Jesus, Lover of My Soul

[W]hen he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him,
O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? ~ Matthew 14:30-31

With the recent Valentine's Day observance here in the United States, we've heard much talk (especially from sellers of flowers and candy) about "love" and "lovers."  Of course, it's the romantic sort of love that people have in mind. What many forget or fail to appreciate, however, is a kind of love that has nothing to do with attractiveness or favorites, material generosity or even mere affection. This is the love that brought the universe and every person into being, that gives everything and endlessly without condition or seeking for itself, that pursues us like no human lover ever would, and that, like no human lover's, will ever flag or fail. That, of course, is God's love for each one of us.

In a modern world dominated by the works and wants of man--especially where material goods and comforts are plenty--we lose sight of how much we need God's love, and how empty and hopeless we would be without it. When times are good, we grow smugly self-confident and feel that we need no God, or even that He doesn't really exist. Yet, when things change for the worse and we can't cope, we instinctively turn to Him for rescue. Our relationship with the Heavenly Father is thus much like that between a young adult and his or her parent: the "new grownup" strides into the world confidently, believing that the parent's guidance and support are no longer needed. But when the strength of youth has been spent, the "prodigal son" flees home to the patient, loving parent, who forgives all and once more showers the child with blessings. This relationship is beautifully expressed in what some have called the finest hymn in the English language: Jesus, Lover of My Soul (sometimes also titled "Jesu, Lover of My Soul").

THE TEXT

Charles Wesley

The text of this immortal hymn was written by the great English evangelist Charles Wesley (1707-1788), and was first published in his collection Hymns and Sacred Poems in 1740 (it was originally titled “In Time of Prayer and Temptation”). This hymn has as its theme the sufficiency of Christ to give comfort, power, and grace in any circumstance. In five compact stanzas, Wesley captures the essential nature of our flawed and and helpless human condition and our dependence on the grace and mercy of the Savior for salvation. He expresses that relationship by contrasting stormy seas and safe havens, defenselessness and protection, need and succor, sickness and healing, sin and and redemption:

Jesus, Lover of my soul,
let me to thy bosom fly,
while the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest still is high:
hide me, O my Savior, hide,
till the storm of life be past;
safe into the haven guide,
O receive my soul at last.

Other refuge have I none,
hangs my helpless soul on thee;
leave, ah! leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me!
All my trust on thee is stayed;
all my help from thee I bring;
cover my defenseless head
with the shadow of thy wing.

Wilt Thou not regard my call?
Wilt Thou not accept my prayer?
Lo! I sink, I faint, I fall—
Lo! on Thee I cast my care.
Reach me out Thy gracious hand!
While I of Thy strength receive,
Hoping against hope I stand,
Dying, and behold, I live.

Thou, O Christ, art all I want;
mor than all in thee I find;
raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind.
Just and holy is thy Name;
I am all unrighteousness;
false and full of sin I am;
thou art full of truth and grace.

Plenteous grace with thee is found,
grace to cover all my sin;
let the healing streams abound,
make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art,
freely let me take of thee:
spring thou up within my heart,
rise to all eternity.

Of Wesley's thousands of hymns, Jesus, Lover of My Soul is generally considered to be his finest. The distinguished American preacher, Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887), acclaimed the hymn's greatness when he wrote:

I would rather have written that hymn of Wesley’s than to have the fame of all the kings that ever sat on the earth. It is more glorious. It has more power in it. I would rather be the author of that hymn than to hold the wealth of the richest man in New York. He will die. He is dead, and does not know it . . . But that hymn will go singing until the last trump brings forth the angel band; and then, I think, it will mount up on some lip to the very presence of God.

Dr. George Duffield (1818-1888), author of Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus, similarly wrote that "If there is anything in Christian experience of joy and sorrow, of affliction and prosperity, of life and death, that hymn is the hymn of the ages!"

Many other anecdotes relate how beloved is Jesus, Lover of My Soul, and of its transformative power. Among the most heartwarming is one that purportedly occurred during the American Civil War:

[T]he opposing armies of the Federals and Confederates on a certain occasion, were facing each other. One night a Confederate sentry was on duty when he heard the sound of singing coming from the Federal lines. He proceeded cautiously in their direction, and observed an enemy sentry pacing up and down, singing "Jesu, Lover of my soul". Bringing his gun to his shoulder, he was about to shoot, when the singer came to the words, "Cover my defenceless head With the shadow of Thy wing". This was too much for the Confederate and he lowered his weapon and allowed his would-be victim to go unharmed. Many years passed, and the Confederate, now a private gentleman, was aboard an excursion steamer on the Potomac River, when he heard an evangelist singing this hymn. Memories were aroused, and thinking he recognised the voice, he made his way to the singer and in conversation found that the evangelist was indeed the sentry he had nearly shot. Great was their mutual joy when he revealed to the singer the peril from which he had been saved in that night long ago, when on sentry duty he besought divine protection by singing, "Jesu, Lover of my soul".

Given these accolades, it is interesting to note that when Charles Wesley first presented this hymn to his brother John, the founder of Methodism, he rejected it on the ground that it was "too sentimental" or "too pietistic and . . . intimate for public worship"!

Several accounts or theories about the circumstances in which Jesus, Lover of My Soul was written have been advanced, none of them authenticated. One is that it was written at some point after Charles Wesley's return to England in the fall of 1736, after a brief and disappointing sojourn in the American colonies. Wesley's ship was caught in a severe storm at sea and it appeared certain that she would go down with all hands. But on December 3 the ship reached port, and Wesley noted in his journal for that date that "I knelt down and blessed the hand that had conducted me through such inextricable mazes."  Others suggest that Wesley was inspired to write the hymn when, during this storm or on some other occasion, a frightened bird flew into his room and sheltered in his bosom for comfort and safety. A popular account, promoted by American evangelist Ira Sankey (1840-1908), is that Wesley wrote the hymn while hiding under a hedge on a farm in County Down, Ireland while being pursued by an angry mob that opposed his Methodist ministry--an interesting mental picture, except that, so far as is known, Charles Wesley never visited northern Ireland! (See Kenneth W. Osbeck, 101 Hymn Stories (Kregel Publications, 1982), p. 130).

THE MUSIC

The history of the hymn's music is as rich as that of its text.

Over the years, Jesus, Lover of My Soul has been paired with several different tunes. In the United States, the hymn first became popularly associated with the tune MARTYN, composed by American choir director and singing-school teacher Simeon Butler Marsh (1798-1875) (of whom no image is available). In 1834, Marsh was making his weekly round of singing schools between Amsterdam and Johnston, New York, when he wrote this tune, intending for it to be sung with John Newton’s hymn Mary to Her Savior’s Tomb.Because of this association, the melody is sometimes listed in hymnals as the "Resurrection Tune."  It was published in 1836 with Newton’s text in the first volume of Musical Miscellany, a collection by American hymn composer Thomas Hastings (1784-1872). MARTYN was first paired with Jesus, Lover of My Soul in 1851 in Darius E. Jones’s Temple Melodies. Some years after that, Hastings too discovered that MARTYN was well-suited for Wesley's text, and he began using it with great response in his new publications.

Somewhat unfairly, perhaps, MARTYN has been characterized as "a bland and repetitious tune . . . with a range of just a sixth. It does not seem to capture any of the restlessness of flying or tempests referenced in the text but rather to provide the safe haven that the singer seeks in Jesus." (See Music and the Wesleys, edited by Nicholas Temperley, Stephen Banfield, University of Illinois Press (2010), p. 81).

Jesus, Lover of My Soul has also been widely sung in the United States to the tune REFUGE, composed in 1862 by Joseph Perry Holbrook (1822-1888) (also of whom we have no image), an American musician whose other hymn tunes are little used today. REFUGE is the tune paired with Wesley's text in the current edition of the LDS (Mormon) Hymbook.

Joseph Parry

But today, in Great Britain and just about everywhere else, Jesus, Lover of My Soul is most popularly sung to the tune ABERYSTWYTH. It was written in 1876 by Welsh composer and musician Joseph Parry (1841-1903) and first published in 1879 in Edward Stephen's Ail Lyfr Tonau Ac Emynau (Welsh for "The Second Book of Tunes and Hymns"). Parry was at the time the first professor and head of the new department of music at University College Wales, Aberystwyth, now called Aberystwyth University, and so the tune is named after the Welsh coastal resort town in which Parry then lived. The D minor key and steady rhythm of this compelling tune perfectly reflect the plaintive, urgent spirit of Wesley's text.


Here is the text of Jesus, Lover of My Soul set to Parry's ABERYSTWYTH:

Below is Wesley's text set to Marsh's MARTYN:

And here is the hymn set to Holbrook's REFUGE:

RENDITIONS

While Jesus, Lover of My Soul is a beautiful and powerful hymn sung solo, congregationally, or by a choir, its first-person expression is ideally suited to a solo performance. Here is an excellent one, to the tune ABERYSTWYTH, by Christian singer, composer, and worship leader Fernando Ortega. All stanzas are sung, and Ortega's voice, as well as the spare piano/cello accompaniment, perfectly capture the spirit of the hymn.



Click here for an excellent rendition by an unidentified congregation (perhaps from the British Christian music program Songs of Praise?), also to the tune ABERYSTWYTH. Uunfortunately, the embedding feature has been disabled, so the video can't be played directly in this page.

The hymn as sung to the tune MARTYN may be somewhat less compelling, but is beautiful and endearing nonetheless. Here is a rendition by an unidentified--Mennonite?--congregation in a community sing:



The following rendition of the hymn is to Holbrook's tune REFUGE, performed by the Altar of Praise Chorale:



There are several contemporary arrangements of Jesus, Lover of My Soul, but by far the best is the one below by Christian artist Chris Eaton. His music is very heartfelt and, like ABERYSTWYTH, conveys the hymn's sense of urgency.

* * * * *

 For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.

~  Isaiah 25:4

    

All Things Bright and Beautiful

Autumn, in much of the United States and Canada, immerses us in brilliantly colored leaves and flowers, cool breezes, and spicy fragrances. The summer haze has given way to stunning sunsets and crystal clear nights, and a new arrangement of stars is unfolding in the sky. Geese begin their annual migration south, while squirrels, deer, and many other animals are moving about, eating all they can, and getting ready for the coming of winter. As in springtime, we thrill again to the wonder and beauty of God's creation.

There are many people who can see and even appreciate this magnificent thing we call Creation, but can't bring themselves to acknowledge that it had a Creator. They believe that it all came from nothing and resulted by pure accident. Could the Pieta have sculpted itself?  Did the Mona Lisa really spring forth from random molecular collisions?  Creation is infinitely more vast, complex, and compelling than these works, as wondrous as they are; how could it have been brought into being without a Mind to so masterfully organize all that matter and space, and the intricate laws that govern them?

Scripture only declares what we should already know by observation and insight: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork."  (Psalm 19:1) As St. Paul observed, "[t]he invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse . . ."  (Romans 1:20)  When we pause to reflect on these profound truths, we're apt to say with the Psalmist: "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" (Psalm 8:3)

Children seem to intuitively understand the divine authorship of Creation, and are awed--yet comfortable--with it. Perhaps this was part of the insight behind one of the sweetest Christian hymns, All Things Bright and Beautiful.

THE TEXT AND ITS LEGACY

Cecil Frances Alexander

The text was written in 1848 by English writer and poet Cecil Frances Alexander (1818-1895), the wife of Anglican clergyman William Alexander, who later became Primate of All Ireland. It has been said that Mrs. Alexander was inspired to write this hymn when trying, with difficulty, to teach a group of children the meaning of the Apostles' Creed. When traditional teaching methods failed, she decided to write a series of hymns based on selected passages in the Creed.  She developed All Things Bright and Beautiful from the phrase, "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth."  That may be more abstract than the typical child can appreciate, but the text of the hymn expresses this fundamental truth in terms familiar to a child's (as well as an adult's) experience and interest. Here are the original words (today, due to its seeming endorsement of the class system, the stanza referring to "the rich man in his castle" is generally omitted):

Refrain

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colors,
He made their tiny wings.

Refrain

The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate,
He made them, high or lowly,
And ordered their estate.

Refrain

The purple headed mountains,
The river running by,
The sunset and the morning
That brightens up the sky.

Refrain

The cold wind in the winter,
The pleasant summer sun,
The ripe fruits in the garden,
He made them every one.

Refrain

The tall trees in the greenwood,
The meadows where we play,
The rushes by the water,
To gather every day.

Refrain

He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell
How great is God Almighty,
Who has made all things well.

Refrain

This hymn celebrates the wonders of Nature that fascinate children and adults alike: flowers, birds, mountains, rivers, trees, meadows, sunshine, sunsets, wind. But its central teaching is that "The Lord God made them all"--and made them well!

Mrs. Alexander wrote more hymns to illustrate other elements of the Apostles' Creed, including Once in Royal David's City, and There Is a Green Hill Far Away. She published these and others in a collection entitled Hymns for Little Children in 1848.  It was enormously successful and went through 69 editions during her lifetime and 100 editions altogether. Mrs. Alexander donated the profits from Hymns for Little Children to a school for the deaf, adding to her other endeavors supporting a ministry to unwed mothers and establishing a district nursing service.

It has also been suggested that All Things Bright and Beautiful may have been inspired by a verse from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: "He prayeth best, who loveth best; All things great and small; For the dear God who loveth us; He made and loveth all." (the verse appears in the graphic at right)

Llanwenarth House

The place of the hymn's composition also figures in its story. It has been claimed that Mrs. Alexander wrote All Things Bright and Beautiful while staying at Llanwenarth House in Govilon, in the Usk valley of Monmouthshire, Wales.  In this connection, the refrain "the purple headed mountains, the river running by," may refer to the Sugar Loaf and Blorenge mountains and the River Usk (interestingly, Llanwenarth House was sold in 2012). The place of composing the hymn's text has also been attributed to Markree Castle in County Sligo, Ireland, and to Mineheadand the nearby village of Dunster in Somerset, England.

Along the River Usk

While Mrs. Alexander's hymn continued to be widely sung through the years since its publication, it gained greater notoriety when English veterinarian James Herriot, at the suggestion of his young daughter, named his first book All Creatures Great and Small, after a phrase in the hymn's refrain. He later wrote three more books named after the other three lines of the refrain: All Things Bright and Beautiful, All Things Wise and Wonderful, and The Lord God Made Them All. These best-sellers inspired a movie as well as a long-running BBC television series.

THE MUSIC

William H. Monk

All Things Bright and Beautiful has been matched with several melodies over the years. The earliest (1887), and my favorite, is BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL by English organist, church musician, and music editor William Henry Monk (1823–1889) (who also composed the tune "Eventide" used for the hymn "Abide with Me").  This tune is set forth below (only the music to the refrain and first stanza is presented here; I couldn't find a complete rendering of the text and music):

Martin F. Shaw

At least as popular today, especially in Great Britain, is the 17th-century English melody ROYAL OAK as adapted and arranged in 1915 by English composer Martin F. Shaw (1875-1958).  The original tune takes its name from a tree at Boscobel, Shropshire, England, in which King Charles II hid during the Battle of Worcester in 1651), which concluded the English Civil War. Here is the music to Mr. Shaw's arrangement:

Also quite popular today, at least outside church services, is a full choral arrangement by contemporary English composer and conductor John Rutter (b. 1945).

REFLECTIONS ON THE HYMN

While All Things Bright and Beautiful may have been written specifically for children, in a way that appeals to their natural curiosity and sense of wonder, it affirms some of the most profound truths of being--truths that even adults tend to forget, lost as we become in the murk of worldly distraction and self-absorption.

The Book of Genesis in the Old Testament teaches that God created the heavens and the stars, sun and moon; the seas with all its creatures; the earth and all its flora and fruit; the birds and animals; and finally, the pinnacle of His Creation, Man (and Woman!). He saw that they were all very good, and enjoined them to "be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." (Genesis 1:1-1:31)  That God created this magnificent universe is declared joyfully in the New Testament as well as the Old (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16; Revelation 4:11).  We learn that He cares for us and for all creatures and elements of His Creation, the small and the great--and especially for us, His children: "Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" (Matthew 6:26)

Attitudes of wonder, humility, thankfulness, and joy need to be cultivated from the earliest age, if children are to grow into spiritually healthy and happy adults. Appealing, instructive hymns like All Things Bright and Beautiful serve that purpose well.

VIDEO PRESENTATIONS

The following rendition of All Things Bright and Beautiful is by an unidentified chorus singing William H. Monk's tune "Bright and Beautiful," accompanied by a charming video.



Martin F. Shaw's arrangement of "Royal Oak" is the tune sung by another unidentified choir in the following video; both the visual and musical experiences here are matchless:



Featured in the following video--another gem--is John Rutter's arrangement of All Things Bright and Beautiful. The choir is not identified, but I believe it is The Cambridge Singers:

* * * * *

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them. ~ Isaiah 11:6

Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah (Cwm Rhondda)

Rhondda Valley (Cwm Rhondda), Wales, early 20th century

What else would I feature in the first post on this blog but Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah (in some traditions, "Redeemer" is substituted for "Jehovah"), from whence comes the title of this blog: Songs of Praises. Few other Christian hymns are as rousing, exultant, and full of praise for our Savior and Lord as this one.

The text was written in the Welsh language in 1745 by William Williams Pantycelyn (1717 – 1791), Wales' most prolific and influential hymn writer. It was translated into English in 1771, and ultimately put to the tune Cwm Rhondda (the Welsh name for the Rhondda Valley, pronounced coom rontha) in 1907 by John Hughes (1873–1932), organist of Capel Rhondda in Hopkinstown, who had been asked to write a tune for the inauguration of the chapel and its new organ. The hymn has since been translated into scores of languages, and has come to be so closely associated with the Welsh people--who prize great singing above almost all--that it is now an unofficial "national" anthem sung at rugby matches as well as in church. The hymn has been described, quite rightly, as "a belter of a hymn that defies one to sing it quietly."

William Williams (left) and John Hughes (right)

Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah alludes to the Israelites' journey through the wilderness from from bondage in Egypt to their deliverance into the land of Canaan, their needs on the way being supplied by our Heavenly Father (for example, through manna or "bread of Heaven," and the pillars of fire and cloud). The hymn likens this journey and the relationship between God and His children to that of the Christian's pilgrimage on earth and on to Heaven, the "verge of Jordan":

Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah [or, Redeemer]
Pilgrim through this barren land.
I am weak, but Thou art mighty;
Hold me with Thy powerful hand.
Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven,
Feed me till I want no more;
Feed me till I want no more.

Open now the crystal fountain,
Whence the healing stream doth flow;
Let the fire and cloudy pillar
Lead me all my journey through.
Strong Deliverer, strong Deliverer,
Be Thou still my Strength and Shield;
Be Thou still my Strength and Shield.

Lord, I trust Thy mighty power,
Wondrous are Thy works of old;
Thou deliver’st Thine from thralldom,
Who for naught themselves had sold:
Thou didst conquer, Thou didst conquer,
Sin, and Satan and the grave,
Sin, and Satan and the grave.

When I tread the verge of Jordan,
Bid my anxious fears subside;
Death of deaths, and hell’s destruction,
Land me safe on Canaan’s side.
Songs of praises, songs of praises,
I will ever give to Thee;
I will ever give to Thee.

Musing on my habitation,
Musing on my heav’nly home,
Fills my soul with holy longings:
Come, my Jesus, quickly come;
Vanity is all I see;
Lord, I long to be with Thee!
Lord, I long to be with Thee!

So eloquently this hymns speaks of our dependence on the Lord for spiritual sustenance, guidance, protection, and ultimate victory over Satan, sin, and death. He is indeed the "Bread of Heaven," and our "Strong Deliverer." How helpless and hopeless we are without Him, how unconquerable we are with Him!

Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah has long been a great favorite in the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth, especially in Wales. It has been said that in the trenches of Flanders during World War I, it was sung so melodiously by the Welsh soldiers that nearby German soldiers also took it up. The hymn was sung, in Welsh, in the Academy Award winning film How Green Was My Valley (1941), It was sung in English at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, on September 6, 1997, and again at the wedding of her son Prince William, Duke of Cambridge to Catherine ("Kate") Middleton, now Duchess of Cambridge, on April 29, 2011.

Here is a magnificent rendition (of the best-known three stanzas) by the congregation and choir of the Morriston Tabernacle Chapel in Swansea, Wales. How they make the rafters ring!

When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee;
and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee:
when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned;
neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
~ Isaiah 43:2