Anapestic Meter

What? What is that?

Awhile back, I ran across on Archive.Org the hymn book Sacred Poetry and Music Reconciled, Or, A Collection of Hymns Original and Compiled, by Samuel Willard. (Boston, MA: Leonard C. Bowles, 1830). In it I noticed several hymns labeled with the meters “C.M.A.,” “L.M.A.,” “S.M.A.” I had never noticed that kind of labeling before...

And I am always up for learning more about the meter designations. The hymn meter is the pattern of syllables and stresses in the hymn text. I have posted a number of times on the subject. Here are most, if not all:

1. Common Meter Extended hymns
2. Explanation of Meter, from The Baptist Standard Hymnal
3. Hymn meter
4. Hymn Meter Again
5. Hymn Meter Explanations and Information
6. Metrical Index of Tunes
7. Online metrical indices
8. 50th hymn meter

Willard’s explanation of his designations are as follows:

• L. M. A. - Long Meter Anapestic. 10.10.11.11. (usually, but not always; this also includes hymn with 4 lines of 11s. and one 8-line hymn that is 10.11.11.11.12.11.11.11.)
• C. M. A. - Common Meter Anapestic. 11.8.11.8.
• S. M. A. - Short Meter Anapestic. 8.8.11.8.

Some relevant excerpts from Willard’s book Sacred Poems:

A considerable number of hymns in this collection are in the anapestic measure, like the first, fourth, and eighteenth, containing in general three syllables for a measure or bar; while most of the tunes, which are named for them, have usually been sung in iambic verse, dividing each measure into two parts, the first a semibreve, or other notes equivalent to it, and the second a minim. If these hymns should be adopted in any society, where these tunes are not actually divided in the collections of music in use, the following rule will remove every difficulty in performing these or any other tunes of the kind, in the manner required; viz.

Let every measure, intended for three syllables, be divided into three equal parts, by splitting semibreves, or removing slurs, and let every part be sounded on the same tone, it would otherwise be. Thus, for instance, in the tune of Froome, named for the first hymn, let the slur be removed from the crotchets in the first full measure of the first line, and let the minim in the first measure of the second line be performed like two crotchets. The only exceptions to this rule are those, which are signified by numbers or points in several hymns, and which may be observed, or not, as may be found convenient. When the first syllable in a measure has the number 1 over it, it is to fill two thirds of the bar, and for the two following syllables, marked with the number 4, the last third of the bar. is to be divided, as in hymn 4. (pages 11-12)

Some of the metres are distinguished in this book into seven varieties, and are marked by the figures 1, 2, 3, &c. prefixed to the tunes, which are named. The first variety is pure iambic from the beginning to the end of every line. The second is precisely the same with the first, excepting a trochee in the beginning of the first line. With a little attention, the chorister will understand the other diversities, which, in the adaptation of tunes, are almost as important to be observed, as the difference of metre. (page 18)

Willard says that most of the named tunes in his book can be found in the Bridgewater, Handel and Haydn, and American Psalmody collections.

A little about Samuel Willard:

Samuel Willard, the son of William Willard and Catherine Wilder, was born April 18, 1775 (his daughter wrote 1776). His grandfather was a Congregational minister and his father a deacon. He graduated from Harvard College and became a Congregational minister. The initial council declined to ordain him due to his Unitarian tendencies, but a more liberal-thinking group was convened and ordained him. Willard became a long-time influential Unitarian in Massachusetts. He compiled two hymn books – Sacred Poems (1830), Regular Hymns: on a Great Variety of Evangelical Subjects and Important Occasions: with Musical Directions, for all the Varieties of Appropriate Expression (1824), and The Family Psalter (circa 1857). The latter may have never been published, and his other books probably found only limited use outside his region (and probably not much outside the Unitarian fold). His daughter writes:

…he gave much thought and time to the subject of sacred music. He composed many hymns; on his favorite plan of adapting the poetical to the musical emphasis. He left a manuscript collection of four hundred or more of these hymns;, about one hundred of which were composed in his eighty-second year. After his birthday of eighty-two he prepared an elaborate preface to this collection, in which he emphasized the idea, that sacred music and poetry, fitly adapted to each other, are to be among the great factors in harmonizing the discordant elements of the world. This collection he named ‘The Family Psalter’.” (Life of Samuel Willard, D.D. A.A.S. of Deerfield, Mass, Mary Willard, editor. Boston, MA: George H. Ellis, 1892, pp. 22-23)

As far as I have discovered, the C.M.A., L.M.A., and S.M.A. metrical designations seem to be limited in use to Willard’s work. They may have been created by him for his work, and not used elsewhere. In Regular Hymns, Willard does not use metrical designations, but simply gave tunes for the hymn. He wrote, “In general, I have named two tunes for each hymn, taken either from the third edition of Deerfield Collection, or the tenth of the Bridgewater Collection. Those from the former are marked with a star, and those from the latter with a cross; to prevent any mistake” (pp. x-xi).

Samuel Willard died October 8, 1859, and is buried at the Laurel Hill Cemetery in Deerfield, Franklin County, Massachusetts.

Baptists who were U.S. Presidents

Four men affiliated with Baptist churches have become President of the United States. Three were Democrats and one was a Republican. Two were northerners* and two were southerners.

1.     Warren G. Harding (Republican from Ohio, 1921–23), 29th president. He was a member and trustee of the Trinity Baptist Church, Marion, Ohio. He joined the church on May 6, 1883, when he was 17 years old and it was still called the Free Baptist Church. Historians have generally ranked Harding as one of the worst Presidents. This is based on the idea that he accomplished little while in office, and for corruption during his administration – several of his appointees went to prison for various scandals. I don’t think Harding himself was accused of improprieties beyond allowing it to go on.

2.     Harry S. Truman (Democrat from Missouri, 1945-1953), 33rd president. Truman is probably best known for following Roosevelt, being plain-spoken, and authorizing dropping the bombs on Japan. I know little about his presidency otherwise, or of his Baptist beliefs. At the age of 18, Truman was baptized at the Benton Boulevard Baptist Church in Kansas City, Missouri, where he was living at the time. He later became a member of the First Baptist Church of Grandview, Missouri, (then called the Grandview Baptist Church) in 1916. In 1945 Truman wrote, “I am a Baptist because I think that sect gives the common man the shortest and most direct approach to God.” (Source: Michael Devine, director of Harry S. Truman Library and Museum)

3.     James Earl “Jimmy” Carter (Democrat from Georgia, 1977-1981). Carter is often remembered for speaking of being born-again (and by some for giving away the Panama Canal). His presidency by many is thought of as ineffective, and after one term the American people replaced him with Ronald Reagan. At the time of his presidency he was a Southern Baptist, but later his church are affiliated with the more liberal Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. He was a popular Sunday School teacher at Maranatha Baptist Church, Plains, Georgia. As a Baptist he would be considered on the liberal end of the spectrum. No questionable moral dealings or improprieties are associated with his presidency.

4.     William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton (Democrat from Arkansas, 1993-2001). He was baptized by Park Place Baptist Church in Hot Springs, Arkansas. One of the most remembered acts of this Southern Baptist president is the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. Though a Baptist, the president and his family attended the Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C. while he was president.

Related:

Abraham Lincoln was raised by Baptist parents, but he was never a member of any church. George Washington was purportedly baptized by John Gano during the Revolutionary War. Regardless of the truth of it – two of Gano’s grandchildren claimed in an affidavit that their aunt, John Gano’s oldest daughter, told them that her father had baptized Washington – it seems that George Washington remained outwardly affiliated with the Episcopal Church.

* Missouri may best be considered a “border state” rather than “Northern.”

Obey God

You can choose to run from God, but God can capture you on the ship you’ve chosen to flee on, and throw you in the belly of a whale. His arsenal is bigger and badder than yours. It’s best to just do as God says.

Our Master

1. Immortal Love for ever full,
For ever flowing free,
For ever shared, for ever whole,
A never-ebbing sea.

2. Our outward lips confess the name
All other names above;
Love only knoweth whence it came
And comprehendeth love.

3. We may not climb the heavenly steeps
To bring the Lord Christ down;
In vain we search the lowest deeps,
For him no depths can drown:

4. But warm, sweet, tender, even yet
A present help is he;
And faith has still its Olivet,
And love its Galilee.

5. The healing of his seamless dress
Is by our beds of pain;
We touch him in life’s throng and press,
And we are whole again.

6. Through him the first fond prayers are said
Our lips of childhood frame;
The last low whispers of our dead
Are burdened with his name.

7. Alone, O Love ineffable,
Thy saving name is given;
To turn aside from thee is hell,
To walk with thee is heaven.

The American Quaker poet and abolitionist, John Greenleaf Whittier, wrote the above poem.  This poem, entitled “Our Master” and originally written in 1856, appears in Whittier’s work, The Tent on the Beach, and other Poems (1867) on page 143-152. There it has 38 stanzas of 4 lines. Some portions of it have been adapted to Christian hymnals. The above seven stanzas are verses 1, 2, 5, 13, 14, 15, and 31 in the 1867 printing.

Whittier was born at Haverhill, Massachusetts, December 17, 1807, the son of John Whittier and Abigail Hussey. He grew up on a farm and also learned the trade of shoemaking. Whittier died September 7, 1892, and is buried at Union Cemetery in Amesbury, Essex County, Massachusetts.

The poetry of “Our Master” is often set to the tune Bishopthorpe by Jeremiah Clarke, an English chorister and composer born 1674 and died in 1707. Clarke composed both sacred and secular music. He is buried at Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London, England.

The “M’s” have it

Morphing off of a Facebook post by Pastor Jason Skipper, October 2025.

“M’s” you can mention in order to get in a big fuss with someone:

• Men only as preachers
• Music in church
• Modesty in apparel
• Manuscripts of the Bible

Traits of a good hymn

“A hymn ought to be as regular in its structure as any other poem; it should have a distinct subject, and that subject should be simple, not complicated, so that whatever skill or labour might be required in the author to develope his plan, there should be little or none required on the part of the reader to understand it. Consequently, a hymn should have a beginning, middle, and end.”

...

“A line is no more metre because it contains a certain concatenation of syllables, than so many crotchets and quavers, pricked at random, would constitute a bar of music.”

James Montgomery in his “Introductory Essay” to The Christian Psalmist; or, Hymns, Selected and Original, pp. xiv, xvi.

Immersion of the eunuch by Philip

Acts 8:38 And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.

l. They both went down to the water.] Considering how frequently bathing was used in those hot countries, it is not to be wondered that baptism was generally administered by immersion, though I see no proof that it was essential to the institution. It would be very unnatural to suppose that they went down to the water, merely that Philip might take up a little water in his hand to pour on the eunuch. A person of his dignity had, no doubt, many vessels with him in his baggage on such a journey through so desert a country, a precaution absolutely necessary for travellers in those parts, and never omitted by them. See Dr. Shaw’s Travels, Pref. p. 4.

Philip Doddridge (1702–1751), “Philip Baptizes the Ethiopian Eunuch,” The Family Expositor; Or, a Paraphrase and Version of the New Testament, With Critical Notes, London: Frederick Westley and A. H. Davis, 1831, p. 403.

Today Philip Doddridge is perhaps best remembered as a hymnwriter. However, he was an important Non-conformist (Congregationalist) pastor, author, and educator in his day. The above quote from his comments on the baptism of the eunuch supply an oft-needed corrective to modern pedobaptists who would deny the early practice of immersion. Doddridge himself did not see immersion as inherent or essential to the ordinance, but nevertheless was able to read the immersion of the eunuch performed by Philip – without wearing pedobaptist glasses that saw it as a sprinkling or pouring.

His reference to “Dr. Shaw’s Travels” is as follows:

“We took Care in the first Place, to provide ourselves with a sufficient Quantity of Goat’s Skins, which we filled with Water, every four or five Days, or as often as we found it.” Travels; or Observations, Relating to Several Parts of Barbary and the Levant, Thomas Shaw, Oxford: At the Theatre, 1738, p. iv.

Yes, Doug, I am a genealogist

“A half truth masquerading as the whole truth becomes a complete untruth.” -- J. I. Packer

Last week, in contrast to Jonathan Burris, I mentioned that I have found non- and anti- KJV controversialists who are open, honest, and sincere.[i] I find others who are stuck playing one string on their banjoes and can pluck no other! In some cases, they may be willingly ignorant, determined to debate (regardless), and even deceivers & being deceived.

The Gary Hudson-Doug Kutilek-Rick Norton team of contenders seem to fit that description. They have lit on their “true truth,” found the one string they can pluck, and will not be dislodged from it regardless of the evidence. In “The TRUE Genealogy & Genesis of ‘KJV–Onlyism,’” Doug Kutilek writes:

In the realm of King-James-Version-Onlyism, just such a genealogy of error can be easily traced. All writers who embrace the KJV-only position have derived their views ultimately from Seventh-day Adventist missionary, theology professor and college president, Benjamin G. Wilkinson (died 1968), through one of two or three of his spiritual descendants.

They have determined to dismiss “King James Only” theology and history out of hand by foisting on it a genealogy error. Doug Kutilek and others have made a cottage industry out of it.

Find someone who believed only the King James Bible was the word of God before Benjamin Wilkinson? “Dismissed! They can’t be KJVO because that does not fit our pre-determined genealogical scheme.” If my Baptist ancestors never heard of Benjamin Wilkinson, J. J. Ray, Fuller, or Ruckman, but believed their King James Bibles represented the inspired word of God? “Dismissed! This can’t be so, because we have already set the parameters and drawn the lines.” There is no reasoning with these guys. They will not be budged by any kind of evidence. How do we know? We’ve tried, and they still won’t move.[ii] 

The H-K-N team excels in hypocrisy. When olden King James Bible supporters say they could accept some changes in the KJV, this team then erases them from the line of “KJV Only” supporters. However, when contemporary King James Bible supporters say they could accept some changes in the KJV, this team charges that these are lying and are still to be considered “KJV Only.”

These are:

• Deceivers, Deceiving, Being Deceived?
• Woefully Willfully Ignorant?
• Dogmatically Dead-Set to Debate?
• Quibblers Qualified in Quibbling?

“A half truth masquerading as the whole truth becomes a complete untruth.” -- J. I. Packer

---

[i] When I first became acquainted with him, I thought Mark Ward fit in that category. Continued interactions with him make me doubt it.
[ii] 1. One of Rick Norton’s perennial lines is that Archbishop Richard Bancroft (or another prelate or somebody) altered “robbers of temples” in Acts 19:37 to make it say “robbers of churches.” He can find one old 1671 quote to that effect; inflate the claim with dozens of others with no evidence other than the first claim; ignore the fact that that translation previously appeared in the translations of Tyndale, Coverdale, Matthew, Taverner, the Great Bible, and the Bishop’s Bible; ignore the fact that the King James translators used “churchrobber” in 2 Maccabees 4:42, clearly in reference to the temple; and then just keep repeating the claim ad infinitum. 2. Plenty of Pre-Wilkinsonian historical evidence has been provided of the existence of supporters of the exclusive use of the King James Bible as the word of God. It seems to be dismissed out of hand because they simply cannot be KJVO. For a few samples, see HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Congregational psalm-singing

I do not advocate exclusive psalmody (that all our worship songs must be based on the Psalms), and I am unsure of whether the author of these words, Alistair Roberts, does or does not. However, I think much of what Roberts says about psalm-singing in the excerpt below is a great corrective to what American church singing has devolved into, a performance-based consumer-oriented mess that steals the songs from the congregation. (And unfortunately, many congregations “love to have it so.”)

“Too often, modern worshipers treat worship as if it were something chiefly to be consumed by them as individuals (leading to a great concern that church music styles cater to their more general tastes in music consumption). Yet worship is not chiefly to be consumed quasi-passively, but to be an act. In the purposeful and practiced act of singing psalms together, we joyfully and lovingly present our hearts and our assemblies to God and we take his word into us. Because it is an act of worship, we should want to take time to learn how to do it well. Typically greater delight will follow.

“A huge obstacle to good psalm-singing is the ingrained passivity that comes with a lifetime of being consumers of music. Great psalm-singing is entirely achievable, but we must approach worship more as an act of making music before the Lord, demanding practice and effort.

“Indeed, the more the church’s music is driven by the musical tastes of religious consumers, the more divided it will be. The corporate act of making music has a power to unite that exceeds the unity produced by the convergence of private tastes in its consumption. Congregational psalm-singing is a form of expression of God’s Word by which, within the body of Christ, we address each other and by which Christ’s word and his Spirit indwell us (Colossians 3:16; Ephesians 5:18-21). As we do it, the body can become self-aware in a new way. As we don’t merely sing along with performers at the front, but sing in unison or in harmony as a congregation, we take fuller ownership of the words that God has given us as our own joyful and purposeful expression and also receive those words from the lips of our neighbours.”

[Note: I do advocate that we need to sing more of the Psalms. Our singing is sadly lacking if we do not do so.]