Rebel to Redeemed…Sharing HIS Kind of Love
I have found two different stories for this hymn. The first states it is believed “The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy” was written Jamaican singer-songwriter Oswald Dunbar sometime in the early 1960s. Legend states he adapted the lyrics from an earlier Jamaican folk song “Livvy’s Song” to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. The text follows the story as […]
Read moreEnglish poet Christina Rosetti published a poem under the title “A Christmas Carol” in January 1872 issue of Scribner’s Monthly. Composer Gustav Holst composed a setting to her words in 1906. The new hymn appeared in The English Hymnal under the title “In the Bleak Midwinter”. In 1909, Harold Darke composed an anthem for the piece, which is widely performed […]
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God Be with You till We meet Again was written by Jeremiah E. Rankin around 1880. It is undated but he gave a copy to Sankey in 1882. Rankin was born on January 2, 1828 in Thornton, New Hampshire. He received his doctorate in 1869 and served as president of Howard University a few years. He wrote and published a […]
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“I Vow to Thee, My Country” is a British patriotic hymn. Sir Cecil Spring Rice wrote the poem “The City of God” or “The Two Fatherlands” in either 1908 or 1912. The poem described how a Christian owes his loyalties to both his homeland and the heavenly kingdom. In 1908, he was posted at the British Embassy in Stockholm. In […]
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Sleep, Dearie, Sleep was played at the end of Queen Elizabeth II funeral at Westminster Abbey. Her bagpiper played this beautiful lament. I’ve been unable to find any additional information about who wrote the song.
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The Lord’s My Shepherd is a hymn based on Psalm 23. It first appeared in the Scots Metrical Psalter in 1650 and is usually attributed to the English Puritan Francis Rous. The tune Crimond is generally credited to Jessie Seymour Irvine, daughter of a parish minister of the Church of Scotland during Queen Victoria’s reign. The hymn was a favorite […]
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This hymn was recently sung at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. Rev. John Ellerton wrote the hymn in 1870 to be included in A Liturgy for Missionary Meetings. Two different translations of the text are included in German official hymnals. The theme focusses on the worldwide fellowship of the church. It goes on to offer a continual prayer and […]
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O Love, How Deep, How Broad, How High was written by Thomas A Kempis. His father was a peasant, whilst his mother kept a dame’s school for the younger children of Kempen. At the age of 12, he became an inmate of the poor-scholars’ house which was connected with a “Brother-House”. He remained there for six years before being received […]
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At the Name of Jesus reminds us that one day every knee will bow and tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The song was written by Caroline Marie Noel. She was born in Kent, England in 1817 to an Anglican clergyman and hymn writer. By her late teens she wrote poetry but then abandoned it for the next […]
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With today being the twenty-first anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks I wanted to find a song about the event. Alan Jackson wrote Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning) about those tragic events. He wrote it in October 2001 and said the lyrics came to him “while he was sleeping.” A few weeks later he debuted the […]
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They’ll Know We Are Christians is a short chorus which reminds us to show God’s love. Father Peter Scholtes was inspired in the 1960s by John 13:35. He wrote the song for an ecumenical event. Hymnary.org says: “At the time, he was leading a youth choir out of the church basement and was looking for an appropriate song for a […]
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Recently we sung A Broken Heart, My God, My Life in church. A hymn I had not heard before and wanted to learn more about. A Broken Heart, My God, My Life was written by Isaac Watts. Watts was a prolific writer. He wrote sermons, treatises, poems and hymns. Often he wrote hymns to be sung with his sermons. He […]
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He will Hold Me Fast was written by Ada Ruth Habershon best known for the song “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?”. She was born in 1861 in Marylebone, England. She first began writing hymns in 1899 in German. In 1901, she wrote in English. In 1905, Ruben A. Torrey and Charles Alexander asked Habershon to write hymns for their evangelistic […]
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Come, come to Jesus, do not keep him waiting was written by Elisha Hoffman. He sought to create songs for congregational worship. He said “a lyric poem, reverently and devotionally conceived, which is designed to be sung and which expresses the worshipper’s attitude toward God or God’s purposes in human life. It should be simple and metrical in form, genuinely […]
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Shall I Come Just As I Am is a hymn written by Elisha A. Hoffman. Hoffman was born in 1839 and ordained into the ministry in 1868. He served numerous churches and wrote over 2,000 hymns. Some of his best known hymns are “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”, “Are You Washed in the Blood?” and “I Must Tell Jesus”. He […]
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Come Just As You Are is a song released by Crystal Lewis in 1995. No other information seems to be available.
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Wholly Yours is written by David Crowder. It shares the message found in Romans 8:39 “neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord..” The song was published in 2005 by Capitol CMG Publishing.
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The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came was written by Sabine Baring-Gould. He was born in 1834 in England and became a priest. He wrote and translated many hymns. He died in 1924. Edgar Pettman and John Wickman arranged the song which is described as a Basque carol. The hymn has a 1955 copyright with Glenwood Music Corp.
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My Faith Looks up to Thee was written by Ray Palmer. He was born in Rhode Island in 1808 and is often considered to be one of America’s best nineteenth-century hymn. He was a popular preacher and author, writing original poetry and translating hymns. He wrote the hymn shortly after completing college while he was teaching in 1830. He said […]
Read more What wondrous love is this? Was published in 1811 and considered a Christian folk hymn. It was very popular during the Second Great Awakening. It was first published in the camp meeting songbook A General Selection of the Newest and Most Admired Hymns and Spiritual Songs Now in Use in Virginia. Most sources attribute the tune to “The Ballad of […]
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