This may be just me, but when I was a kid, we sang 'Make me a channel of your peace' a lot at school and church, and I had no idea the line 'O Master grant that I may never seek' was the first part of several phrases. I thought it was a request in itself, that I was asking that I may never have to seek, similar to Psalm 23 'I shall not want' - that I was asking for my needs to be provided.
And so, when I sang 'To be understood as to understand/ To be loved as to love with all my soul' I thought I was praying to be understood and to be loved, as well as to understand and love. Which felt supremely fair, and I was quite disappointed to come across the actual Prayer of St Francis years later, where the intended meaning is much clearer.
Also, 'For he is our childhood's pattern' (Once in Royal David's City) had me thinking that Jesus was in the patterns in carpets and wallpaper and Altair books!
I was somewhat puzzled by, 'The purple headed mountain', mentioned in 'All things bright and beautiful'. Mrs RR thinks it is definitely rude. "I should know", she says!
It's the Blorenge, near Abergavenny, just for the sake of pedantry.
That's debatable - an allegedly reliable contemporary source suggests that it's Binevenagh Hill in County Londonderry. Although Mrs Alexander did visit the Blorenge region in 1848, the year the hymn was published, she actually lived in Strabane.
Incidentally the area around the Blorenge is fascinating, especially if you are interested in early industrial history.
Can't remember the hymn (and we never sang it) but I do remember coming across one with the line "a box where sweets compacted lie" which puzzled me greatly and still does!
@Enoch , it refers to the freeing of slaves - if a slave didn’t want to leave their master, they would have their ear pierced against the door - Exodus 21 v6.
I agree though, it’s quite obscure.
We were at an Anglican funeral yesterday, and despite the Presbyterian DNA, I am finding I enjoy their liturgy more than I ever did when exposed to it as a child. However, four times, I think it was, we heard or sang prayers that ended, "World without end". What does that mean?
Singing the Gloria Patri with its “world without end” was very much engrained in my American Presbyterian DNA. It was, and in many congregations still is, the standard sung response to the Pardon.
A newer version called Glory to God, which appeared in our 2013 hymnal (also called Glory to God) has caught on in a lot of congregations. Lots of worlds without end in it.
@Enoch , it refers to the freeing of slaves - if a slave didn’t want to leave their master, they would have their ear pierced against the door - Exodus 21 v6.
I agree though, it’s quite obscure.
As I implied, I did know that. To me, though, and I'm sure to many others, it sounds like a reference to what here is a normal rite of passage for teenage girls.
Thank you @RockyRoger for pointing out an ambiguity I hadn't thought of. As a child growing up in a part of the country where in August the hills turned purple with blooming heather, I had simply associated it with something that happened every year and which we looked forward to.
I very strongly suspect that either that, or possibly that distant hills look blue, was what Cecil Frances Alexander thought she was referring to, and that it did not occur to her that people in other parts of the world might not see it that way.
Of course, Zion's hill yields "a thousand sacred sweets".
O! One of the favourite hymns of the Tin Tabernacle Of My Youth, and still worth singing today. Here's a lovely upbeat version of what IMHO is one of Isaac Watts' best works:
My teenage years too - I lost conviction in the theology but the music and singing was wonderful! I was singing along and remembered every word. I guess I thought there would obviously be sweets in Zion!
Always suggests to me a fraught housewife in the midst of domestic chaos, screaming kids, a migraine coming on, and Babylon turns up on the doorstep trying to give her a tract.
We have a deli in Cardiff which sells several varieties of "real" Turkish Delight (not the Fry's version!).
PS The chorus "We're marching to Zion" isn't, I think, by Watts.
Hymnary confirms that Watts' original hymn of 1707 was 10 stanzas, four lines each, and was modified muchly in later years by John Wesley and many others. There's no hint of who wrote the refrain, though I suppose it could have been the composer of the tune which includes it!
The Psalms (at least in some versions) can be obscure, quirky, or even plain funny.
...
After the choir sung Psalm 147 the priest took it upon himself to interrupt the prescribed Eucharistic liturgy with an impromptu explanation of, iirc, "neither delighteth He in any man's legs".
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And so, when I sang 'To be understood as to understand/ To be loved as to love with all my soul' I thought I was praying to be understood and to be loved, as well as to understand and love. Which felt supremely fair, and I was quite disappointed to come across the actual Prayer of St Francis years later, where the intended meaning is much clearer.
Also, 'For he is our childhood's pattern' (Once in Royal David's City) had me thinking that Jesus was in the patterns in carpets and wallpaper and Altair books!
It's the Blorenge, near Abergavenny, just for the sake of pedantry.
Incidentally the area around the Blorenge is fascinating, especially if you are interested in early industrial history.
I agree though, it’s quite obscure.
A newer version called Glory to God, which appeared in our 2013 hymnal (also called Glory to God) has caught on in a lot of congregations. Lots of worlds without end in it.
Thank you @RockyRoger for pointing out an ambiguity I hadn't thought of. As a child growing up in a part of the country where in August the hills turned purple with blooming heather, I had simply associated it with something that happened every year and which we looked forward to.
I very strongly suspect that either that, or possibly that distant hills look blue, was what Cecil Frances Alexander thought she was referring to, and that it did not occur to her that people in other parts of the world might not see it that way.
O! One of the favourite hymns of the Tin Tabernacle Of My Youth, and still worth singing today. Here's a lovely upbeat version of what IMHO is one of Isaac Watts' best works:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EibysQhaZyw&list=RDEibysQhaZyw&start_radio=1
Good tune, though.
Hopefully not Turkish Delight ....
(cf. Narnia stories!)
PS The chorus "We're marching to Zion" isn't, I think, by Watts.
With Babylon must cope.
Always suggests to me a fraught housewife in the midst of domestic chaos, screaming kids, a migraine coming on, and Babylon turns up on the doorstep trying to give her a tract.
Hymnary confirms that Watts' original hymn of 1707 was 10 stanzas, four lines each, and was modified muchly in later years by John Wesley and many others. There's no hint of who wrote the refrain, though I suppose it could have been the composer of the tune which includes it!
Precisely! I remember visiting (more than once) a superb Turkish Delight shop near Sirkeci station in Istanbul.
To quote Half Man Half Biscuit "...full of Eastern monosodium glutamate..."