The current trend in a lot of churches today has been the shift away from the hymns and the move to choruses and praise songs. First of all let me say that most of the songs that we sing now in our worship services are fine, and it's not my intent to belittle them in any way. That being said, there is something about the hymns of the faith that move the soul. makes them resonate. Hymns like Blessed Assurance were written back in 1873. Some churches are still singing that hymn. More and more though there are less and less churches singing hymns for whatever reason. That brings us to the next few entries of my blog. I'm going to post about some good old fashioned hymns. The ones I sang in church growing up and still enjoy hearing to this day. Given that this is the first post, I thought How Firm A Foundation would be appropriate.
In 1787 John Rippon, pastor of Carter Lane Baptist Church in London, published A Selection of Hymns from the Best Authors. How Firm a Foundation was included in the publication. The writer of the hymn is still unknown. They have an idea as to who wrote it, but no one knows for sure. At first the only author was merely only identified as K. Then in 1822, in an updated publication of the hymns, the author had been changed to Kn. In the 1835, edition the author's name changed yet again. This time the author was Keene (or Keen). The thought was that the writer was Robert Keene, the musical director at John Rippon's church, which would account for the some of the uncertainty surrounding the author. However in an 1844 edition, it was decided that the author was Kirkham.
It has been said many times that God (or the Lord) "works in mysterious ways." Men from all walks of life have found this hymn to be encouraging in times of peril. In fact the one thing that I've seen in my reading of history is how effective stories and other random tidbits of information can be. I have found some surrounding this particular hymn. For example, it was sung on a regular basis by both North and South before the Civil War.
It was a favorite hymn of President Theodore Roosevelt, and it was sung at both his and President Woodrow Wilson's funerals as well as to Andrew Jackson on his deathbed. It was also a favorite of Robert E. Lee.
General Curtis Guild, Jr., told the story in an interview with The Sunday School Times about the Seventh Army Corps during the Spanish-American War.
"The Seventh Army Corps was encamped on the hills above Havana, Cuba, on Christmas Eve of 1898—a beautiful tropical night. Suddenly a sentinel from the camp of the Forty-ninth Iowa called, Number ten; twelve o’clock, and all’s well!
A strong voice raised the chorus, and manly voices joined in until the whole regiment was singing. Then the Sixth Missouri added its voices, and the Fourth Virginia, and all the rest, ’til there, as General Guild said, on the long ridges above the great city whence Spanish tyranny once went forth to enslave the New World, a whole American army corps was singing:
‘Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed;
I, I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.
The Northern soldier knew the hymn as one he had learned beside his mother’s knee. To the Southern soldier it was that and something more—it was the favorite hymn of General Robert E. Lee, and was sung at that great commander’s funeral.
Protestant and Catholic, South and North, singing together on Christmas day in the morning—that’s an American army!"
There are many hymns out there with many stories surrounding them. Some give insight into why the hymn was written, and show the rawness of the author. Maybe the hurt he or she was feeling. I think this is a bit different though. We don't know much about the person who wrote the hymn, but one thing we do know is this. Much of the written text is taken directly from the Bible. So much so, that in some hymnals the majority of the text has quotations around it because of that very fact. I am not dismissing any other hymn or hymn writer but given that the very text of the hymn straight out of the Bible it stands to reason that there should be some mystery surrounding it. It reminds me of the unknown author of the New Testament book of Hebrews. The one thing we know about the writer of that book is that he was a student of God.. In the same way, whoever wrote How Firm A Foundation, very obviously was a student of the scriptures, and was very intent on using them to usher believers into the presence of God.
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