To me, to all, Thy bowels move–

Above:  Jacob Struggling with the Angel, from the Gutenberg Bible 

Image in the Public Domain

Text (published in 1742) by Charles Wesley (1707-1788)

Hymn Source = Robert Guy McCutchan, Our Hymnody:  A Manual of The Methodist Hymnal (1937), pages 336-337

Here we have what is, according to reputation, the finest text (original title = “Wrestling Jacob”) by Charles Wesley, one of the greatest English hymn writers.  It is certainly a fine work of literature and theology, one renowned during his lifetime and afterward.  The United Methodist Hymnal (1989) prints all 14 stanzas, with only slight alteration.  The most obvious change, dating to 1893, is in the stanza that begins with “‘Tis Love! ’tis Love!  Thou diedst for me.”  In that verse, in the original version, one reads,

Thy nature and Thy name is love.

I can confirm, based on my library, that the divine bowels moved in A Collection of Hymns for Public, Social, and Domestic Worship (Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1847;  Plymouth Collection of Hymns and Tunes for the Use of Christian Congregations (Henry Ward Beecher, 1855);  A Collection of Hymns and Tunes for Public, Social, and Domestic Worship (Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1874); and The Presbyterian Hymnal (Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., 1874).

Since 1893, however, as Brian Wren informs me, “Thy mercies” have moved instead.

This is a case study in changing idioms–in this case, the bowels as the seat of emotion.  One finds such language in the original texts of the Bible.  Modern Biblical translators modernize the idiom, fortunately.  We retain vestiges of the idiom in modern English usage; we speak and write of “gut feelings,” for example.  As grateful as I am for the updating of the archaic idiom for the sake of clarity, I also care about what the author wrote.  I, therefore, having access to what Wesley wrote, share it here.

Brian Wren, in his excellent and informative Praying Twice:  The Music and Words of Congregational Song (2000), cites the alteration of this hymn in Chapter Nine,

“To Me, to All, Thy Bowels Move”:  Why Do They Keep Changing the Good Old Hymns?

It is a memorable title for a thorough and critical (in the highest sense of that word) chapter.  I advise reading it.

As for this hymn and the reasons for its long-lasting reputation, I defer to the companion volume to The Methodist Hymnal (1966) for analysis:

The construction of the poem is as clear as its language is crisp, compact, and powerful.  The first 8 sts. set forth with mounting pathos the anguished cry of man–not “Who am I” but “Who art Thou?”  The last 6 with glad assurance provide the full answer, each ending with the line Thy nature and thy name is love.

–Emory Stevens Bucke, ed., Companion to the Hymnal (1970), page 150

Yet since most congregations that sing the hymn sing only a few stanzas, they will not notice the organization of the full poem.

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Come, O thou Traveler unknown,

Whom still I hold, but cannot see,

My company before is gone,

And I am left alone with Thee;

With Thee all night I mean to stay,

And wrestle till the break of day.

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I need not tell Thee who I am,

My misery or sin declare,

Thyself has called me by my name,

Look on Thy hands and read it there;

But who, I ask Thee, who art Thou?

Tell me Thy name, and tell me now.

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In vain Thou strugglest to get free,

I never will unloose my hold;

Art Thou the Man that died for me?

The secret of Thy love unfold;

Wrestling, I will not let Thee go

Till I Thy name, Thy nature know.

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Wilt Thou not yet to me reveal

Thy new unutterable name?

Tell me, I still beseech Thee, tell;

To know it now resolved I am;

Wrestling, I will not let Thee go

Till I not let Thee go

Till I Thy name, Thy nature know.

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‘Tis all in vain to hold Thy tongue,

Or touch the hollow of my thigh;

Though every sinew be unstrung,

Out of my arms Thou shalt not fly;

Wrestling, I will not let Thee go

Till I Thy name, Thy nature know.

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What though my shrinking flesh complain,

And murmur to contend so long,

I rise superior to my pain,

When I am weak then I am strong;

And when my all of strength shall fail,

I shall with the God-man prevail.

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My strength is gone, my nature dies,

I sink beneath Thy weighty hand,

Faint to revive, and fall to rise;

I fall, and yet by faith I stand–

I stand, and will not let Thee go

Till I Thy name, Thy nature know.

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Yield to me now, for I am weak,

But confident, in self-despair;

Speak to my heart, in blessings speak,

Be conquer’d by my instant prayer:

Speak, or Thou never hence shalt move,

And tell me if Thy name is Love?

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‘Tis Love! ’tis Love!  Thou diedst for me;

I hear Thy whisper in my heart;

The morning breaks, the shadows flee,

Pure Universal Love Thou art;

To me, to all Thy bowels move–

Thy nature and Thy name is Love.

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My prayer hath power with God; the grace

Unspeakable I now receive;

Through faith I see Thee face to face–

I see Thee face to face and live;

In vain I have not wept and strove;

Thy nature and Thy name is Love.

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I know Thee, Saviour, who Thou art–

Jesus, the feeble sinner’s Friend;

Nor wilt Thou with the night depart,

But stay and love me to the end;

Thy mercies never shall remove–

Thy nature and Thy name is Love.

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The Sun of Righteousness on me

Hath rose with healing in His wings;

Wither’d my nature’s strength, from Thee

My soul its life and succor brings;

My help and Thy name is Love.

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Contented now upon my thigh

I halt, till life’s short journey end;

All helplessness, all weakness, I

On Thee alone for strength depend;

Nor have I power from Thee to move–

Thy nature and Thy name is Love.

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Lame as I am, I take the prey,

Hell, earth, and sin with ease o’ercome;

I leap for joy, pursue my way,

And as a bounding hart fly home,

Through all eternity to prove

Thy nature and Thy name is Love.

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 Forest in Winter

Image Source = Robert P. VanNatta

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Douglaswinter.jpg)

Hymn Source = Chalice Hymnal (1995), of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Words (1973) by Brian Wren

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1.  We thank you, God, for water, soil, and air,

large gifts supporting everything that lives.

Forgive our spoiling and abuse of them.

Help us renew the face of the earth.

2.  We thank you, God, for minerals and ores–

the basis of all building, wealth, and speed.

Forgive our reckless plundering and waste.

Help us renew the face of the earth.

3.  We thank you, God, for priceless energy,

stored in each atom, gathered from the sun.

Forgive our greed and carelessness of power.

Help us renew the face of the earth.

4.  We thank you, God, for weaving nature’s life

into a seamless robe, a fragile whole.

Forgive our haste, that tampers unaware.

Help us renew the face of the earth.

5.  We thank you, God, for making planet Earth,

a home for us and ages yet unborn.

Help us to share, consider, save, and store.

Come and renew the face of the earth.

Logo of The United Methodist Church

Image Source = Wikipedia

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Lord God, Your Love Has Called Us Here:

https://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/10/09/lord-god-your-love-has-called-us-here/

I Come With Joy to Meet My Lord:

https://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/01/23/i-come-with-joy-to-meet-my-lord/

We Thank You, God, for Water, Soil, and Air:

https://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2012/05/19/we-thank-you-god-for-water-soil-and-air/

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Below:  Logo of The United Reformed Church

(I cropped it from a public domain image from here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:United_Reformed_Church_General_Assembly_2007.jpg)

Trinity Episcopal Church, Statesboro, Georgia, U.S.A.

(I was a member here in 2001-2003, while a student at Georgia Southern University.)

Image Source = http://www.trinitystatesboro.org/

Hymn Source = The Hymn Book of the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada (1971)

Words by the Rev. Brian Wren (born in 1936), of the United Reformed Church, a denomination in Great Britain

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1.  I come with joy to meet my Lord,

forgiven, loved, and free,

in awe and wonder to recall

his life laid down for me.

2.  I come with Christians far and near

to find, as we are fed,

man’s true community of love

in Christ’s communion bread.

3.  As Christ breaks bread for men to share

each proud division ends.

That love that made us makes us one,

and strangers now are friends.

4.  And thus with joy we meet our Lord,

His presence, always near,

is in such friendship better known;

we see, and praise him here.

Together met, together bound,

we’ll go our separate ways,

and as his people in the world,

we’ll live and speak his praise.

Alapaha United Methodist Church, Alapaha, Georgia, U.S.A., Easter Sunday 1990

Image Source = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

Hymn Author = The Reverend Brian Wren, of the United Reformed Church, a British Isles Presbyterian-Congregationalist body; the words date to 1973

Hymn Source = The United Methodist Hymnal:  Book of United Methodist Worship (1989), of The United Methodist Church

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1.  Lord God, your love has called us here,

as we, by love, for love were made;

your living likeness still we bear,

though marred, dishonored, disobeyed;

we come, with all our heart and mind,

your call to hear, your love to find.

2. We come in self-inflicted pains

of broken trust and chosen wrong,

half-free, half-bound by inner chains,

by social forces swept along,

by powers and systems close confined,

yet seeking hope for humankind.

3.  Lord God, in Christ you call our name,

and then receive us as your own;

not through some merit, right, or claim,

but by your gracious love alone;

we strain to glimpse your mercy seat,

and find you kneeling at our feet.

4.  Then take the towel, and break the bread,

and humble us, and call us friends;

suffer and and serve till all are fed,

and show how grandly love intends

to work till all creation sings,

to fill all worlds, to crown all things.

5.  Lord God, in Christ you set us free

your life to live, your call to share;

give us your Spirit’s liberty

to turn from guilt and dull despair,

and offer all that faith can do,

while love is making all things new.