Frederick Willis's change of plans, Maria Love married him (New Hampshire Marriage Records).

I am not suggesting that Mr. Willis's situation had anything to do with the writing of the poem, but perhaps it does reflect a state of mind in the author that is worth considering. Though I certainly do not share her Spiritualist or Unitarian beliefs, Love Maria showed a strength of character and a faith in God that seemed to grow stronger as the challenges mounted against her. I also respect her determination to stand by the man she loved when everything was against him and his prospects were at their lowest. It is a grown-up, mature faith that understands that the greater the trial, the greater the opportunity to glorify God by standing the test in a Christ-like manner.

Love Maria Whitcomb's poem first appeared as a hymn in Psalms of Life, 4th ed., published in 1857 by John Stowell Adams, a Boston Spiritualist publisher. The changes were minor, limited almost entirely to the recasting of the singular pronouns to plural, to make the hymn more appropriate to congregational singing. The version we sing today, however, benefited from passing under the critical eye of one of the great American poets of the age. Mrs. Willis's hymn next appeared in the 1860 Book of Hymns and Tunes, edited by Samuel Longfellow. (This preceded its oft-cited appearance in the Hymns of the Spirit, co-edited by Samuel Longfellow and the clergyman Samuel Johnson in 1864, and settles the question of whose editorial hand was involved). The current form of the hymn was established in this publication, with the exception of the final stanza beginning "Let our path be bright or dreary." The revision by Longfellow (at least it is reasonably assumed it was he) was a masterful work of editing, polishing the best parts of Willis's original and smoothing out its imperfections with many happy turns of phrase. According to Julian (v.1, 367), the aforementioned closing stanza was added anonymously in William G. Horder's Congregational Hymns (London, 1884). It is present in the influential English Hymnal of 1906 (no. 385), and likely gained a great deal of currency from that source, even back in its native country.

Stanza 1:

Father, hear the prayer we offer:
Nor for ease that prayer shall be,
But for strength, that we may ever
Live our lives courageously.

Mrs. Willis's original stanza was the following:

Father, hear the prayer I offer;
For sweet peace I do not cry,
But for grace that I may ever
Live my life courageously.

The most obvious change, perhaps, is harmonizing the endings of the 2nd and 4th lines by changing "cry" to "be", a more natural rhyme (especially when spoken instead of read) with "courageously". But the most significant change, I think, is altering Willis's "cry for peace" to a "prayer for ease." We would sympathize with a distressed soul's cry for peace, even though she says that is not what her prayer intends; but Longfellow's wording digs deeper into our consciences, scolding those of us who take for granted the "ease" we already have, and yet pray for more. Peace we are promised (John 14:27), but "ease" is comparative. Jesus said, "My yoke is easy, and My burden is light"--compared to the burden of sin and despair (Matthew 11:30)--but if we are seeking the "easy" road in life for its own sake, we will end in destruction (Matthew 7:13). It was the rich fool who said, "Soul, take your ease" (Luke 12:19); it was the holy apostles who left their quiet livelihoods to be persecuted and martyred.

Longfellow's choice of "strength" instead of the original "grace" suits the overall character of the hymn, and reinforces a recurring theme. Paul wished God's grace upon the recipients of his letters in almost every opening address, and there is no question that we are in need of it every day; but there are times when a sterner message needs to be added as well. Perhaps because of his upbringing in Tarsus, the capital of a Roman province, Paul was familiar with the language of athletic contests and of warfare, pursuits in which the Romans and Greeks excelled. His exhortation in Ephesians 6:10 could be the words of a coach or a general, seeking to whip up the fighting spirit of his men before the decisive hour: "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might."

In his exuberance, Paul uses three different terms for "strength" in the original Greek. "Be strong" is a verb form (Strong's G1743) of the noun δυναμόω (dynamis, Strong's G1412), from which we get the English words "dynamic" and "dynamite". It is an active, energetic quality that brings about change. The "strength" is κράτος (kratos, Strong's G2904), having to do with authority; it is the stem of the words we use to describe types of government ("democracy," for example, in which authority derives from the "demos", the people). In Scripture it is used almost exclusively to describe the authority of God. The "might" at the end of the verse is ἰσχύς (ischys, Strong's G2479), derived from a form of the verb ἔχω (echo, Strong's G2192), meaning "to hold"--in this case, to maintain something or to hold fast (Blue Letter Bible Eph. 6:11)

Fortunately it is not our own strength upon which we depend! The coach or general may have to instill a false sense of power and ability in his charges by dint of his own charisma; but through a similar grouping of these "strength" expressions in Ephesians 1:19, Paul shows us the true scale of the power upon which we can call: "the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might." My own strength is not much to speak of--I am all to aware of my limitations. But if my strength is augmented by such a reserve of power, and is constantly resupplied, who knows what God might do through me?

It is in this light that Longfellow's emphasis on "strength" coincides so well with M. Love Willis's wish to live life "courageously." When we were children, we thrilled to hear the stories of the Bible heroes--examples of physical courage, such as the warriors David and Jonathan, and also the examples of moral courage, such as Esther and Ruth. We knew we were never likely to stand alone in a winner-take-all duel against a giant, or to go before an emperor to plead for the life of a people; but those heroes gave us a standard against which to measure our aspirations.

In Ephesians 6:12, however, Paul tells us that we may yet have giants to fight, and emperors to stare down! "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." We may not be called upon for the kind of thrilling heroics we read about as children, but ask a godly parent if it takes strength and courage to labor, year after year, to bring up a child "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4). Ask the addict struggling against drugs, or porn, or alcohol, if it takes strength and courage to set a daily course that keeps clear of those temptations. Ask the young person at school, or in a new job, if it takes strength and courage to live a "transformed" life in Christ when surrounded by pressure to "be conformed" to this world (Romans 12:2). Ask the caregiver who watches over an invalid in declining health, day after day, if it takes strength and courage to be the support that loved one needs. There are heroic deeds enough to be done; let us live courageously!

The Longfellow revision kept the following stanza, but some hymnals omitted it over the years, and I have not seen it in the hymnals used among Churches of Christ, at least in this country:

Not forever in green pastures
Do we ask our way to be,
But the steep and rugged pathway
May we tread rejoicingly.

Maria Love Willis's original was:

Not within the fresh green pastures,
Will I ask that I may lie,
But the steep and rugged pathway,
That I tread rejoicingly.

This and the following stanza are of a piece, thematically, so it is a shame that one of them is generally omitted. But at least we are left with the following:

Stanza 2:
Not forever by still waters
Would we idly, quiet stay;
But would smite the living fountains
From the rocks along our way.

Mrs. Willis's original was:

Not beside the clear, still waters,
Do I pray thou wilt me guide,
But I'd smite the rocky pillar,
Whence the living spring may glide.

Longfellow's work here, simplifying and smoothing the text, is like a master jeweler bringing out the facets of a diamond--for here begins Love Maria Willis's masterstroke, the juxtaposition of two very familiar images from the Hebrew Testament. The 23rd Psalm is obviously one of the best known passage of all the Scriptures, even among unbelievers. Generation after generation has looked to it for comfort. Jesus' self-identified role as the "Good Shepherd" (John 10:11) lends even greater relevance to this description of a shepherd's tender care for his flock. The word-pictures themselves are so pleasant; who would not want to lie down for a moment in that green pasture, or walk beside those still waters?

And so it is all the more striking when Willis deliberately turns from these peaceful scenes and embraces the hardships of another great scene of Hebrew history, the Exodus. Moses was likewise a shepherd of his people (Isaiah 63:11), but was forced to lead them across deserts instead of green pastures, and had to "smite the living fountains" from the bare rock of the wilderness (Exodus 17:6). The Exodus experience certainly does not have the same immediate appeal to us as Psalm 23; but if we look further into the 23rd Psalm, we find that here, too, is a "valley of the shadow of death." The ancient shepherds did not keep their sheep in just one pasture, but led them from place to place depending on the season, sometimes crossing difficult terrain. We need the times of peaceful refreshment that God sends, but we cannot stay there forever. The simple fact is, there is no easy express lane to glory. The closest thing to an express highway in life is the one Jesus mentioned in Matthew 7:13, but we will find the toll too high at the end! We must take that narrow and difficult path instead if we would reach the destination we seek.

The following two stanzas from Maria Love Willis's original poem were omitted from Longfellow's version:

If I go where flowers of summer
Still the ragged path adorn,
Let me weave them into garlands,
Tho' each one should bear a thorn.

Not the glorious sunlight only
Will I crave, oh God, of Thee,
But to see Thy fiery pillar
In the darkness guiding me.

Longfellow may have omitted the first of these simply because it deviates somewhat from the imagery already invoked in the hymn; weaving garlands (superfluous objects in a wilderness wandering!) from thorn-bearing flowers does not fit well with the overall themes of strength and courage in the Christian journey. The second of these omitted stanzas reinforces the Exodus theme, however, and one can imagine that Longfellow might have tweaked this into another fine hymn stanza. The point is well taken, that it was only at night that the Hebrews could see the full glory of the fiery pillar leading them; and it is often in the darker times of life that we learn to appreciate the brilliance of the Light of the World.

Stanza 3:
Be our strength in hours of weakness,
In our wanderings be our Guide;
Through endeavor, failure, danger,
Father, be Thou at our side.

Love M. Willis's original was:

Be my strength in every weakness;
In my doubt be Thou my guide;
Through each peril, through each danger,
Draw me nearer to Thy side

This was the end of Maria Love Willis's original poem, and is the end of the hymn in Longfellow's adaptation. The change of "my doubt" to "wanderings" was wise, as the introduction of doubt at this late stage is a complication the original poem does not go on to address. Longfellow instead ends on a note of resolve, and recalls again the theme of "wilderness wandering" that underlies the hymn. His choice of "endeavor" in the third line may have just been intended to smooth over the break created by two parallel phrases within the original line ("Through each peril / Through each danger"). But it also introduces an interesting note of variety--asking God to be at our side through the endeavor itself, when success is still in question, as well as in failure, when defeat is already known. It reminds me of my favorite line from Rudyard Kipling's poem, "If": "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster / And treat those two imposters just the same; . . ." Our successes in this life are rarely as glorious and as lasting, and our defeats are rarely as utterly disastrous, as we believe they are at those particular moments.

The appeal, then, is for God's presence, assistance, and protection in every phase of life, from the good and quiet times to the difficult and chaotic. Paul spoke to this in his famous saying, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13). As with any Scripture, we must not take this single verse out of the context of its original passage, or out of the larger context of the totality of New Testament teaching. I have seen this verse on inspirational posters with sports themes, and other such associations, that sometimes push it beyond the bounds of good sense. Paul surely meant that he could "do all things" that were within God's will for him, and that were necessary to serving his Lord. God's will for you on the football field surely extends no further than to do your best (Colossians 3:23) and to conduct yourself in a Christlike manner (Colossians 4:5).

But in its proper context, Paul's assurance reminds us that we are not alone in the spiritual warfare of this life. God allows us to face some exceedingly large challenges, but He also promises us an exceedingly large helping of strength to overcome them. Paul assured the church of Ephesus of this fact in these beautiful words:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith--that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:14-19).

If it is something God wills you to do, He will provide you the strength to do it.

Stanza 4:

Let our path be bright or dreary,
Storm or sunshine be our share;
May our souls in hope unweary
Make Thy work our ceaseless prayer.

This final stanza, as found in most hymnals among the Churches of Christ in the U.S., became attached to this hymn considerably later--Julian (v. 1, 367) found it no earlier than 1884, in Horder's Congregational Hymns). Here is yet another stanza that has been added in some versions of this hymn:

Ours to sow the seed in sorrow,
Thine to bid it spring and grow;
And the golden days of autumn
Will a precious harvest show.

This was actually the closing stanza in the earliest instance of "Father, hear the prayer we offer" in a hymnal associated with the Churches of Christ (at least in the U.S.), Elmer Jorgenson's original 1921 edition of Great Songs of the Church. In the classic "Great Songs no. 2" in 1937, Jorgenson switched instead to the stanza beginning "Let our path be bright or dreary," which has been the usual  closing stanza in our usage since that time.

Life gives everyone both bright and dreary, storm and sunshine, and though some certainly receive more of one than the other, on the balance we will all have these times of trial in different ways. The question is not whether we will experience the dreary or stormy times, but how we will respond to them. Paul's thorn in the flesh caused him to realize a truth about his own dependence on God: "For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:10). The devil may have thought he would beat Paul down with suffering and persecution; but the more he suffered, the more Paul trusted in God's power and not his own, and the greater a tool he became in God's hands!

Part of Paul's secret, of course, was that he possessed "hope unweary." Any kind of hope is better than no hope at all, and even the faintest glimmer of hope will cause people to bear up under difficult circumstances. But the hope of a Christian is more than just wishful thinking; we are "born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3). It is a "living hope" in a living Lord, and that confident hope spurs us on to greater efforts. The writer of Hebrews tells us,

And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises (Hebrews 6:11-12).

The works to which this hope drives us are not works "unto salvation," but rather, because of salvation. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10). His work for us should be our "ceaseless prayer," and when we focus on pleasing God through accomplishing the work He has set before us, we will find the journey through the hard times passes much more easily.

About the music: 

The hymn page for "Father, hear the prayer we offer" at Hymnary.org shows that this hymn has been paired with many tunes over the years. The tune with which the hymn is generally known among Churches of Christ in the U.S. is John B. Dykes's ST. SYLVESTER (1862). (Click here to listen to a recording of the Edmond Church of Christ (Edmond, Oklahoma) singing this hymn on the television program In Search of the Lord's Way.) The first instance I have found of this hymn paired with this tune is in The New Christian Hymn and Tune Book, an 1882 publication by Fillmore Brothers of Cincinnati. Though the Fillmores would end up on the Christian Church/Disciples of Christ side of the Restoration Movement after the turn of the century, their songs and songbooks were always very popular among the more conservative Churches of Christ. J.H. Fillmore still included "Father, hear the prayer we offer" with the ST. SYLVESTER tune in his 1920 Hymns for Today, and it is a safe guess that this was the source of Jorgenson's usage in Great Songs of the Church. Fillmore, however, used the added closing stanza beginning "Let our path be bright or dreary"; it is unknown why Jorgenson went with a different non-original stanza at first ("Ours to sow the seed in sorrow"), only to change back to what the Fillmores had done all along.

The tune ST. SYLVESTER was written for The Congregational Hymn- and Tune-Book (London: Wm. Mackenzie, 1862), edited by Richard Robert Chope, and first used with Edward Caswall's hymn "Days and moments quickly flying" (Fowler, 323). It is an extremely simple tune, never exceeding the range of a 5th (F up to C), and moving by step throughout except for just three skips of a 3rd (end of the first line, C to A, and the beginning of the third line, F-A-C). The first half of each line is sung on a single repeated pitch, giving the melody a chant-like quality. By comparison, the harmony has more variety, especially in the tenor part which generally drives the harmonic motion forward. It is a good example of why Dykes has received criticism as a tunesmith, and yet has remained quite popular: the melody alone is not much to speak of, but for congregations that sing in parts (and have the voices to cover all of them) Dykes's chromatic harmonies are very enjoyable.

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References

A book of hymns and tunes, ed. Samuel Longfellow. Boston: Walker, Wise & Co., 1860.
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044054144852

Fowler, J.T., ed. Life and letters of John Bacchus Dykes. London: John Murray, 1897.
http://books.google.com/books?id=39pEAAAAYAAJ

Hayward, William Willis. The history of Hancock, New Hampshire, 1764-1889. Lowell, Mass.: Vox Populi Press, 1889.
http://books.google.com/books?id=STcTAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Higginson, Thomas Wentworth. "A statement of facts." Tiffany's monthly, vol. 3, 1857, p. 283-285.
http://books.google.com/books?id=lP3QAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA283#v=onepage&q&f=false

Hull, Moses. The question settled: a comparison of Biblical and modern Spiritualism. Boston: W. White & Co., 1869.  https://archive.org/stream/questionsettled00hullgoog#page/n13/mode/2up

Hymns of the Spirit, ed. Samuel Longfellow & Samuel Johnson. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1864.
http://books.google.com/books?id=RMpVAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA384#v=onepage&q&f=false

Julian, John. A dictionary of hymnology, 2 vols. Mineola, New York: Dover, 1957.

Morris, Dee. Boston in the golden age of Spiritualism: séances, mediums and immortality. Charleston, S.C.: History Press, 2014.

New York Medical College. Directory of the Alumni. 1902. http://books.google.com/books?id=fMxLAAAAMAAJ

The present age, 11 December 1869. (Kalamazoo, Mich.).
http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/present_age/present_age_v2_n26_dec_11_1869.pdf

Psalms of Life, ed. John S. Adams, 4th ed. Boston: Oliver Ditson, 1857.
https://archive.org/stream/psalmsoflifecomp00adam#page/129/mode/1up

Tiffany's monthly, vol. 3, 1857. (New York, N.Y.)
http://books.google.com/books?id=lP3QAAAAMAAJ&pg=PP7#v=onepage&q&f=false

"Willis, Frederick L. H." New Hampshire, Marriage Records, 1637-1947. Familysearch.org.
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FLFD-2VY

Alexander Campbell's Original Hymns

The Churches of Christ reject wearing any man's name, as a religious body, beside that of the Man to whom the church belongs. But when others have insisted on labeling us in that human fashion, it has traditionally been with the appellation "Campbellite"--at least in the United States--and not without reason. Alexander Campbell (1788-1866) was no more the founder of a church, in his estimation or ours, than was the apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 1:12-15). He was, however, a skilled orator and writer who helped to articulate the ideals of the growing "Restoration Movement"--an effort to do no more nor less than to restore the Christianity of the apostolic age.

Campbell has sometimes been portrayed as a cold and pragmatic logician of the schools of John Locke and the Scottish "common sense" philosophers. But when I recently read through his magnum opus, The Christian System--a difficult task, and something I wonder if some of his critics have done themselves--I encountered a much more complex man. Yes, Campbell was in part the product of a rigorous education at the University of Glasgow, and he was clearly an admirer of logic and common sense. The formal presentation of arguments that occupies much of the book is rather foreign to our day. Yet at times Campbell rises to heights of emotional pleading with his fellow humanity, and of almost mystical awe in his reverence for God, that one would hardly expect from a cursory examination of the opening chapters of that book.

For an example of this blend of emotion and intellect, consider this passage from the preface of Campbell's own hymnal, Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs (p. 7-8):

The powers and faculties of the man are neither lost nor metamorphosed in the Christian. They are all consecrated. They are now instruments of righteousness. We sing now as formerly--the same voice, the same tune; but a different song. And this brings us just to the inquiry, What are the subjects on which men are disposed to sing? Love-songs, the praises of heroes, and the triumphs of wars. These are the chapters comprehending the chief topics deemed worthy of song. No man thinks the weaving of a web, the planting of a cornfield, or the sweeping of a house worthy of a song. Why, then, have we so many mean topics--so many childish and frivolous songs--sung by Christians? In consecrating our singing powers, God has not debased them. He has rather exalted them. Still the subjects worthy of Christian song are specifically of the same kind as those worthy of the songs of men. The Christian, as well as the man, has his love-songs--the praises of his hero, the Captain of his salvation--the triumphs of his glorious warfare. These, then, are worthy of sacred song. And thus, in general terms, the question is answered, What is worthy of the Christian's song? Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs should, therefore, be founded upon such noble themes. Let the love of God our Father, the praises of the character, and the glories of the achievements of the Captain of our salvation, animate our strains. Let our sentimental songs be of the same exalted character with the subjects of faith, hope, and love; and let not the little, low, selfish, schismatical, and sectarian topics find a place in this sublimest of all exercises known among men. Let not the rhapsodies of enthusiasm, nor the moonshine speculations of frigid abstraction, characterize what we, as Christians, call the praises of our God--

            "To heavenly themes sublimer strains belong." 

Whether Campbell's own poetic efforts achieved such lofty aims or not, he was a man who cared deeply about heartfelt, spiritual worship. His second wife, Selina Huntington Campbell, remembered that his singing was more of a "joyful noise" than a tune, which was often heard as he went about his daily work or rode across the fields of his property (Mankin, 12). But whatever his own musical limitations, Campbell's belief in the beneficial power of Christian song led him to compile a hymnal, originally titled Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs (1828). When congregations in Campbell's sphere of influence joined in fellowship with those affiliated through another reformer, Barton W. Stone, Campbell proposed the combination of his hymnal with Stone's Christian Hymn Book as a step toward greater unity. The 1834 edition retained Campbell's title, Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, and also seems to have remained rather firmly under his editorial control (Mankin 11). Not surprisingly, a man of Campbell's powerful intellect and leadership could also be at times quite opinionated and controlling.

It was in this edition that Campbell first included the five hymn texts known to have come from his pen (Mankin, 11ff.), which will be the subject of the remainder of this post. Campbell's choice of subjects shows a typical seriousness of thought and concern for faithfulness to Scripture, as well as an eye for supplementing neglected subjects:

• "On Tabor's top the Savior stood" is a hymn about Christ's Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-9; Mark 9:2-8; Luke 9:28-36).
• "The fall of Babylon" is a hymn about the Second Advent of Christ, using imagery from Revelation chapter 18 (which echoes Isaiah 21:9 and Jeremiah 51:8).
• "Upon the banks of Jordan stood" is a hymn about John the Baptizer and his mission to point Israel to the Christ (Matthew 3; John 1:29-34).
• "Jesus is gone above the skies" is a hymn for the Lord's Supper, and the only one of Campbell's hymns not obviously based on any specific passage of Scripture.
• "'Tis darkness here, but Jesus smiles" is a hymn inspired by the midnight praises sung by Paul and Silas in the jail at Philippi (Acts 16:25).

The earliest facsimile edition of Campbell's hymnal that I have been able to discover online is the "14th edition" from 1843. Like many hymnals of its day, it has texts only, and no music. For many hymnal editors, it was the cost and inconvenience of finding a printer who could type-set music that drove this decision; but for Campbell, it was a matter of firm conviction that nothing should distract the worshiper from the meaning of the words (Mankin, 11). By the time of the 5th edition, however, suggested tunes were listed for many of the hymns. Tune names, of course, are notoriously unreliable--the same tune may be called by multiple names, and the same name may describe different tunes. The first task in reconstructing Campbell's hymns, then, is to find the most likely source or sources of his tunes. I compiled the results of my research into a spreadsheet (click here to view) listing the suggested tunes in the 1843 edition of Psalm, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, with two additional sheets attached: the first comparing them to various popular tune-books of the day, and the second listing all the suggested tunes in alphabetical order, to highlight the frequency of particular tunes.

It was not surprising to find that a tune-book by Amos Sutton Hayden (1813-1880), his Introduction to Sacred Music, was almost certainly the source of the tunes suggested in Campbell's hymnal. Though only the revised edition of 1838 is extant, it is known that the first edition appeared in 1835, just a year after the newly revised Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, and that it received the endorsement of Campbell himself (Fletcher 94). Hayden's preface indicates that his tune-book was "elicited by the circumstances attending the present crisis," perhaps a reference to the recent merger of the Stone and Campbell movements, which had occasioned the new edition of Campbell's hymnal (Fletcher 94, 98). From my own investigation, I can add that Hayden's Introduction to Sacred Music contains more of the suggested tunes than any other book examined--101 matches, compared to 47 in William Walker's Southern Harmony and 42 in Allen Carden's Missouri Harmony, the closest contenders aside from other, later books by Hayden himself. Even more telling is the Campbell hymnal's suggestion of tunes such as ROYALTA and ROCK OF SALVATION, written by Hayden's brother William (Fletcher 464), and to my knowledge found only in Hayden publications.

Hayden is best remembered today for his classic Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, Ohio, and to a lesser extent as the founder of Hiram College and as a mentor of the future President James Garfield; but in his own time he was widely known within the Restoration Movement as a singing-school teacher and music publisher. Dr. Harold Fletcher's dissertation, Amos Sutton Hayden: Symbol of a Movement, is a monumental survey of the career of this diversely talented man through a time of rapid change in politics, society, and religion. Hayden's musical evolution is equally apparent; Dr. Fletcher has identified a steady progression from the frontier folk-hymn styles of the early Introduction to Sacred Music to a more sophisticated, European-oriented repertoire in his later hymnals, such as the 1860 Hymnist. Even the physical layout of the books tells a story. The Introduction to Sacred Music is printed in open score (each voice on a separate staff), with the melody in the tenor, and in the old four-shape "fa-sol-la-mi" notation--a format known today primarily through the surviving Sacred Harp tradition. The Hymnist, some 25 years later, was printed with more than one voice on a staff (though still not always the soprano-alto, tenor-bass layout of modern hymnals), with the melody frequently in the soprano, and in round notes. Like the Sacred Harp or Southern Harmony, Hayden's Introduction to Sacred Music had the characteristic "long-boy" shape, wider than it was tall, to accommodate two open score staff systems on each page; The Hymnist, with its more compact staff systems, was printed in the book-form typical of modern hymnals, taller than it was wide (Fletcher, 478ff.).

But regardless of his later change in musical tastes, back in the 1830s and 1840s when tunes from his Introduction to Sacred Music were recommended for Campbell's Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, Hayden drew from that heady mix of frontier folk hymns, 18th-century New England singing-school music, and even older Psalm-tunes, that constituted the first phase of shape-note music. The tunes suggested for Campbell's own hymns are themselves a fine representation of this variety, including two older pieces from the 18th-century New England phase of singing-school music, as well as three folk hymns, one of them an obvious arrangement of a secular folk song.

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"On Tabor's Top the Savior Stood"

Listed as Psalm 12, page 21 in the 1843 edition.

THE TRANSFIGURATION

On Tabor's top the Saviour stood
With Peter, James, and John;
And while he talk'd of Calv'ry there,
His face resplendent shone.

While on his suff'rings he convers'd,
And spoke of griefs to come,
His countenance assum'd a light
Much brighter than the sun.

In dazzling brightness all array'd
Jesus transfigur'd stands,
From heav'n descends the man who gave
To Israel God's commands.

Elijah, too, of burning zeal,
Who did that law restore,
Appear'd with Moses on this mount
And talk'd his suff'rings o'er.

Transported with this glorious scene,
The witnesses exclaim,
'Tis good, Lord, with such guests to dwell;
Here let us still remain.

Three tents with joyful hands we'll raise,
And place them side by side,
For these celestials, and for thee,
And here let us abide.

While thus they spoke, a cloud descends
And takes them from their sight;
But Jesus yet remains with them,
The Father's chief delight.

This is my Son, his voice declares,
Hear him in all he says,
Not Moses nor Elijah now
Shall guide you in my ways.

With joy this more illustrious guide
Henceforth we'll still obey,
Till we behold the glorious light
Of an eternal day.

The first thing that may strike the modern reader is the number of stanzas, but that was not uncommon in Campbell's day. Isaac Watts, whose influence on Campbell is implied by the number of his hymns included in Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, not infrequently wrote hymns of eight or more stanzas. Yet there is certainly a penchant for thoroughness here, as though Campbell the teacher sometimes got the better of Campbell the poet. The didactic nature of the hymn is not limited, either, to the simple reinforcement of a well-known Bible story; the final stanza applies the lesson the Transfiguration by reminding us to follow the New Covenant of Jesus, rather than the Covenant of Moses and Elijah.

The tune indicated in the 1843 hymnal is PLEASANT HILL; the image below is from Hayden's Introduction to Sacred Music (1838).

For those unfamiliar with shape-note music of this tradition, some guidance is in order:

• Both men and women may sing any of the upper parts.
• The melody is in the tenor voice, 2nd from the bottom.
• The uppermost part is called "treble," and fills a role in the harmony similar to that of the tenor in the modern SATB format.
• The part between the treble and tenor, if present, is the alto.
• The harmony and part-writing is very different from the European "common practice era" found in most modern hymns and gospel songs, and may include parallel 5ths and octaves, incomplete "open-5th" chords, and unresolved dissonance.
• Sharps and flats are frequently ignored, except for the key signature.
• The only shapes are FA, SOL, LA, and MI. These have the same shapes as in the 7-shape system, but a scale is sung FA - SOL - LA - FA - SOL - LA - MI - FA. This was a holdover from the much earlier hexachordal system of solfege, prior to the DO-RE-MI system.
• Scales are very often pentatonic (5-note), the scale you get if you play only the black notes on a piano.
• For much more information, see http://www.fasola.org.

PLEASANT HILL first appeared in print in Ananias Davisson's Supplement to the Kentucky Harmony in 1820. It was picked up in William Walker's Southern Harmony and later in B.F. White's Sacred Harp, two of the most influential books in the four-shape tradition, which guaranteed its permanence in the repertoire (Music, xlv). Hayden's version differs from that of Davisson or Walker, especially in the alto part.

The video below is my own attempt to render what Campbell's hymn might have sounded like with the indicated tune from Hayden's book. My voice type is best described as "bass, adequate," so I obviously cannot reproduce the full range of octaves that would do the music justice. But in my defense, Campbell's Bethany College was male-only in the days when these hymns were sung, so their early chapel singing might not have sounded much different.

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"The Fall of Babylon"

Song 151, page 223 in the 1843 edition.

Come, let us sing the coming fate
Of mystic Babylon the Great--
Her doom is drawing near:
Jesus now comes on earth to reign,
His cause and people to maintain--
For them he'll soon appear.

Before him flows a fiery stream,
The heav'ns above with lightnings gleam,
A thousand thunders roar:
A heav'nly host with him descends,
His voice to all the earth extends,
His saints now grieve no more.

Eclips'd by glory so divine,
Sun, moon, and stars refuse to shine,
The spheres now cease to roll:
Earth, wrapt in darkness deep as night,
With horror stricken at the sight,
Now quakes from pole to pole.

Angels of light, at his command,
Ten thousand times ten thousand, stand
Waiting his voice to hear:
The fiery cherubs spread their wings,
The air with loud hosannas rings,
While all his saints draw near.

The day of recompense has come,
His people all are gath'ring home,
With joy they hear his voice:
The promis'd curse, the threaten'd woes,
Combin'd, now fall upon his foes,
The martyrs all rejoice.

She who the Twelve Apostles griev'd,
And by her sorceries deceiv'd
All nations of the world,
Now looks with anguish at their bliss,
Then sinks into the vast abyss,
To endless ruin hurl'd.

The living saints, and all the dead,
Now gather round their glorious head,
And reign with him below;
An endless age of perfect peace,
Of love, and joy, and righteousness,
Exempt from every wo[e].

Then let us keep the end in view,
And ever on our way pursue,
The crown is yet before:
A few short days the conflict's done,
The battle's fought, the prize is won,
And we shall toil no more.

Mankin proposes that this text was particularly connected to Campbell's debate with the Catholic bishop John B. Purcell, and that the "mystic Babylon" of this text refers to the Roman Church--a forced interpretation of the relevant passages in the Revelation, but historically not an uncommon belief among Protestants. Campbell did in fact follow this line in his debate, making it one of his points of argument (Campbell-Purcell Debate, p. vii). But in this hymn one should note that Campbell is closely following the language of Scripture, in particular the 18th chapter of the Revelation. The 6th stanza's opening lines, "She who the Twelve Apostles griev'd, / And by her sorceries deceiv'd / All nations of the world" references Revelation 18:20, "Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her," and 18:23, "for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived." The "Babylon" of Revelation 18 is clearly (if one may speak so of an apocalyptic image!) depicting a secular authority, rich in economic as well as political power. Following Campbell's own sources, we should not be too quick to assume any limitation of this imagery to a religious authority. For that matter, though Campbell did sometimes use the trope of "mystic Babylon" to describe religious bodies, he did not always mean any one denomination. Sometimes he applied the term to the whole confused, divided, and self-contradictory morass of Christian groups that he sought to reunite in primitive apostolic Christianity. The following statement sums up his willingness to stand for what he saw as truth, regardless of who opposed him: "As to the Fama Clamosa--the cry of heresy or of false teaching, echoed and re-echoed, through the streets, and lanes, and avenues of mystic Babylon, Catholic or Protestant, we personally care nothing" ("Prefatory remarks," 99).

Campbell's views on the end times were complex, and the title one of his journals--Millennial Harbinger--is evidence enough of the importance of the subject in his thinking. Like many of his contemporaries, his beliefs evolved over time, but his most consistently held position was that the millennial reign of Christ on earth would be representative, through His church, and prior to His final return at the Judgment (Rollmann). The reign of Christ through His church is more clearly articulated in The Christian System of 1835. It is interesting as well to compare the "reign of Jesus" depicted in this hymn with that described in Campbell's "Upon the banks of Jordan stood," given in full in the next section below.

The tune indicated in Campbell's hymnal is HARMONY, a composition by the Massachusetts composer Abner Ellis (1770-1844), who also worked as a teacher, tavernkeeper, and state legislator. Ellis contributed this work to Stephen Jenks's Delights of Harmony (1805). It is a staple of the Sacred Harp repertoire to this day (Steel, 116). Hayden's version differs only slightly from that found in the 1860 Sacred Harp. The chief differences are in the harmonies in the next to last measure.

HARMONY is a fun example of the "fuging tune" (yes, it should be "fuguing," but by long-standing tradition the old vernacular spelling is retained). This invention of the 18th-century New England school begins with all the parts in similar rhythm, as in a traditional hymn, for the first few lines of a stanza. Then, at the midpoint of the stanza, the voices enter one at a time in imitation, repeating the next line of text until all voices have come in. The final line of text is presented with all the voices regrouped into a similar rhythm, as at the beginning. The video below is the Sacred Harp version, with the traditional text, "Wake all ye soaring throngs and sing."

This was by far the most difficult of the Campbell hymns to record, but the video below will give some sense of how it might have sounded. It is very sprightly music for a text about the judgment of "mystic Babylon," but on the other hand, it fits the other more celebratory themes of the text quite well.

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"Upon the banks of Jordan Stood"

Song 149, page 220 in the 1843 edition.

JOHN'S BAPTISM

Upon the banks of Jordan stood
The great reformer, John,
And pointed to the Lamb of God,
The long expected one.

He loud proclaim'd the coming reign,
And told them to reform;
If they God's favor would obtain,
And shun the gath'ring storm.

He bade all those who would repent,
Forthwith to be immers'd,
Assuring them that God had sent
The message he rehears'd.

Forsake your sins, the Baptist said,
That you may be forgiv'n;
Forsake them now, and be immers'd,
For near's the reign of heav'n.

Thus did the man of God prepare
A people for the Lord;
To him did all the Jews repair,
Who trusted in his word.

But now the reign of God has come,
That reign of grace below,
And Jesus reigns upon God's throne,
Remission to bestow.

He bids all nations look to him,
As Prince of Life and Peace;
And offers pardon to all them
Who now accept his grace.

This is probably the best known of the Campbell hymns, because it touches on the theme of baptism, so central to the doctrinal debates of his time, and because it has been included in a few modern hymnals. Brother Max Wheeler wrote a setting in 1986 that was included in V. E. Howard's Church Gospel Songs and Hymns, and more recently in Praise for the Lord. In the first five stanzas of this hymn, Campbell summarizes the evangelistic work of John the Baptist. The final two stanzas are addressed to the modern reader, however, living this side of Calvary, and stress the far greater significance of baptism into Christ. Particularly apparent is Campbell's preference for the term "immerse" to represent the Greek baptizo as used in the New Testament, rather than the English transliteration "baptize."

Finding the suggested tune for this hymn, MOUNT NEBO, was the beginning of this fascinating and frustrating effort to recreate Alexander Campbell's hymns. My brother Mark Teske, of the Gospel Broadcasting Network, contacted me with the question, "What was the original music for 'Upon the banks of Jordan' by Campbell?" Since the 1843 Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs gave a suggested tune, this seemed not to be too difficult a thing to find out. Unfortunately I found not one but three MOUNT NEBO tunes! There is a tune by that name from an 18th-century English collection, but it did not fit the text. There is also a MOUNT NEBO in Lowell Mason's Carmina Sacra of 1840, which actually fits Campbell's text rather nicely. But the tune given in Hayden's Introduction to Sacred Music is the obvious choice:

I can find no antecedent to this tune, though I have the nagging feeling that I have heard it before.

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"Jesus is Gone Above the Skies"

Hymn 135, page 112 in the 1843 edition.

Jesus is gone above the skies,
Where our weak senses reach him not;
And carnal objects court our eyes
To thrust our Saviour from our thought.

He knows what wand'ring hearts we have,
Apt to forget his lovely face;
And to refresh our minds he gave
These kind memorials of his grace.

The Lord of life this table spread
With his own flesh and dying blood; 
We on thy rich provision feed,
We taste the wine and bless our God.

While he is absent from our sight,
'Tis to prepare for us a place;
That we may dwell in heav'nly light,
And live forever near his face.

Our eyes look upwards to the hills,
Whence our returning Lord shall come;
We wait thy chariot's awful wheels
To fetch our longing spirits home.

Here is a lovely hymn for the Lord's Supper, a subject on which Campbell wrote with great feeling:

Upon the loaf and upon the cup of the Lord, in letters which speak not to the eye, but to the heart of every disciple, is inscribed, "When this you see, remember me."  Indeed, the Lord says to each disciple, when he receives the symbols into his hand, "This is my body broken for you. This is my blood shed for you." The loaf is thus constituted a representation of his body--first whole, then wounded for our sins. The cup is thus instituted a representation of his blood--once his life, but now poured out to cleanse us from our sins. To every disciple he says, "For you my body was wounded; for you my life was taken." In receiving it the disciple says, "Lord, I believe it. My life sprung from thy suffering; my joy from thy sorrows; and my hope of glory everlasting from thy humiliation and abasement even to death." Each disciple, in handing the symbols to his fellow-disciple, says, in effect, "You, my brother, once an alien, are now a citizen of heaven; once a stranger, are now brought home to the family of God. You have owned my Lord as your Lord, my people as your people. Under Jesus the Messiah we are one. Mutually embraced in the Everlasting arms, I embrace you in mine" (Christian System, 310).

This was the only one of Campbell's hymns in the 1843 book that did not have a tune suggested. My survey of the tune suggestions throughout Campbell's hymnal showed that the most common Long Meter tunes are ZION (6), WINDHAM (5), and MAJESTY NEW (5). ZION obviously doesn't fit the text well at all; between the other two, the stately minor-key melody of WINDHAM seems the best fit for Campbell's serious and thoughtful tone. Hayden's version differs from the original only in the lengths of some of the notes.

WINDHAM was composed by Daniel Read (1757-1836), part of the older generation of New England singing-school composers. A veteran of the Revolutionary War, Read was a native of Massachusetts but settled in New Haven, Connecticut, where he conducted singing schools and published hymn books (Hymnary.org). WINDHAM was a popular hymn tune in its day, first appearing in Read's American Singing Book of 1875. Read is probably best remembered, however, for his dynamic fuging tune SHERBURNE, associated with the text "While shepherds watched their flocks by night." The video below is a historic field recording of Sacred Harp singing from the 1940s, and captures the power of these slow, minor-key tunes.

The minor-key tunes of the old shape-note tradition often show the lingering influence of the modal scales of earlier centuries, before major and minor became the two default scales of Western music. (The Celtic duo Standing Stones has a great introduction to modal scales in European folk music.) WINDHAM is in the Aeolian mode, commonly called "natural minor"; unlike the modern Western use of the minor scale, no adjustment is made to the 7th scale step to make it a leading tone. In keeping with the practice I have learned singing with Sacred Harp groups, I have omitted even the D-sharps that are written in the score. Some singers of the old shape-note traditions add an additional twist--they raise the 6th step of the minor scale as well, making it Dorian mode. In the video below I have given first an Aeolian, and then a Dorian rendition.

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"'Tis Darkness Here, But Jesus Smiles"

Song 150, page 221 in the 1843 edition.

'Tis darkness here, but Jesus smiles,
His presence ev'ry pain beguiles;
He has the wine that cheers the soul,
The oil that makes the wounded whole.

While silence reigns as in the tomb,
And midnight spreads her deepest gloom;
Come, let our tongues an anthem raise,
And sing our great Physician's praise.

Though fast our feet within these stocks,
Our hands secur'd with numerous locks,
No iron chains our thoughts can bind,
There are no fetters for the mind.

Though we are bound, the word is free,
The truth cannot imprison'd be;
The word shall visit ev'ry land,
Though kings and people all withstand.

The word of life which Jesus sent,
Jail, chains, and swords cannot prevent;
Man cannot keep the world in night,
For God has said, Let there be light.

To Jesus let our praise ascend,
His care for us shall never end;
He felt our griefs, he bore our pains,
His blood has wash'd us from our stains.

From all our sins he set us free,
The light of life he made us see,
From Satan's bondage gave release,
And fill'd our souls with joy and peace.

He bade us speak his love abroad,
And tell the mercies of our God;
And shall we cease to spread his fame,
Because of prisons, stripes, or shame?

No--'tis our choice to bear his cross;
For him all things we count but loss;
Our joy, for him to suffer shame;
Our honor, still to bear his name.

One smile from him all pains repays,
One word of peace all griefs allays;
With him in glory to appear
Will compensate our suff'rings here.

His presence now this prison cheers,
Relieves our pains, dispels our fears;
His presence, then, our heads will crown
With endless glory and renown.

Once again Campbell makes a very detailed treatment of a Scripture passage, in this case the incarceration of Paul and Silas in the jail at Philippi (Acts 16). There are several specific references to other Scriptures as well:

• The oil and wine of the 1st stanza may come from the Good Samaritan's care for the wounded man in the parable from Luke 10.
• The 4th stanza paraphrases 2 Timothy 2:9, "I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound!"
• The last line of the 5th stanza, of course, is from Genesis 1:3, but also calls to mind the "Light of the World" imagery used by John in his gospel and first epistle.
• The 2nd line of the 9th stanza is almost a direct quote of Philippians 3:8, "I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord."

But unlike "On Tabor's top" or "Upon the banks of Jordan", which address their subjects didactically, this hymn is more of a rhapsody on the faith in Christ shared by the two prisoners. The key point is that Paul and Silas, having been beaten and thrown in jail, were singing praises at midnight--long before the earthquake that set them free. They had no expectation of such a deliverance, yet they were singing praises.

The tune recommended by Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs is SCOTCH AIR, which I have not found in any tune-book of this era except Hayden's Introduction to Sacred Music. This may be one of Hayden's own arrangements; since he did not put his name to any of the tunes in his book, we can only speculate about which anonymous pieces might have come from his pen (Fletcher 464).

This melody became famous through its connection to a beautiful lyric by Robert Burns (1759-1796), "Ye banks an' braes o' bonnie Doon." I can attest to the sweetness and charm of this tune; I rocked my children to sleep with it many times!

Frank Kidson's article for the 1910 Grove's Dictionary of Music is an excellent summary of the various theories around the origins of the tune. It is an odd choice for a hymn setting, perhaps; but when paired with Campbell's text about perseverance through suffering, the melancholy sweetness of this old melody seems rather fitting. 

Conclusion

Campbell's hymn texts did not have the impact one might have expected, considering the influence he exerted on the Restoration Movement in almost every other area of his work. Less than two years before his death in 1866, Campbell turned over his hymnal to an editorial committee for the first major revision in more than a decade--ironically, they omitted all of his hymns. Though they had always previously been included (as an editor's own hymns usually are), they were apparently never widely used (Fletcher, 294). Still, they are an interesting window into his ideas of Christian worship music, and into the frontier hymnody in the Midwest that was the soundtrack of this era of the U.S. Restoration Movement.

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References:

"Bonnie Doon." LYCO Sheet Music Archive. Last updated 2013.
http://sheetmusic.lyco.org.au/Bonnie%20Doon/

Campbell, Alexander. "Prefatory remarks to Bro. Moses E. Lard's review of Dr. Jeter's books." Millennial Harbinger series 4, vol. 7, no. 2 (February 1857), 94-100.

Campbell, Alexander. Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, 14th ed. Bethany, Va.: Campbell, 1843.
https://archive.org/details/psalmnsspiri43camp

Campbell, Alexander, and John B. Purcell. A Debate on the Roman Catholic Religion. New York: Benziger Bros., 1837. https://archive.org/details/adebateontheroma00purcuoft

Fletcher, William Harold. Amos Sutton Hayden: Symbol of a Movement. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oklahoma, 1988. Available for order through ProQuest Dissertations, UMI #8808071.

Kidson, Frank. "Ye banks and braes o' bonny Doon." Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. J. Fuller Maitland, 6 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1904-1910, vol. 6, pp. 671-672.
https://archive.org/stream/cu31924021782879#page/n738/mode/1up

Mankin, Jim. "Alexander Campbell's contributions to hymnody." The Hymn, vol. 49, no. 1 (January 1998), pp. 10-14.
http://www.hymnary.org/files/articles/Mankin,%20Alexander%20Campbell's%20Contributions%20to%20Hymnody.pdf

Music, David W., ed. A Selection of Shape-Note Folk Hymns: From Southern United States Tune Books, 1816-1861. vol. 52 of Recent Researches in American Music. Middleton, Wisc.: A-R Editions, 2005.

Rollmann, Hans. "Eschatology." Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eedrmans, 2004, 304-307.

Steel, David Warren, and Richard H. Hulan. The Makers of the Sacred Harp. University of Illinois Press, 2010.

"WINDHAM." Hymnary.org. http://www.hymnary.org/tune/windham_read

"WINDHAM." American Hymn-Tune Repertory, ed. Mark Rhoads.
http://people.bethel.edu/~rhomar/TunePages/Windham.html