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.

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.