There are hymns that millions know even if they never go near a church. One of them is ‘Amazing grace’. Another is ‘Guide me, O thou great Redeemer’.
Often the music of hymns elicits the enthusiastic response. Not always. Sometimes the words are sufficient in themselves. Narrative hymns like ‘Once in royal David’s city’ and ‘Good king Wenceslas’ lodge a story in the singer’s mind and would do so even without music. Newton and Williams gave us lyrics that go with billowing tunes that bolster the lyrics and invite full-blooded singing.
There are hymns we can sing almost timidly. Such a hymn is ‘Be still, for the presence of the Lord’. Others we can sing with gusto. Of these the most familiar one is probably ‘And can it be’. It is not as popular as it once was but as suitable as any hymn can be for all sots and conditions of men and for all occasions, particularly when as our Salvationist friends (and Williams) say: we cross the Jordan and are promoted to glory.
Williams the hymn-writer sets his hymn in the Old Testament context –liberation from Egypt, wanderings in the wilderness, guidance from the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. He wrote the hymn when he was 28.
The hymn reminds a singer of the dangers of his pilgrimage. (more apparent now perhaps than in the hymn-writer’s day) In God he will find the strength and shield he will need. After Jordan will come the death of death and the destruction of hell. Then will be the time for songs of praises. Williams wrote 800 hymns in Welsh. They were translated into English by another Williams (no relation.) The tune Cwm Rhondda (meaning Valley of the bubbling stream) was composed by a railwayman half-listening to a Sunday morning sermon.
Williams the hymn-writer made a hesitant start in the Church of England ministry but found his vocation elsewhere. He has been described as the Wesley of Wales.
We all have to cross the river. It may come after a journey through a barren land where a preacher or a person of powerful faith is not welcome as it did for Williams. Hopefully our anxious fears subside and we land safe on Canaan’s side.
75 PER CENT RETURN
Simon Vibert, Vicar of Christ Church, Virginia Water, Surrey reports something like a 75 per cent return to church services after lockdown. The church programme includes Scottish dancing and wine-tasting as well as group meetings of a specialist kind.
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