Monthly column on hymns and songs

'Come, ye souls by sin afflicted'. We sang that at least three times at Limehouse, as my annotated Anglican Hymn Book reveals; the last occasion being in 1984, a year of some personal affliction for me. It is a hymn found in other discerning books from Congregational Praise to Christian Hymns, among those still in use.

Whom were we addressing? Probably ourselves and one another; unlike Joseph Hart's marginally earlier 'Come ye sinners, poor and needy' (also in AHB) which made good preaching but not good singing. The one we did sing encapsulates some gospel Scriptures rare in hymns: 'Blessed are the eyes that see him' and so on. But the hymns came to life again as a precious part of local history.

Local colour

History used to be kings and queens, good and bad, and battles long ago. '1066 and All That' had most of it. For today's juniors it is now often more subversive than that; what bombs really do, who they fall on and why. And for adults, one big growth industry (alongside family trees) is history in its local variety; pre-war poverty, trams and trolley buses, air-raid shelters and ration books. Don't ever dream of throwing out those old copies of The Eagle.

The writer of 'Come, ye souls' was another Joseph; a Birmingham-born Baptist who would have been 240 this year. Orphaned while still very young, he was an engraver's apprentice before moving down to sinful London, and enjoyed his spare-time writing of songs and plays. In those days Dr. John Rippon was ministering just south of the river; he who radically revised Peronnet's 'All hail the power' and later produced his own famous 'Selection' of hymns.

Providentially, young Joseph Swain, aged about 22, went to hear Rippon preach and was converted. Rippon baptised him. He trained for the Baptist ministry and in 1891 became minister of East Street Baptist Church in Walworth. Most of this can be checked out from Cliff Knight's excellent Companion to Christian Hymns, more of which another time.

Sadly, he died in his mid-30s. But not before the congregation had increased sevenfold, and he had published five books, including Walworth Hymns (1792) for local use. Did he perhaps catch the bug from his father-in-Christ? If anyone has a copy collecting dust, please get in touch!

Now come with us one Sunday to East Street Baptist Church in Walworth, since this is usually where we may be found (11.15 and 6.30). We do not now sing from Swain's selection, and you may think the building not that old. And although we have taken the name of his church, it is actually a different foundation on the opposite side of the road. The older church died, and what was once Richmond Street Mission adopted the same name. Mr. Swain might find the street market strange, and on Sundays even offensive, but no doubt that he would be evangelising it as we do.

Give him a medal

Much of this came to light when one of today's Deacons collected some archives from the older church to save them from the tip. He deserves a medal. One day I must shut myself in with them and see what other discoveries emerge. But before leaving East Street, did you spot in our story a hint for hymn writers?

Intended or not, many of the best authors of singable Christian verse serve some kind of apprenticeship on other kinds of writing. Even if you are a Baptist, you are unlikely to produce decent hymns without cutting your teeth on comic verse, love-lyrics, limericks and sonnets. Anyway, that's what we reckon in Walworth.

A touch of local colour

Local colour

Give him a medal

Christopher Idle

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