This is the 14th in a series of Friday posts on congregational song.
Here in my office are two old harmonicas. My great grandfather, William Asbury Graves, used to play them in his little church in Chariton, Iowa. As a hymn writer, I treasure these reminders of my musical heritage.
The harmonicas were passed on to me through my Uncle Melvin. He served in the U.S. Navy in World War II. On January 5, 1945, his ship was struck by a kamikaze plane and sank within an hour. He was picked up by another ship, which was then also sunk by a kamikaze plane. Within 24 hours, Uncle Melvin had had two ships blown from beneath him.
In the predawn darkness he floated and swam, sustained by a life jacket. I can only imagine the fears that swirled around him in those hours. But old hymns came to mind, and he began to sing. Imagine the deep meaning of these prayers as they welled up in his heart:
My Faith looks up to Thee,
Thou Lamb of Calvary,
Savior divine!
Now hear me while I pray;
Take all my guilt away.
O let me from this day
Be wholly Thine!
May thy rich grace impart
Strength to my fainting heart,
My zeal inspire.
As Thou hast died for me,
O may my love to Thee
Pure, warm, and changeless be,
A living fire!
While life’s dark maze I tread,
And griefs around me spread,
Be Thou my Guide.
Bid darkness turn to day;
Wipe sorrow’s tears away;
Nor let me ever stray
From Thee aside!
(Ray Palmer)
And:
Fairest Lord Jesus!
Ruler of all nature!
O Thou of God and man the Son!
Thee will I cherish;
Thee will I honor,
Thou, my soul’s glory, joy, and crown!
Fair are the meadows;
Fairer still the woodlands,
Robed in the blooming garb of spring.
Jesus is fairer;
Jesus is purer,
Who makes the woeful heart to sing!
(Anon. German hymn; tr. by Joseph A. Seiss and anon.)
After several hours he was rescued by a destroyer escort. The skipper said that in the darkness, he had found Melvin because he heard him singing.
Such stories remind me that we didn’t get here alone. We didn’t earn the right to live in this country, worship in our beautiful, well-equipped churches, and enjoy such rich hymns. All these were gifts, a priceless inheritance received from so many who have gone before us. We cannot…we must not…ignore such a heritage. We cannot squander our inheritance and fail to pass it on to the next generation.
When you hold a hymnal, do you know what you have in your hands? It is the world’s greatest treasury of worship and devotion, outside the sacred scriptures themselves. In it you’ll hear the heart of the Psalmist, the faith of the early church fathers, the powerful witness of Martin Luther, John and Charles Wesley, the blind Fanny Crosby, and hundreds of others. Countless believers have sung these hymns and lovingly memorized them, finding them true to scripture and experience. They lived with these hymns and died with them, carefully passing them on to their children.
As each generation discarded some hymns and embraced others, the hymns in your hands were chosen and treasured, century after century. What an incredible gift! What a precious legacy has been lovingly placed in our hands by the generations of believers gone before us!
The witness of our generation is important. But it is so much more meaningful if it is added to the witness of all the generations before us. Don’t limit yourself to current songs. If you only use expressions of faith from our narrow slice of time and culture, you miss most of the rich truth available to you. You miss the discipline of other ages confronting us with differing viewpoints. You miss a broader perspective that stretches our narrowness and challenges our assumptions. Older hymns remind us of realities that we dare not forget.
In our diverse culture, with so many varied people hungry to find their place in this world, the experience of our forebears is relevant. Reach back. Enrich yourself and those to whom you minister. Don’t serve the same food meal after meal. A banquet of tasty, nourishing foods is available to you. Just open the pantry!
