Above:  Jesus in a Manger

Image in the Public Domain

Original Latin Text by Jean Mauburn (1450-1503), 1494

English Translation (1858) by Elizabeth Rundle Charles (1828-1876)

Hymn Source = The Hymnal 1940 (1943), The Episcopal Church

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Dost thou in a manger lie,

Who hast all created,

Stretching infant hands on high,

Saviour, long awaited?

If a monarch, where thy state?

Where thy court on thee to wait?

Royal purple, where?

Here no regal pomp we see;

Naught but need and penury:

Why thus cradled here?

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“Pitying love for fallen man

Brought me down thus low;

For a race deep lost in sin,

Came I into woe.

By this lowly birth of mine,

Sinner, riches shall be thine,

Matchless gifts and free;

Willingly this yoke I take,

And this sacrifice I make,

Heaping joys for thee.”

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Fervent praise would I to thee

Evermore be raising;

For thy wondrous love to me

Thee be ever praising.

Glory, glory be for ever

Unto that most bounteous Giver,

And that loving Lord!

Better witness to thy worth,

Purer praise than ours on earth,

Angels’ songs afford.

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Above:  Throne of God

Image in the Public Domain

Text (published in 1925) by William Boyd Carpenter (1841-1918), Anglican Bishop of Ripon then Canon of Westminster

Hymn Source = The Hymnal 1940 (1943), The Episcopal Church

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Before thy Throne, O God, we kneel;

Give us a conscience quick to feel,

A ready mind to understand

The meaning of thy chastening hand;

Whate’er the pain and shame may be,

Bring us, O Father, nearer thee.

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Search out our hearts and make us true,

Wishful to give to all their due;

From love of pleasure, lust of gold,

From sins which make the heart grow cold,

Wean us and train us with thy rod;

Teach us to know our faults, O God.

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For sins of heedless word and deed,

For pride ambitious to succeed,

For crafty trade and subtle snare

To catch the simple unaware,

For lives bereft of purpose high,

Forgive, forgive, O Lord, we cry.

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Let the fierce fires which burn and try,

Our inmost spirits purify;

Consume the ill; purge out the shame;

O God, be with us in the flame;

A new-born people may we rise,

More pure, more true, more nobly wise.

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Above:  Snow-Covered Trail, Seward, Alaska, 1916

Image Source = Library of Congress

Reproduction Number = LC-DIG-ppmsc-01960

Text (1769; published in 1772) by William Cowper (1731-1800)

Hymn Source #1  = The Hymnal (1941), Evangelical and Reformed Church

Hymn Source #2 = The Hymnal 1940 Companion (1949), The Episcopal Church

The original text was six stanzas long.

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O for a closer walk with God,

A calm and heavenly frame,

A light to shine upon the road

That leads me to the Lamb.

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Where is the blessedness I knew,

When first I saw the Lord?

Where is the soul-refreshing view

Of Jesus, and his word?

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What peaceful hours I then enjoyed!

How sweet their memory still!

But they have left an aching void

The world can never fill.

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Return, O Holy Dove, return,

Sweet messenger of rest;

I hate the sins that made Thee mourn,

And drove Thee from my breast.

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The dearest idol I have known,

Whate’er that idol be,

Help me to tear it from Thy throne,

And worship only Thee.

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So shall my walk be close with God,

Calm and serene my frame;

So purer light shall mark the road

That leads me to the Lamb.

Above:  A Crucifix

Photograph by Kenneth Randolph Taylor

Text (1928) by Walter Russell Bowie (1882-1969)

Hymn Source = The Hymnal 1940 (1943), The Episcopal Church

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Lord Christ, when first thou cam’st to men,

Upon a cross they bound thee,

And mocked thy saving kingship then

By thorns with which they crowned thee;

And still our wrongs may weave thee now

New thorns to pierce that steady brow,

And robe of sorrow round thee.

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O aweful Love, which found no room

In life where sin denied thee,

And, doomed to death, must bring to doom

The power which crucified thee,

Till not a stone was left on stone,

And all a nation’s pride, o’erthrown,

Went down to dust beside thee!

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New advent of the love of Christ,

Shall we again refuse thee,

Till in the night of hate and war

We perish as we lose thee?

From old unfaith our souls release

To seek the kingdom of thy peace,

By which alone we choose thee.

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O wounded hands of Jesus, burn

In us thy new creation;

Our pride is dust, our vaunt is stilled,

We wait thy revelation;

O love that triumphs over loss,

We bring our hearts before thy cross,

To finish thy salvation.

Above:  Lavender Field

Image in the Public Domain

Text by Reginald Heber (1783-1826)

Hymn Sources = The Hymnal 1940 (1943), The Episcopal Church; and The Hymnal 1940 Companion (1949)

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I praised the earth, in beauty seen,

With garlands gay of various green;

I praised the sea, whose ample field

Shone glorious as a silver shield;

And earth and ocean seemed to say,

“Our beauties are but for a day.”

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I praised the sun, whose chariot rolled

On wheels of amber and of gold;

I praised the moon, whose softer eye

Gleamed sweetly through the summer sky;

And moon and sun in answer said,

“Our days of light are numbered.”

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O God, O Good beyond compare,

If thus thy meaner works are fair,

If thus thy bounties gild the span

Of ruined earth and sinful man,

How glorious must the mansion be

Where thy redeemed shall dwell with thee!

Above:  Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration, Rome, Georgia, February 14, 2016

Image Source = Bill Monk, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta

Text (1872) by John Henry Hopkins, Jr. (1820-1891)

Hymn Source = The Hymnal 1940 Companion (1949), The Episcopal Church

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Come with us, O blessed Jesus,

With us evermore to be;

And in leaving now thine altar,

O let us not leave thee!

Let thy sweet angel chorus

Not cease their heavenly strain,

But in us, thy loving children,

Bring peace, good will to men.

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Thou art God from everlasting,

God of God and Light of Light;

Thou art God, thy glory veiling,

That men may bear the sight.

Beyond these walls O follow us,

Our daily life to share,

That in us thy great and glorious light

May shine forth everywhere.

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Thou art man, of Mary Virgin,

Born to-day in Bethlehem;

Thou art man, with griefs and sorrows,

And thorns for a diadem.

For ever thou art one with us,

Our life, our love divine:

Our flesh and blood art thou, Lord;

And thou hast given us thine.

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Born a babe, yet our Creator;

Born a babe, yet God on high:

Born a babe, O Son of David,

Thy kingdom now is nigh.

Before thy cross victorious

O make thy foes to fall,

Till the whole world sing Hosanna,

And own thee Lord of all.

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:  Zion Episcopal Church, Talbotton, Georgia, October 25, 2008

Image Source = Bill Monk, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta

Anonymous Latin Text, 1661

English Translation (1906) by John Athelstan Laurie Riley (1858-1945)

Hymn Source = The Hymnal 1940 (1943), The Episcopal Church

The Ray Palmer translation is here.

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1.  O Food of men wayfaring,

The bread of angels sharing,

O Manna from on high!

We hunger; Lord, supply us,

Nor thy delights deny us,

Whose hearts to thee draw nigh.

2.  O stream of love past telling,

O purest fountain, welling

From out the Saviour’s side!

We faint with thirst; revive us,

Of thine abundance give us,

And all we need provide.

3.  O Jesus, by thee bidden,

We here adore thee, hidden

‘Neath forms of bread and wine.

Grant when the veil is riven,

We may behold, in heaven,

Thy countenance divine.

Above:  Christ Pantocrator

Hymn Source = The Hymnal 1940, of The Episcopal Church

Words (1919) by Laurence Housman (1865-1959)

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1.  Father eternal, Ruler of creation,

Spirit of life, which moved ere form was made,

Through the thick darkness covering every nation,

Light to man’s blindness, O be thou our aid:

Thy kingdom come, O Lord, thy will be done.

2.  Races and peoples, lo, we stand divided,

And, sharing not our griefs, no joy can share;

By wars and tumults love is mocked, derided;

His conquering cross no kingdom wills to bear:

Thy kingdom come, O Lord, thy will be done.

3.  Envious of heart, blind-eyed, with tongues confounded,

Nation by nation still goes unforgiven,

In wrath and fear, by jealousies surrounded,

Building proud towers which shall not reach to heaven:

Thy kingdom come, O Lord, thy will be done.

4.  Lust of possession worketh desolations;

There is no meekness in the sons of earth;

Led by no star, the rulers of the nations

Still fail to bring us to the blissful birth:

Thy kingdom come, O Lord, thy will be done.

5.  How shall we love thee, holy hidden Being,

If we love not the world which thou hast made?

O give us brother-love for better seeing

Thy Word made flesh, and in a manger laid.

Thy kingdom come, O Lord, thy will be done.

Above:  Live Nativity Scene, St. Teresa’s Episcopal Church, Acworth, Georgia, December 22, 2012

Image Source = Bill Monk, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta

(https://plus.google.com/photos/114749828757741527421/albums/5824581108495648417/5824871208323557970?banner=pwa&pid=5824871208323557970&oid=114749828757741527421)

Hymn Source = The Hymnal 1940, of The Episcopal Church

Words (1906) by Laurence Housman (1865-1959)

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1.  When Christ was born in Bethlehem,

Fair peace on earth to bring,

In lowly sate of love he came

To be the children’s king.

2.  And round him, then, a holy band

Of children blest was born,

Fair guardians of his throne to stand

Attendant night and morn.

3.  And unto them this grace was given

A Saviour’s name to own,

And die for him who out of heaven

Had found on earth a throne.

4.  O blessed babes of Bethlehem,

Who died to save our King,

Ye share the martyrs’ diadem,

And in their anthems sing.

5.  Your lips, on earth that never spake,

Now sound the eternal word;

And in the courts of love ye make

Your children’s voices heard.

6.  Lord Jesus Christ, eternal Child,

Make thou our childhood thine;

That we with thee the meek and mild

May share the love divine.