Sunday Morning Hymns

Sabine Baring-Gould was a prolific scholar, hymn writer, and collector of folk songs as well as an Anglican priest, having taken Holy Orders in 1864. From the time it was first published in 1865, ‘Now the Day Is Over’ gradually increased in popularity. However, the hymn has been omitted from many Protestant hymnals published in the late 20th century. The simple melody is borne up by a flowing harmony, and the text is included. Please add your voice and sing along.

Rev. David Edwards (1947-2019) was a minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He served congregations in Kentucky, Virginia, and Indiana. A songwriter and recording musician, Edwards adapted and set to his tune, LORETTO, this text from the section of Alexander Campbell’s “The Christian System” where Campbell describes the act of communion as commemorative of Christ’s death. Campbell claims that in passing the bread and cup to a fellow disciple, each one claims the other in the bonds of Christian fellowship. We are no longer strangers. We share the same Lord, and we are joined as God’s people. We share our joys and our sorrows. Edwards’ text is included, so please add your voice and sing along.

Scripture is filled with examples of how God can take something that we might consider insignificant and accomplish great things. Jesus fed a multitude with five loaves of bread and two small fish. We should never underestimate the significance of the gifts that God has given each of us. Little Is Much When God Is in It expresses that important principle. Kitty Louise Suffield, along with her husband Fred Suffield, worked at a church in Ottawa with the pastor, A. J. Shea.  They encouraged the pastor’s teen-aged son, George Beverly, to use his voice to sing God’s praises. The text is included here, so please add your voice and sing along.

In the Sweet By and By emerged from the American Midwest. Sanford Fillmore Bennett penned this hymn in Elkhorn, Wisc., when his friend Joseph Webster was in a period of depression. Upon reading the words, according to Bennett's autobiography, Webster's eyes kindled, and he began writing the melody. The text is included, so please add your voice and sing along. I pray it will make your eyes kindle as well.

During a visit with her friend Fanny Crosby, Phoebe Knapp played the now familiar melody to this hymn. Knapp asked Crosby, “What do you think the tune says?” Crosby replied, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.” Crosby then recited the entire first stanza. The hymn focuses on heaven and calls us to experience the foretaste of glory divine in our praise and worship. The text is included, so please add your voice and sing along.

Henry Francis Lyte found inspiration for Abide With Me in the Emmaus story of Luke 24, in which the disciples implore Jesus to “abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is well spent.” Lyte developed tuberculosis, and as he felt his end approaching, he wished to preach once more to his people. He preached a sermon on Holy Communion and assisted in the Eucharist. That evening, he gave the hymn to his daughter Anna. Lyte died just a few weeks later, and the hymn was first sung at his funeral. The text is included here so you can add your voice and sing along.

Drawn from the text of Deuteronomy 33:27, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms gives the First Testament text a distinct Christian character, describing Jesus as the friend on whom one can lean. The hymn is an iconic gospel song, using repetition that makes the hymn easy to memorize and creates call and response. I unintentionally switched the second and third stanzas, but the text is included, so please add your voice and sing along.

A native of Indiana, Mary Jane “Jennie” Wilson was known as the Fanny Crosby of the West, publishing hundreds of Christian hymns. She had typhoid fever as a little girl. The infection damaged her spine, and she used a wheelchair from her childhood. Emphasizing the steadfast nature of God, ‘Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand’ gained popularity in the early 20th century. Wilson’s text is included, so please add your voice and sing along.

I once heard a Lutheran pastor refer to this hymn as “the Lutheran fight song.” Heinrich Heine called it the Marseillaise of the Reformation. It is probably the best known hymn of the Lutheran tradition, and it is certainly one of the most loved. The translation into English by Frederick Hedge is less literal than other translations but is more popular among non-Lutheran denominations. The text of Hedge’s translation is included, so please add your voice and sing along.

Little is known about the author and origins of this hymn, although the text may have been written by German Jesuits. The hymn is set to the tune CRUSADER’S HYMN; however, it is unlikely that the hymn itself is associated with the Crusades. The tune is a Silesian folk tune. The German text first appears in 1842 with this tune. Even though the author is unknown, the text is included, so please add your voice and sing along.

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