****AT THE CROSS

Throughout most of church history, some musicians have attempted to revive old hymns, make a few alterations, and reintroduce them to a new generation.

 

Sometimes writers make legitimate changes to correct doctrine or to clarify language difficulties.  And sometimes authors will add other stanzas that greatly improve the hymns.

  

That practice, however, is not without due criticism because sometimes those altered hymns border on plagiarism.

Probably the most notable hymn pirate today is Chris Tomlin who has earned an unseemly reputation by taking great hymns, changing the score, adding a refrain, renaming them, and then copyrighting them as his own creations.

But not all hymn changes are the result of piracy.

 

AT THE CROSS is one of those hybrid hymns.  It was originally written, without a refrain, in 1707 by Isaac Watts with the title, “Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed?”

In 1885, Ralph Hudson republished it, complete and intact, with his added refrain and the new title, AT THE CROSS.  In every hymnbook, the lyrics are still attributed to Isaac Watts.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of critics who complain that the added refrain breaks the serious mood of Watts’ hymn.

 

But I would argue that the structure of this altered hymn is similar to the structure of Christ Arose.  It starts with a dark and somber feel because Jesus was crucified and buried.  But then, suddenly, the song explodes in joyful gladness because He is alive.

AT THE CROSS begins with Isaac Watts’ vivid picture of the crucifixion of Christ at Calvary and the seriousness of our sin.  It is not uncomfortable for most people to think or talk about the crucifixion in universal and impersonal terms (eg. “Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world”).  It is much more difficult when it is personalized.  The lyrics of this hymn are deliberately painful and designed to convict us.

When I think about that cross, I see the Son of God who was crucified for me.   He took the humiliation and shame of being stripped naked and paraded through the mocking crowds; He endured the beatings and scourging that tore His flesh to shreds and laid it open to expose His bones.  He is the One who was forsaken by His Father.  And He did all that for me.

   

The truth is, there is nothing good in me.  I can do NOTHING to merit God’s mercy and grace. So, in the last stanza, Isaac Watts concedes, “Drops of grief can never repay the debt of love I owe.”

It grieves me that I stand here, alive, knowing that His punishment should have been mine.  I deserved that death sentence.

I love Watts' hymn but I praise God for the message of Ralph Hudson’s added refrain.  It proclaims our hope.  The Light of God has penetrated our hearts.  Because of Calvary, the burdens of our sin and guilt are gone.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and THAT not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”  (Eph. 2.8-9)  

(My other commentaries on Watts' hymn, "Alas!  And Did My Savior Die? can be seen here, here, and here.)

****IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL

Horatio Spafford was a wealthy Chicago lawyer and businessman in the mid-1800s.  He and his wife, Anna, had five children.  In 1871 his youngest became ill and he died.  Shortly after that, the great Chicago fire wiped out his home.  His insurance company wouldn’t cover the loss because it was deemed an “Act of God.”

In 1873 he decided to take his family to help his friend, D. L. Moody with some evangelism services in England.   Just before their departure, a business emergency interrupted his trip so, he sent his wife and four daughters ahead and planned to meet up with them later.

After several days, his wife wired a message; their ship had collided with another and sank.  All four of his daughters had perished in the wreck.   Anna’s message was, “saved alone, what shall I do?”

In just two years, they had lost all five of their children.

Horatio left immediately to be with his grieving wife in England.

On the way, he wrote the lyrics to the hymn, “IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL.”

We usually think of this hymn in the context of comfort for those who are grieving.  In the first stanza, we get a glimpse of Horatio’s faith during a time of unbearable grief; “When sorrows, like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, ‘It is well, it is well with my soul.’”

Well, that is the short story, but beyond the sorrow, this hymn has another dimension; our sin natures.  The prophet, Isaiah, described our human condition like this: “But we are all like an unclean thing” (Isa. 64:6).

By using that phrase, he may have been alluding to the disease of leprosy.

Leprosy is a stinking, reeking mass of rotting, dead flesh.  It’s disgusting; it’s repulsive; it oozes with puss and blood.  Can you imagine someone trying to cover his leprosy with fine white silk garments?  That wouldn’t change the facts.  The diseased flesh would still stink, and the uncleanness would begin to bleed through the fabric until the fine silk becomes as corrupt as the man.

And that’s how God sees men who attempt to clean themselves up and cover the disease of their sin with religious good works.  The prophet continues; “All our righteousnesses (good works) have become as filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6).

Several years ago my pastor preached a series through the Ten Commandments and those sermons exposed our true conditions; we are all sin-stained lawbreakers.  So, every Sunday, I left feeling rotten about my sin.  And if you feel that way, that’s evidence of the convicting work of the Spirit of God in you.

In his third verse, Spafford expressed an attitude of grateful praise.  In his desperate, sinful condition, he found joy in God’s mercy and grace.  “My sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought; My sin, not in part but the whole, Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more.  Praise the Lord; praise the Lord, O my soul.”

****A CHRISTIAN HOME

I have been bringing these hymn commentaries for about three years, now, and I have tried to present interesting and edifying illustrations, stories about the faith and struggles of the authors, or the importance of the hymns in church history.  Today's hymn does none of that.  This is the most difficult hymn commentary I have ever written.

Barbara Hart was born in 1916 and she wrote A CHRISTIAN HOME in 1965.  And that's all there is; I’ve searched dozens of printed and Internet resources.  I’ve found no biographical information about the author, no history, no illustrations, and no backstory.

It is published in very few hymnals and I was inclined to just pass over it, but the subject is too important and has a strong message that is appropriate for today’s sermon.  We sang it last week and a few of you mentioned, then, how much you appreciated it.

  

The hymn is a prayer that asks God to work in our families.  It reminds us that He is the Head of our

homes.  It challenges us to the same kind of determined commitment that Joshua had when he said, “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

Most of our songs and hymns build up and strengthen our faith, they bring joy to our souls, they inspire us, they encourage us to good works, they teach us great truths, they comfort us in difficulties, they cause us to be thankful, and they help us in our praise and worship to our Savior.

This hymn didn’t do any of those things for me.   In fact, I found it to be uncomfortable and convicting because the lyrics revealed my own disobedience and failures as a son, a brother, a husband, and a father.  And it reminded me of a phrase in Psalm 119:6, “Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.”

I looked up the meaning of the word, shame, in a Bible dictionary.  Shame is a consequence of sin. Feelings of guilt and shame are subjective acknowledgments of objective spiritual reality.  Guilt is judicial in character; shame is relational. It emphasizes sin's effect on our self-identity.  Sinful humans are traumatized, before a holy God, when we are exposed for our failures to live up to God's laws.

And, if we had the time to read through the entire 176 verses of Psalm 119, we would all be driven to the trauma of guilty shame.  So, what is the remedy for this shame?  It is in keeping ALL God’s laws. 

None of us can do that but praise God that His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, kept every jot and tittle of the law perfectly and God the Father has imputed His Son’s righteousness to us. 

So, as I think about the prayer of this hymn, I am thankful that even though I have failed in my goals and good intentions; and I break His commandments every day, I can rejoice in knowing that God is merciful, gracious, and forgiving. 

(Listen, here, to the hymn recorded by Evie)
https://youtu.be/JLPvLlFDkQw

****STAND UP AND BLESS THE LORD

The reformation was responsible for many Christians fleeing Europe to relocate where they could exercise their faith without persecution.  And the result was the spreading of the Gospel throughout the world.

The Hussite movement that became the Moravian Church, was started by John Huss in the early 15th century in what is today, the Czech Republic.   Hus protested some of the unbiblical doctrines and the political persecutions executed by the Roman Catholic Church.  Since the movement predated the Protestant Reformation by a century, some historians claim the Moravian Church was the first Protestant church.

About 400 years later, James Montgomery, a Moravian orphan grew up to become a prominent British journalist and one of England’s greatest hymn writers.

   

As a newspaper editor in Sheffield, England, he developed a reputation for his radical editorials which he used to advocate for social reforms and humanitarian causes.  He was passionately critical of slavery, he promoted democracy in government, and the end of the exploitation of child chimney sweeps.  Other causes, he championed, included hymn singing in the Anglican church services, foreign missions, and the British Bible Society.

In Europe, in the late 18^th century, Christians who spoke against governments or the Church, were often punished or persecuted.   And so was James Montgomery. He was imprisoned, twice, in the Castle of York, for his editorial activism. The first time was for printing a poem that celebrated the fall of the Bastille which, ironically, was a French prison for political critics who wrote things that displeased the royal government.

A year after his release, he was incarcerated, again, for criticizing a judge who forcefully dispersed a political protest in Sheffield.

So, from his cell, James used his writing ability to profit from his imprisonment.  In 1797, he published a pamphlet of poems written during his captivity, that he titled, Prison Amusements, with a subtitle, Words with Wagtails (wagtails are birds that would frequently visit him on his prison window sill).

In a long poem titled, The Pleasure of Imprisonment, An Epistle to A Friend, he details every moment of his daily routine as a prisoner.   I was amused at this verse where he figuratively thumbs his nose at his captors:

Fanatic dreams amuse my brain, 

And waft my spirit home again:

Though captive all day long, ‘tis true, 

At night, I am as free as you;

Not ramparts high, nor dungeons deep,

Can hold me – when I’m fast asleep!

James Montgomery wrote over 400 hymns including the Christmas carol, “Angels We Have Heard on High” and the communion hymn, “I Will Remember Thee.”   About him, the writer Alfred H. Miles wrote, “His Christian songs are vigorous in thought and feeling, simple and direct in action, broad in Christian charity, and lofty in spiritual aspiration.”

In 1824, he wrote a children’s hymn for the Red Hill Wesleyan Sunday School anniversary celebration in Sheffield.  The song began, “Stand up and bless the Lord, ye children of His choice.”  A short time later, the word “children” was changed to “people.” 

The text was based on Neh. 9:5: “Stand up and bless the Lord your God for ever and ever: and blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.”

This hymn uses simple and clear language to proclaim the glory of God.  It’s a call for God’s people to stand up with courage and praise God and to boldly speak up and proclaim their faith regardless of the political climate.    

STAND UP AND BLESS THE LORD.