News, Hymn History, & Resources

Any believer can relate to the words of this hymn. When someone comes to know the Lord, transformation takes place in the heart, and they no longer see the world from their own eyes but through His eyes. This must have been how Robert Lowry felt as he penned these words. His very life points the reader to the words that came from his hear

Ascribed a "magnificent hymn of praise to God," Joachim Neander (1650-1680) composed these lines in the year of his death. They stand in stark contrast to the praise of folly celebrated in his youth. At age twenty, while studying at Bremen, Neander and a group of friends went for sport to hear a preacher, yet the record reflects that the "fools who came to scoff remained to pray."

“George Hinsdale, composer of psalm tune “Hinsdale,” died while his daughter was very young. With an additional loss of her mother, Phoebe was orp...

     This story of trial and faith occurred in recent years, proving that the 'old hymns of the faith' still have power in the life of believers in our modern age. Most songs, most speeches are put to silence in the face of deep pain, but hymns? Hymns have the power to comfort, calm, strengthen, and point upward the heart that longs to please Him in every scene of life.

Mr. Black served as a teacher of singing schools and editor of many gospel songbooks. One of the titles, Songs of the Soul, 1894, sold more than four hundred thousand copies wherein these lines were first published and became widely accepted. Black records the origin of the lines as follows:

"An old inn keeper in England, who had often swore that he would never attend church, heard of the choice music, and of the crowds attracted by it, and so resolved, one Sunday afternoon, to go and hear the singing, but not to hear one word of the sermon.

As originally printed, it had four verses, of which the following was the second. As it is generally omitted we insert it herewith: –

As he paused a moment in his walk the sound of singing reached his ear; he opened the door and listened. It was the children’s nurse just putting her young charge to bed. Clear and distinct came the tone to Frank’s ear, –

“Jesus! Lover of my soul,
Let me to thy bosom fly,
While the raging billows roll,
While the tempest still is high.”

 

It is related of a Christian officer at the battle of Shiloh, that he lay all night on the field, wounded in both thighs. Said he, “The stars shon...

How often does the weary soul toil on through the burden of the day without stopping to consider Him? Fellowship with He who ought to be our refuge, our joy, our strength often is relegated to the early morning hours or before bed at night. But what courage might we find if we would only turn our thoughts to him as we labour? Given below is one such example.

From the archives at Melody Publications, we bring the history of the beloved hymn "It Is Well." This history and hundreds of others are found in t...

“A name that will linger long in the memory of those who love to sing the songs of Zion, is that of Anne Steele. She was born in 1716, and was th...