JOY TO THE WORLD

Christmas was not celebrated as it is today by seventeenth and eighteenth-century colonists.  See my post last year about Advent http://colonialquills.blogspot.com/search/label/Advent

Christmas was primarily a religious period lasting from Advent through Epiphany, without many other festivities. Hymns were sung in some churches, and a fair number of them were being written by the young literary genius, Isaac Watts. Watts, born in Southampton, England in 1674, was the son of a committed religious Nonconformist who had been jailed for his questionable philosophy.

Isaac Watts

By the age of thirteen, Isaac had learned Latin, Greek French and Hebrew, and later studied philosophy and theology. While still a teenager, Watts became critical of the way Psalms were sung in church so his father challenged him to improve the quality of church music by creating his own.

The following Sunday Isaac wrote his first hymn and it was accepted at church with great enthusiasm. He continued to produce a hymn each week for the next two years, and in 1707 he published Hymns and Spiritual Songs. That book and the hymnal he wrote in 1719 were considered the first real hymnals in the English language. With his 600 hymns he became known as the “Father of English Hymnody”.

George Frederick Handel

George Frederick Handel, a friend of Watts, is credited as being the music composer of “Joy To The World”. Handel is best known as the composer of “The Messiah”, which he wrote in just 25 days. These two gifted musical talents were very different in looks and personality. Watts was a plain, diminutive, mild mannered Englishman, while Handel was a vigorous, hot-tempered German. 

“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”                                       Luke 2:10 KJV

"Joy to the World," is often sung at Christmas celebrating Jesus Christ’s first coming, but in actuality it is a hymn that also anticipates, with great joy, Christ's triumphant return at the end of the age. This cherished Christmas carol is probably the most famous of Isaac Watts’ hymns.

The hymn is based upon the last part of Psalm 98.

“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.

Sing unto the Lord with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm.

With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King.

Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together

Before the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.”

                                Psalm 98: 4-9 KJV

JOY TO THE WORLD

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room,

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!

Let men their songs employ;

While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,

Nor thorns infest the ground;

He comes to make His blessings flow

Far as the curse is found,

Far as the curse is found,

Far as, far as, the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,

And makes the nations prove

The glories of His righteousness,

And wonders of His love,

And wonders of His love,

And wonders, wonders, of His love.

To listen to the music:

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/j/o/joyworld.htm

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Janet Grunst

http://JanetGrunst.com
http://colonialquills.blogspot.com/
Represented By Linda S. Glaz
Hartline Literary Agency

ANOTHER “AMAZING” HYMN

ANOTHER “AMAZING” HYMN

John Newton is probably best known for being the author of the hymn “Amazing Grace”. However, this Anglican Clergyman, and once prosperous slave trader, also authored many more hymns including “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken” considered one of his finest.

John Newton was the son of an English shipmaster. After a few years of boarding school and going to sea with his father, he was conscripted into the British Royal Navy. When he attempted desertion, he was reduced in rank to a common seaman and was transferred to a slave ship headed to West Africa.

In 1748 his father sent a sea captain to rescue him from West Africa. It was during the return voyage to England that John experienced a religious conversion after reading Thomas à Kempis and being on board a ship that nearly sank. He began reading the Bible and by the time his ship reached port, he had accepted Christ and was transformed, repenting his sinful habits and renouncing his role in the African slave business. He eventually became an advocate of the abolition of slavery.

John Newton
(In the public domain)

He gave his life to God and returned to England in 1750, and married his childhood sweetheart, Mary Catlett. In 1755 he became renowned as an evangelical lay minister. For the next two years he studied to be ordained as an Anglican priest, but was initially denied. He applied to other denominations as well but met with the same results. In 1764 he finally became an Anglican priest at Olney, Buckinghamshire where he would spend the next sixteen years as the rector at Olney. It was while he was there that he collaborated with the English poet William Cowper on a number of hymns. His desire was to teach his illiterate congregation spiritual songs they could memorize and sing as they went about their daily tasks.  In 1779 these hymns were published as "Olney's Hymns". Among them was "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken”.

In 1779 he became the rector of Saint Mary Woolnoth Church in London, England, and served there twenty-eight years until his death at the age of 82. In 1788 he spoke against the slave trade and apologized for his participation. He became a supporter and friend to William Wilberforce, the leader of the Parliamentary campaign to abolish slavery. After the death of his wife in 1790, he began to suffer poor health and failing eyesight. John Newton died in London and was originally buried next to his wife in the Saint Mary Woolnoth Church cemetery. However, due to the extension of the London Underground rapid transit system in 1893, their remains were re-interred in Saint Peter and Paul Church cemetery.

Newton himself wrote his own epitaph:

JOHN NEWTON  Clerk

ONCE AN INFIDEL AND LIBERTINE

A SERVANT OF SLAVES IN AFRICA WAS

BY THE RICH MERCY OF OUR

LORD AND SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST

PRESERVED, RESTORED, PARDONED

AND APPOINTED TO PREACH THE FAITH HE

HAD LONG LABOURED TO DESTROY

NEAR 16 YEARS AS CURATE OF THIS PARISH

AND 28 YEARS AS RECTOR OF St MARY WOOLNOTH

Scripture references for “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken”

 Exodus 13:21-22, 16:16,   Isaiah 33:20-21,   Psalms 87:3,   John 10:35,   Matthew 16:18

GLORIOUS THINGS OF THEE ARE SPOKEN

Glorious things of thee are spoken,

Zion, city of our God;

he whose word cannot be broken

formed thee for his own abode;

on the Rock of Ages founded,

what can shake thy sure repose?

With salvation's walls surrounded,

thou may'st smile at all thy foes.

See! the streams of living waters,

spring form eternal love,

well supply thy sons and daughters

and all fear of want remove.

Who can faint, when such a river

ever flows their thirst to assuage?

Grace which, like the Lord, the Giver,

never fails from age to age.

Round each habitation hovering,

see the cloud and fire appear

for a glory and a covering,

showing that the Lord is near.

Thus they march, their pillar leading,

light by night, and shade by day;

daily on the manna feeding

which he gives them when they pray.

Blest inhabitants of Zion,

washed in the Redeemer's blood!

Jesus, whom their souls rely on,

makes them kings and priests to God.

'Tis his love his people raises

over self to reign as kings:

and as priests, his solemn praises

each for a thank-offering brings.

Savior, if of Zion's city,

I through grace a member am,

let the world deride or pity,

I will glory in thy Name.

Fading is the worldling's pleasure,

all his boasted pomp and show;

solid joys and lasting treasure

none but Zion's children know.

Words: John Newton, 1779     Tune: “Austrian Hymn” composed by Franz Joseph Hayden

Franz Joseph Hayden, the composer of the hymn was an eighteenth century Austrian who wrote music for numerous symphonies, operas, masses and chamber music. He was also a devout Christian.

To listen to the melody:  http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/g/g051.html

O GOD, OUR HELP IN AGES PAST

O GOD, OUR HELP IN AGES PAST

1.  O God, our help in ages past,

     Our hope for years to come,

   Our shelter from the stormy blast,

  And our eternal home.

2.  Under the shadow of Thy throne

      Thy saints have dwelt secure;

   Sufficient is Thine arm alone,

     And our defense is sure.

3.  Before the hills in order stood,

      Or earth received her frame,

   From everlasting Thou art God,

     To endless years the same.

4.  A thousand ages in Thy sight

      Are like an evening gone;

   Short as the watch that ends the night

     Before the rising sun.

5.  Time, like an ever-rolling stream,

      Bears all its sons away;

   They fly forgotten, as a dream

     Dies at the opening day.

6.  O God, our help in ages past,

      Our hope for years to come,

    Be Thou our guard while life shall last,

      And our eternal home.

This ancient hymn, based on Psalm 90, has brought comfort and encouragement to many over the centuries. It’s a reminder that the same God who has been with us through earlier trials will continue to guide us through whatever sorrows and challenges life will bring in the future.

It has been said that “O God, Our Help in Ages Past” is one of Isaac Watts’ greatest works and one of the finest hymns in the whole arena of English hymnody.

Isaac Watts by unknown artist
at London's National Portrait Gallery

Isaac Watts, born in Southampton, England in 1674, was raised in a family that did not embrace the established Church of England. In his early childhood his genius for verse was identified, and he was later promised a financed university education by friends. He declined the generous offer because the donors assumed he would pursue ordination in the Church of England. Instead, in 1690 he attended a Nonconformist Academy at Stoke Newington under the tutelage of the pastor of the Independent congregation at Girdler’s Hall. He later joined the congregation in 1693.

After returning to Southampton for two years, where he wrote most of his hymns, he returned to Stoke Newington for five years as a tutor. In 1702 he became the pastor of an influential Independent Congregational Chapel in London, but resigned after only ten years due to health issues which would continue to plague him until his death in 1748.

He published his Hymns and Spiritual Songs between 1707 -1709. Over his lifetime he is credited with writing 750 hymns and numerous other works. He also authored: “When I survey The Wondrous Cross” and “Joy To The World”.

Isaac Watts poetry also earned him praise in the American colonies. John Wesley called him a genius and Benjamin Franklin published his hymnal.

                                   

Williams Croft, an English composer and organist, composed the music of this old hymn to the tune of “St. Anne”.

He served first as a chorister at the Chapel Royal as a boy and later as one of the organists. He was a composer for Queen Anne and is attributed to be the preeminent church musician of his time. In 1708 he became the organist for Westminster Abbey. He composed works for the funeral of Queen Anne and George Frideric Handel as well as for the coronation of King George I.

O God, our help in ages past,

      Our hope for years to come,

    Be Thou our guard while life shall last,

      And our eternal home.