Charles Wesley (1707–1788) wrote the hymn with the first line beginning “Thou hidden source of calm repose.” He published it in Hymns and Sacred Poems: In Two Volumes, Vol. I (Bristol: Felix Farley, 1749), as Hymn XXXI. It has four stanzas of poetry, six lines in each stanza, in 8s. meter (i.e., L.P.M.). Situated between Hymn XXX with the heading “For the Morning” and Hymn XXXII with the heading “Before Work,” this hymn (though without a heading) was apparently intended as a morning hymn. It certainly makes a fine morning meditation.
One early setting of this hymn is with Stafford in Harmonia Sacra: a Compilation of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, Thomas Butts (Andover, MA: Flagg & Gould, 1816, p. 122). However, its most common setting seems to be with St. Petersburg by Dimitri Stepanovitch Bortniansky (1751-1825). He was born in Ukraine and died in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was a conductor and a prolific composer who influenced Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky. According to John Perry, Bortniansky “composed in different musical styles, including choral works in French, Italian, Latin, German, and Church Slavonic.”
Charles Wesley is, of course, one of the two Wesley brothers who led the Methodist movement in the Church of England. He wrote over 6,000 hymns, and stands with Isaac Watts at the top of English hymnody. While Watts is called “the father of English hymnody,” Wesley is often called “the prince of hymn writers.” If has been repeated often that Charles Wesley said that he would give up all his hymns to have written Watts’s “When I survey the wondrous cross.”[i] In my opinion, many of Wesley’s hymns sound less “Arminian” than the theology of Methodism.
Thou all-sufficient love divine,
My help, and refuge from my foes,
Secure I am, if thou art mine;
And lo! from sin and grief and shame
I hide me, Jesus, in thy Name.
2. Thy mighty Name salvation is,
And keeps my happy soul above;
Comfort it brings, and power, and peace,
And joy and everlasting love;
To me with thy dear Name are given
Pardon and holiness and Heaven.
3. Jesu, my all in all thou art,
My rest in toil, my ease in pain,
The medicine* of my broken heart,
In war my peace, in loss my gain,
My smile beneath the tyrant’s frown,
In shame my glory, and my crown.
4. In want my plentiful supply,
In weakness my almighty power,
In bonds my perfect liberty,
My light in Satan’s darkest hour,
In grief my joy unspeakable,
My life in death, my Heaven in hell.
* Many hymnals substitute “healing” for “medicine” in this line.
[i] This is oft repeated, and usually written “reportedly said” – which apparently means this is a passed down story that cannot be decisively proven.
No comments:
Post a Comment