| HYMN OF THE WEEK - Glorious things of Thee are spoken This hymn, which is sung in today’s podcasts by the choir of St Martin in the Fields, was written by John Newton (1725-1807), who also wrote Amazing Grace, for a collection of hymns which he put together in his parish of Olney, working alongside William Cowper (whose hymn, Sometimes a Light Surprises, was featured in this newsletter on Aug 16).
Newton was Rector of Olney at this point, but his life had been a roller-coaster of experiences, and he was probably as astonished as everyone else to find himself living the life of a Christian minister. His mother had been very devout, but she had died when he was just seven, and by the age of eleven, he had joined his father at sea, and was eventually pressed into the Royal navy; when he tried to desert he was flogged. He joined a slave ship, but was apparently so unpopular with the crew that he was abandoned in Sierra Leone in the company of a slave trader, who sold him to a high born woman of the Sherbro tribe in Sierra Leone who treated him as a slave. When he managed to free himself, however, despite this experience, he went back into the slave trade himself, captaining a slave ship. Eventually, however, he had a religious conversion, partly prompted by a desperate prayer when his ship was threatened with disaster in a storm, and eventually gave up his former life, gradually shedding his old beliefs and becoming an ardent abolitionist, supporting William Wilberforce in his struggle against slavery. There is another link to a figure featured previously in this newsletter, since one of the books which Newton said had been most formative in shaping his spiritual life was The Imitation of Christ” by Thomas a Kempis, whom I wrote about last week.
Glorious things of thee are spoken, is inspired by words from Psalm 87, a psalm of rejoicing in the city of Jerusalem. “On the holy mount stands the city he has founded; the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God” . Newton isn’t thinking of the literal city of Jerusalem, however, but the heavenly Jerusalem, the Kingdom of God, which we are all invited to be citizens of, both now and in the world to come, living according to its rules and patterns, learning to love one another in an new, equal community. Perhaps the words of the last verse of the hymn reflect Newton’s own struggles as his life changed, and he had to give up the financial rewards of the life of a slaver. His conclusion though is that “let the world deride or pity,/I will glory in thy name;/fading is the worldling's pleasure,/all his boasted pomp and show;/solid joys and lasting treasure/none but Zion's children know.”
The tune traditionally associated with this hymn is called Austria, originally composed by Joseph Haydn for a patriotic anthem to the Austrian emperor Francis II, but it was re-purposed as a hymn tune set to many different words. Later it was used as the tune for the German National Anthem, and because of the painful associations of the anthem during the Nazi era, it understandably rapidly fell out of favour in Great Britain. The BBC, wanting to continue to use Newton’s hymn in broadcasts during WW2, needed a new tune to use for it, so one of the producers of Religious Broadcasting, Reverend Cyril Vincent Taylor wrote a new tune in 1942 while he was stationed in North Somerset. His tune is called Abbots Leigh, after the village where he was living, and is now commonly sung to these words (and to other hymns in the same metre). It’s a tune with great sweeps in its melody – a joy to sing, but perhaps sometimes a challenge too!
In the version below it is sung at the wedding of the Queen’s granddaughter, Princess Eugenie to Jack Brooksbank in 2018 in St George's Chapel, Windsor.
1 Glorious things of thee are spoken,
Zion, city of our God;
he whose word cannot be broken
formed thee for his own abode;
on the Rock of Ages founded,
what can shake thy sure repose?
With salvation's walls surrounded,
thou may'st smile at all thy foes.
2 See the streams of living waters,
springing from eternal love,
well supply thy sons and daughters,
and all fear of want remove;
who can faint while such a river
ever flows their thirst t'assuage?
Grace, which like the Lord, the giver,
never fails from age to age.
3 Round each habitation hov'ring,
see the cloud and fire appear
for a glory and a cov'ring,
showing that the Lord is near;
thus deriving from their banner
light by night and shade by day,
safe they feed upon the manna
which he gives them when they pray.
4 Saviour, if of Zion's city
I, thro' grace, a member am,
let the world deride or pity,
I will glory in thy name;
fading is the worldling's pleasure,
all his boasted pomp and show;
solid joys and lasting treasure
none but Zion's children know.
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This prayer was written by Thomas Becon, 1511-1567, a clergyman and Protestant reformer from Norfolk whose fortunes waxed and waned through the turbulence of the English Reformation. He was alternately persecuted and promoted during the reigns of Henry VIII, Mary, and Edward, depending on how his Protestant opinions were viewed at the time. He was a trusted adviser to Edward VI, but then imprisoned in the Tower of London in the time of Queen Mary. His prayer asks for help not only to hear God’s word, but also to do it – to be like the first son in Jesus story, in other words, who is obedient, even if he didn’t really want to be!
