HYMNS OF COMFORT
When I received word of the death of my son, in a distant land, I turned
to your book of hymn stories, and was comforted.--From the personal
letter of a friend.
In the darkest hours of the war Mr. Winston Churchill (then prime
minister) would steal away an hour or two to hear the songs he
loves.--_The British Weekly._
"When I cannot sleep at night I silently repeat hymns," once said Mrs.
Margaret E. Sangster to a caller. First in the list, she intimated, was
the cherished hymn of John Newton, who "loved much because he was
forgiven much":
"How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer's ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear.
"It makes the wounded spirit whole,
And calms the troubled breast;
'Tis manna to the hungry soul,
And to the weary, rest."
God's Angels in Charge
A characteristic of Alice Freeman Palmer, who at the age of twenty-six
became the President of Wellesley College, was her calmness. What would
terrify another would leave her undisturbed. From her early girlhood she
had learned the lesson of Christian trustfulness. Her husband, Dr.
George Herbert Palmer, who wrote the story of her life, records the fact
that one day, while at her summer home at Boxford, she was ill in bed. A
thunderstorm came swiftly out of the southwest and struck the house, and
the room next to her own was destroyed. "She seemed at the time much
interested in the novel event, as if it were something contrived for her
entertainment." After her death, however, he found among her papers a
hymn with that date attached. This was sung at the memorial service held
in Harvard Chapel; and Doctor Palmer printed it under the title of "The
Tempest." Suggestions from the Psalms find expression in this poem, and
the opening lines conform closely to Psalm 91:11, which reads:
"For he will give his angels charge over thee,
To keep thee in all thy ways."
The hymn of Mrs. Palmer reveals a spirit of confidence in the power and
love of God, and she felt comforted by the fact that she could nestle
into the strong arms of God. These are her words:
"He shall give His angels charge
Over thee in all thy ways.
Though the thunders roam at large,
Though the lightning round me plays,
Like a child I lay my head
In sweet sleep upon my bed.
"Though the terror come so close,
It shall have no power to smite;
It shall deepen my repose,
Turn the darkness into light.
Touch of angels' hands is sweet;
Not a stone shall hurt my feet.
"All Thy waves and billows go
Over me to press me down
Into arms so strong I know
They will never let me drown.
Ah, my God, how good Thy will!
I will nestle and be still."
Singing Welshmen at Oxford
A scene which greatly impressed him was related by Frederick M.
Davenport, a former member of congress, when he returned from a trip to
England late in the summer of 1937. Mentioning the distressed area of
the coal district of South Wales, he said:
"As we were leaving Oxford one morning there appeared on the station
platform about a hundred young Welshmen between eighteen and twenty
years of age. They were dressed in the garb of manual laborers, and
held rough baggage in their hands. Their home was in South Wales, but
they had been in Oxford working on a government project and were
leaving for a holiday.
"Nearly all Welsh are singers, and these young men were no exception.
After a few jolly songs directed at their leaders, as their train was
nearly due to leave they massed themselves together and sang
magnificently:
"'Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,
Pilgrim through this barren land;
I am weak, but Thou art mighty;
Hold me with Thy powerful hand;
Bread of heaven,
Feed me till I want no more.'
"For the time being they were unemployed at home,... but they were
full of confidence and good will."
This hymn, "a genuine heart song," comes from Welsh sources; and one of
the tunes to which it is sung, "Cwm Rhondda," composed by a Welshman, is
a favorite among Welsh people.
The group of young Welshmen who sang in Oxford that day, while some
Americans were among the listeners, showed a courageous spirit, a love
of hymns, and a devotional attitude. Doubtless their song was a prayer
of the heart:
"Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah."
Singing Amid Suffering
"She truly learned in suffering what she taught in song," someone
remarked concerning the author of the hymn:
"There is no sorrow, Lord, too light
To bring in prayer to Thee;
There is no anxious care too slight
To wake Thy sympathy."
The Rev. J. H. Jowett, D.D., the great expository preacher who left his
Birmingham pastorate in England to serve the Fifth Avenue pastorate in
New York City during the second decade of the twentieth century, made
this his favorite hymn. Few knew hymns, especially of a devotional
nature, better than he.
This hymn came from the pen and heart of Jane Fox Crewdson. Cornwall was
her birthplace, 1809; but after her marriage to a merchant of Manchester
at the age of 27, she lived her life in that city until her death in
1863. Many years of her life were spent in the sick room. Gifted with
poetic talent, she wrote many poems and hymns. Most of these were
"composed amid paroxysms of pain."
Most appropriately did a Presbyterian minister in an American city,
where he had served for 24 years, select this hymn for Memorial Day
Sunday in 1947. At the entrance to the building a member of the church
had placed a basket of lovely flowers before the bronze tablet which
recorded the names of men who had served in the World Wars. Comforting
must have been the words of Mrs. Crewdson's hymn to those who had
suffered the loss of those dear to them in the war period:
"Thou, who hast trod the thorny road,
Wilt share each small distress;
The love which bore the greater load,
Will not refuse the less."
Not simply in the land where the author lived and wrote are her hymns
found, but this one also appears in _The Hymnal_ (Presbyterian) in the
United States and _The Hymnary_ of The United Church of Canada. Dr.
James Moffatt quotes from an unnamed author this testimony relating to
the writer: "As a constant sufferer, the spiritual life deepening, and
the intellectual life retaining all its power, she became well prepared
to testify to the all-sufficiency of her Saviour's love." Hence we can
appreciate what has been said concerning the third verse, namely, "There
is infinite pathos packed into these lines:
"'There is no secret sigh we breathe,
But meets Thine ear divine;
And every cross grows light beneath
The shadow, Lord, of Thine.'"
Songs of a Sorrowing Nation
"You can tell the kind of a man he was from the hymns he loved. Our
organist and our choir know. He felt those hymns inwardly." These words
were spoken by the 78-year-old rector, the Rev. George W. Anthony, at
the morning service of worship conducted by him on Sunday, April 15,
1945, in St. James Episcopal Church at Hyde Park, N. Y., within a few
minutes after President Franklin D. Roosevelt was laid to rest in the
"rose garden" on his own estate.
Probably never before did the people of the United States hear so many
of the hymns of the Christian Church played so frequently as during
those days of sorrowing for the President of the nation who died
suddenly on April 12. They began to be heard soon after the first
announcement was made to a stunned people, and continued until Sunday,
the 15th, when the beloved leader was buried amid the scenes he loved.
Commercial programs were cancelled, and the radio devoted itself to news
concerning the passing of the president and events thereto related. "The
Star-Spangled Banner" and familiar hymns, mostly the favorites of
President Roosevelt, were frequently heard.
Hymns were intimately associated with each movement of the body as it
made its journey from Warm Springs, Georgia, where the president died,
until it reached its final resting-place. When on Friday the folks of
the community assembled to witness the departure of the train which
would carry him to Washington Chief Petty Officer Graham Jackson, a
Negro, who was a favorite with Mr. Roosevelt, stepped from the circle of
mourners. He had with him his accordion which Mr. Roosevelt loved to
hear him play. Now, as a last tribute, he "played the haunting strains
of 'Going Home' from the New World Symphony. Then he played, 'Nearer, My
God, to Thee.'"
Great crowds gathered to witness the passing of the train which bore the
body toward Washington. They were reverent and tearful. A rather
striking incident occurred at Charlotte, N. C., where the train moved
slowly through the station without stopping. Street intersections were
thronged for blocks with mourners. The silence was broken as the train
passed by a troop of assembled Boy Scouts who started to sing, "Onward,
Christian Soldiers," and "the crowd took up the hymn in a ringing
chorus."
When the caisson which bore the body from the railroad station at
Washington halted "before the main white-columned portico the casket was
borne into the White House by uniformed members of the armed services."
The Navy Band played "The Star-Spangled Banner." Then, outside on the
lawn, "a service band played an old tune, 'Abide with Me.'"
The U. S. Marine Band which was present when the train arrived at
Washington followed the national anthem with "The Old Rugged Cross" as
the casket was placed on the black-draped military caisson.
Because the hymns used at the funeral service in the White House on the
afternoon of Saturday, April 14, were familiar, The Right Rev. Angus
Dun, Episcopal Bishop of Washington, who was in charge, with other
clergymen assisting, mentioned the fact that these hymns were favorites
of Mr. Roosevelt, and invited the assembled company to join in the
singing. The Navy Hymn, "Eternal Father, Strong to Save," and "Faith of
Our Fathers" were sung at this time.
Next day the body of President Roosevelt was back in Hyde Park. The
great chieftain had reached journey's end. "Between the manor house and
the new library is the rose garden where the grave has been dug," said
_The New York Times_. And there at ten o'clock on Sunday morning was
brought the body of the man who loved to visit this garden when the
flowers, especially the roses, were sending forth their beauty and their
fragrance. Probably it was because of this fact that many radio programs
and church services placed in their musical programs the familiar sacred
song:
"I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear,
Falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses."
At the head of the procession in Hyde Park, as the body was taken from
the train to its resting-place, was the Army band from West Point, with
"its members in uniforms composed of dark blue tunic, lighter blue
trousers with white stripes. Their silver instruments gleamed." First
there were the sounds of muffled drums. Then the band took up Chopin's
"Funeral March." Six hundred West Pointers "formed a solid phalanx
facing the grave from the west. The brief rites were conducted by the
Rev. George W. Anthony, the venerable rector. It was brief and simple.
As the body was lowered into the grave he intoned the opening lines of
the widely used hymn of John Ellerton:
"Now the laborer's task is o'er;
Now the battle day is past;
Now upon the farther shore
Lands the voyager at last.
Father, in Thy gracious keeping
Leave we now Thy servant sleeping."
"Hymns had been the life-long study and delight" of Ellerton (1826-93),
an English Clergyman of the Episcopal Church.
A file of West Pointers fired three volleys. "As the last volley
sounded, as if it were one shot, muffled drums beat again. At the head
of the grave a bugler sounded taps." Then, as Stevenson wrote, "Here he
lies where he longed to be."
The hour of morning worship in St. James' Church was near, and so many
of the people went to the little church for the 11 o'clock service. The
building was crowded. But "the Roosevelt pew was empty. Here Franklin
Roosevelt sat, boy and man, for almost sixty years." An American flag
marked the pew on this day. Congregation and choir sang, "How Firm a
Foundation." When he announced "O Master, Let Me Walk With Thee," the
clergyman stated, as he glanced toward the Roosevelt pew, that the hymns
selected were loved by Mr. Roosevelt. "He is now at rest in the
community which he loved," said the speaker.
The next hymn sung is not widely known in this country outside the
Episcopal Church, though it is found in _The Church Hymnary_, Scotland.
Its author was Arthur Campbell Ainger (1841-1919), who after his
graduation from Cambridge University spent most of his life in teaching
at Eton. He was "one of the most distinguished of Eton masters, a man of
clear head, controlling character, wide accomplishments," and he also
wrote several hymns. The hymn begins:
"God is working His purpose out
As year succeeds to year."
The minister related the fact that Mr. Roosevelt loved growing things,
especially; and called attention to the extraordinary coincidence that
the church envelopes for that day carried a "Garden Prayer": "Help us, O
Lord, to grasp the meaning of happy, growing things, that we may weave
it into the tissue of our faith in life eternal.... We thank Thee, O
Lord, for gardens and their message."
A soloist now sang, "O Rest in the Lord."
Howard Graves moved to the corner beside the altar and bore a large
American flag forward in the chancel. The ushers took their places
beside him. The choir, the organ and the congregation merged in fervent
chorus with "The Star-Spangled Banner." A prayer, and the service
closed.
"He was a good friend. He was a good neighbor," said a parishioner as
she left the sanctuary with tear-dimmed eyes.
Hymns were sung by an all-high-school chorus at City Hall Park, New York
City, on Saturday afternoon, following the one minute of silence, and
these included "O God, Our Help in Ages Past." Fifty thousand people
were present and many joined in the singing. A memorial service was held
in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and seven thousand people were
gathered an hour before the service began on Saturday afternoon at four
o'clock. The hymns there sung were "Nearer, My God, to Thee"; "Rock of
Ages," and "O God, Our Help in Ages Past." Communities all over the
nation also held services at the hour when the funeral was held in the
White House and in thousands of churches, public squares and parks,
after the moment of silence in which traffic was hushed, and men and
women stood with bowed heads, some of the hymns already mentioned were
sung. "Jesus, Lover of My Soul" was sometimes included. Many of these
programs also included "America the Beautiful," and, of course, our
beloved national hymn, "My Country, 'Tis of Thee."
Those who could not leave their homes were still enabled to listen to
these services (and perhaps join in the singing of the hymns). "The
networks," said an editor, "gave an impressive picture of the tribute
being paid to a departed leader from one end of the country to another.
One joined the solemn throng in front of the City Hall in New York, or
sat in a great cathedral in Boston. Swiftly from the Eastern seaboard to
the Far West, the radio gave us glimpses of memorial services in
Chicago, in Kansas City, in Dallas and in Seattle."
An appreciative letter to an editor by a woman said of those days from
the death to the burial of Mr. Roosevelt, "Along with our grief and
tears we were given an uplift such as the broadcasting companies have
never given us before for a period of time like that."