Favorite Songs Sunday

Have you ever thanked God for giving to the Christian church Catherine Winkworth?

 

CATHERINE WINKWORTH: She was born in 1827 in England. She was the fourth of six children and the youngest daughter. Her family was devout member of the Church of England. Her home was filled with much prayer and hymn singing. She received a special education at the hand of governesses and private tutors. When she was 14years old her mother died. When her father remarried the next year she and her sister moved to Germany to live with an aunt. Here was kindled a desire to translate German into English. 

 

At the age of 35 she was back in England where she devoted her life to promote higher education for women. She never did marry. Her works in academia included establishing a school that led to the founding of the University College in Bristol. She was secretary of the Clifton association for the Promotion of Higher Education for Women and was a delegate to a German conference on women’s work where she delivered an address in German. She died suddenly at the age of 50. 

 

Her impact on our church is felt every time we pick our hymnal. 56 of our hymns in our hymnal were translated by her from the German language into the English. She was known for her faithfulness to the original song, clearness of thought and the poetic flow of the language. She wrote in one of her books: the hope that these utterance of Christian piety which have comforted and strengthened the hearts of many true Christians in their native country may speak to the hearts of some among us to help and cheer those who must strive and suffer and to make us feel afresh what a deep and true Communion of Saints exists among all the children of God in different churches and lands. 

 

Thanks to her work we sing, Lift up your Head You Mighty Gates, From Heaven Above to Earth I come, Christ the Life of all the Living, Oh Darkest Woe, Christ the Lord is Risen Again. Jesus Priceless Treasure. 

 

I asked have you ever thanked God because of her. You, but not knowing for she translated the hymn; NOW THANK WE ALL OUR GOD. 

 

I read this week that my part of our nation’s 12 Trillion dollar debt is $40,000. Back in 1800’s in England August Toplady was troubled by his nation’s debt. But let me back up for a moment.

 

AUGUSTUS TOPLADY was born 1740 in England. At the age of 26 he was ordained by the Church of England. He was editor of “Gospel Magazine.”   October 1775 issue he wrote an article titled, “Life a Journey”   He concluded it with the words:

Yet, if you fall, be humbled; do not despair. Pray afresh to God, who is able to raise you up and to set you on your feet again. Look to the blood of the covenant and say to the Lord from the depth of your heart:

            Rock of Ages, cleft for me

            Let me hide myself in Thee!

            Foul I to the fountain fly

            Wash me, Savior, or I die.

Make those words of the Apostle your motto: “Perplexed, but not in despair, cast down, but not destroyed. 

That was first the Christian church would know of that most favorite hymn.

 

Three months later he would write another article. “A remarkable calculation. Introduced here for the sake of the Spiritual Improvements subjoined. Question and answers relating to the National Debt.”  There he expressed his concern that the national debt was so large that the government would never be able to pay it off. He then went on to calculate the debt of sin each human being has. Figuring one sin per second, graciously omitting the extra days of leap year he reckoned that “at the age of 10 years old we have 315,360,000 sins. At the age of 20: 630,720,000, at the age of 30: 946,080,000. and at the age of 80 years old, 2,522,880,000. At the conclusion of the article was a four verse hymn titled: “A living and dying Prayer for the Holiest Believer in the World,” thus indicating that by Christ’s blood the debt was paid. So the Christian church received the whole hymn we know as Rock of Ages. 

 

Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in thee;

Let the water and the blood From thy riven side which flowed

Be of sin the double cure: Cleanse me from its guilt and pow'r.

 

Not the labors of my hands Can fulfill thy law's demands.

Could my zeal no respite know, Could my tears forever flow,

All for sin could not atone; Thou must save and thou alone.

 

Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to thy cross I cling;

Naked, come to thee for dress, Helpless, look to thee for grace.

Foul, I to the fountain fly -- Wash me, Savior, or I die!

 

While I draw this fleeting breath, When mine eyelids close in death,

When I soar to worlds unknown, See thee on thy judgment throne,

Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in thee!

 

 

Our next hymn writer has captured the truth of that passage in her life:

I did not know this hymn writer or her story. Her total output of hymns approached 9,000. She agreed to write three hymns a week for the publishing company Biglow & Main. In all she wrote for them almost 6,000 hymns. She admitted that she composed as many as 6/7 hymns a day. She used 216 pen names besides her own. 60 years after her death, in 1975 she was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Here are her own words about hymn writing:

 

That some of my hymns have been dictated by the blessed Holy Spirit I have no doubt; and that others have been the result of deep meditation I know to be true; but that the poet has any right to claim special merit for himself is certainly presumptuous. … Most of my poems have been written during the long night watches when the distraction of the day could not interfere with the rapid flow of thought…It may seem a little old fashioned, always to begin one’s work with prayer, but I never undertake a hymn without first asking the good Lord to be my inspiration in the work that I am about to do. 

 

Let me go back to her beginning of her life: She was born Frances Jane Crosby 1820 in the state of New York. At the age of 8 weeks because of doctor error she became totally blind. Her father died before she was one year old. They would later determine that she was incurably blind. At the age of 8 she would write these words:

            Oh, what a happy soul I am although I cannot see,

            I am resolved that in this world contented I will be

How many blessings I enjoy that other people don’t

To weep and sigh because I’m blind, I cannot and I won’t.

 

She loved climbing trees and riding horses and climbing fences like other children. She enrolled in New York Institute for the Blind and she became a spokesperson for and representative for the school. In 1844 she went to Washington DC to become the first woman to address the United States Congress. At the age of 38 she would marry a blind teacher and musician. They lived among the poor in tenement housing in Lower Manhattan. They had one child, who died in infancy.

Knowing this story, it gives such meaning to me to sing the song she wrote:

To God be the glory; great things he has done!

He so loved the world that he gave us his Son,

Who yielded his life an atonement for sin

And opened the life-gate that all may go in.

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!

Let the earth hear his voice!

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!

Let the people rejoice!

Oh, come to the Father through Jesus the Son

And give him the glory -- great things he has done!

 

Great things he has taught us, great things he has done,

And great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son,

But purer and higher and greater will be