Hymn: My Hope Is
Built on Nothing Less
When speaking of his hymn, author Edward Mote said, "one day it came into my mind as I went to labor to write a hymn on the 'Gracious Experience of a Christian.'" The firstfruits of his labor were four stanzas and the refrain of this hymn. After leaving a meeting, he visited a sick parishioner, where they sang the original four stanzas. He then returned home and penned the final two. The hymn was published in 1836 under the title "The Immutable Basis of a Sinner's Hope," and originally began, "Nor earth nor hell my soul can move." The tune SOLID ROCK was penned by William Bradbury, who also wrote "Jesus Loves Me."
When speaking of his hymn, author Edward Mote said, "one day it came into my mind as I went to labor to write a hymn on the 'Gracious Experience of a Christian.'" The firstfruits of his labor were four stanzas and the refrain of this hymn. After leaving a meeting, he visited a sick parishioner, where they sang the original four stanzas. He then returned home and penned the final two. The hymn was published in 1836 under the title "The Immutable Basis of a Sinner's Hope," and originally began, "Nor earth nor hell my soul can move." The tune SOLID ROCK was penned by William Bradbury, who also wrote "Jesus Loves Me."
Hymn: Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
This Charles Wesley hymn is perhaps his best-known
work, “Hark! the herald angels sing” and
“Christ the Lord is risen today” notwithstanding. The hymn began as a sort of
“spiritual parody,” according to Frank Baker and Carlton Young, of a poem
written by John Dryden for Henry Purcell’s 1691 opera King Arthur. That poem read:
Fairest Isle, all
isles Excelling
Seat
of Pleasures, and of Loves;
Venus here will chuse
her Dwelling,
And
forsake her Cyprian Groves.
The very end of the hymn is a restructuring of the first
stanza of Joseph Addison’s “When all your mercies, O my God,” which read,
“[Transported with the view, I’m] lost/In wonder, love, and praise.” Paul
Westermeyer writes, “Wesley moves ‘lost’ to the beginning of the line ‘lost in
wonder, love, and praise,’ and the line takes on a newly potent scope. Between
these points, as usual, he has compressed multiple biblical allusions.”
Anthem: The Gift of Love
This anthem, written by Hal Hopson as a paraphrase of I
Corinthians 13, is set to the British folk song O WALY WALY, which adapted by
Hopson. After being published in 1972, the anthem gained enough popularity to
be converted and used as a hymn, particularly for weddings. Hal Hopson was a
major contributor to the Presbyterian Psalter,
published in 1994.
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