Sunday Morning Hymns

When thinking of Advent hymns, Charles Wesley’s “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus” is often the first to come to mind. Set here to the tune HYFRYDOL, Wesley’s text recalls the presence of Christ while also anticipating his second coming. The text is included, so please add your voice and sing along.

Katherine K. Davis may be best known for the Christmas song, The Little Drummer Boy. She wrote the first stanza of this hymn as an anthem using Welsh folk tune, ASH GROVE. Popular as a Thanksgiving hymn, Let All Things Now Living anticipates the joining of humanity with all creation in adoration to God. The text is included, so please add your voice and sing along.

Among the many hymns by Fanny Crosby, Pass Me Not was written after the poet’s visit to a prison where she spoke and some of her hymns were sung. Sometimes critiqued for suggesting that Jesus would pass anyone by, the hymn is written and sung as a human prayer, like the blind men by the road who implored Jesus to have mercy on them. The text is included, so please add your voice and sing along.

The view from a hilltop outside of Bath, England, inspired Folliott Pierpoint to write this text. It first appeared in a book of eucharistic hymns and poems with the title, “The Sacrifice of Praise.” The text is included so you can add your voice and sing along.

Written by Jeremiah Rankin as a Christian good-bye in 1880, God Be with You Till We Meet Again almost immediately became popular at the Congregational Church where Rankin served at the time. The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square usually ends the broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word from the Salt Lake Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah, with this hymn. The text is included so you can add your voice and sing along.

Regularly sung to the hymn tune BEECHER, as it is here, this hymn is considered by some to be Charles Wesley at his finest. Expressing the Wesleyan idea of moving toward Christian perfection, Love Divine remains a popular hymn, appearing in most Protestant hymnals. The hymn text is included, so join the pilgrimage, add your voice, and sing along.

William S. Pitts wrote this hymn five years before the construction of the Little Brown Church after being moved by the sight of the glen where the church would eventually be built. The hymn gained its popularity after efforts began in the early 20th century to preserve the Little Brown Church. The text is included so you can add your voice and sing along.

Written in 1895, with its longing for truth, Open My Eyes That I May See may be the best known hymn by Clara H. Scott. A composer and publisher as well as a hymnwriter, Scott was also the first woman to publish a volume of anthems. The hymn text is included. Please add your voice and sing along.

Written in 1864 by Baptist minister, composer, and poet Robert Lowry, this hymn is a well-known American melody. Aaron Copland used it in Old American Songs, and it was sung at the funeral of Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. The text is included, so please add your voice and sing along.

Originally published under the title, 'After Harvest', this hymn was written by Henry Alford while he was rector of Aston Sandford church in Buckinghamshire, England. After gaining popularity in the United States, 'Come, Ye Thankful People, Come' became associated with Thanksgiving celebrations.