HYMN STORIES

The History and Meaning of Our Hymns

Hymn stories enrich our singing as Christians. Our hymns are fundamentally poetry, a lyrical blending of devotion and doctrine. At times they capture profound truths with colourful imagery or a neat turn of phrase. When the words are set to an appropriate and singable tune they have the ability to stick in the memory, refreshing the soul again and again.

Most hymns that have stood the test of time have such qualities. They are part of our Christian heritage, worthy of further study and meditation. Reflecting upon them can bring new insight concerning our life and service for Christ. It can also broaden our spiritual vocabulary, giving us fresh ways to commune with God, and share with one another.

NEWSPAPER ALERT! (Another Way You Can Help) Would you like to see HYMN STORIES appearing regularly in your local paper? I can provide these as a column called Words for the Pilgrim Way that I have written for many years. Ask the editor of your paper whether this might be a possibility. Or if you are on the staff of a newspaper, let me hear from you. For further information about the column, click on NEWSPAPER COLUMN!.

ANOTHER LINK TO CHECK! Cyber-Hymnal.org offers thousands of Christian hymns and gospel songs, gives you the words to all the verses, plays the tune for you, and provides pictures of authors and composers, with other background information. The biggest and best site of its kind on the Internet. Highly recommended!

YET ANOTHER LINK TO CHECK! Tinfoil.com presents for sale at a reasonable price “Hymns and Sacred Songs,” 28 recordings of hymns made in the early 1900's, and a historic collection called “There’ll Be No Dark Valley,” 7 solo numbers by Ira D. Sankey, the soloist who worked with evangelist Dwight L. Moody. (These latter recordings were made between 1898 and 1900.) If you want to know what gospel music sounded like over a century ago, order one or both of these fine CD reproductions. The sound quality is amazing, considering the primitive equipment that was used!