The Story of the Hymns and Tunes Part 26

Arabia's desert ranger To Him shall bow the knee, The Ethiopian stranger His glory come to see.

Kings shall fall down before Him And gold and incense bring; All nations shall adore Him, His praise all people sing.

The hymn is really the seventy-second Psalm in metre, and as a version it suffers nothing by comparison with that of Watts. Montgomery wrote it as a Christmas ode. It was sung Dec. 25, 1821, at a Moravian Convocation, but in 1822 he recited it at a great missionary meeting in Liverpool, and Dr. Adam Clarke was so charmed with it that he inserted it in his famous _Commentary_. In no long time afterwards it found its way into general use.

The spirit of his missionary parents was Montgomery's Christian legacy, and in exalted poetical moments it stirred him as the divine afflatus kindled the old prophets.

_THE TUNE._

The music editors in some hymnals have borrowed the favorite choral variously named "Webb" in honor of its author, and "The Morning Light is Breaking" from the first line of its hymn. Later hymnals have chosen Sebastian Wesley's "Aurelia" to fit the hymn, with a movement similar to that of "Webb"; also a German B flat melody "Ellacombe," undated, with livelier step and a ringing chime of parts. No one of these is inappropriate.

Samuel Sebastian Wesley, grandson of Charles Wesley the great hymnist, was born in London, 1810. Like his father, Samuel, he became a distinguished musician, and was organist at Exeter, Winchester and Gloucester Cathedrals. Oxford gave him the degree of Doctor of Music.

He composed instrumental melodies besides many anthems, services, and other sacred pieces for choir and congregational singing. Died in Gloucester, April 19, 1876.

"FROM GREENLAND'S ICY MOUNTAINS."

The familiar story of this hymn scarcely needs repeating; how one Sat.u.r.day afternoon in the year 1819, young Reginald Heber, Rector of Hodnet, sitting with his father-in-law, Dean s.h.i.+pley, and a few friends in the Wrexham Vicarage, was suddenly asked by the Dean to "write something to sing at the missionary meeting tomorrow," and retired to another part of the room while the rest went on talking; how, very soon after, he returned with three stanzas, which were hailed with delighted approval; how he then insisted upon adding another octrain to the hymn and came back with--

Waft, waft, ye winds, His story, And you, ye waters, roll;

--and how the great lyric was sung in Wrexham Church on Sunday morning for the first time in its life. The story is old but always fresh.

Nothing could better have emphasized the good Dean's sermon that day in aid of "The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,"

than that unexpected and glorious lyric of his poet son-in-law.

By common consent Heber's "Missionary Hymn" is the silver trumpet among all the rallying bugles of the church.

_THE TUNE._

The union of words and music in this instance is an example of spiritual affinity. "What G.o.d hath joined together let no man put asunder." The story of the tune is a record of providential birth quite as interesting as that of the hymn. In 1823, a lady in Savannah, Ga., having received and admired a copy of Heber's lyric from England, desired to sing it or hear it sung, but knew no music to fit the metre. She finally thought of a young clerk in a bank close by, Lowell Mason by name, who sometimes wrote music for recreation, and sent her son to ask him if he would make a tune that would sing the lines. The boy returned in half an hour with the composition that doubled Heber's fame and made his own.

In the words of Dr. Charles Robinson, "Like the hymn it voices, it was done at a stroke, and it will last through the ages."

"THE MORNING LIGHT IS BREAKING."

Not far behind Dr. Heber's _chef-d'oeuvre_ in lyric merit is the still more famous missionary hymn of Dr. S.F. Smith, author of "My Country, 'Tis of Thee." Another missionary hymn of his which is widely used is--

Yes, my native land, I love thee, All thy scenes, I love them well.

Friends, connections, happy country, Can I bid you all farewell?

Can I leave you Far in heathen lands to dwell?

Drs. Nutter and Breed speak of "The Morning Light is Breaking," and its charm as a hymn of peace and promise, and intimate that it has "gone farther and been more frequently sung than any other missionary hymn."

Besides the English, there are versions of it in four Latin nations, the Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French, and oriental translations in Chinese and several East Indian tongues and dialects, as well as one in Swedish. It author had the rare felicity, while on a visit to his son, a missionary in Burmah, of hearing it sung by native Christians in their language, and of being welcomed with an ovation when they knew who he was.

The morning light is breaking!

The darkness disappears; The sons of earth are waking To penitential tears; Each breeze that sweeps the ocean Brings tidings from afar, Of nations in commotion, Prepared for Zion's war.

Rich dews of grace come o'er us In many a gentle shower, And brighter scenes before us Are opening every hour.

Each cry to heaven going Abundant answer brings, And heavenly gales are blowing With peace upon their wings.

Blest river of Salvation, Pursue thy onward way; Flow thou to every nation, Nor in thy richness stay.

Stay not till all the lowly Triumphant reach their home; Stay not till all the holy Proclaim, "The Lord is come!"

Samuel Francis Smith, D.D., was born in Boston in 1808, and educated in Harvard University (1825-1829). He prepared for the ministry, and was pastor of Baptist churches at Waterville, Me., and Newton, Ma.s.s., before entering the service of the American Baptist Missionary union as editor of its _Missionary Magazine_.

He was a scholarly and graceful writer, both in verse and prose, and besides his editorial work, he was frequently an invited partic.i.p.ant or guest of honor on public occasions, owing to his fame as author of the national hymn. His pure and gentle character made him everywhere beloved and reverenced, and to know him intimately in his happy old age was a benediction. He died suddenly and painlessly in his seat on a railway train, November 16, 1895 in his eighty-eighth year.

Dr. Smith wrote twenty-six hymns now more or less in use in church wors.h.i.+p, and eight for Sabbath school collections.

_THE TUNE._

"Millennial Dawn" is the t.i.tle given it by a Boston compiler, about 1844, but since the music and hymn became "one and indivisable" it has been named "Webb," and popularly _known_ as "Morning Light" or oftener still by its first hymn-line, "The morning light is breaking."

George James Webb was born near Salisbury, Wilts.h.i.+re, Eng., June 24, 1803. He studied music in Salisbury and for several years played the organ at Falmouth Church. When still a young man (1830), he came to the United States, and settled in Boston where he was long the leading organist and music teacher of the city. He was a.s.sociate director of the Boston Academy of Music with Lowell Mason, and joint author and editor with him of several church-music collections. Died in Orange, N.J., Nov.

7, 1887.

Dr. Webb's own account of the tune "Millennial Dawn" states that he wrote it at sea while on his way to America--and to secular words and that he had no idea who first adapted it to the hymn, nor when.

"IF I WERE A VOICE, A PERSUASIVE VOICE."

This animating lyric was written by Charles Mackay. Sung by a good vocalist, the fine solo air composed (with its organ chords) by I.B.

Woodbury, is still a feature in some missionary meetings, especially the fourth stanza--

If I were a voice, an immortal voice, I would fly the earth around: And wherever man to his idols bowed, I'd publish in notes both long and loud The Gospel's joyful sound.

I would fly, I would fly, on the wings of day, Proclaiming peace on my world-wide way, Bidding the saddened earth rejoice-- If I were a voice, an immortal voice, I would fly, I would fly, I would fly on the wings of day.

Charles Mackay, the poet, was born in Perth, Scotland, 1814, and educated in London and Brussels; was engaged in editorial work on the _London Morning Chronicle_ and _Glasgow Argus_, and during the Corn Law agitation wrote popular songs, notably "The Voice of the Crowd" and "There's a Good Time Coming," which (like the far inferior poetry of Ebenezer Elliot) won the lasting love of the ma.s.ses for a superior man who could be "The People's Singer and Friend." He came to the United States in 1857 as a lecturer, and again in 1862, remaining three years as war correspondent of the _London Times_. Glasgow University made him LL.D. in 1847. His numerous songs and poems were collected in a London edition. Died Dec. 24, 1889.

Isaac Baker Woodbury was born in Beverly, Ma.s.s., 1819, and rose from the station of a blacksmith's apprentice to be a tone-teacher in the church.

He educated himself in Europe, returned and sang his life songs, and died in 1858 at the age of thirty-nine.

A tune preferred by many as the finer music is the one written to the words by Mr. Sankey, _Sacred Songs_, No. 2.

"SPEED AWAY! SPEED AWAY!"

This inspiriting song of farewell to departing missionaries was written in 1890 to Woodbury's appropriate popular melody by f.a.n.n.y J. Crosby, at the request of Ira D. Sankey. The key-word and refrain are adapted from the original song by Woodbury (1848), but in substance and language the three hymn-stanzas are the new and independent work of this later writer.

Speed away! speed away on your mission of light, To the lands that are lying in darkness and night; 'Tis the Master's command; go ye forth in His name, The wonderful gospel of Jesus proclaim; Take your lives in your hand, to the work while 'tis day, Speed away! speed away! speed away!