Hymn Notes
Weekly Hymn Notes
Learn about the origin of hymns, lyrics, and melodies, and other music that will be used during Sunday worship service. Contact Don De Bruin, Director of Music Ministries for more information at 608.233.9751.
Hymn Notes for July 22, 2018
From The New Century Hymnal Companion, Copyright 1998, The Pilgrim Press.
#1 Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise
Walter Chalmers Smith (1824-1908) based the words of this hymn on 1 Timothy 1:17 for his 1867 Hymns of Christ and the Christian Life. It subsequently appeared with Smith’s own revisions in Congregational Hymns (1884), edited by W. Garrett Horder, a Congregational minister in England.
A minister of the Free Church of Scotland, Walter C. Smith served churches in London, Milnathort, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. His interest in poetry led to the publication of a number of collections, including The Bishop’s Walk (1860) and A Heretic and Other Poems (1891).
This hymn’s tune, ST. DENIO, known in Wales as JOANNA, was based on an old folk melody traditionally sung with words about a cuckoo. It was modified and first used as a hymn tune by John Roberts in his Canaidaeth y Cysegr (1839). St. Denio is the Latin form of St. Dennis.
Many Welsh hymn tunes originated from folk songs or ballads that were already familiar in secular settings. These typically strong tunes adapted well to hymn texts and are often memorable in their predictable structure. ST. DENIO was first used with this text in The English Hymnal (1906) – a pairing that has proved widely successful for a century.
#438 When Peace, like a River (It Is Well with My Soul)
Horatio G. Spafford (1928-1888) wrote this text as a source of comfort after learning that his four daughters had been drowned when the ship Ville du Havre collided with another ship en route to England in 1873. Spafford's wife was the only family member on board to survive.
Horatio G. Spafford was a Chicago, Illinois, attorney who lost all his holdings in the Chicago fire of 1871. Yet he helped evangelist Dwight L. Moody rebuild the North Side Tabernacle, the first building reconstructed after this terrible fire.
Philip Paul Bliss (1838-1876) was given this text by Horatio Spafford, his neighbor on May Street in Chicago, Illinois. Spafford asked him to provide a melody for it. The resulting song was included in Gospel Hymns No. 2 (1876) complied by Bliss and Ira Sankey. The tune is named VILLE DU HAVRE after the ship on which Spafford's daughters died.
Philip P. Bliss was born in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, on July 9, 1838. In Chicago, Illinois, he joined the evangelical ministry of Dwight L. Moody and Ira Sankey. Bliss became one of the most prolific songwriters of his generation. He and his wife died in 1876 in a train accident in Ohio.
#312 We Love Your Realm, O God
Timothy Dwight (1752-1817) based this text on Psalm 137:5, 6. He supplied thirty-three metrical versions of psalms that Isaac Watts had not versified in his famous psalter and published them in 1801 along with other texts. This version is an adaptation made by Lavon Bayler in 1992.
Timothy Dwight, a grandson of Jonathan Edwards, assumed the presidency of Yale University in 1795. A Congregational minister, he prepared a revision of Watts's Psalms of David for the Presbyterian Church, adding thirty-three of his own hymns; the revision came to be known as "Dwight's Watts." This hymn is a paraphrase of Psalm 137 from the volume.
Aaron Williams (1731-1776) either composed this tune or included it from an anonymous source in his 1763 edition of The Universal Psalmist. It was later abridged to this form and named ST. THOMAS in his subsequent collection of 1770, New Universal Psalmist.
Aaron Williams was born and died in London, England. In his lifetime, he published a number of books of music for use in singing the psalms, the only acceptable texts fro us in worship during his lifetime. In addition, he worked as a teacher and music engraver.
Hymns by Title
Hymns by Date
| Service Date | |
|---|---|
| July 22, 2018 | |
| July 15, 2018 | |
| July 8, 2018 | |
| July 1, 2018 | |
| June 24, 2018 | |
| June 17, 2018 | |
| June 10, 2018 | |
| June 3, 2018 | |
| May 27, 2018 | |
| May 20, 2018 | |
| May 13, 2018 | |
| May 13, 2018 | |
| May 6, 2018 | |
| April 29, 2018 | |
| April 22, 2018 | |
| April 15, 2018 | |
| April 8, 2018 | |
| April 1, 2018 | |
| March 29, 2018 | |
| March 25, 2018 | |
| March 18, 2018 | |
| March 11, 2018 | |
| March 4, 2018 | |
| February 28, 2018 | |
| February 25, 2018 | |
| February 21, 2018 | |
| February 18, 2018 | |
| February 14, 2018 | |
| February 11, 2018 | |
| February 4, 2018 | |
| January 28, 2018 | |
| January 21, 2018 | |
| January 14, 2018 | |
| January 7, 2018 | |
| December 31, 2017 | |
| December 24, 2017 | |
| December 24, 2017 | |
| December 17, 2017 | |
| December 10, 2017 | |
| December 3, 2017 | Hymn #335: Come, Gather in This Special Place |
| December 3, 2017 | |
| November 26, 2017 | |
| November 19, 2017 | |
| November 12, 2017 | |
| November 5, 2017 | |
| October 29, 2017 | |
| October 22, 2017 | |
| October 15, 2017 | |
| October 8, 2017 | |
| October 1, 2017 | |
| September 24, 2017 | |
| September 17, 2017 |
