All Glory Laud And Honor

From cyberhynal.org
Words: The­o­dulph of Or­le­ans, cir­ca 820 (Glor­ia, laus, et hon­or); trans­lat­ed from La­tin to Eng­lish by John M. Neale, 1851.Music: St. The­o­dulph, Mel­chi­or Tesch­ner, in Ein an­däch­tig­es Ge­bet (Leip­zig, Ger­ma­ny: 1615) (MI­DI, score). Bach used this chor­ale in his “St. John’s Pas­sion.” Wil­liam H. Monk wrote the har­mo­ny in 1861.

As I sang with our choir preparing for the singing of this on Sunday my heart was so blessed by all the words and music, but especially the second verse and in my mind picured my nephew Timothy Vernon Gelatt who died Feb 12th. He's up there singing with the angels!

The company of angels
Are praising Thee on High,
And mortal men and all things
Created make reply.
The people of the Hebrews
With palms before Thee went;
Our prayer and praise and anthems
Before Thee we present.

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.”

"Be Part of the Solution, Not Part of the Problem"

I've done a lot of soul searching these past weeks and in that process I thought of this often used statement. My chief reason for starting this blog was to express my concern over much of the type and content of music being performed and sung in today's evangelical churches.

After a year of praying, research and study I've decided that for me the solution is to to be proactive not reactive. So at the age of almost 72 I'm taking voice lessons and singing in a church choir where the music is selected by it's content not decibel level.

My efforts for 2008 will be focused on the many outstanding hymns, anthems, introits, prayers and amens available and do all that I can to encourage and support such music by devoting my time, talent and resources in support of that music.

"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 Impossible is often the Untried"

Seen recently on a sign on a Tieton Ave car wash here in Yakima, WA.

My Favorite Christmas Sign

"He Was Born Below So That We May Be Borne Above.

From an earlier post. Car wash on Tieton Drive here in Yakima, WA.

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.