“My ambition, plans and wishes,
           At my feet in ashes lay.”
Those two lines powerfully express what happened to my early life-design when the Lord Jesus saved me. As my acquaintance with Redemption Hymnal increased at that time, this hymn became special because it was so close to my experience.
This is the Redemption Hymnal version, where it is set to a lovely tune. Other sources have some variations of the words.

Margaret Jenkins Harris composed both the words and music in 1898.
Born on July 31st, 1865 in Rushville, Illinois, she died on January 13th, 1919 in Miami, Florida.
With her husband, song-writer John Harris, she was active in holiness meetings, and they were song evangelists at the 1901 General Holiness Convention in Chicago. Margaret played the organ to accompany their duets.

Hymn from the Heart

This old hymn, which I discovered in Sankey’s ‘Sacred Songs and Solos’, was written by a young woman, Jean Sophia Pigott, who died at the age of 37. Although her language is old-fashioned, that does not detract from the lovely relationship with her Saviour which she describes.
It’s a privilege for us to share something of her experience through this hymn.

The tune to which it is set in Sankey’s is Meribah by Lowell Mason, and it fits the words beautifully.
The text at the top of the Sankey page is “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.”  Job 13:15

Little is known of Jean Sophia Pigott’s short life, which was spent in Kildare in Ireland.
One other hymn she wrote is in many hymnbooks – ‘Jesus, I am resting in the joy of what Thou art.’

Plain-Speaking

Older hymn-writers had no cautions about addressing sinners very plainly and directly. They saw the need as too urgent to allow the soft touch.  Have a look below at the directness of ‘Come ye sinners’.
In the sixth verse of Joseph Hart’s hymn, he plainly urges sinners to let nothing stand in the way of their coming to Jesus. Also in the third verse, he unequivocally dismisses any attempt to make ourselves acceptable to a Holy God. In no point does Hart sit on the fence in expressing the Gospel and the sinner’s absolute need of mercy.

Born in London in 1712, Joseph Hart grew up under some good spiritual influences. However, as a young man, he resisted Christianity, and in 1742 he even denounced Christianity in a pamphlet entitled, ‘The Unreasonableness of Religion.’
While working as a teacher he constructed a religion which combined the libertinism of ancient Greece with the doctrines of Christianity. He “published a few tracts in favour of this way in which he chose to live.”
In later years he confessed that he “ran such dangerous lengths, both of carnal and spiritual wickedness,” that he even “outran professed infidels.”

He described his life at that time in verse,

“The road of death with rash career
I ran, and gloried in my shame;
Abused His grace, despised His fear,
And others taught to do the same.
Bold blasphemies employed my tongue,
I heeded not my heart unclean;
Lost all regard of right or wrong,
In thought, in word, in act obscene.”

Happily, the week before Easter 1757, Hart “had such an amazing view of the agony of Christ in the Garden,” showing him that all Christ’s sufferings were on his behalf.
A few weeks later, Joseph Hart experienced a permanent and lasting spiritual change, and eventually he became the minister of the Independent Chapel, Jewin St., London.  He was a wonderful testimony of God’s powerful grace.

“All the fitness He requireth is to feel your need of Him.”

I Hunger and I Thirst
This is another of those great hymns that is full of Scripture truth, full of references to Biblical incidents and teaching, as well as being food for the soul. It is a beautifully personal hymn.
It is a prayer from a heart that longs for more of Jesus.

Some might criticise it for being introspective and downbeat, but I believe that many of us need to recapture something of such sincerity in prayer.   We need that willingness to expose our hearts to Him who knows their true condition anyway, and I’m sure that even the most up-to-date congregation could be moved by this great hymn.
Its spiritual honesty is much needed today.

I hunger and I thirst,
Jesus, my manna be;
Ye living waters, burst
Out of the rock for me.

Thou bruised and broken Bread,
My life-long wants supply;
As living souls are fed,
O feed me, or I die.

Thou true life-giving Vine,
Let me Thy sweetness prove;
Renew my life with Thine,
Refresh my soul with love.

Rough paths my feet have trod
Since first their course began;
Feed me, Thou Bread of God;
Help me, Thou Son of Man.

For still the desert lies
My thirsting soul before;
O living waters, rise
Within me evermore.
J. S. B. Monsell, 1866

John S. B. Monsell was born on March 2nd, 1811, in Northern Ireland.
While Rector of St. Nicholas, Guildford, he was tragically killed by falling from its roof during rebuilding on April 9, 1875.
He wrote almost 300 hymns, including “Christ Is Risen! Hallelujah!”
“Fight the Good Fight with All Thy Might,” and “O Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness.”

“O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee:
my soul thirsteth for thee,
my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.”
Psalm 63:1  KJV

Jesus was Slain for Me

Jesus was slain for me,
At Calvary.
Crownèd with thorns was He,
At Calvary.
There He in anguish died,
There from His opened side,
Poured forth the crimson tide,
At Calvary.

Pardoned is all my sin,
At Calvary.
Cleansed is my heart within,
At Calvary.
Now robes of praise I wear,
Gone are my grief and care,
Christ bore my burdens there,
At Calvary.

Wondrous His love for me,
At Calvary.
Glorious His victory,
At Calvary.
nbsp;Vanquished are death and hell,
Oh, let His praises swell,
Ever my tongue shall tell,
Of Calvary.

George Perfect

This hymn was sometimes sung at Communion services at the church in Somerset where Veronica and I met. The music by Powell G Fithian, called ‘Summer Land’ fits the words exactly. It is a composition that combines sorrow for sin with the glory of Jesus’ saving work at Calvary.
Maybe it’s another of those old hymns that is too personal for many modern meetings – too close for comfort.
May God bless you by its Truth.

The Internet is the ultimate source for information these days. It was with surprise therefore, that a search for information about George Perfect’s hymn above yielded almost nothing. Even the most comprehensive hymn websites do not include it.
However, it was comforting to locate one reference in an obscure part of a massive website, and to read that someone else knew ‘Jesus was slain for me’ from Redemption Hymnal.
He likewise had searched the Web in vain.

My God! My God, and can it be

My God! my God! and can it be
That I should sin so lightly now,
And think no more of evil thoughts
Than of the wind that waves the bough?

I sin, and heaven and earth go round,
As if no dreadful deed were done;
As if thy blood had never flowed
To hinder sin, or to atone.

I walk the earth with lightsome step,
Smile at the sunshine, breathe the air,
Do my own will, not ever heed
Gethsemane and thy long prayer.

Shall it be always thus, O Lord?
Wilt Thou not work this hour in me
The grace thy Passion merited,
Hatred of self, and love of Thee!

O by the pains of thy pure love,
Grant me the gift of holy fear;
And by thy woes and bloody sweat
Wash Thou my guilty conscience clear!

Ever when tempted, make me see,
Beneath the olives’ moon–pierced shade,
My God, alone, outstretched, and bruised,
And bleeding, on the earth He made;

And make me feel it was my sin,
As if no other sins were there,
That was to Him Who bears the world
A load that He could scarcely bear.

F W Faber

This meditation of Faber on Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane meant a lot to me during my early spiritual struggles.
It was in Hymns Ancient and Modern, which was part of my Church of England Prayer Book which I always carried with me to read when I had opportunity.

Frederick William Faber was an Anglican clergyman, 1814-1863, who switched to Roman Catholicism three years into his ministry.
Several of his hymns appear in Protestant hymnbooks.
The best known is probably ‘My God how wonderful thou art.’

Maybe we all need some serious meditation on that line, ‘And make me feel it was my sin.’
That might help correct some of the natural tendency to lightness in most of us.

Try reading it slowly and thoughtfully.
God still speaks through the pen of Isaac Watts.

Revive Thy Work

‘Revive Thy Work, O Lord’ was written in 1858, around the time that news of revival in the USA was strongly stirring the church in Britain.
The first verse is a fearless acknowledgment that true revival must begin with God speaking life back into a dying church.
The second verse suggests the question of whether in Britain today we would dare ask God to ‘Disturb this sleep of death’ within the church?

The author was born in Newport on the Isle of Wight, UK, in 1825.   He died in there in 1909.   He attributed his inspiration to write poetry to his Sunday School teacher, and began to write verse as a small boy.  He wrote over 1000 hymns.

Singing this hymn today ought to be a serious prayer – that’s what it is!

Jehovah Findeth None!

It was the magnificence of that line in the first verse that first drew my close attention to S W Gandy’s hymn as a whole. In fact, that first verse is a brilliant expression of one of the greatest truths a believer can use when attacked by spiritual doubts and fears.

What though th’accuser roar
Of ills that I have done;
I know them well, and thousands more;
Jehovah findeth none.

His be the Victor’s name
Who fought our fight alone;
Triumphant saints no honour claim;
Their conquest all his own.

By weakness and defeat
He won the meed and crown;
Trod all our foes beneath his feet
By being trodden down.

He hell in hell laid low;
Made sin, he sin o’erthrew;
Bowed to the grave, destroyed it so,
And death, by dying, slew.

Bless, bless the Conqueror slain –
Slain by divine decree –
Who lived, who died, who lives again,
For thee, his saint, for thee!

S W Gandy

I think those third and fourth verses are some of the most inspirational descriptions of the triumph of the Lord Jesus Christ in the whole of English literature.
The only comparable phrase of which I know, is the title of the 17th century Puritan, John Owen’s work, ‘The Death of Death in the Death of Christ.’

Rev S W Gandy was a minister in Kingston-on-Thames, and in Devon in the 19th century. I would like to find out more about him. His ‘Book of Congregational Psalmody’ was published in 1828. Of his own hymns, only two are still in use today, and are found in several songbooks. I first came across ‘What though th’accuser roar’ many years ago in Sankey’s Sacred Songs and Solos.

Unfamiliar Hymn of John Newton

John Newton, 1725-1807, is well-known as the author of the hymns, ‘How sweet the name of Jesus sounds,’ ‘Glorious things of thee are spoken,’ and ‘Amazing Grace.’ 
His unusual three-line verses in the hymn below may be a factor in its unfamiliarity.  Yet after more than two centuries, it is still used by God to reassure and comfort many.  His references to many passages of Scripture are wonderfully accurate.