My Starred Hymns
My FlexScores
My Hymnals
My Purchased Files
Planning worship?
Check out our sister site, ZeteoSearch.org,
for 20+ additional resources related to your search.
- |
User Links
Search Results
What glory gilds the sacred page!
Author: Cowper Meter: 8.6.8.6 Appears in 380 hymnals Hymnal Title: African Methodist Episcopal hymn and tune book Used With Tune: WOODSTOCK
What glory gilds the sacred page!
The counsels of redeeming grace
Author: S. Stennett Meter: 8.6.8.6 Appears in 70 hymnals Hymnal Title: African Methodist Episcopal hymn and tune book Scripture: John 5:39 Used With Tune: WOODSTOCK
The counsels of redeeming grace
Grant me within thy courts a place
Author: Montgomery Meter: 8.6.8.6 Appears in 34 hymnals Hymnal Title: African Methodist Episcopal hymn and tune book Used With Tune: WOODSTOCK
Grant me within thy courts a place
What glory gilds the sacred page!
Author: Cowper Hymnal: African Methodist Episcopal hymn and tune book #45 (1898) Meter: 8.6.8.6 Hymnal Title: African Methodist Episcopal hymn and tune book Languages: English Tune Title: WOODSTOCK
What glory gilds the sacred page!
Father of all, in whom alone
Author: C. Wesley Hymnal: African Methodist Episcopal hymn and tune book #46 (1898) Meter: 8.6.8.6 Hymnal Title: African Methodist Episcopal hymn and tune book Languages: English Tune Title: WOODSTOCK
Father of all, in whom alone
The counsels of redeeming grace
Author: S. Stennett Hymnal: African Methodist Episcopal hymn and tune book #47 (1898) Meter: 8.6.8.6 Hymnal Title: African Methodist Episcopal hymn and tune book Scripture: John 5:39 Languages: English Tune Title: WOODSTOCK
The counsels of redeeming grace
William Cowper
1731 - 1800 Person Name: Cowper Hymnal Title: African Methodist Episcopal hymn and tune book Author of "What glory gilds the sacred page!" in African Methodist Episcopal hymn and tune book William Cowper (pronounced "Cooper"; b. Berkampstead, Hertfordshire, England, 1731; d. East Dereham, Norfolk, England, 1800) is regarded as one of the best early Romantic poets. To biographers he is also known as "mad Cowper." His literary talents produced some of the finest English hymn texts, but his chronic depression accounts for the somber tone of many of those texts. Educated to become an attorney, Cowper was called to the bar in 1754 but never practiced law. In 1763 he had the opportunity to become a clerk for the House of Lords, but the dread of the required public examination triggered his tendency to depression, and he attempted suicide. His subsequent hospitalization and friendship with Morley and Mary Unwin provided emotional stability, but the periods of severe depression returned. His depression was deepened by a religious bent, which often stressed the wrath of God, and at times Cowper felt that God had predestined him to damnation.
For the last two decades of his life Cowper lived in Olney, where John Newton became his pastor. There he assisted Newton in his pastoral duties, and the two collaborated on the important hymn collection Olney Hymns (1779), to which Cowper contributed sixty-eight hymn texts.
Bert Polman
============
Cowper, William, the poet. The leading events in the life of Cowper are: born in his father's rectory, Berkhampstead, Nov. 26, 1731; educated at Westminster; called to the Bar, 1754; madness, 1763; residence at Huntingdon, 1765; removal to Olney, 1768; to Weston, 1786; to East Dereham, 1795; death there, April 25, 1800.
The simple life of Cowper, marked chiefly by its innocent recreations and tender friendships, was in reality a tragedy. His mother, whom he commemorated in the exquisite "Lines on her picture," a vivid delineation of his childhood, written in his 60th year, died when he was six years old. At his first school he was profoundly wretched, but happier at Westminster; excelling at cricket and football, and numbering Warren Hastings, Colman, and the future model of his versification. Churchill, among his contemporaries or friends. Destined for the Bar, he was articled to a solicitor, along with Thurlow. During this period he fell in love with his cousin, Theodora Cowper, sister to Lady Hesketh, and wrote love poems to her. The marriage was forbidden by her father, but she never forgot him, and in after years secretly aided his necessities. Fits of melancholy, from which he had suffered in school days, began to increase, as he entered on life, much straitened in means after his father's death. But on the whole, it is the playful, humorous side of him that is most prominent in the nine years after his call to the Bar; spent in the society of Colman, Bonnell Thornton, and Lloyd, and in writing satires for The Connoisseur and St. James's Chronicle and halfpenny ballads. Then came the awful calamity, which destroyed all hopes of distinction, and made him a sedentary invalid, dependent on his friends. He had been nominated to the Clerkship of the Journals of the House of Lords, but the dread of appearing before them to show his fitness for the appointment overthrew his reason. He attempted his life with "laudanum, knife and cord,"—-in the third attempt nearly succeeding. The dark delusion of his life now first showed itself—a belief in his reprobation by God. But for the present, under the wise and Christian treatment of Dr. Cotton (q. v.) at St. Albans, it passed away; and the eight years that followed, of which the two first were spent at Huntingdon (where he formed his lifelong friendship with Mrs. Unwin), and the remainder at Olney in active piety among the poor, and enthusiastic devotions under the guidance of John Newton (q. v.), were full of the realisation of God's favour, and the happiest, most lucid period of his life. But the tension of long religious exercises, the nervous excitement of leading at prayer meetings, and the extreme despondence (far more than the Calvinism) of Newton, could scarcely have been a healthy atmosphere for a shy, sensitive spirit, that needed most of all the joyous sunlight of Christianity. A year after his brother's death, madness returned. Under the conviction that it was the command of God, he attempted suicide; and he then settled down into a belief in stark contradiction to his Calvinistic creed, "that the Lord, after having renewed him in holiness, had doomed him to everlasting perdition" (Southey). In its darkest form his affliction lasted sixteen months, during which he chiefly resided in J. Newton's house, patiently tended by him and by his devoted nurse, Mrs. Unwin. Gradually he became interested in carpentering, gardening, glazing, and the tendance of some tame hares and other playmates. At the close of 1780, Mrs. Unwin suggested to him some serious poetical work; and the occupation proved so congenial, that his first volume was published in 1782. To a gay episode in 1783 (his fascination by the wit of Lady Austen) his greatest poem, The Task, and also John Gilpin were owing. His other principal work was his Homer, published in 1791. The dark cloud had greatly lifted from his life when Lady Hesketh's care accomplished his removal to Weston (1786): but the loss of his dear friend William Unwin lowered it again for some months. The five years' illness of Mrs. Unwin, during which his nurse of old became his tenderly-watched patient, deepened the darkness more and more. And her death (1796) brought “fixed despair," of which his last poem, The Castaway, is the terrible memorial. Perhaps no more beautiful sentence has been written of him, than the testimony of one, who saw him after death, that with the "composure and calmness" of the face there “mingled, as it were, a holy surprise."
Cowper's poetry marks the dawn of the return from the conventionality of Pope to natural expression, and the study of quiet nature. His ambition was higher than this, to be the Bard of Christianity. His great poems show no trace of his monomania, and are full of healthy piety. His fame as a poet is less than as a letter-writer: the charm of his letters is unsurpassed. Though the most considerable poet, who has written hymns, he has contributed little to the development of their structure, adopting the traditional modes of his time and Newton's severe canons. The spiritual ideas of the hymns are identical with Newton's: their highest note is peace and thankful contemplation, rather than joy: more than half of them are full of trustful or reassuring faith: ten of them are either submissive (44), self-reproachful (17, 42, 43), full of sad yearning (1, 34), questioning (9), or dark spiritual conflict (38-40). The specialty of Cowper's handling is a greater plaintiveness, tenderness, and refinement. A study of these hymns as they stood originally under the classified heads of the Olney Hymns, 1779, which in some cases probably indicate the aim of Cowper as well as the ultimate arrangement of the book by Newton, shows that one or two hymns were more the history of his conversion, than transcripts of present feelings; and the study of Newton's hymns in the same volume, full of heavy indictment against the sins of his own regenerate life, brings out the peculiar danger of his friendship to the poet: it tends also to modify considerably the conclusions of Southey as to the signs of incipient madness in Cowper's maddest hymns. Cowper's best hymns are given in The Book of Praise by Lord Selborne. Two may be selected from them; the exquisitely tender "Hark! my soul, it is the Lord" (q. v.), and "Oh, for a closer walk with God" (q. v.). Anyone who knows Mrs. Browning's noble lines on Cowper's grave will find even a deeper beauty in the latter, which is a purely English hymn of perfect structure and streamlike cadence, by connecting its sadness and its aspiration not only with the “discord on the music" and the "darkness on the glory," but the rapture of his heavenly waking beneath the "pathetic eyes” of Christ.
Authorities. Lives, by Hayley; Grimshaw; Southey; Professor Goldwin Smith; Mr. Benham (attached to Globe Edition); Life of Newton, by Rev. Josiah Bull; and the Olney Hymns. The numbers of the hymns quoted refer to the Olney Hymns. [Rev. H. Leigh Bennett, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
================
Cowper, W. , p. 265, i. Other hymns are:—
1. Holy Lord God, I love Thy truth. Hatred of Sin.
2. I was a grovelling creature once. Hope and Confidence.
3. No strength of nature can suffice. Obedience through love.
4. The Lord receives His highest praise. Faith.
5. The saints should never be dismayed. Providence. All these hymns appeared in the Olney Hymns, 1779.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)
=====================
Cowper, W., p. 265, i. Prof. John E. B. Mayor, of Cambridge, contributed some letters by Cowper, hitherto unpublished, together with notes thereon, to Notes and Queries, July 2 to Sept. 24, 1904. These letters are dated from Huntingdon, where he spent two years after leaving St. Alban's (see p. 265, i.), and Olney. The first is dated "Huntingdon, June 24, 1765," and the last "From Olney, July 14, 1772." They together with extracts from other letters by J. Newton (dated respectively Aug. 8, 1772, Nov. 4, 1772), two quotations without date, followed by the last in the N. & Q. series, Aug. 1773, are of intense interest to all students of Cowper, and especially to those who have given attention to the religious side of the poet's life, with its faint lights and deep and awful shadows. From the hymnological standpoint the additional information which we gather is not important, except concerning the hymns "0 for a closer walk with God," "God moves in a mysterious way," "Tis my happiness below," and "Hear what God, the Lord, hath spoken." Concerning the last three, their position in the manuscripts, and the date of the last from J. Newton in the above order, "Aug. 1773," is conclusive proof against the common belief that "God moves in a mysterious way" was written as the outpouring of Cowper's soul in gratitude for the frustration of his attempted suicide in October 1773.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)
William Cowper
Bernard Barton
1784 - 1849 Hymnal Title: African Methodist Episcopal hymn and tune book Author of "Walk in the light! so shalt thou know" in African Methodist Episcopal hymn and tune book Barton, Bernard, commonly known as the "Quaker Poet," was born in London Jan. 31, 1784, and educated at a Quaker school at Ipswich. In 1798 he was apprenticed to Mr. S. Jesup, a shopkeeper at Halstead, Essex, with whom he remained until 1806, when he removed to Woodbridge, Suffolk, and entered into business with his brother, as a coal and corn merchant. On the death of his wife at the end of the first year of their married life, he proceeded to Liverpool, where he acted as a private tutor for a short time. He returned to Woodbridge in 1810, where he secured an engagement in the local bank of the Messrs. Alexander. This appointment he held for 40 years. He died at Woodbridge, Feb. 19, 1849. During the same year his daughter published his Poems and Letters, with a Memoir. His poetical works were numerous, including:—
(1) Metrical Effusions , 1812; (2) Poems by an Amateur, 1818; (3) Poems , 1820; (4) Napoleon, and other Poems, 1822; (5) Poetic Vigils, 1824; (6) Devotional Verses founded on Select Texts of Scripture, 1826; (7) A Widow's Tale, 1S27; (8) New Year's Eve, 1829; (9) The Reliquary, 1836; (10) Household Verses, 1845. A complete list of his works is given in Joseph Smith's Descriptive Catalogue of Friends' Books, Lond., J. Smith, 1867, vol. i. pp. 196-200.
From these works about 20 pieces have come into common use as hymns. These are found principally in the Scottish Evangelical Union Hymnal, on the one hand, and various American Unitarian collections on the other. The best known are, “Lamp of our feet, whereby we trace," and "Walk in the light, so shalt thou know." From his Devotional Poems, &c, 1826, the following have passed into the Scottish Evangelical Union Hymnal, 1878:—
1. Fear not, Zion's sons and daughters. Gracious Promises. This is part of a poem on Isaiah xliii. 1, “Fear not, Jacob, tabulated."
2. Hath the invitation ended? Invitation.
3. See we not beyond the portal? Present vision Imperfect. This is part of the poem on 1 Cor. xiii. 12, “Dim and dark our present vision."
4. Those who live in love shall know. Peace.
5. Would'st thou share this benediction! Poor in Spirit.
In addition, there are also in various collections:—
6. Around Bethesda's healing wave. Consolation. This is on pp. 182-185, in his Napoleon, and other Poems, 1822, in 10 stanzas of 6 lines. A cento therefrom is given in a few American hymnals, including Mr. Beecher's Plymouth Collection, No. 746, as, "The waters of Bethesda's pool."
7. There is a life more dear. Spiritual Life. From the Devotional Verses, 1826, p. 96, into Kennedy, 1863, No. 1177, with the omission of stanza v.
8. Say not the law divine. Spiritual Law. Also from the Devotional Verses, 1826, p. 34, into various American hymnals, generally Unitarian, as the Hymn and Tune Book, Boston, 1868, No. 342, &c, where, however, it is rewritten from an irregular metre to S.M. This had previously appeared in Hedge and Huntington's Hymns for the Church of Christ, Boston, U.S., 1853.
Other hymns, given in great part in American Unitarian collections, are annotated under their respective first lines.
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
======================
Barton, Bernard, p. 116, i. Other hymns in common use:—
1. God made the country, yet in scenes. Country Life. This begins with stanza iii. of a poem "Addressed to a Friend in London" in The Reliquary, 1836, p. 83.
2. Lamp of our feet! whereby we trace. Holy Scriptures, published in The Reliquary, 1836, p. 116, in 11 stanzas of 4 lines. It is in common use in its full form, and also abbreviated as (1) "Word of the ever-living God"; and (2) "Word of the everlasting God." In extensive use.
3. There is a Friend more tender, true. Jesus, the Friend. This begins with stanza iii. of "But yet, however cheerless seem," in his Poems & Letters, 1853, p. 254.
4. Walk in the light! So shalt thou know. (Walking in the Light.) Published in his Devotional Verses, 1826, p. 242, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines. It is found in many modern collections, and is one of the most popular of his hymns.
5. We journey through a vale of tears. Heaven Anticipated. In his Poems & Letters, 1853, p. 193.
Of these hymns, Nos. 3, 5, are of an earlier date than the Poems & Letters of 1853; but we have failed to find them in Barton's earlier works.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)
Bernard Barton
Hugh Bourne
1772 - 1852 Person Name: Bourne Hymnal Title: African Methodist Episcopal hymn and tune book Author of "Welcome, O Saviour! to my heart" in African Methodist Episcopal hymn and tune book Bourne, Hugh, the principal founder of the Primitive Methodist Society, and the editor of their first hymn-books, was born at Fordhays, Stoke-on-Trent, April 3, 1772. His father, Joseph Bourne, a person in humble circumstances, was a member of the Church of England, whilst his mother belonged to the Wesleyan Society. His education, for his circumstances, was fairly good; and by earnest application to study he acquired some knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. His mind was of a strongly devotional cast, and the Methodist movement of those days had such attractions for him that he joined himself thereto in 1709. The following year he went to reside near the Mow Cop Colliery, near Burslem, where he had secured an engagement. There, with two or three men of kindred spirit, he carried on a system of Prayer Meetings which culminated in a great Camp Meeting, after the American fashion, upon the Mow Cop Mountain, on Sunday, May 31st, 1807. Other camp meetings followed, but were condemned by the Wesleyan Conference later in the same year. Hugh Bourne, however, continued his evangelistic work in connection with the Wesleyan Society until June 27, 1808, when he was excommunicated, without notice or trial, by the Quarterly Meeting held at Burslem on that day. Subsequent acts of coolness and indifference on the part of the Wesleyan authorities, together with continued success in his evangelistic work, led him gradually to organize the Primitive Methodist Connexion. The decisive break occurred in 1810. From that date to his death, on the 11th Oct., 1852, Bourne gave himself to the work of extending and building up the Society of which he was practically the founder. He was the first editor of its magazine, and the first to compile a hymnal for its use.
Hugh Bourne's first effort in hymnology was the published of a very small General Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs for Camp Meetings, Revivals, &c. 1809. This was enlarged and improved in 1819, 1820, 1821,1822, and again in 1824. To these editions he contributed 10 hymns. In 1829 a second collection was added by him to the foregoing, to which he contributed another 20 hymns. This is the Large Hymn Book, for the Use of the Primitive Methodists. From the first collection one hymn only is still retained in common use:—"Camp-meetings with success are crown'd,” altered to “Camp-meetings God has richly own'd," also rewritten by J. Flesher as, "This meeting with Thy presence crown," in the authorised hymnal of the Connexion; and from the second collection two hymns as follows:—
1. O Righteous Father, Lord of all. Prayer for Children.
2. We have a great High Priest. H. P. of Christ.
To the Large Hymn Book 146 hymns were also contributed which bore the signatures sometimes of "H. B. & W. S." and again "W. S. & H. B." In a note we are informed that the hymns with these ascriptions were by "Hugh Bourne and Wm. Sanders, jointly." Of these the following are at present in the authorized Primitive Methodist Hymn Book, 1853, and, in common with most of the hymns in that book, are greatly mutilated, and attributed now to Wm. Sanders and again to H. Bourne, without any apparent reason:—
1. A Pharisee unwisely stood. Lent.
2. Almighty God, of love divine. Praise.
3. Assist us, O Almighty Lord. Missions.
4. Come, let us lift our heart and voice. Christmas.
5. Come, with your sore diseases. Invitation.
6. Encouraged by Thy gracious word. Prayer.
7. Great Jehovah, Sovereign Lord. Prayer.
8. Hark, the Gospel news is sounding. Invitation.
9. Jesus, my Lord, was crucified. Passiontide.
10. Jesus, Who spilt His precious blood. The Advocate.
11. Led by the God of truth and grace. Seeking Heaven.
12. Light of the Gentile race. Missions.
13. My brethren in the Lord. Altered to— Ye foll'wers of the Lord. Faithfulness.
14. My soul is now united, &c. Altered to— By faith I am united. Union with Christ.
15. Now, Lord, I on Thy truth depend. Altered to— O Lord, I on Thy truth depend. Divine Aid.
16. Now, Lord, Thy blessing we implore. D. Blessing.
17. O, heavenly Zion, rise and shine. Altered to— Arise, O Zion, rise, &c. Missions.
18. See, in the mountain of the Lord. Missions.
19. Tho' in a world of sickness. Altered to— While in this world of sickness. Confidence.
20. To Thee, great Source of light. Confidence.
21. To Thee, O God of power divine. Goodness of God.
22. We now are journeying [going] to the place. Heavenward.
23. We read in Thy most holy word. Holy Baptism.
24. Ye sleeping souls, arise. Exhortation.
In addition to these, all of which are given in the official Collection of the Primitive Methodist Society, there is also:—
25. Welcome, 0 Saviour, to my heart. Prayer— which is well known to the American hymnals.
From a literary point of view these hymns are not worthy of the position which has been accorded to them for so many years. Their simplicity is their redeeming feature.
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
===================
Bourne, Hugh, p. 165. ii., Nos. 14, "My soul is now united," and 19, "Tho' in a world of sickness," appeared in theSmall Hymn Book, 1821. Another hymn by Bourne and Sanders in the Primitive Methodist Hymnal, 1887, "Behold a sinner at Thy feet" (Penitence), is compiled from hymns 493 and 118 in the P. M. Large Hymn Book, 1824.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)
Hugh Bourne
New Hymn and Tune Book
Publication Date: 1889 Publisher: A.M.E. Z. Book Concern Publication Place: New York
New Hymn and Tune Book
