Monthly column on hymns and songs

Dipping into the treasury

Unless they are the sort who throw away every scrap of unwanted paper, people who work with hymns acquire in time a small mountain of other people's products. We keep them because they were written by friends, or struck us as interesting; because we might value a chance to sing them, or because they are there.

On this column's 48th and final appearance, lean over my shoulder as I whiz through some which by various routes have reached me over many years. Let's start with A.

'A daring age is ours; we probe the skies at will', wrote Rosamond Herklots of Bromley; undated, but she died in 1987. She wrote more than just 'Forgive our sins' and this one leads from science, conflict and confusion to Christ.

'A stable lamp is lighted' is more-than-Christmas text from Richard Wilbur, the American poet who bucked every fashionable trend of the 1960s. These lovely, searching verses should be in every hymn book.

'A woman and a foreigner, she dares accost the Lord'; thank you, Ian Fraser, for this. The pioneer Scottish writer was not content with perpetuating religious cliches; where would you go for a hymn on the Syro-Phoenician woman of Mark 7? 'Accost' is shockingly right.

'Above the moon earth rises' is another space-age offering from America, by Thomas Troeger. The original Hymns Ancient and Modern found room for just two transatlantic texts which both became classics over here. The latest one includes this wonderfully poetic echo of Genesis and Romans.

'After darkness, light' is a 48-word gem from the Methodist Fred Pratt Green. It spans Good Friday and Easter morning; 'Take his body down' and then, 'Come whatever may, God will have his way... Alleluia!'

'All creation groans and travails', by contrast, is J.M. Neale's 19th-century hymn 'on the Cattle Plague': 'Pity then thy guiltless creatures... for our sins it is they perish...' We may yet need it again.

'All praise to you, O Lord' could do with a better opening; there are some other hymns on John 2, but Hyde Beadon's second verse ('altd.) is unique: 'You speak, and it is done;/obedient to your word,/the water reddening into wine/proclaims the present Lord.'

'And did you travel light, dear Lord' is an updated, unauthorised version of a text by Geoffrey Dearmer, son of Percy, who at the age of 103 was not surprisingly the Hymn Society's senior member. His three stanzas bring me close to Jesus: 'As in dark drops the pitting rain falls on a dusty street, so tears shall fall and fall again to wash your wounded feet.'

'Angels of God, you see the Father's face' is a 1971 hymn by Marcella Martin, otherwise unknown to me. Has anyone else written so recently, so beautifully, about angels?

'Arise, dead Lazarus, come forth'; full marks to Canadian Keith Landis (1993) for a short text on a long chapter, and a first line which instantly says 'You are here'.

'Around thy grave, Lord Jesus, thy empty grave, we stand'; not many Baptism hymns by Baptists secure a place in Baptist books. I wonder why so many omit James Deck's vivid text?

Hymns to illustrate parables: do you know Jane Parker Huber's 'As trees from tiny seeds can grow, as yeast expands the lifeless dough...'? Only if you have some north American books on your shelves.

But you're Welsh? For your Assembly's 1999 opening, Alan Luff wrote 'At a time of new beginnings, Wales before the world now stands'. We are not good at national hymns these days; here is a fine exception.

I have not even reached the letter 'B'. Some other time, perhaps?

We are greatly indebted to Christopher Idle for his excellent monthly column over the past four years. We shall miss him greatly - the only monthly columnist who always met the deadline! God bless you, Chris, in coming days. Editor

Dipping into the treasury

Dipping into the treasury

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