Above:  Christ Pantocrator

Image in the Public Domain

Text (1834; published in 1853) by James Montgomery (1771-1854)

Hymn Source = Hymnal and Liturgies of the Moravian Church (Unitas Fratrum) (1923), Moravian Church in America

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In the hour of trial,

Jesus, plead for me;

Lest by base denial

I depart from Thee;

When Thou see’st me waver,

With a look recall,

Nor for fear or favor

Suffer me to fall.

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With forbidden pleasures

Would this vain world charm;

Or its sordid treasures

Spread to work me harm;

Bring to my remembrance

Sad Gethsemane,t

Cross-crowned Calvary.

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Should Thy mercy sent me

Sorrow, toil, and woe;

Or should pain attend me

On my path below;

Grant that I may never

Fail Thy hand to see;

Grant that I may ever

Cast my care on Thee.

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When my last hour cometh,

Fraught with strife and pain,

When my dust returneth

To the dust again;

On Thy truth relying

Through that mortal strife,

Jesus, take me, dying,

To eternal life.

Above:  The Entombment of Christ

Image in the Public Domain

Original Greek Text (700s) by St. John of Damascus

English Translation John Athelstan Laurie Riley (1858-1945)

Hymn Source = The English Hymnal (1906), The Church of England

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What sweet of life endureth

Unmixed with Bitter Pain?

‘Midst earthly change and chances

What glory doth remain?

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All is a feeble shadow,

A dream that will not stay;

Death cometh in a moment,

And taketh all away.

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O Christ, a light transcendent

Shines in thy countenance,

And none can tell the sweetness,

The beauty of thy glance.

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In this may thy poor servant

His joy eternal find;

Thou calledst him, O rest him,

Thou Lover of mankind!

Above:  A King’s Burden

Image in the Public Domain

Original German Text (1700) by Caspar Neumann (1648-1715)

English Translation (1863) by Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878)

Hymn Source = Evangelical Lutheran Worship (1908), Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio and Other States (1818-1930)

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Lord, on earth I dwell sad-hearted,

Here I oft must mourn and sigh:

Wherefore hast Thou then departed,

Why didst Thou ascend on high?

Take me, take me hence with Thee,

Or abide, Lord, still with me;

Let Thy love and gifts be left,

That I be not all bereft.

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Leave Thy heart still inly near me,

Take mine hence where Thou art gone;

Open heav’n to me, and hear me,

When to Thee I cry alone;

When I cannot pray, O plead

With the Father in my stead;

Seated now at God’s right hand,

Help us here, Thy faithful hand.

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Worldly joys I cast behind me,

Let me choose the better part,

And though mortal chains yet bind me,

Heav’nward tend my thoughts and heart;

That my time through faith may be

Ordered for eternity;

Till we rise, all perils o’er,

Whither Thou hast gone before.

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Then return, the promise keeping,

That was made to us of old;

Raise the members that are sleeping,

Gnaw’d of death, beneath the mould;

Judge the evil world that deems

Thy sure words but empty dreams;

And for all our sorrows past

Let us know Thy joy at last.

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Above:  Christ the Merciful

Image in the Public Domain

German Text (1547?) by Paul Eber (1511-1569)

English Translation by Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878) in Lyra Germanica:  The Christian Life (1858)

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1.  When in the hour of utmost need

We know not where to look for aid,

When days and nights of anxious thought

Nor help nor counsel yet have brought:

2.  Then this our comfort is alone,

That we may meet before Thy throne,

And cry, O faithful God, to Thee

For rescue from our misery:

3.  To Thee may raise our hearts and eyes,

Repenting sore with bitter sighs,

And seek Thy pardon for our sin,

And respite from our griefs within:

4.  For Thou hast promised graciously

To hear all those who cry to Thee,

Through Him whose Name alone is great,

Our Saviour and our Advocate.

5.  And thus we come, O God, to-day,

And all our woes before Thee lay,

For tried, forsaken, lo! we stand,

Perils and foes on every hand.

6.  Ah, hide not for our sins Thy face,

Absolve us through Thy boundless grace,

Be with us in our anguish still,

Free us at last from evil ill.

7.  That so with all our hearts we may

Once more our glad thanksgivings pay,

And walk obedient to Thy word,

And now and ever praise the Lord.

Above:  Apotheosis of War, by Vasily Vereshchagin

Image in the Public Domain

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This is a hymn for use in time of war.  Sadly, we human beings keep acting is ways which keep the sentiments of the hymn current.

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This is one of those great Anglican contributions to English-language hymnody.

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PART THE FIRST:  THE BEGINNING

The story begins with Henry Fothergill Chorley (1808-1872), a Quaker-born novelist, playwright, libretticist, and literary and music critic in London, England, the United Kingdom.  In 1842 he published a hymn, “God, the All-Terrible! Thou Who Ordainest.”  My sources identified the the publication as having occurred in Part Music (1842), by John Pike Hullah (1812-1884).  A search at hymnary.org led me to my reprint of the Plymouth Collection of Hymns and Tunes (Henry Ward Beecher, Plymouth Congregational Church, Brooklyn, New York, 1855), where I found these verses:

1.  God, the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest

Thunder Thy clarion, and lightning Thy sword;

Show forth Thy pity on high where Thou reignest,

Give to us peace in our time, O Lord.

2.  God, the Omnipotent! mighty Avenger,

Watching invisible, judging unheard;

Save us in mercy, O save us from danger,

Give to us peace in our time, O Lord.

3.  God, the all-merciful! earth hath forsaken

Thy ways all holy, and slighted Thy word;

But not Thy wrath in its terror awaken,

Give to us pardon and peace, O Lord.

4.  So will Thy people with thankful devotion,

Praise Him who saved them from peril and sword;

Shouting in chorus, from ocean to ocean,

Peace to the nations, and praise to the Lord.

(Hymn #1101)

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PART THE SECOND:  UNITARIANS DURING THE CIVIL WAR

Hymns of the Spirit (American Unitarian Association, 1864), included an abbreviated and different version of the text, starting with the second stanza.  Thus the hymn became “God, the Omnipotent! Mighty Avenger!”  The context of the U.S. Civil War was evident:

1.  God the Omnipotent! mighty Avenger!

Watching invisible, judging unheard!

Save Thou our land in the hour of her danger,

Give to us peace in Thy time, O Lord!

2.  Thunder and lightnings Thy judgment have sounded;

Letters of flame have recorded Thy word,

‘Only in righteousness true peace is founded’:

Give us that peace in Thy time, O Lord!

3.  So shall the people, with thankful devotion,

Praise Him who saved them from peril and sword;

Shouting in chorus, from ocean to ocean,–

‘Peace to the nation, and praise to the Lord!’

(Hymn #262)

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PART THE THIRD:  ENTER JOHN ELLERTON

In 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), John Ellerton (1826-1893), a priest of The Church of England and author of no fewer than 86 hymns, wrote “God the Almighty One, Wisely Ordaining,” based on Chorley’s hymn.  The text debuted in Robert Brown-Borthwick’s Select Hymns for Church and Home (The Church of England, 1871).  I found the original version of that hymn via Google Books.

1.  God the Almighty One, wisely ordaining

Judgments unsearchable, famine and sword;

Over the tumult of war Thou are reigning;

Give to us peace in our time, O Lord!

2.  God the All-righteous One! man hath defied Thee;

Yet to eternity standeth Thy word;

Falsehood and wrong shall not tarry beside Thee;

Give to us peace in our time, O Lord!

3.  God the All-pitiful, is it not crying,

Blood of the guiltless like water outpoured?

Look on the anguish, the sorrow, the sighing;

Give to us peace in our time, O Lord!

4.  God, the All-wise! by the fire of Thy chastening

Earth shall to freedom and truth be restored;

Through the thick darkness Thy kingdom is hast’ning,

Thou wilt give peace in Thy time, O Lord!

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PART THE FOURTH:  THE JOINING AND SUBSEQUENT VARIATIONS AND ALTERATIONS

The first joining of the Chorley and Ellerton texts occurred in the 1874 revision of Church Hymns (The Church of England, 1871), as one can read for oneself by following the hyperlink and seeking hymn #262.  Since then many hymnals have contained various composites of the Chorley and Ellerton texts, frequently with alterations to them.  The Lutheran Hymnal (1941) contained the hymn, but listed it as “God, Lord of Sabaoth, Thou Who Ordainest.”  The hymn was “God the All-Merciful! Earth Hath Forsaken” in the Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church (1917) but “God the Omnipotent! King, Who Ordainest” in the Service Book and Hymnal (1958).  The influential Hymnal (Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., 1895) and its successor from 1911 listed the hymn as “God, the All-Terrible,” but The Hymnal (1933) changed the title to “God the Omnipotent.”  Among more conservative Presbyterians (especially in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Church in America) who use either the 1961 or the 1990 versions of the Trinity Hymnal, God remains “All-terrible.”  God was “All-terrible” in The Methodist Hymnal (Methodist Episcopal Church and Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1905), but “Omnipotent” in The Methodist Hymnal of 1935 (Methodist Episcopal Church, Methodist Protestant Church, and Methodist Episcopal Church, South; later The Methodist Church, 1939-1968).  As late as The Hymnal of 1918 (Episcopal Church, authorized in 1916) God was “All-Terrible,” but the deity was “Omnipotent” instead in The Hymnal 1940 (published in 1943).  The consensus among hymnal committees is that God is “Omnipotent,” not “All-terrible.”

The variation on the hymn in The Hymnal 1982 (Episcopal Church, 1985) contains four stanzas–two from Chorley, two from Ellerton, and all of them altered.  This is the version I sing in church:

1.  God the Omnipotent! King, who ordainest

thunder thy clarion, the lightning thy sword;

show forth thy pity on high where thou reignest:

give to us peace in our time, O Lord.

2.  God the All-merciful! earth hath forsaken

thy ways all holy, and slighted thy word;

bid not thy wrath in its terrors awaken:

give to us peace in our time, O Lord.

3.  God, the All-righteous One! earth hath defied thee;

yet eternity standeth thy word,

falsehood and wrong shall not tarry beside thee:

give to us peace in our time, O Lord.

4.  God the All-provident! earth by thy chastening

yet shall to freedom and truth be restored;

through the thick darkness thy kingdom is hastening:

thou wilt give peace in thy time, O Lord.

Hymn writer Brian Wren (1936-) wrote of hymns in Praying Twice:  The Music and Words of Congregational Song (Louisville, KY:  Westminster John Knox Press, 2000, page 297):

I have shown that congregational songs are communal.  Though they usually originate from particular authors, their primary purpose is to give shared expression to shared experience, not parade the author’s personality.  Because they are communal a faith community may, in principle amend them.

The story of “God the Omnipotent!” fits that statement well.

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PART THE FIFTH:  DROPPING THE HYMN

Denominations revise their official hymnals from time to time.  In so doing they add some texts and remove others.  Here is a partial list of denominations which have removed “God the Omnipotent!” (however they have listed it) from their official hymnody as of 2015, based on hymnals of which I own physical copies:

1. the American Baptist Churches U.S.A., during their transition from the Hymnbook for Christian Worship (1970) to no official hymnal;
2. the Anglican Church of Canada, during the transition from The Hymn Book of the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada (1971) to Common Praise (1998);
3. the Evangelical Covenant Church of America, during the transition from The Covenant Hymnal (1973) to The Covenant Hymnal:  A Worshipbook (1996);
4. the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, during the transition from the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) to Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006);
5. The Evangelical Lutheran Synod, during the transition from The Lutheran Hymnal (1941) to the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary (1996);
6. the Free Methodist Church of North America and the Wesleyan Church, during their transition from Hymns of Faith and Life (1976) to no official hymnal;
7. The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, during its transition from The Lutheran Hymnal (1941) to Lutheran Worship (1982) and the Lutheran Service Book (2006);
8. the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), by way of its predecessors, the Presbyterian Church in the United States and The United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., during the transition from The Hymnbook (1955) to The Worshipbook–Services and Hymns (1972);
9. the Reformed Church in America, during its transition from Rejoice in the Lord:  A Hymn Companion to the Scriptures (1985) to Lift Up Your Hearts:  Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs (2013);
10. the Southern Baptist Convention, during the transition from Baptist Hymnal (1956) to Baptist Hymnal (1975); the text is absent even from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship‘s Celebrating Grace Hymnal (2010);
11. the Unitarian Universalist Association, sometime after Hymns of the Spirit (American Unitarian Association, 1864) and before Hymns of the Spirit (American Unitarian Association and Universalist Church of America, 1937);
12. The United Methodist Church, during its transition from The Hymnal of the Evangelical United Brethren Church (1957) and The Methodist Hymnal/The Book of Hymns (1966) to The United Methodist Hymnal:  Book of United Methodist Worship (1992); and
13. the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, during the transition from The Lutheran Hymnal (1941) to Christian Worship:  A Lutheran Hymnal (1993); neither is the hymn present in Christian Worship:  Supplement (2008).

That list covers a wide theological range.  So does the list of denominations which have retained it–from The Episcopal Church to the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) to the United Church of Christ to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Church in America.  The list of denominations which have never added it to their official hymnody is also diverse, ranging from the Christian Reformed Church of North America to the Church of Nazarene.  Sometimes the presence or absence of the hymn indicates more about tastes in hymnody and worship style than about theology.

Another piece of supporting evidence for that conclusion comes from two non-denominational Evangelical hymnals Tom Fettke edited:  The Hymnal for Worship & Celebration (1986) and The Celebration Hymnal:  Songs and Hymns for Worship (1997).  The former contains the hymn which is the subject of this post, but the latter does not.  A Victorian hymn set to the majestic former Russian national anthem does not fit with contemporary worship, with its seven-eleven songs, does it?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 21, 2015 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF J. B. PHILLIPS, BIBLE TRANSLATOR AND ANGLICAN PRIEST

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Above:  A Cemetery, Between 1904 and 1920

Image Source = Library of Congress

Reproduction Number = LC-DIG-det-4a28669

Original Czech Text (1519) by Luke of Prague (1458-1528)

German Translation (1531) by Michael Weisse (1480-1534)

English Translation (1858) by Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878)

Hymn Source = Hymnal and Liturgies of the Moravian Church (Unitas Fratrum) (1923), Moravian Church in America

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1.  Now lay we calmly in the grave

This form, whereof no doubt we have

That it shall rise again that day

In glorious triumph o’er decay.

2.  His soul is living now in God,

Whose grace His pardon hath bestowed,

Who through His Son redeemed him here

From bondage unto sin and fear.

3.  Then let us leave him to his rest,

And homeward turn, for he is blest.

And we must well our souls prepare,

When death shall come, to meet him there.

4.  So help us, Christ, our Hope in loss;

Thou hast redeemed us by Thy Cross

From endless death and misery;

We praise, we bless, we worship Thee.

Above:  Mountain Morning

Image in the Public Domain

Hymn Source = The Concordia Hymnal:  A Hymnal for Church, School and Home (1932), Norwegian-American Lutheran

Original Words by Wilhelm Andreas Wexels (1797-1866)

English Translation (1931) by Oscar R. Overby (1892-1964)

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1.  One radiant morn the mists will all surrender,

And life’s uncertain shadows pass away;

When light celestial breaks in dazzling splendor

To lead my step into eternal day.

2.  One radiant morn the mysteries I ponder,

And leave unsolved on all my quests abroad,

Shall be construed for me in fullness yonder

When I awake to sense the ways of God.

3.  One radiant morn when hearts bowed down in sorrow

Are comforted and reconciled above,

All pain and tears I here in anguish borrow

Shall be dissolved in fountain-rays of love.

4.  One radiant morn with eyes unveiled before Him,

I’ll see the One my faith and hope embrace;

Within the holy realms I’ll praise, adore Him,

And kneel to thank my Savior face to face.

5.  One radiant morn when sinless souls assemble,

Where each desire is born in purity,

No more the thought of wrong shall make me tremble,

But, ransomed, I shall live forever free.

6.  One radiant morn in halls of home supernal,

I’ll meet again the friend I here esteem,

In glory speak with him of life eternal,

And of the life that vanished like a dream.

7.  O Jesus, stir within my heart of sadness

This vision fair whene’er I grieve forlorn,

That it may turn all bitter tears to gladness,

And lead my spirit to that radiant morn.

Above:  Cathedral Ruins

Image in the Public Domain

Hymn Source = Hymnal for Church and Home (1938), Danish Evangelical Lutheran Synods in America

Original Text by Wilhelm Andreas Wexels (1797-1866)

English Translation by Soren Damsgaard Rodholm (1877-1951)

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1.  Some day, I know, the mist that is veiling

Shall roll away and darkness disappear

Before the day with radiance never failing,

On which my path shall lie before me clear.

2.  Some day, I know, all mysteries perplexing,

Which here I never quite could understand,

With all my problems yet unsolved and vexing,

Shall be revealed, and I shall see God’s hand.

3.  Some day, I know, all sorrow shall have vanished,

All wounds be healed and ev’ry want supplied.

All tears shall cease, all sighs for aye be banished;

In love’s embrace all unrest shall subside.

4.  Some day, I know, I shall appear before Him

Whom here I hold in love’s and faith’s embrace.

Shall humbly kneel and gratefully adore Him,

And with mine eyes behold Him face to face.

5.  Some day, I know, for sin no longer slaving,

Each tho’t and word and deed unstained and pure,

I shall not even fear a sinful craving

My purity and bliss might e’er obscure.

6.  Some day, I know, in yonder realms of glory,

I, with the friend I found while on the way,

Shall speak of that new life and tell the story

Of this old life, dimmed like a dream by day.

7. My Savior, give my heart this sweet conviction

Each time the way seems long and full of pain,

That it may lighten ev’ry deep affliction

And cause a smile to shine through tears again.

Above:  Christ the Merciful

Image in the Public Domain

Hymn Source = The Lutheran Hymnary (1935), Norwegian Lutheran Church of America/The Evangelical Lutheran Church

Original German Words (1610) by Martin Behm (1557-1622)

English Translation (1858) by Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878)

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1.  Lord Jesus Christ, my life, my light,

My strength by day, my trust by night,

On earth I’m but a passing guest,

And sorely with my sins oppressed.

2.  Far off I see my fatherland,

Where through Thy grace I hope to stand,

But ere I reach that paradise,

A weary way before me lies.

3.  My heart sinks at the journey’s length,

My wasted flesh has little strength,

Only my soul still cries in me,

Lord, fetch me home, take me to Thee!

4.  O let Thy sufferings give me power

To meet the last and darkest hour;

Thy cross the staff whereon I lean,

My couch the grace where Thou hast been.

5.  Since Thou hast died, the pure, the just,

I take my homeward way in trust,

The gates of heaven, Lord, open wide,

When here I may no more abide.

6.  And when the last great day is come,

And Thou, our Judge, shalt speak the doom,

Let me with joy behold the light,

And set me then upon Thy right.

7.  Renew this wasted flesh of mine,

That like the sun it there may shine,

Among the angels pure and bright,

Yea, like Thyself in glorious light.

8.  Ah, then I have my heart’s desire,

When singing with the angels’ choir,

Among the ransomed of Thy grace,

For ever I behold Thy face!

Above:  The Hymn

Image Source = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

Hymn Source = The Church Hymnary (1927), Presbyterian

Words (published in 1827)  by Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868)

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1.  O help us, Lord; each hour of need

Thy heavenly succour give;

Help us in thought, and word, and deed,

Each hour on earth we live.

2.  O help us when our spirits bleed

With contrite anguish sore;

And, when our hearts are cold and dead,

O help us, Lord, the more.

3.  O help us, through the prayer of faith,

More firmly to believe;

For still the more the servant hath,

The more shall he receive.

4.  If, strangers to Thy fold, we call,

Imploring at Thy feet

The crumbs that from Thy table fall,

‘Tis all we dare entreat.

5.  But be it, Lord of mercy, all,

So Thou wilt grant but this;

The crumbs that from Thy table fall

Are light and life and bliss.

6.  O help us, Saviour, from on high;

We know no help but Thee:

O help us to to live and die

As Thine in heaven to be.