Savior, Thy Dying Love

Sylvanus Dryden Phelps
Born: May 15, 1816, Suf­field, Con­nec­ti­cut.
Died: No­vem­ber 23, 1895, New Ha­ven, Con­nec­ti­cut.
Phelps at­tend­ed the Con­nec­ti­cut Lit­er­ary In­sti­tute, Brown Un­i­ver­si­ty (grad­u­at­ed 1844), and Yale Di­vin­i­ty School. Af­ter or­din­a­tion, he pas­tored at the First Bap­tist Church in New Ha­ven, Con­nec­ti­cut (1854-1882), and the Jef­fer­son Street Bap­tist Church, Prov­i­dence, Rhode Is­land (1876). Lat­er, he be­came ed­i­tor of The Christ­ian Sec­re­ta­ry. His son was preach­er, au­thor and pro­fess­or Will­iam Ly­ons Phelps.

Music: Robert Lowry (1826-1899)
On Phelps’ 70th birth­day, Low­ry wrote him: It is worth liv­ing 70 years even if no­thing comes of it but one such hymn as:
"Savior! Thy dying love
Thou gavest me;
Nor should I aught withhold,
Dear Lord, from Thee".

Happy is the man who can produce one song which the world will keep on singing after the au­thor shall have passed away. May the tune­ful harp pre­serve its strings for ma­ny a long year yet, and the last note reach us on­ly when it is time for the sing­er to take his place in the hea­ven­ly choir.
From cyberhymnal.org

Amen, Amen! This is a great hymn of the Faith that our Temple Choir Director, Gordon Leavitt selected for yesterday's worship service.

Go To Dark Gethsemane

Words: James Montgomery
Born: No­vem­ber 4, 1771
Died: Ap­ril 30, 1854
When Montgomery was five years old, his fam­i­ly moved to the Mo­rav­i­an set­tle­ment at Grace­hill, near Bal­ly­mena, Coun­ty An­trim. Two years lat­er, he was sent to the Ful­neck Sem­in­ary in York­shire. He left Ful­neck in 1787 to work in a shop in Mir­field, near Wake­field. Soon tir­ing of that, he se­cured a sim­i­lar po­si­tion at Wath, near Rother­ham, on­ly to find it as un­suit­a­ble as his pre­vi­ous job. A trip to Lon­don, hop­ing to find a pub­lish­er for his youth­ful po­ems, end­ed in fail­ure. In 1792, he glad­ly left Wath for Shef­field to be as­sist­ant to Mr. Gales, auc­tion­eer, book­sel­ler, and print­er of the Shef­field Reg­is­ter. In 1794, Gales left Eng­land to avoid po­lit­ic­al pro­se­cu­tion. Mont­gom­ery took the Shef­field Reg­is­ter in hand, changed its name to the Shef­field Iris, and con­tin­ued to ed­it it for 32 years. Dur­ing the next two years he was im­pris­oned twice, first for re­print­ing a song in com­mem­or­a­tion of the fall of the Bas­tille, then for giv­ing an ac­count of a ri­ot in Shef­field.

"Go to dark Gethsemane, ye that feel the tempter’s power;
Your Redeemer’s conflict see, watch with Him one bitter hour,
Turn not from His griefs away; learn of Jesus Christ to pray.

See Him at the judgment hall, beaten, bound, reviled, arraigned;
O the wormwood and the gall! O the pangs His soul sustained!
Shun not suffering, shame, or loss; learn of Christ to bear the cross.

Calvary’s mournful mountain climb; there, adoring at His feet,
Mark that miracle of time, God’s own sacrifice complete.
“It is finished!” hear Him cry; learn of Jesus Christ to die.

Early hasten to the tomb where they laid His breathless clay;
All is solitude and gloom. Who has taken Him away?
Christ is risen! He meets our eyes; Savior, teach us so to rise".

It was my blessing to sing this great hymn as a choral anthem today.The message in this hymn is so deep and the melody and arrangement portrayed the purpose of the words in a really wonderful and worshipful manner. Thank you Gordon Leavitt Choir Director, Jon Waite Organist and each of my fellow Temple Choir members at First Presbyterian Church.

Music:Thomas Tertius Noble 1867-1953.
Noble stu­died at the Roy­al Coll­ege of Mu­sic with, among others, Charles Stan­ford. No­ble be­came a fel­low in 1905. He served as a church or­gan­ist in Cam­bridge and Col­ches­ter. He moved to Ely Ca­thed­ral in 1892 as or­gan­ist and choir­mas­ter, and in 1898 to York Min­ster, where he found­ed the York Sym­pho­ny Or­ches­tra, di­rect­ed the York Mu­sic­al So­ci­e­ty, con­duct­ed the York Pa­geant, and re­vived the York Mu­sic­al Fes­tiv­al af­ter a lapse of 75 years. He be­came an hon­or­ary fel­low of the Roy­al Coll­ege of Or­gan­ists in 1905. In 1913, he moved to New York Ci­ty, where he was or­gan­ist at St. Thom­as’ Epis­co­pal Church, and es­tab­lished its choir school and a boys’ choir. In ad­di­tion to com­pos­ing, he wrote about mu­sic ed­u­ca­tion, and helped ed­it the 1916 Pro­test­ant Epis­co­pal hym­nal, and served on the mu­sic com­mit­tee that pre­pared its 1940 suc­ces­sor. He wrote a wide range of mu­sic, but on­ly his serv­ices, an­thems and hymn tunes are still per­formed reg­u­lar­ly.

Above material from cyberhymnal.org

Dear Lord And Father Of Mankind

From cyberhymnal.org
Words: John G. Whit­ti­er, in the At­lan­tic Month­ly, Ap­ril 1872.
The words are from a long nar­ra­tive poem, “The Brew­ing of So­ma.” It de­scribes Ve­dic priests go­ing in­to the for­est and drink­ing them­selves into a stu­por with a con­coct­ion called “soma.” They try to have a re­li­gious ex­per­i­ence and con­tact the spir­it world. It is af­ter set­ting that scene that Whit­tier draws his les­son: “Dear Lord, and Fa­ther of man­kind, for­give our fool­ish ways…” This hymn is as rel­e­vant to­day as when it was writ­ten. In a mod­ern con­text, it speaks to the drug cul­ture, and those look­ing for an “ex­per­i­ence” to prove the re­al­i­ty of God. The hymn was sung in the 2007 mo­vie Atone­ment, which won an Acad­e­my Award for best score.
Music: Rest (Mak­er), Fred­er­ick C. Mak­er, 1887

This time is a very difficult time for me, but wonderful thoughts keep coming to my mind and this song is one such blessing. In the years 1966-68 I was an Army Officer stationed in El Paso, TX and for most of those years I served as the choir director of the Protestant Chapel at WM Beaumont Gen Hospital where I was assigned. It was there that I first heard this hymn and it's been a great favorite for the past 40+ years. My former wife and mother of my three children played the piano and sang well and she and my daughter Beth and myself have sung this at church at least one occassion I recall.

"Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways;
Reclothe us in our rightful mind,
In purer lives Thy service find,
In deeper reverence, praise."

From John Wesley

“Do all the good you can by all the means you can in all the places you can at all the times you can to all the people you can as long as ever you can.”

Born: June 28, 1703, Ep­worth, Lin­coln­shire, Eng­land.
Died: March 2, 1791, Lon­don, Eng­land.
Buried: Ci­ty Road Cha­pel, Lon­don, Eng­land.

John and his brother Charles found­ed the movement which be­came the Meth­od­ist de­nom­in­a­tion. Charles was the main hymn­ist in the fam­i­ly, but John trans­lat­ed a num­ber of hymns (most­ly Ger­man) him­self. He be­gan stu­dy­ing the German lan­guage on board the ship Sim­mons, which car­ried him and Charles to Georg­ia in 1735. Al­so on the ship were 26 Ger­man Mo­ra­vian col­o­nists, and Wesley want­ed to be able to talk with them and share in their wor­ship servi­ces.

From cyberhymnal.org

Jesus, Thy Boood and Righteousness

I'm ashamed to say that I've never I heard this great hymm. Go to cyberhymnal.org where most of this information is from and look at its words and music. It was such a blessing for me to sing this hymm in our worship this morning. With a great Pipe Organ, Organist, Choir members as well as probably 200 worshipers, it was such a blessing. Thank you Temple Choir Leader Gordon Leavitt and members and Organist Jon Waite for bringing so much blessing into my heart this day.

Words: Nikolaus L. von Zin­zen­dorf, 1739 (Christi Blut und Ge­rech­tig­keit); first pub­lished in the eighth ap­pen­dix to his Das Ge­sang-Buch der Ge­meine in Herrn-Huth.; trans­lat­ed from Ger­man to Eng­lish by John Wes­ley. Music: Ger­ma­ny, Sac­red Mel­o­dies, by Will­iam Gar­din­er (1770-1853).

In 1739, wen the Count was mak­ing a sea voy­age from Saint Thom­as, West In­dies, he wrote this re­mark­a­ble hymn. Al­though as a boy he was ed­u­cat­ed in pi­e­tis­tic teach­ings, he is said to have been con­vert­ed by see­ing the fa­mous paint­ing, “Ecce Homo,” which hangs in the Düss­el­dorf Gal­le­ry and pic­tures the bowed head of Christ, crowned with thorns. Per­haps he still cher­ished in his mem­o­ry that vi­sion of the Man of Sor­rows, when in this hymn he wrote of the “ho­ly, meek, un­spot­ted Lamb,” “Who died for me, e’en me t’ atone.”

"How Shall I Sing That Majesty"

A great hymn one that's sung infrequetly alas. Words by John Mason.
Born: Cir­ca 1645, Ir­ches­ter, North­amp­ton­shire, Eng­land (bap­tized March 1646).
Died: 1694, Wa­ter Strat­ford, Buck­ing­ham­shire, Eng­land (buried May 22).

Mason was the son of a dis­sent­ing min­is­ter, and grand­fa­ther of John Ma­son, au­thor of A Trea­tise on Self-Know­ledge. He was ed­u­cat­ed at Strix­ton School, Nort­hants, Eng­land, and Clare Coll­ege, Cam­bridge. Af­ter re­ceiv­ing his mas­ter’s de­gree, he be­came Cu­rate of Is­ham, and in 1688, Vi­car of Stan­ton­bu­ry, Buckinghamshire. A lit­tle more than five years lat­er he be­came Rec­tor of Wa­ter Strat­ford. Here he com­posed the vol­ume con­tain­ing The Songs of Praise, his par­a­phrase of The Song of Sol­o­mon, and the Po­em on Dives and Laz­a­rus, with which Shep­herd’s Pen­i­ten­tial Cries was lat­er bound up. This vol­ume passed through 20 edi­tions; be­sides the Songs of Praise, it con­tains six Pen­i­ten­tial Cries by Ma­son. Ma­son’s hymns were prob­ab­ly used in pub­lic wor­ship, and, if so, they are among the ear­li­est hymns so used in the Church of Eng­land.

About a month be­fore his death, Ma­son had a vi­sion of Je­sus wear­ing a glor­i­ous crown, and with a look of un­ut­ter­a­ble ma­jes­ty on His face. Of this vi­sion he spoke, and preached a ser­mon called The Mid­night Cry, in which he pro­claimed the near­ness of Christ’s re­turn. A re­port spread that this would take place at Wa­ter Strat­ford it­self, and crowds ga­thered there from the sur­round­ing vil­lages. Fur­ni­ture and pro­vi­sions were brought in, and eve­ry cor­ner of the house and vil­lage oc­cu­pied. The ex­cite­ment had scarce­ly died down when Mason passed away, still tes­ti­fy­ing that he had seen the Lord, and that it was time for the na­tion to trem­ble, and for Christ­ians to trim their lamps. His last words were, “I am full of lov­ing kind­ness of the Lord.”

How shall I sing that Majesty
Which angels do admire?
Let dust in dust and silence lie;
Sing, sing, ye heavenly choir.
Thousands of thousands stand around
Thy throne, O God most high;
Ten thousand times ten thousand sound
Thy praise; but who am I?

Thy brightness unto them appears,
Whilst I Thy footsteps trace;
A sound of God comes to my ears,
But they behold Thy face.
They sing because Thou art their Sun;
Lord, send a beam on me;
For where heaven is but once begun
There alleluias be.

Enlighten with faith’s light my heart,
Inflame it with love’s fire;
Then shall I sing and bear a part
With that celestial choir.
I shall, I fear, be dark and cold,
With all my fire and light;
Yet when Thou dost accept their gold,
Lord, treasure up my mite.

How great a being, Lord, is Thine,
Which doth all beings keep!
Thy knowledge is the only line
To sound so vast a deep.
Thou art a sea without a shore,
A sun without a sphere;
Thy time is now and evermore,
Thy place is everywhere.

The Top Ten

Well my list is complete! Hopefully there may be in the list, a Christmas Carol that's new to you. If that's the case go to cyberhymnal.org and do a search and you'll see that some of the background material I obtained from that site. Thanks for reading and again Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

Jim & Sue Gelatt
Yakima, WA

Another Favorite

"O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"

Words: Com­bined from var­i­ous an­ti­phons by an un­known au­thor, pos­si­bly in the 12th Cen­tu­ry (Ve­ni, ve­ni Eman­u­el); trans­lat­ed from La­tin to Eng­lish by John M. Neale, Med­iae­val Hymns, 1851. Neale’s orig­in­al trans­l­a­tion be­gan, “Draw nigh, draw nigh, Em­man­u­el.”

Music: Veni Em­man­u­el, from a 15th Cen­tu­ry pro­cess­ion­al of French Fran­cis­can nuns (the set­ting for the fu­ner­al hymn Libera me); ar­ranged by Thom­as Hel­more in the Hymn­al Not­ed, Part II (Lon­don: 1856).

The lyrics echo a num­ber of pro­phet­ic themes. The ti­tle comes from the well known Isai­ah 7:14: “Be­hold, a vir­gin shall con­ceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Im­man­u­el.” Im­man­u­el is He­brew for “God with us.” The “Rod of Jesse” refers to Isai­ah 11:1: “There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jes­se”; Jesse was the fa­ther of Da­vid, se­cond king of Is­ra­el. “Day-Spring” comes from Za­cha­ri­as, fa­ther of John the Bap­tist, in Luke 1:78: “The day­spring from on high has vis­it­ed us.” “Thou Key of Da­vid” is in Isai­ah 22:22: “The key of the house of Da­vid will I lay up­on his shoul­der,” which in turn re­fers to Isai­ah 9:6 “The gov­ern­ment shall be up­on His shoul­der.”

Another Top Pick for Christmas

"What Child Is This"

Words: Will­iam C. Dix, The Man­ger Throne, 1865.
Music: Green­sleeves, 16th Cen­tu­ry Eng­lish mel­o­dy.




What Child is this who, laid to rest
On Mary’s lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,
While shepherds watch are keeping?
This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing;
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

Why lies He in such mean estate,
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christians, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.
Nails, spear shall pierce Him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh,
Come peasant, king to own Him;
The King of kings salvation brings,
Let loving hearts enthrone Him.
Raise, raise a song on high,
The virgin sings her lullaby.
Joy, joy for Christ is born,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

Christmas Evening Selection

"Hark The Herald Angeles Sing"

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Hymns and Sac­red Po­ems, 1739, alt.

Music: Men­dels­sohn, Fe­lix Men­dels­sohn, in his can­ta­ta Fest­ge­sang an die Künstler, 1840 (second movement, Va­ter­land, in dein­em Gau­en); the can­ta­ta cel­e­brat­ed the 400th an­ni­ver­sa­ry of Jo­hann Gu­ten­berg’s in­ven­tion of the print­ing press.

This ar­range­ment, by Will­iam H. Cum­mings, ap­peared in the Con­gre­ga­tion­al Hymn and Tune Book, by Ri­chard R. Chope, 1857.

Wesley is on the left and Cummings appears on the right.

Merry Christmas to all readers, and a special wish to my wife Sue McAnally-Gelatt and her children Kerri, Kristen, Michael and their family members, my daughter Miriam Elisabeth Wallace and her husband Tim and sons David Cooper and Connor James; my son Jim, Jr and his son Justin David, and my son David and his wife Judy and their sons Adam Curtis and Tyler James.

Bonus Christmas Selection

"Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence"

Words: Li­tur­gy of St. James, 4th Cen­tu­ry (Σιγησάτο παρα σὰρξ βροτεία); trans­lat­ed from Greek to Eng­lish by Gerard Moultrie, 1864.
Music: Pi­car­dy, French car­ol mel­o­dy; har­mo­ny from The Eng­lish Hymn­al, 1906, num­ber 318.

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly minded,
For with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
Our full homage to demand.

King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
In the body and the blood;
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heavenly food.

Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.

At His feet the six wingèd seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia
Alleluia, Lord Most High!

This carol may be new to you. The lyrics are powerful and the music is hauntingly beautiful.

Christmas Morning Selection

"Joy To The World"


Words by Issac Watts and musical arrangement by Lowell Mason both prolific hymn writers.

Christmas Eve Selection

"Oh Holy Night"
Music by Pla­cide Cap­pea and words by Adolphe C. Adam. This is said to have been the first mu­sic ev­er broad­cast over a ra­dio. This last stanza is so appropiate for this world!










Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His Gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother
And in His Name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy Name!
Christ is the Lord! O praise His name forever!
His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!
His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!

Sunday's Selection

"Silent Night"
This hymn’s his­tory is the source of some dis­agree­ment. The tra­di­tion­al story is that Mohr and Gru­ber wrote it in Obern­dorf, Aus­tria, on Christ­mas Eve when they dis­cov­ered the church or­gan was brok­en (dif­fer­ent ver­sions say it rust­ed out, or mice chewed through vi­tal parts). How­ever, re­cent evi­dence in­di­cates this may be only folk­lore. An old man­u­script has re­port­ed­ly been dis­cov­ered that shows Franz Gruber wrote the score 2-4 years af­ter Mohr wrote the lyr­ics. What­ev­er the truth, this car­ol has been a Christ­mas fav­o­rite for al­most 200 years.
I selected this carol for this Lord's Day as every time I hear or sing this carol I think of our Pastor, Paul Jensen at Mt Vernon Presbyterian Church and his using this hymn every Christmas Eve candlelight service having us sing at least the first verse in German. When I hear this carol I still remember my struggling with the German words, but still so very blessed. Thank you Dr Jensen.

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht!
Alles schläft, einsam wacht
Nur das traute hochheilige Paar,
Holder Knabe mit lockigem Haar,
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh,
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh.

Today's Selection

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.”

The words of this carol were written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow pictured on the right. The music is by John B. Calkin who served as or­gan­ist, pre­cent­or and choir­mas­ter at St. Co­lum­ba’s Coll­ege in Ire­land, and at var­i­ous church­es in Lon­don. He was al­so a pro­fess­or at the Guild­hall School of Mu­sic and Croy­don Con­serv­a­to­ry.

Another Favorite

"Oh Come All Ye Faithful"

This is one of my top ten Christmas Carols because it's so fun (for a man) to sing. The chorus has such great singing parts for men's voices. Words by John F. Wade 1710-1786. A Ca­tho­lic lay­man, Wade fled the Ja­co­be­an re­bel­lion in 1745, set­tling in Douay, France. He taught mu­sic and co­pied plain chant and hymn man­u­scripts for pri­vate use. The image is the translator Frederick Oakeley 1810-1880.

The music is Ades­te Fi­de­les, at­trib­ut­ed var­i­ous­ly to John Wade, John Reading, or Simao Portogallo.

One of my top ten!

For the next ten days I'm going to list one of my top ten traditional Christmas Carols and tell a little of the composer, the era when written and how it speaks to me, etc. I'm going to resist the temptation to assign any listing of one over another, but will just say these are my top 10.

Here goes....
Once in Royal David's City, Cecil Frances Alexander 1818-1895. She wote a series of hymns to teach children about the Apostles Creed. She also a a knack for taking major biblical themes and boiling then into four or six simple lines. This carol is so complex, yet simple and beautiful that I can't just list one stanza. Music by Henry J Guantlett. An exceptionally gift­ed or­gan­ist, Gaunt­lett was well known in 19th Cen­tu­ry Eng­lish mu­sic cir­cles. He was al­so, in turn, law­yer, au­thor, or­gan de­sign­er, and or­gan re­ci­tal­ist. Some say he wrote over 10,000 hymns during his lifetime. He is considered the "Father of Church Music".




"Once in Royal David's city, Stood a lowly cattle shed.Where a mother laid her baby. In a manger for His bed. Mary was that mother mild. Jesus Christ her little Child.

He came down to earth from heaven. Who is God and Lord of all. And His shelter was a stable. And His cradle was a stall. With the poor, and mean and lowly. Lived on earth, our Savior holy.

And through all His wondrous childhood. He would honor and obey. Love, and watch the lowly mother. In whose gentle arms He lay. Christian children all must be. Mild, obedient, good as He.

For He is our childhood's pattern. Day by day like us He grew. He was little, weak and helpless; Tears and smiles like us He know; And He feeleth for our sadness, and He shareth in our gladness.

And our eyes at last shall see Him, Through His own redeeming love; For that child so dear and gentle. Is our Lord in heav'n above; And He leads His chidren on. To the place where He is gone.

Not in that poor lowly stable, With the oxen standing round. We shall see Him, but in heaven, Set at God's right hand on high. When, like stars, His children crowned, All in white shall wait around.

Words for this storm from step-daughter Kerri Schwab

CASTING CROWNS LYRICS
"Praise You In This Storm"

I was sure by now
That You would have reached down
And wiped our tears away
Stepped in and saved the day
But once again, I say "Amen", and it's still raining

As the thunder rolls
I barely hear Your whisper through the rain
"I'm with you"
And as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away

I'll praise You in this storm
And I will lift my hands
For You are who You are
No matter where I am
Every tear I've cried
You hold in Your hand
You never left my side
And though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

I remember when
I stumbled in the wind
You heard my cry
You raised me up again
My strength is almost gone
How can I carry on
If I can't find You

As the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain
"I'm with you"
And as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away

I lift my eyes unto the hills
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord
The Maker of Heaven and Earth

Amen! Thanks Kerri.

Music and Culture

Here's a article that perked my interest and I wonder how you feel about the issues raised,etc

http://reformation21.com/Reformation_21_Blog/Reformation_21_Blog/58/pm__114/vobId__6752/

"Near to the Heart of God"

This hymn "Near to the Heart of God" was written by Cleland B. McAfee, Presbyterian preacher and choir director at Park College in MO., after two nieces died of diphtheria within 24 hours of each other:

There is a place of quiet rest,
A place where sin connot molest.

There is a place of comfort sweet,
A place where we our Savior meet.

There is a place of full release,
A place where all is joy and peace.

O Jesus, blest Redeemer,
Sent from the heart of God,
Hold us, who wait before Thee,
Near to the heart of God.