Maggie's Top Hymns Part Deux

Welcome the second part of a walk-through hymns found in the Saint Maggie Series. Note that all the hymns’ music comes from anonymous sources. Also note that none of them are Wesleyan hymns, yet in the 1860s they still would have been familiar to Maggie and her family.

 
Walk by Faith

What Wondrous Love Is This


There is a scene in which Frankie is leading a service of remembrance in the old Smith house in Gettysburg. It is in early May, before battle comes to the town. The family has suffered a loss and because there is no body to bury, they decide upon a service in the home.

Most funerals, in fact, were conducted in the home, the same place where marriages were celebrated, and the same place where most people – except in times of war – died.

Due to the absence of a body, the family elects Frankie, who is auditing classes at the theological school in town, to conduct a service to honor and remember their loved one. Frankie breaks with tradition and has the members of the family to participate.


The young woman stood before them, taking in the faces of the people she loved so dearly. After a deep breath, she said, “Papa – Eli – says that sometimes we need to sit in silence until we are moved to speak or act. So I am going to ask us to sit quietly and meditate on the verses I will read. If the Spirit moves you to say something as a word of encouragement from the Bible or about [our loved one], please do so.”


And so, they do. Maggie offers up words of comfort after Frankie’s readings. She is followed by Emily, who stands and begins to sing “What Wondrous Love Is This,” a song that was often heard at camp meetings (religious gatherings that met in the countryside for a week or two in the summer).

The singer in the video is indie musician Deborah Liv Johnson. I thought she has a beautiful voice and communicated the feeling of the hymn. She omits the third verse, and changes the third line of the fourth verse somewhat, but there are small variations in the hymn, since it comes from the people rather than one individual.
 
What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul
What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul.
 
When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down beneath God’s righteous frown,
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul, for my soul,
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul.
 
To God and to the Lamb, I will sing, I will sing;
To God and to the Lamb, I will sing.
To God and to the Lamb Who is the great ‘I AM’;
While millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing;
While millions join the theme, I will sing.
 
And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on;
And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on.
And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing and joyful be;
And through eternity, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on;
And through eternity, I’ll sing on.
 

A Time to Heal

Amazing Grace
Words: John Newton; Music: 19th century USA melody
 

You don’t have to be a church-goer to have heard “Amazing Grace.” The words were written by John Newton, a British man who had a troubled and difficult childhood, who eventually ended up in the slave trade. During a storm at sea, he had an experience of God. His conversion was not the “two-by-four upside the head” kind. It took years for him to quite the slave trade. But quit, he did and a few years later was ordained as a clergyman in the Church of England. In 1864 he took a parish church in Olney. Three years later, poet William Cowper moved into the town. By 1869, Newton had started a Thursday evening Bible study, for which he or Cowper wrote a new hymn every week. When Cowper died, Newton compiled some of their work in a book called Olney Hymns. Amazing Grace” was included in it.

In A Time to Heal, Frankie once again is asked to preside over a home worship service. This time the churches have not reopened after the battle of Gettysburg because they are full of wounded soldiers. Frankie hesitates, but Matilda, a self-emancipated woman who has joined Maggie’s household, quickly puts her straight.


“But I don’t have a sermon.”

“You don’t need to preach ‘less the Holy Ghost tell you to.” Matilda put the remainder of the food on the table and took a seat. “You just testify, read scripture, and pray. The Lord don’t care. He only care about us praising his holy name and praying for each other.”


So, Frankie sets a time, and wounded soldiers and family gather in the back parlor. After a prayer, a reading from the Bible, and some comments (preach it, girl), Frankie says:


“I know you’re in pain. I’m in pain, too. This whole town is suffering. So is everyone in our countries, both North and South. My prayer this morning is that God will help us learn to live with our losses and with our pain and that our living will be used for the greater glory of our God, a God whom both North and South worship.” She took a breath. “What would you like to sing?”

“Amazing Grace,” a voice croaked up from near the door.

Frankie nodded. “Chloe, would you lead us?”

Smiling Chloe [Matilda's daughter] stood and in a sweet soprano voice began, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.”

The others joined in. And that Sunday the people in the Smith house had church.


“Amazing Grace” is a story of Newton’s journey and his relationship with a grace, a love, that will not let him go, and a hope that extends into eternity. That hope is echoed in the experience of the people in the Smith house on that Sunday.

I chose one of Judy Collins’ version of the song. All I can say is what a voice! Collins does the first three verses of the hymn and then repeats the first verse. I have not written the lyrics out, as she sings them so clearly.
 

 
Seeing the Elephant

How Firm a Foundation
Words “K” in Rippon’s Selection of Hymns, 1787; Music: Early USA Melody

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The hymn appears in John Rippon’s Selection of Hymns (1787). Rippon attributes the hymn to someone he named “K-.” No one is quite sure who “K-” is, although likely candidates are George Keith and Robert Keene. The music is Early USA melody.

Finally, in Seeing the Elephant, we find ourselves in a riot at the hospital for the insane. Eli has been injured. Frankie has been taken prisoner along with patient Martha Stroud (who has a seemingly tenuous hold on reality). When her stepfather is dragged into the building, Frankie cares for him and to comfort him, begins to sing “How Firm a Foundation.” We all know that Frankie is not a stellar singer, and yet…:

The sound of his stepdaughter’s imperfect singing voice relaxed Eli. She never could carry a tune, something he loved about her. But when Martha joined in, the song took wing. The madwoman has a good voice, he thought. As they got to the last verse, the words caught his attention.
 
The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no, never, no never forsake!
 

One of the things that Eli does throughout the series is seek the holy, even when he doesn’t want to do it. Furthermore, it seems that the Holy is seeking him. I don’t know if he ever will be as firmly rooted as Maggie, but he is a man on a journey.

The video is of Jennifer Grassman singing “How Firm a Foundation.” The lyrics she sings are updated for modern language and there is a verse in there that does not appear in the United Methodist Hymnal, but as I said, there are slightly differing versions of many hymns.

I love that Grassman sings and plays the piano with her baby daughter strapped to her chest, and still sings beautifully. That’s one multi-tasking mama. I also love the white cat who casually wanders through the living room while Grassman is singing.

"How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, 
is laid for your faith in his excellent word! 
What more can he say than to you he hath said, 
to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled? 

"Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed, 
for I am thy God and will still give thee aid; 
I'll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand 
upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand. 

"When through deep waters I call thee to go, 
the rivers of woe shall not thee overflow; 
for I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless, 
and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress. 

"When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie, 
my grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply; 
the flame shall not hurt thee; I only design 
thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine. 

“The soul that on Jesus still leans for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no, never, no, never forsake.”

 
And that ends our tour of hymns in the Saint Maggie series. If I have the energy, we’ll rock out with Lins and Neil from Heart Soul & Rock ‘n’ Roll tomorrow. It’ll be different, that’s for sure!