 Posted Tuesday, December 23, 2003 11:21 PM
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At the time of this thread's start, it is Christmas, and, in spite of the ACLU's efforts, Christmas carols are in the air. Sure, stores tend to use just instrumentals (less offensive), but I still hear the lyrics here and there. The authentic lyrics. I decided to check out the old CS hymnal, since I remember singing a few of them years ago.
I was astonished to find that there are just three of the traditional carols in it! "Joy to the World" (164,165,417), "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" (158,159), and the great Boston divine, Philips Brooks' "O Little Town of Bethlehem" (224,225). Add to this meagre number, three CS-originated carols: "Angels At the Savior's Birth" (11), "Blest Christmas Morn" (23-28; six melodies!!), and "To Us a Childs of Hope Is Born" (362). Not much hymnody to beef up Advent, is it? A poster on another thread lamented "how little Christmas" there was in the CS church leading up to December 25. The hymnal appears to be a factor.
I received some e-correspondence from a party who was astonished at how "Holy,Holy,Holy" was altered in CS, so I decided to check out the three familiar carols. I wasn't too surprised at what I found: adulterated, "spiritualized" lyrics. Particularly problematic is the fact that because of the secularization of our culture, few people know the subsequent verses of these carols-many don't even know the first stanza, and just sort of humm along, joining in with only the most familiar lines and phrases!! Thus, many people will not be alert to the hatchet job done to these hymns in CS, since they "sound right." Consider what they did to "Little Town of Bethlehem:"
Stanza 1: identical in a Congregational and the CS hymnal. But consider stanza 2: [I had to use long elipses (.....) to separte the original (left) from the CS (right); otherwise the lines would collapse in on each other.]
Original..................................................................................CS
For Christ is born of Mary, and gathered all above.......................O morning stars together Proclaim the holy birth,
While mortals sleep, the angels keep Their watch of.love.............And praises sing to God the King, and peace to men on earth;
O morning stars, together, Proclaim the holy birth!.......................Where charity stands watching And faith holds wide the door,
And praises sing to God the King, and peace to men on earth.......The dark night wakes, the glory breaks, and Christmas comes once more.
The CS re-work seems to be a cut-and-paste job on the original, taking familiar phrases out of context and changing the original intent to conform to CS doctrine. For example, "the eternal Christ" in CS could not possibly co-mingle with human flesh, therefore, Christ was NOT born of Mary. Note how phrases from line 3 in the original show up as line 1!
Stanza 3 ("How silently, how silently...." identical in both.
Omitted is stanza 4 (my favorite)--
O holy Child of Bethlehem! Descend to us,we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in; Be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels The great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel.
Also worth examining is Isaac Watts great hymn, "Joy to the World!"
Verse 1: the same in both.
Verse 2 ("Joy to the earth! The Savior reigns;...") is ommitted in CS.
Verse 3 (#2 in CS):
Traditional.................................................................................................CS
No more let sin and sorrow grow, Nor thorns infest the ground..................No more let sin, and sorrow grow, Nor thorns infest the ground,
He comes to make His blesings flow Far as the curse is found......................Wher'er he comes, his blessings flow, and hope and joy abound.
Note how CS uses a lower-case pronoun refering to Jesus Christ. And, of course, they are uncomfortable with the concept of a "curse."
Verse 4, the same as verse 3 in CS.
Well, I think I've got my point across. There are a lot of wonderful carols out there that CS would never touch. May I suggest that throughout the Christmas season, sing the carols, all the verses, and pay careful attention to the words. Share them with your CS family and friends! There's a lot of good doctrine and teaching in them! May I conclude with this meditation: the 2nd verse of "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing:"
Christ, by highest heav'n adored;
Christ, the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come,
Off-spring of the Virgin's womb:
Veiled in flesh the God-head see
Hail th'incarnate Deity,
Pleased as man with men to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel.
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Posted Wednesday, December 24, 2003 1:40 AM
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I would like to wish everyone a wonderful & peaceful Christmas & a Happy & Healthy 2004! May the blessing of Christmas be with all of you all through the year....
Pamster
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Posted Wednesday, December 24, 2003 9:47 AM
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fH: Must you go 'over the top' today, of all days? And, Pam, please quit using "&" for "and." I can't explain why so you would understand, but it is extremely annoying.
Nyoka
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Posted Wednesday, December 24, 2003 1:29 PM
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Nyoka,
fH: Must you go 'over the top' today, of all days? And, Pam, please quit using "&" for "and." I can't explain why so you would understand, but it is extremely annoying.
I wonder how you would edit this after thinking about your "over the top" criticism of Pam. We all have out annoying quirks of communicating, even you and me. 
Do Go Be Man
<><
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Posted Wednesday, December 24, 2003 1:42 PM
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followingHim,
Spiritualized lyrics are, of course, not limited to Christmas carols. I bought a CD just yesterday because I heard it while browsing for gifts in a Christian bookstore. It's a collection of instrumental arrangements of hymns including the one from which the harmony comes for the most familiar version of "O gentle prescence . . ." I want to find a version with the real words so I can overwrite the CS version in my memory.
Perhaps after Christmas we can compare notes on other hymns. Also, I'd love to try my hand at a turnabout by writing Christian lyrics for CS harmonies like "Feed My Sheep."
Merry Christmas to all!!!
Do Go Be Man
<><
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Posted Wednesday, December 24, 2003 9:03 PM
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| After leaving CS I noticed that a lot of the hymns I was singing in my new church were familiar from the CS Hymnal. I started comparing lyrics and it was very interesting to see how the CSists had changed the hymns they had borrowed from the Protestant hymnals. I decided that you can tell a lot about a denomination's beliefs by what's in its hymns, so whenever I visit a new church I take some time to look at the lyrics in the song books.
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Posted Wednesday, December 24, 2003 9:41 PM
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Nyoka, our dear jungle lass,
I realized it was a lengthy post, and I have been trying to express myself with brevity. (I hope that's been apparent.) But on this, I wanted to share a lot of material. Music is very powerful: spiritually, culturally, and we know now, neurologically. It is very influential to http://www2.ccim.org/~reformata/trinity_hymnal_rev_ed.htmour minds and feelings. So I erred on the side of excess Actually, there was other stuff I thought was also interesting, but I reduced it to the first post, above.
When I do write a long post, feel free to skim over it, picking up just what you think is particularly interesting or useful. I just ask you be careful in what you respond to.
Do-Go-Be-Man,
I just got back from a WONDERFUL Christmas eve service at a large conservative church downtown. My smaller church has gone over to "seeker-sensitive" (Willow Creek) format with only contemporary praise music, and I was just starved for good liturgy with a pipe organ. And yes, we sang all the verses! What a blessing!
Regarding the "O Gentle Presence" melody, bear in mind that there is an abundance of "standard" hymns with common melodies and lyricists of many faiths have utilized them. If you have a hymnal which cross-indexes hymns by sources, you might look up a melody called "Regent Square." (Sound clip: click "by tune name" at top, then scroll to "Regent Square") My old Congregational hymnal has four hymns with this melody. I'll bet you recognize at least one of these first lines:
"Lo, He Comes with Clouds descending, Once for favored sinners slain;"
"Holy Father, great Creator, Source of mercy, love and peace,"
"Look, ye saints! the sight is glorious: see the Man of Sorrows now;"
and, last but not least:
"Angels from the realms of glory, Wing your flight o'er all the earth;"
And if you think THAT's a lot, Charles Wesley's "Hyfrydol" {Click (by tune name" at top, then scroll to "Regent Square"}("Come, thou Long Expected Jesus") has SIX hymns to it!
Now, moving on: the melody to "Gentle Presence" (#207) was written by one Frederick C. Atkinson in 1870, and is known as Morecombe (sound clip). {Again scroll to "Morecombe" for piano version.}Along with its companion melody #208, it was my favorite in my days of yore. The following are lyrics written by George Croly, 1854. There are five verses, so I proffer my apologies to Nyoka in advance. As you read them, listen to that familiar melody in your mind. Verse #4 is particularly interesting--a sentiment you'll never hear in CS!
1 Spirit of God, descend upon my heart;
Wean it from earth, through all its pulses move;
Stoop to my weakness, mighty as Thou art,
And make me love Thee as I ought to love.
2 I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies,
No sudden rending of the veil of clay,
No angel visitant, no op'ning skies;
But take the dimness of my soul away.
3 Hast thou not bid us love Thee, God and King?
All, all Thine own, soul, heart and strength and mind.
I see Thy cross-there teach my heart to cling:
O let me seek Thee and O let me find.
4 Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh;
Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear,
To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh;
Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.*
5 Teach me to love Thee as Thine angels love,
One holy passion filling all my frame;
The baptism of the heav'n descended Dove,
My heart an altar, and Thy love the flame.
*italics added.
Yes, I know it's long, but it's an exquisite meditation. Something we don't get much of in our digital age.
Hope this has been interesting and useful. Now, it's Christmas eve, and I hope everybody is having a blessed holy-day with many blessings, especially a personal knowledge and relationship with the Lord, King, and Savior, Christ Jesus. Morecombe (sound clip).
I tried to link directly to the individual sound clips for each hymn melody, but it just wouldn't take. But this site has loads of straight-forward hymns (piano) to use to research these, or other hymns!)
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Posted Wednesday, December 24, 2003 11:13 PM
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Nyoka, I find it hard to believe that someone such as yourself can "nit pick" all the time and it seems like you accoridng to you are the only one that posts appropriately. I think that you have a lot of problems and just can't seem to get a "grip" on them or life so you have to take it out on others which is very unfair to the rest of us. Like the old saying goes "if you have nothing good to say don't say it at all"...I must say though that I to sometimes find your humor funny but, Everyone on here that does post has something to say or tell that is important to them....
HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!
Pamster
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Posted Wednesday, December 24, 2003 11:16 PM
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So sorry all in my post before this I meant Everyone and by mistake typed not everyone! (corrected by moderator)
Pamster
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Posted Thursday, December 25, 2003 5:05 PM
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Pamster, thank you for your warm wishes for Christmas and a Happy New Year!
The thought did occur to me that messages are not mandatory to read. If one does not prefer the substance of a message. or its style, he/she has merely to move on to another message or thread.
While somebody might say that "&" should not be used for "and," there is probably another who might say that "and" is too lengthy or formal to be used, and that you should use a symbol to replace it. Preferences remain highly individualized. Instead, celebrate the goodwill of this Christmas season and the number of ways that people can share their thoughts of love with us.
Thank you fH for doing a lot of homework that has helped clarify the subtle ways that CS has removed some of the Christianity from its hymnal. I suspected that some time back, but never looked into it. I'm trying to remember a quote from James Madison but will have to paraphrase it, somewhat poorly. "There is more to fear from gradual encroachments than from sudden usurpations." I believe CS attempts these subtle modifications of Christianity, perhaps to convince the CSists that CS is purely Christian. The driving forces of CS are nothing if not seductive and slyly persuasive. How else could it have survived to this day?
warm wishes to all in this Christmas season,
Freeman
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