weekdate #004

1. Today I am studying for my finals this week!  I have my two hardest--history and Spanish--tomorrow, and sociology on Thursday.  My history's actually not as hard as I thought it'd be because we're allowed to have a 4x6 index card with notes on it, front and back.  I don't think I've ever written that small!

Titus got all excited, thinking I was going to feed him. :)

2. It's been sunny and hot here lately.  I can't believe it's already May tomorrow!

3. I've been going on a Hillsong United craze over these last few days.  Here's one of my favorite songs by them.

 

4. I've also recorded a few songs this week.  I put up one yesterday, "Give Me Jesus", which is one of my favorite songs.  Yesterday I recorded "Nearer, My God, To Thee", which I just think is one of the greatest hymns ever.  It was originally written by Sarah Flower Adams, a woman who dreamed of becoming an actress.  Her health was frail, so she couldn't do this, and she took to writing hymns with her sister Eliza, who wrote the music for her.

* One day in 1841, their pastor, Rev. William Johnson Fox of London's South Place Unitarian church, paid a visit.  He was compiling a church hymnbook and he wanted to include some of their hymns. He further mentioned that he was frustrated at his inability to find a hymn to go along with the upcoming Sunday's message, which was from the story of Jacob at Bethel in Genesis 28:20-22.

   Sarah offered to write a hymn based on those verses.  For the rest of the week she poured over the passage, visualizing Jacob's sleeping with a stone for his pillow as he dreamed of a ladder reaching to heaven.  The following Sunday, South Place Unitarian Church sang Sarah's "Nearer, My God, To Thee."

5. Last night was my last prayer meeting before Rachel and I go to Glorieta.  It was such a precious time.

6. I finished reading Numbers today!  I know God has a purpose in every book in His Word, but sometimes it's hard to find the purpose, especially in the first couple books with all the laws and rules.  Something I learned in Numbers, though, is that God always provides for His people.  They had to offer two lambs every day, year after year, so that there was a continual burnt offering, and God always provided enough so that they could worship Him rightly and still provide for their families.

7. I'm done with math and philosophy!

8. Ellie's play is this weekend.  I'm so excited!

9. Ellie and I also went to see a different play, "Fiddler on the Roof", on Friday night.  It was great!  I liked the movie a lot, but there's just something about seeing a play on it that's well done and with people I know.

10. On Thursday Rachel and I went to Genghis Grill for lunch.  Yum!

(sorry about the crappy cellphone pic)

* excerpt taken from "Then Sings My Soul: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories" by Robert Morgan, pages 114-115

31 Days of Song, Day #30

Today I got some extra hours at work, and tomorrow I'm working an 8-hour shift.  I don't really want to, but hurray for more money! :)

"O Little Town of Bethlehem" is another classic Christmas song that's really hard to find a good version of!  I pretty satisfied with this one though.  Enjoy!

* Bethlehem . . . though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel.  Micah 5:2

At nearly six feet six, weighing three hundred pounds, Phillips Brooks cast a long shadow.  He was a native Bostonian, the ninth generation of distinguished Puritan stock, who entered the Episcopalian ministry and pastored with great power in Philadelphia and in Boston.  His sermons were topical rather than expositional, and he's been criticized for thinness of doctrine.  Nonetheless he's considered one of America's greatest preachers.  His delivery came in lightning bursts; he felt he had more to say than time in which to say it.
   While at Philadelphia's Holy Trinity Church, Phillips, thirty, visited the Holy Land.  On December 24, 1865, traveling by horseback from Jerusalem, he attended five-hour Christmas Eve service at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.  He was deeply moved.  "I remember standing in the old church in Bethlehem," he later said, "close to the spot where Jesus was born, when the whole church was ringing hour after hour with splendid hymns of praise to God, how again and again it seemed as if I could hear voices I knew well, telling each other of the Wonderful Night of the Savior's birth."
   Three years later, as he prepared for the Christmas season of 1867, he wanted to compose an original Christmas hymn for the children to sing during their annual program.  Recalling his magical night in Bethlehem, he wrote a little hymn of five stanzas and handed the words to his organist, Lewis Redner, saying, "Lewis, why not write a new tune for my poem.  If it is a good tune, I will name is 'St. Lewis' after you."
   Lewis struggled with his assignment, complaining of no inspiration.  Finally, on the night before the Christmas program, he awoke with the music ringing in his soul.  He jotted down the melody, then went back to sleep.  The next day, a group of six Sunday school teachers and thirty-six children sang "O Little Town of Bethlehem."
   Brooks was so pleased with the tune that he did indeed name it for his organist, changing the spelling to ST. LOUIS, so as not to embarrass him.  The fourth stanza, usually omitted from our hymnbooks, says:

Where children pure and happy pray to the blessed Child,

Where misery cries out to Thee, Son of the mother mild;

Where charity stands watching and faith holds wide the door,

The dark night wakes, the glory breaks, and Christmas comes once more.

* excerpt taken from Then Sings My Soul Special Edition by Robert Morgan, pages 52-53

31 Days of Song, Day #27

Today is a nice, relaxing day.  I plan on doing a lot of reading, some cleaning, etc.  I love getting ready for a new year!

"O Come All Ye Faithful" is a song I've really been thinking about lately, especially the chorus.

O come, let us adore Him

Christ the Lord

Do I really adore Him?  Do I realize that that little Baby was God too?  I was trying to explain this to Chloe the other day, and it's really very difficult.  I want to adore Him, though, more and more.

* And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him.  And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  Matthew 2:11

John Francis Wade, author of this hymn, was hounded out of England in 1745.  He was a Roman Catholic layman in Lancashire; but because of persecution arising from the Jacobite rebellion, streams of Catholics fled to France and Portugal, where communities of English-speaking Catholics appeared.

   But how could he, a refugee, support himself?  In those days, the printing of musical scores was cumbersome, and copying them by hand was an art.  In the famous Roman Catholic College and Ministry Center in Douay, France, Wade taught music and became renowned as a copyist of musical scores.  His work was exquisite.

   In 1743, Wade, thirty-two, had produced a copy of a Latin Christmas carol beginning with the phrase Adeste Fidelis, Laeti triumphantes.  At one time historians believed he had simply discovered an ancient hymn by an unknown author, but most scholars now believe Wade himself composed the lyrics.  Seven original hand-copied manuscripts of this Latin hymn have been found, all of them bearing Wade's signature.

   John Wade passed away on August 16, 1786, at age seventy-five.  His obituary honored him for his "beautiful manuscripts" that adorned chapels and homes.

   As time passed, English Catholics began returning to Britain, and they carried Wade's Christmas carol with them.  More time passed, and one day an Anglican minister named Rev. Frederick Oakeley, who preached at Margaret Street Chapel in London, came across Wade's Latin Christmas carol.  Being deeply moved, he translated it into English for Margaret Street Chapel.  The first line of Oakeley's translation said, "Ye Faithful, Approach Ye."

   Somehow "Ye Faithful, Approach Ye" didn't catch on, and several years later Oakeley tried again.  By this time, Oakeley, too, was a Roman Catholic priest, having converted to Catholicism in 1845.  Perhaps his grasp of Latin had improved because as he repeated over and over the Latin phrase Adeste Fidelis, Laeti triumphantes, he finally came up with the simpler, more vigorous "O Come, All Ye Faithful, Joyful and Triumphant!"

   So two brave Englishmen, Catholics, lovers of Christmas and lovers of hymns, living a hundred years apart, writing in two different nations, combined their talents to bid us come, joyful and triumphant, and adore Him born the King of angels.

O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord

* excerpt taken from Then Sings My Soul Special Edition by Robert Morgan, pages 14-15

31 Days of Song, Day #26

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas yesterday.  I certainly did.

I feel kind of weird continuing to post Christmas music, but then, if you really think about it, most Christmas songs speak about what happened after Christmas.

The song I chose for today is "There's a Song in the Air".  May there be a song in your heart today as you rejoice in His birth!

* Praise the LORD!  Sing to the LORD a new song, and His praise in the assembly of saints.  Psalm 149:1

For a long time, Josiah Gilbert Holland was known to his friends as a failure at just about everything he tried.  Dropping out of high school, he tried his hand at photography, then calligraphy.  When those professions didn't pan out, Josiah, twenty-one, enrolled at Berkshire Medical College.  After graduation, he practiced medicine in Springfield, Massachusetts, for a while before quitting to start a newspaper.  The paper folded after six months.  At length, he joined the editorial staff of another newspaper, the Springfield Republican, there he finally found his niche in writing.

   In 1865, the world as stunned by the tragic assassination of Abraham Lincoln.  The next year it was Josiah Holland who published the first major biography of Lincoln.  In it, he presented Lincoln as a "true-hearted Christian" and provided a number of stories to reinforce the point.  When Lincoln's free-thinking law partner, William Herndon, read the book, he refuted it.  Lincoln was an "infidel," declared Herndon, and he died as an "unbeliever".  To this day, historians argue about Lincoln's religious faith, or lack of it.  But the notoriety put Josiah Holland on the literary map of his day.

   In 1870, he became a founder and the senior editor of Scribner's Magazine.  He continued publishing books and was quite prolific.  In 1872, he published The Marble Prophecy and Other Poems.  In it were the four stanzas of "There's a Song in the Air."  It was an unusual poem, in that the first four lines of each stanza contained six syllables each, but the fifth and sixth lines were twice as long.  Two years later, it was set to music in a collection of Sunday school songs, but didn't achieve widespread popularity.

   Several years after Josiah's death in 1881, a Latin professor named Karl Pomeroy Harrington read "There's a Song in the Air."  Harrington was an amateur musician who had begun writing melodies as a youngster on the small organ in his childhood home.  Harrington later inherited that old Estey organ and moved it to his vacation cottage in North Woodstock, New Hampshire.  While spending the summer there in 1904, he sat down at the old instrument, pumping the bellows with the foot pedals, and hammered out the lovely melodic tune to which "There's a Song in the Air" is now widely sung.

There's a song in the air!

There's a star in the sky!

There's a mother's deep prayer

and a baby's low cry!

And the star rains its fire

while the beautiful sing,

for the manger of Bethlehem

cradles a King!

There's a tumult of joy

o'er the wonderful birth,

for the virgin's sweet boy

is the Lord of the earth.

Ay! the star rains its fire

while the beautiful sing,

for the manger of Bethlehem

cradles a King!

In the light of that star

lie the ages impearled;

and that song from afar

has swept over the world.

Every hearth is aflame,

and the beautiful sing

in the homes of the nations

that Jesus is King!

We rejoice in the light,

and we echo the song

that comes down through the night

from the heavenly throng.

Ay! we shout to the lovely

evangel they bring,

and we greet in his cradle

our Savior and King! 

* excerpt taken from Then Sings My Soul Special Edition by Robert Morgan, pages 54-55

31 Days of Song, Day #21

I got to work extra hours today!  I've hardly been working at all for the last few weeks because there's just no work, but I got to work extra today!

"Who Is He In Yonder Stall?" is such a beautiful Christmas carol that I recently discovered.  Enjoy!

* For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation. Psalm 149:4

Would you believe it?  This beautiful Christmas carol about the birth of Jesus Christ was written by the same American who composed "Up on the Housetop," arguably the first popular Christmas song emphasizing the role of Santa Claus: "Up on the housetop, click, click, click, / Down thru' the chimney with good Saint Nick."

   Benjamin Russell Hanby was born in Rushville, Ohio, in 1833, to a United Brethren minister.  As a young man, Benjamin attended Oberlin University in Westerville, Ohio.  Those were the days leading up to the Civil War, and young Benjamin became a passionate and outspoken abolitionist.  His home in Westerville became a secret stop on the famous Underground Railroad.

   According to reports, a freed slave named Joe Selby stopped at Hanby's home one day, looking for work and wanting to earn enough money to purchase the freedom of his girlfriend, Nellie Gray.  Joe fell ill, however, and died of pneumonia before he could free her, and Benjamin deeply grieved as he watched Joe die.  It was reportedly from this experience that Hanby wrote his most famous song, "Darling Nellie Gray."

   Hanby sent the song to the Oliver Ditson Company, a Boston publishing firm, but heard nothing back.  One day he learned that "Darling Nellie Gray" was a hit.  As it turned out, the executives at Oliver Ditson had filed for the song's copyright in their own names, though still listing him as the author.  When he wrote asking for his share of the profits, the company sent him a dozen copies of the sheet music along with a note saying, "We have the money and you have the fame.  That balances the account."

   Hanby went on to become a college employee, a school principal, a pastor, and a songwriter before dying in his early thirties just after the conclusion of the Civil War.  "Up on the Housetop" was published in about 1860, and "Who Is He in Yonder Stall?" was published in 1866, the year before Hanby's death.  Today his home, located a block from Otterbein College, is owned by the Ohio Historical Society and in his memory is managed by the Westerville Historical Society.

Who is He in yonder stall, at whose feet the shepherds fall?

Who is He in deep distress, fasting in the wilderness?

'Tis the Lord!  O wondrous story!

'Tis the Lord!  The King of glory!

At His feet we humbly fall,

Crown Him!  Crown Him, Lord of all!

Who is He the people bless for His words of gentleness?

Who is He to whom they bring all the sick and sorrowing?

Who is He that stands and weeps at the grave where Lazarus sleeps?

Who is He the gathering throng greet with loud triumphant song?

Lo! at midnight, who is He prays in dark Gethsemane?

Who is He on yonder tree dies in grief and agony?

Who is He that from the grave comes to heal and help and save?

Who is He that from His throne rules through all the world along?

* excerpt taken from Then Sings My Soul Special Edition by Robert Morgan, pages 50-51

31 Days of Song, Day #20

Only five days until Christmas!  I'm so excited.  I'm really thankful to live where I live--somewhere out of a big city where there's hardly any crowds, but we have everything we need right here.  It's such a blessing.

"Come, Thou Redeemer of the Earth" is a Christmas song I'd never heard before, but I find it very beautiful now that I've discovered it.  The best version I could find of it is in the credits of a movie.  Try as I might, I cannot figure out what the last verse is saying.

Let every age adoring fall;

Such birth befits the God of all.

* I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth. Job 19:25

This carol stretches back into the early, misty centuries of Christian history.  It was written by the mighty Ambrose, bishop of Milan, whose personal story is as remarkable as his carol is wonderful.

   Ambrose was born about AD 340 in Gaul (modern France), where his father was governor before moving his family to Rome.  In the empire's capital, Ambrose became a noted poet, a skilled orator, and a respected lawyer.  At age thirty-four, he was named governor of an Italian province and headquartered in Milan.

   A crisis arose in Milan after the death of popular Bishop Auxentius as the city argued about his replacement.  Tensions ran high.  Assembling the people, Ambrose used his oratorical powers to appeal for unity; but while he was speaking, a child reportedly cried out, "Let Ambrose be bishop!"  The crowd took up the chant, and the young governor, to his dismay, was elected the city's pastor.

   Taking the call seriously, Ambrose became a great preacher and a deft defender of true doctrine.  He wrote books and treatises, sermons, hymns, and letters.  He tended Milan as a shepherd would.  Under his preaching a young, hot-blooded infidel named Aurelius Augustine was converted to Christ, and St. Augustine went on to become one of the greatest heroes in the history of Christian theology.

   Ambrose continued preaching until he fell sick in AD 397.  When distressed friends prayed for his healing, he replied, "I have so lived among you that I cannot be ashamed to live longer, but neither do I fear to die; for we have a good Lord."  On Good Friday, April 3, Ambrose lay with his hands extended in the form of the cross, moving his lips in prayer.  His friends huddled in sadness and watched.  Sometime past midnight, their beloved bishop passed to his good Lord.

   Sixteen centuries have come and gone, and today the hymns of Ambrose are better known than his sermons.  His beloved Christmas carol, "Veni, Redemptor gentium," was translated from Latin by John Mason Neale in 1862 and set to a lovely, lilting fifteenth-century melody named PUER NOBIS NASCITUR.

Come, thou Redeemer of the earth,

And manifest thy virgin birth

Let every age adoring fall:

Such birth befits the God of all.

Begotten of no human will,

But by the Spirit, Thou art still,

The Word of God in flesh arrayed,

The promised Fruit to man displayed.

The virgin womb that burden gained

With virgin honour all unstained;

The banners there of virtue glow;

God in His temple dwells below.

Forth from his chamber goeth he,

That royal home of purity,

A giant, in twofold substance one,

Rejoicing now his course to run.

From God the Father he proceeds,

To God the Father back he speeds;

His course he runs to death and hell,

Returning on God's throne to dwell.

O equal to the Father, thou!

Gird on thy fleshly mantle now;

The weakness of our mortal state

With deathless might invigorate.

Thy cradle here shall glitter bright,

And darkness breathe a newer light

Where endless faith shall shine serene

And twilight never intervene

All glory to the Father be;

Glory, enternal Son, to thee;

All glory, as is ever meet,

To God the Holy Paraclete. Amen.

* excerpt taken from Then Sings My Soul Special Edition by Robert Morgan, pages 40-41

31 Days of Song, Day #18

"I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" is a really beautiful song.  I like this version by Casting Crowns.  They've added a chorus, but it's still very close to the original lyrics.

* Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. Psalm 121:4

The famous Longfellow brothers were born and raised in Portland, Maine, in the 1800s.  Henry Wadsworth was born in 1807, and younger brother Samuel arrived in 1819.  Henry became a Harvard professor of literature and one of America's greatest writers, and Samuel became a Unitarian minister and hymnist.

   While Henry was publishing his books, however, dark clouds were gathering over his life and over all America.  In 1861, his wife tragically died when her dress caught fire in their home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  That same year, the Civil War broke out, tearing the nation apart.  Two years later, during the fiercest days of the conflict, Henry's son, Charley, seventeen, ran away from home and hopped aboard a train to join President Lincoln's army.

   Charley proved a brave and popular soldier.  He saw action at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863, but in early June he contracted typhoid fever and malaria and was sent home to recover.  He missed the Battle of Gettysburg, but by August, Charley was well enough to return to the field.  On November 27, during the battle of New Hope Church in Virginia, he was shot through the left shoulder.  The bullet nicked his spine and came close to paralyzing him.  He was carried into the church and later taken to Washington to recuperate.

   Receiving the news on December 1, 1863, Henry left immediately for Washington.  He found his son well enough to travel, and they headed back to Cambridge, arriving home on December 8.  For weeks Henry sat by his son's bedside, slowly nursing his boy back to health.

   On Christmas Day, December 25, 1863, Henry gave vent to his feelings in this plaintive carol that can only be understood against the backdrop of war.  Two stanzas, now omitted from most hymnals, speak of the cannons thundering in the South and of hatred tearing apart "the hearth-stones of a continent".  The poet feels like dropping his head in despair, but then he hears the Christmas bells.  Their triumphant pealing reminds him that "God is not dead, nor doth He sleep".

   The Sunday school children of the Unitarian Church of the Disciples in Boston first sang this song during that year's Christmas celebration.  How wonderful that such a song should emerge from the bloody clouds of the War Between the States.

I heard the bells on Christmas day

Their old familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet the words repeat

Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how, as the day had come,

The belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along the unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head:

"There is no peace on earth," I said,

"For hate is strong and mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;

The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,

With peace on earth, good will to men."

Till, ringing singing, on its way,

The world revolved from night to day,

A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,

Of peace on earth, good will to men!

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I found the website I Am Second several months ago, through another blog I think.  I've really been enjoying the videos, especially in the past few days.  They're so encouraging, and really show the passion that these people feel as they revel in the fact that Christ saved them from dark lifestyles and patterns and has made their lives glorious through Him, in His light.  The one below is one I found particularly interesting.

* excerpt taken from Then Sings My Soul Special Edition by Robert Morgan, pages 46-47

31 Days of Song, Day #17

Tonight was my church's monthly Bible memorization meeting.  I love just getting together with all those fellow followers of Christ and listening as we go over Scripture together.  There are some passages of the Bible that are made so much more beautiful when we have the knowledge that others have committed them to memory and they are being lived out.  What a blessed time it was!

"Angels We Have Heard On High" is another great Christmas song that I really enjoy.  The only thing I don't really like about it is that by the time you finish singing "Glooooooooooria" you're about to suffocate and keel over.  It's a great song overall, though.

* And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!" Luke 2:13-14

"Les Anges dans nos Campagnes" was a French carol dating from the 1700s, which appeared in several different versions.  It was published in English in 1862, the words saying:

Angels we have heard on high / Sweetly singing o'er the plains,

And the mountains in reply / Echoing their joyous strains.

Glori, in excelsis Deo!

An older version had the title "Harken All! What Holy Singing!"  The words, translated into English, said:

Hearken, all!  What holy singing / Now is sounding from the sky!

'Tis a hymn with grandeur ringing, / Sung by voices clear and high.

Gloria, in excelsis Deo!

Still another primitive version speaks from the shepherds' vantage point, saying:

Shepherds in the fields abiding, / Tell us when the seraph bright

Greeted you with wondrous tiding, / What you saw and heard that night.

Gloria, in excelsis Deo!

Hymns are usually authored by human beings like us, but in this case obscure verses by unknown French poets were coupled with a refrain that was literally composed by angels in heaven: Gloria, in excelsis Deo.  that's the Latin wording for the angelic anthem "Glory to God in the highest!"  It comes from Luke 2:14 in the Vulgate, the Latin version of the Bible.  The Latin word Gloria means "glory," and in excelsis is the phrase for "in the highest".  Our English words excel and excellent come from the same root, meaning "to rise" or "to ascend" or "to be high".  The Latin word Deo means "God".

   This was the song proclaimed by the angels over Shepherds' Field the night Christ was born.  The musical score stretches out and emphasizes the words in a way that is uniquely fun to sing and deeply stirring, as we lift our voices to proclaim: Jesus has come!  Hope has arrived on earth!  A Savior is born!  Glory to God on High!  Gloria, in excelsis Deo!

* excerpt taken from Then Sings My Soul Special Edition by Robert Morgan, pages 42-43

31 Days of Song, Day #16

I'm thankful to be on Christmas break!  Yesterday I took my last final.  I don't have my official grades back yet, but I know everything went really well.  Praise God!

I love the song "O Holy Night".  The problem is, it's so hard to find a version of it that I like!  This version that I'm posting isn't my ideal, but I do like it, especially all the harmony.  Enjoy!

* The star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was. Matthew 2:9

The words of "O Holy Night" were written in 1847 by a French wine merchant named Placide Clappeau, the mayor of Roquemaure, a town in the south of France.  We know little about him except that he wrote poems as a hobby.

   We know more about the man who composed the music, a Parisian named Adolphe Charles Adam.  The son of a concert pianist, Adams was trained almost from infancy in music and piano.  In his midtwenties, he wrote his first opera and thereafter wrote two operas a year until his death at age fifty-two.  Near the end of his life, he lost his savings in a failed business venture involving the French national opera, but the Paris Conservatory rescued him by appointing him professor of music.

   It was John Dwight, son of Yale's president, Timothy Dwight ("I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord"), who discovered this French carol, "Christian Midnight," and translated it into the English hymn "O Holy Night".

   After graduating from Harvard and Cambridge, John was ordained as minister of the Unitarian church in Northampton, but his pastoring experience wasn't happy.  In 1841, George and Sophia Ripley founded a commune named Brook Farm "to prepare a society of liberal, intelligent, and cultivated persons, whose relations with each other would permit a more simple and wholesome life."  John was hired as director of the Brook Farm School and began writing a regular column on music for the commune's publication.

   Greatly influenced by the liberal views of Ralph Waldo Emerson, he became fascinated by the German culture, especially the symphonic music of Ludwig van Beethoven, and it was largely his influence that introduced Americans to Beethoven's genius.

   When Brook Farm collapsed in 1847, John Dwight moved into a cooperative house in Boston and established a career in music journalism.  He penned articles on music for major publications, and in 1852 he launched his own publication, Dwight's Journal of Music.  He became America's first influential classical music critic.  He was opinionated, sometimes difficult, a great promoter of European classical music, and an early advocate of Transcendentalism.

   How odd that a wine merchant, a penniless Parisian, and a liberal clergyman should give Christianity one of its holiest hymns about the birth of Jesus Christ, Savior of the world.

* excerpt taken from Then Sings My Soul Special Edition by Robert Morgan, pages 24-25

31 Days of Song, Day #15

Tonight I'm thankful for observant people.  Rachel, Ellie, and I were all the way on the opposite side of ABQ today at the mall, and a very nice guy pointed out to us that there was a nail in the back right tire just as we were about to leave and get on the highway.  I never notice those things, so I probably wouldn't have known the tire was going flat till we couldn't do anything about it.  As it was, we made it safely to have it fixed and got home soon after!  Thank You, God!

The song for today is "What Child is This?"  I love this song.  It's just so beautiful.

* So it was, when the angels had gone away from then into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, "Let us now go to Bethlehem..." Luke 2:15

Feelings of sadness come over me whenever I hear this deeply moving carol.  It is, after all, set in the key of E minor, the "saddest of all keys."  Yet triumphant joy dispels the sadness as we exclaim, "This, this is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and angels sing."
   The melancholic melody is a famous old British tune called "Greensleeves," originally a ballad about a man pining for his lost love, the fair Lady Greensleeves.  Tradition says it was composed by King Henry VIII for Anne Boleyn.  That's unlikely, but we do know that Henry's daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, danced to the tune.
   Shakespeare referred to it twice in his play The Merry Wives of Windsor.  In Act V, for example, Falstaff says, "Let the sky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of 'Green Sleeves.' "
   It was licensed to two different printers in 1580, and soon thereafter was being used with religious texts.  Its first association with Christmas came in 1642, in a book titled New Christmas Carols, in which it was used with the poem, "The Old Year Now Away Has Fled."  the last verse says, "Come, give's more liquor when I doe call, / I'll drink to each one in this hall...And God send us a happy new yeare!"
   For nearly 150 years, however, "Greensleeves" has been most identified with "What Child is This?"  The words of this carol are taken from a longer poem written by an insurance agent named William Chatterton Dix, born in Bristol, England, in 1837.  His father was a surgeon who wanted his son to follow his footsteps.  But having no interest in medicine, William left Bristol Grammer School, moved to Glasgow, and sold insurance.
   His greatest love was his prose and poetry for Christ.  He wrote two devotional books, a book for children, and scores of hymns, two of which remain popular Christmas carols: "What Child is This?" and "As with Gladness Men of Old."
   All of Dix's hymns should be more widely sung today, for they are masterpieces of poetry, filled with rich scriptural truth.  His exultant hymn "Alleluia!" begins:

Alleluia!  Sing to Jesus!  His the scepter, His the throne.

Alleluia!  His the triumph, His the victory alone.

* excerpt taken from Then Sings My Soul Special Edition by Robert Morgan, pages 48-49

31 Days of Song, Day #13

I am all done with my hardest finals!  Today I finished up with algebra, art history, and psychology.  On Thursday I have English, but that should be the easiest by far.  Now I get a 28-day break!

The song I chose for today is probably one of the most well-known Christmas songs ever: "Silent Night".  I never really liked this song a whole lot until I heard the story of how it came to be:

* Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.  Isaiah 7:14

It was Christmas Eve in the Austrian Alps.  At the newly constructed Church of St. Nicholas in Oberndorf, a Tyrol village near Salzburg, Father Joseph Mohr prepared for the midnight service.  He was distraught because the church organ was broken, ruining prospects for that evening's carefully planned music.  But Father Joseph was about the learn that our problems are God's opportunities, that the Lord causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him.  It came into Father Joseph's mind to write a new song, one that could be sung organless.  Hastily, he wrote the words, "Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright..."  Taking the text to his organist, Franz Gruber, he explained the situation and asked Franz to compose a simple tune.

   That night, December 24, 1818, "Silent Night" was sung for the first time as a duet accompanied by a guitar at the aptly named Church of St. Nicholas in Oberndorf.

   Shortly afterward, as Karl Mauracher came to repair the organ, he heard about the near disaster on Christmas Eve.  Acquiring a copy of the text and tune, he spread it throughout the Alpine region of Austria, referring to it as Tiroler Volkslied.

   The song came to the attention of the Strasser family, makers of fine chamois-skin gloves.  To drum up business at various fairs and festivals, the four Strasser children would sing in front of their parents' booth.  Like the Von Trapp children a century later, they became popular folk singers throughout the Alps.

   When the children--Caroline, Joseph, Andreas, and Amalie--began singing "Trioler Volkslied" at their performances, audiences were charmed.  It seemed perfect for the snow-clad region, and perfect for the Christian heart.  "Silent Night" even came to the attention of the king and queen, and the Strasser children were asked to give a royal performance, assuring the carol's fame.

   "Silent Night" was first published for congregational singing in 1838 in the German hymnbook Katholisches Gesang--und Gebetbuch fur den offentlichen und hauslichen Gottesdienst zunachst zum Gebrauche der katholischen Gereindem im Konigreiche Sachsen.  It was used in America by German-speaking congregations, then appeared in its current English form in a book of Sunday school songs in 1863.

   Were it not for a broken organ, there would never have been a "Silent Night".

* excerpt taken from Then Sings My Soul Special Edition by Robert Morgan, pages 20-21

31 Days of Song, Day #11

I can't believe Christmas is only two weeks away!  I'm so excited!

I just found this song today, and I actually really like it!  It's called "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks".  From Then Sings My Soul:

* He will feed His flock like a shepherd: He will gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those who are with young. Isaiah 40:11

This popular carol owes its endurance to two men with dark financial woes.  The first, Nahum Tate, was born in Dublin in 1652 to a preacher who was literally named Faithful--Rev. Faithful Teate (original spelling).  After attending Trinity College in Dublin, young Nahum migrated to London to be a writer.  His success was slow in coming, but he dabbled with plays, adapted the prose of others, and eventually was named poet laureate in 1692 and appointed royal historiographer ten years later.  Unfortunately, Nahum was intemperate and careless in handling money, and he lived in perpetual financial distress.  He died in an institution for debtors in 1715.

   His chief claim to fame was his collaboration with Nicholas Brady in compiling  a hymnbook entitled The New Version of the Psalms of David, published in 1696.  It was reissued in 1700 with a supplement in which this carol first appeared.  The words to "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks" represent a very literal paraphrase of Luke 2:8-14, making this one of our most biblically accurate Christmas carols.

   The second man instrumental in the song's success was George Frideric Handel, composer of the music to which this carol is sung.  Handel was born in Germany with the inborn talent of a musical genius.  His father pressured the young man to enter law school, but George would not be denied, writing his first composition by age twelve and amazing choirmasters with his artistry.  He eventually moved to London, where he enjoyed great success for a season.  Then his popularity waned, his income dwindled, and he went bankrupt.  It was the remarkable success of Messiah that salvaged Handel's career--and bank account.  Through it all, Handel's powerful personality pressed on.

   How ironic!  These two men never met; they both struggled with poverty, faced bankruptcy, and worried about making ends meet--yet they enriched the world beyond measure, providing millions of people for scores of generations with the gift of song every Advent season.

I know the words are kind of hard to hear in the song, so the lyrics are posted below.

While shepherds watched

Their flocks by night

All seated on the ground

The angel of the Lord came down

And glory shone around

And glory shone around

"Fear not," he said,

For mighty dread

Had seized their troubled minds

"Glad tidings of great joy I bring

To you and all mankind,

To you and all mankind."

"To you in David's

Town this day

Is born of David's line

The Savior who is Christ the Lord

And this shall be the sign

And this shall be the sign."

"The heavenly Babe

You there shall find

To human view displayed

And meanly wrapped

In swathing bands

And in a manger laid

And in a manger laid."

Thus spake the seraph,

And forthwith

Appeared a shining throng

Of angels praising God, who thus

Addressed their joyful song

Addressed their joyful song

"All glory be to

God on high

And to the earth be peace;

Goodwill henceforth

From heaven to men

Begin and never cease

Begin and never cease!"

I'm so thankful for the freedom that God gives today.  As Isaiah 61:1 says so beautifully: "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners."

* excerpt taken from Then Sings My Soul Special Edition by Robert J. Morgan, pages 6-7

31 Days of Song, Day #9

I've always loved the song "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear".  It has such a wistful, beautiful quality about it.  My favorite version of it is by Kutless, but I also like it by Zach Williams and The Bellow.  I wanted to include an excerpt about this song from Then Sings My Soul.

* And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!" Luke 2:13-14

Edmund Hamilton Sears is the author of two Christmas carols that are mirror images of each other, written fifteen years apart.
   He was born in Sandisfield, Massachusetts, on April 6, 1819, and attended Union College in Schenectady, then Harvard Divinity School.  He was ordained in the Unitarian ministry and chose to devote himself to small towns in Massachusetts, where he had time to study, think, and write.
   At twenty-four, he wrote "Calm on the Listening Ear," a Christmas carol based on the song of the angels in Luke 2.  It proved very similar to the more-famous carol he would later write.  Having the same meter and theme, and it can be sung to the same tune:

Calm on the listening ear of night / Come heaven's melodious strains,

Where wild Judea stretches far / Her silver-mantled plains.

Celestial choirs, from courts above / Shed scared glories there,

And angels, with their sparkling lyres, / Make music on the air.

Fifteen years later, he wrote its more famous twin.  "It Came upon the Midnight Clear" is an unusual carol in that there is no mention of Christ, of the newborn Babe, or of the Savior's mission.  Sears, after all, was Unitarian.  The author's only focus is the angelic request for peace on earth.
   Notice again the date of the hymn.  It was written as the clouds of civil strife were darkening the United States, setting the stage for the War Between the States.  We can grasp the concern that drove Edmund to write this hymn by reading a stanza now usually omitted from most hymnals:

Yet with the woes of sin and strife / The world hath suffered long;

Beneath the angel-strain have rolled / Two thousand years of wrong;

And man, at war with man, hears not / The love song which they bring:

O hush the noise, ye men of strife, / And hear the angels sing!

Edmund Sears became well-known because of his hymns and books.  He was awarded a doctor of divinity degree in 1871, and took a preaching tour of England, where he was met by large congregations.  He died in Weston, Massachusetts, on January 16, 1876.

It came upon the midnight clear,

That glorious song of old,

From angels bending near the earth,

To touch their harps of gold:

"Peace on the earth, goodwill to men

From heavens all gracious King!"

The world in solemn stillness lay

To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come,

With peaceful wings unfurled;

And still their heavenly music floats

O'er all the weary world:

Above its sad and lowly plains

They bend on hovering wing,

And ever o'er its Babel sounds

The blessed angels sing.

O ye beneath life's crushing load,

Whose forms are bending low,

Who toil along the climbing way

With painful steps and slow;

Look now, for glad and golden hours

Come swiftly on the wing;

Oh rest beside the weary road

And hear the angels sing.

For lo! the days are hastening on,

By prophets seen of old,

When with the ever-circling years

Shall come the time foretold,

When the new heaven and earth shall own

The Prince of Peace, their King,

And the whole world send back the song

Which now the angels sing.

-- Edmund Hamilton Sears

Today I am thankful for pain medication, even if it's just Tylenol or ibuprofen.  I had a bad headache today at work, but I took some medicine and it went away.  I know in that case it's just a case of being uncomfortable, but I'm still glad God has provided us with things like aspirin to relieve us from even minor pains.

* excerpt taken from "Then Sings My Soul Special Edition" by Robert J. Morgan, pages 28-29

My best books in 2010

In 2010 I read a total of 91 books.  A lot of them were a waste of time to read, but I wanted to share my favorites from 2010 with you, along with a little bit (a very little bit) of what I liked about them.  Here we go!

* these are in no particular order; they're not listed from best to least, etc.

1. The Atonement Child by Francine Rivers - At first glance I didn't think this would be a very good, but I was surprised in the end.  The author was brave in approaching the difficult subjects contained in this book, and in my opinion it was well written too.

2. The Heart-Reader by Terri Blackstock - This is the kind of book that plunges right into the middle of the story rather than giving a basis at first.  In this case, that was a good thing.  This book reminded me of why we're here on earth--to share of Christ and tell people of the hope He brings.  I really enjoyed it!

3. Holiness by J. C. Ryle - I spent about a year trying to make my way through this book.  It was really good, but it was hard to read.  I ended up enjoying the last chapters better than the beginning, which was a nice surprise.  It was an extremely challenging book, and I would recommend it to anybody!

4. Boy Meets Girl: Saying Hello to Courtship by Joshua Harris - This was an excellent book.  I'd heard a lot of good stuff about I Kissed Dating Goodbye and ended up reading it in 2010, but was really disappointed by it.  I felt like Joshua Harris didn't approach the subject of dating very well in that book, and kind of just left people wondering "Well, how else are we supposed to get to know each other?"  In contrast, Boy Meets Girl was excellent.  It was funny and very insightful.  It had a lot of great stories about relationships throughout the book, and on the whole it was probably one of my favorite books of the entire year.

5. Passion and Purity by Elisabeth Elliot - No matter how many times I read this book, it just never gets old.  I re-read it in 2010, and enjoyed it even more than I had before.  Elisabeth Elliot is such a no-nonsense sort of person.  She presents the facts as they are and doesn't leave any wiggle room.  People like that are incredibly rare these days.  Even if you've read this before, read it again!

6. The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom - This is one of those extremely popular books in the Christian community that everyone loves but that I had never read.  I was thrilled to finally be able to read it in 2010, and I wasn't disappointed.  Corrie ten Boom is a lot like Elisabeth Elliot in her straight forwardness and blunt nature.  She was honest about the difficulties of being persecuted for helping the Jews, and the book on the whole was just amazing.  Read it when you get a chance!

7. In My Father's House by Corrie ten Boom - I loved this book.  I had never heard of it until 2010, but I was thrilled to be able to read it.  It's a prequel to Corrie ten Boom's The Hiding Place, and tells about her life growing up.  In some ways I liked it even better than The Hiding Place!

8. Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss - This is another book that everyone talks about but I'd never read.  I expected this to be a book about dealing with sin and preparing for Heaven, etc.; and it was, but it was in a format that I didn't expect.  Stepping Heavenward is the fictional journal of Katherine and tells of her life as a believer.  An excellent book!

9. Plague Maker by Tim Downs - I really only started reading this book because I thought the front cover looked cool.  Not much to go on, I know, but I was really glad I read it.  Tim Downs must have had to do an amazing amount of research to write such an informative and articulate book.  The ending was a bit disappointing, but the book on the whole was good.

10. The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges - My dad recommended this book to me in September of 2010, and it was one of the best books I've ever read.  I'm not quite sure how to explain it, but it was just really good in that it gave techniques for fighting sin, but it focused most of all on the gospel and the freedom we have in Christ, freedom from condemnation and shame as well as freedom from sin.  I really liked it!

11. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen - This book is long, but it has become my favorite book by Jane Austen.  She gives you a great look into the lives of each person, and this book was funny too, unlike with Pride and Prejudice.

12. Authentic Beauty by Leslie Ludy - I'd heard a lot of good about this book, and after months of being on a waiting list I finally got it!  I was not disappointed.  Leslie Ludy reminded me of Elisabeth Elliot in her no-nonsense approaching to finding sin in our lives and ripping it out.  I had to read it twice, and hope to read it again soon!

13. Keep a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliot - I am a champion worrier, so I really enjoyed this book that talking about resting in God, and trusting quietly in Him.  I'm going to try and read it again in 2011!

14. Then Sings My Soul by Robert Morgan - I already wrote a review about this, and you can read it here.  It was great!

15. Quest for Love by Elisabeth Elliot - This book is kind of a sequel to Passion and Purity, and while I didn't enjoy it as much as that book, this was good too.  In it were contained a bunch of stories about relationships, and throughout the book Elisabeth Elliot challenges the reader to ask questions like "What did these people do wrong?"  "Was God really at the center of their relationship from the beginning?"  "Was it right for them to think that they could finally be content with each other, rather than being content in Christ first?"  It was very good, and I would suggest that other people read it, but only after they've read Passion and Purity because that's just the way the books go together.

And, that's it!  Throughout 2011 I hope to start posting more reviews of books.  Check these ones out when you get a chance!

Just another thing to be thankful for...

Then Sings My Soul Special Edition by Robert Morgan

Then Sings My Soul is a collection of one hundred and fifty hymns; the basic themes for the hymns are Christmas, Easter, and just other widely known and recognized ones.  The lyrics to the songs are given, along with the music score and a one-page account of how and why the song came to be written.

I really enjoyed Then Sings My Soul.  At the beginning I came to the book expecting it to have much longer stories that went along with the songs, but after awhile I came to enjoy the quick, precise manner that Morgan has in explaining the stories of the songs.  I was reminded of many hymns I had forgotten, such as “The First Noel” and “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”, and found many I hadn’t heard before, such as “Jesus Paid It All”.  It was so encouraging to read of the faith of the people who had written these hymns, such as Horatio Spafford, the author of “It Is Well with My Soul”, who lost all four of his daughters when the ship they were traveling on sunk.  I think the book could be a great tool to worship leaders in that they could find hymns they hadn’t known of before that members of their congregation might enjoy to sing and/or listen to.  I would definitely recommend it to others; it was an all-around enjoyable read!