Come, Ye Disconsolate

For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up;
they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.
Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me:
O Lord, make haste to help me.
~ (Psalm 40:12-13)



Every person, at some point (and probably many) in life, will know profound sorrow and anguish. It may be the passing of a loved one, some material or financial devastation, or a diagnosis of serious illness. It may be the dashing of one's hopes and dreams: the failure of a business venture, or worse, the breakup of a marriage. Or it may be the guilt, shame, and regret that usually follow upon gravely sinful conduct. Whatever it is, the sufferer may be crushed by feelings of loneliness, helplessness, and hopelessness--unless he or she finds someone who can sympathize, ease the burden, and provide encouragement and hope.

One of the most precious truths we know is that such comfort is available to every person, without condition, 24/7: our very own Savior and brother Jesus Christ. He entreats us to  "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)  He is our advocate with the Father, our "great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God . . . we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:14-16)

So we are reminded in one of the greatest hymns of reassurance, Come, Ye Disconsolate. The text was written in 1816 by Thomas Moore (1779-1852), an Irish-born poet, singer, songwriter, and entertainer. Under the title "Relief in Prayer," it was first published that same year in Moore's Sacred Songs, Duets and Trios, one of 32 hymn texts in that collection.

Thomas Moore, 1817

We don't often see the word "disconsolate" in modern American usage; it has been defined as "without consolation or solace; hopelessly unhappy; inconsolable."  At least outwardly, Thomas Moore's career  was not of the sort one would expect to engender despair.  Son of a Dublin grocer, Moore initially studied law but achieved fame, even as a young man, once he turned his talents to poetry, music, and the performing arts. He married an actress, traveled extensively in Europe and America, and was a widely read poet, playwrite, songwriter, biographer, novelist, and social critic. He also became a popular society figure in London, hobnobbing with the Prince of Wales and performing for the future Queen Victoria. He is still fondly remembered today for the lyrics to the Irish patriotic song The Minstrel Boy, as well as those to such romantic songs as The Last Rose of Summer and Believe Me, if All Those Endearing Young Charms. Nevertheless, his personal life was dogged by tragedy, including the deaths of all his five children within his lifetime, and a stroke in later life, which disabled him from performances--the activity for which he was most renowned.

Thomas Hastings

While Moore's career flourished, "Relief in Prayer" remained obscure until it was reworked in 1831 by American composer and choir master Thomas Hastings (1784-1872). He was born in Connecticut, moving with his family at the age of two to Clinton, Oneida County, New York. There, amid rough frontier life, his opportunities for education were small; but at an early age he developed a taste for music, and began teaching it in 1806. Seeking a wider field, he went, in 1817, to Troy, then to Albany, and in 1823 to Utica, New York, where he directed the Oneida County Choir and was editor of a religious magazine, The Western Recorder. In 1832 Hastings was invited by twelve churches to come to New York City to improve their psalm singing. He stayed there the rest of his life, composing, writing, teaching, and directing. He was a prolific writer of hymn tunes, and what fellow hymnist Lowell Mason called the "simple, easy, and solemn" style of his music remains a major influence on the hymns of the Protestant churches to this day. Hastings is best remembered today as the composer of TOPLADY, the tune for the hymn Rock of Ages.

Hastings made a few minor changes to the first and second stanzas of Moore's text, and substituted his own third stanza, when he published the hymn under the title Come, Ye Disconsolate in Spiritual Songs for Social Worship (Utica, New York: 1831-32), compiled by Hastings and Lowell Mason. It is generally agreed that these changes made Moore's poem easier to sing and more suitable for evangelical church use. [See Kenneth W. Osbeck, Amazing Grace: 365 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions, Kregel Publications 1990, 2002, p. 199]

Samuel Webbe, Sr.

For the hymn's tune, Hastings adapted one originally set for solo voice to the Marian hymn "Alma redemptoris mater" by English composer and organist Samuel Webbe, Sr. (1740-1816) in his Collection of Motetts or Antiphons (1792).  The tune is now generally known as CONSOLATION, although it is sometimes given as ALMA or CONSOLATOR.

The version of the text below, found in modern hymnals, incorporates the changes to Moore's original words (which can be read here) made by Thomas Hastings:

Come, ye disconsolate, where’er ye languish,
Come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel.
Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish;
Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.

Joy of the desolate, light of the straying,
Hope of the penitent, fadeless and pure!
Here speaks the Comforter, tenderly saying,
"Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot cure."

Here see the Bread of Life, see waters flowing
Forth from the throne of God, pure from above.
Come to the feast of love; come, ever knowing
Earth has no sorrow but heaven can remove.

Here is Come, Ye Disconsolate as it appeared in Hastings' 1831 collection Spiritual Songs for Social Worship:

  

 Here is a presentation in a more modern notation style:

REFLECTIONS

Come, Ye Disconsolate is an invitation, a call for sufferers and sinners to come to Christ and find healing (st. 1), hope, and comfort (st. 2), and to enjoy spiritual sustenance in the feast of the Lamb (st. 3). The text emphasizes the consolation that Christ offers to those who turn to him in faith. To Him we may bring our anguish, and cast upon Him all our cares (1 Peter 5:7). Comfort and salvation are promised to sinners who approach Him in repentance (2 Cor. 7:10; John 14:16-18). Indeed, Jesus Himself is the bread of life who gives life unto the world (John 6:32-33); it is through Him that we can see the waters flowing from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1-2) and are able to participate in the "feast of love," the bounty of joy in oneness with God that looks forward to the eternal marriage feast (Rev. 19:9). Come, Ye Disconsolate surely ranks as one of the most moving hymns of consolation and reassurance, along with such treasures as It is Well With My Soul.

COMFORT IN THE DARKNESS OF WAR

We know the great impact that hymns can have on the lives of individuals: sparking eternal insights, stirring emotions, creating precious memories of childhood, family, and home. Sometimes, one hymn can have a deep and lasting effect on the lives of many who hear it at the same time, and thus on history itself. And so it was with Come, Ye Disconsolate.

On the night of July 2, 1863, at the height of the American Civil War, as many as four thousand dead and wounded soldiers carpeted the 26 acres of the (now) infamous "Wheat Field," where some of the most vicious fighting of the Battle of Gettysburg had just taken place between the Army of the Potomac (Union) and and the Army of Northern Virginia (Confederate). As darkness gathered, the field became a macabre “no-man’s land” between the exhausted armies. As reported by Cpt. George Hillyer of the Ninth Georgia Infantry regiment, which spent the night lying within earshot of the Wheat Field after being beaten back from the nearby hill known as Little Round Top, one of the men between the lines began to sing, loudly enough to be heard on both sides.

“He was probably a boy raised in some religious home in the South,” Hillyer recalled later, “where the good old hymns were the standard music.” There were “thousands of desperately wounded men lying on the ground within easy hearing of the singer,” the captain observed,“ and as his voice rang out like a flute . . . not only the wounded, but also five or ten thousand and maybe more of the men of both armies could hear and distinguish the words.”  The lines that they heard had been penned four decades earlier by an Irish poet named Thomas Moore and then set to music and published in 1831:

Come, ye disconsolate, where’er ye languish; / Come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel; / Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish; / Earth has no sorrow that heav’n cannot heal.

When the unidentified man finished singing, thousands of soldiers on both sides clapped and cheered.  [See Robert Tracy McKenzie, "The Battlefield at Gettysburg–Final Reflections" (November 1, 2013);  Allen C. Guelzo, Gettysburg: The Last Invasion (Vintage Books, 2013), p. 570]

Union dead at on the Gettysburg battlefield

VIDEO PRESENTATIONS

Several high-quality video renditions of Come, Ye Disconsolate can be found online, although there seems to be a trend to re-arrange the Webbe-Hastings tune or give the hymn an entirely new musical setting. This writer prefers the hymn as originally set, but the modern efforts are also impressive.

In the video below, the hymn is sung beautifully to the traditional tune CONSOLATION, by an unidentified choir. The Moore-Hastings text is included, so it's easy to follow along.



The performance below is by Freddie Ashby, Hope Shepherd, and Daron Bradford to a more reflective, plaintive arrangement. The video itself is beautiful and moving, as is the orchestration:



Yet another touching modern arrangement, by contemporary Christian composer and producer Rob Gardner, is sung in the video below by Loni Hawkins.

* * * * *

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes;
and there shall be no more death,

neither sorrow, nor crying,
neither shall there be any more pain:

for the former things are passed away.

(Rev. 21:4)

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.

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 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