Sunday Morning Hymns

The text for On Jordan’s Stormy Banks, or I Am Bound for the Promised Land, was written by English Baptist minister Samuel Stennett. In the United States, the hymn was paired with the tune THE PROMISED LAND, and it appears with this tune in The Sacred Harp and The Southern Harmony. The refrain was added in the U.S. by Rigdon McIntosh. The text is included so you can add your voice and sing along.

From contemporary hymnals, Reginald Heber’s poetry is most often sung when the congregation joins their voice to ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty.’ Much of Heber’s hymn writing was intended to provide hymns that would relate to epistle and gospel lessons during the church year. Brightest and Best of the Stars of the Morning relates to the visit of the Magi and contemplates our own gifts to the Christ child. Heber’s text is included, so please add your voice and sing along.

Go Tell It on the Mountain was one of many African-American folk songs and spirituals collected and adapted by John W. Work during his tenure at Fisk University in Nashville. As director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, Work helped Go Tell It on the Mountain become a well-known and widely sung Christmas song. The lyrics are included so you can add your voice and join in announcing the Savior’s birth.

O rest beside the weary road, and hear the angels sing.

This Christmas carol by Edmund Sears sets the angels announcement to the shepherds against the concerns and events of his day. Sears wrote the text in 1849, but its call to hear the angels’ message of peace and goodwill over the Babel sounds of the world have made this carol timeless. Sears’ text is included so that you can add your voice and sing along.

This hauntingly beautiful Appalachian folk melody was collected by John Jacob Niles and published in 1934. Niles heard the melody fragments sung by a young girl in Murphy, North Carolina, and used that to compose the version known today. The text is included, so please add your voice and sing along.

Phillips Brooks, an Episcopal priest in the United States, wrote “O Little Town of Bethlehem” for his Sunday school at Christmas 1868. The tune, ST LOUIS, was composed hurriedly by his organist. Neither Brooks nor the organist expect the hymn to last beyond that Christmas. However, two printings helped the carol gain wider recognition, and it has been passed down through the years. The text for this lovely carol are included, so please add your voice and sing along.

This hymn is a bit of a departure from older hymns that I usually share on Sunday mornings. The hymn tune, PLEADING SAVIOR, was composed in the 19th century, but the text for Advent was written in 1993 by Disciples of Christ minister and hymn writer Jim Miller. Rev. Miller's text is included, so please add your voice and sing along.

"O Come, O Come Immanuel" is a Latin hymn translated to English by two 19th century hymn writers. Its flowing, contemplative melody makes it a wonderful complement to the observance of Advent, prayerfully anticipating Christ's arrival. The text is included, so please add your voice and sing along.

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.