VOCATIONAL U-TURN

A monthly feature on a hymn of the faith.

Son of an Irish lawyer, Thomas Kelly (born in 1769 in a town near Dublin) followed his father's vocational footsteps, studying law in Dublin and in London. But in London, he changed career paths and at 23 became a clergyman for the Church of Ireland. That didn't last, because he'd started reading works of William Romaine, a noted evangelical Anglican who de-emphasized that church's “works” teachings. Kelly's new evangelical convictions poured into his preaching, leading to censure from the established Irish church. Striking out on his own, he began preaching at various Irish chapels that had broken away from the mother church, gaining a reputation as a “dissenting” preacher. Besides his brilliance as a linguist, poet, and musician, he was known as a pious yet gracious man.

At 30, he married a woman from a wealthy but pious family. At age 33 he published the first of what would become his own 765 original hymns over the next fifty-plus years, included in about a dozen revised hymnal editions. That output led to his reputation as “Ireland's Charles Wesley,” alluding to the prolific hymn-writing brother of reformer John Wesley, author of some 6,500 hymns.

Kelly used his wealth to help the poor, especially those afflicted by the Irish fungus-caused potato famine of 1845-1852, in which an estimated one million died and another million-plus fled the country.Of his huge output of hymns, several still survive some 250 years later. The best known is probably “Praise the Savior, Ye Who Know Him,” which expresses dependence on Christ for salvation and daily life, and the hope of eternal life. Though his hymn lyrics were simple, Kelly's chose unusual rhyme schemes, that hymn being a good example:
“Charms us, arms us, nothing harms us.”
“Forever, never, sever.”
“Cleaving, believing, receiving”
“Would be, should be, could be.”
Most of his hymns expressed praise to the Savior and ended with encouragement about heaven. At a time of limited medical care, when people didn't live long, Kelly was still publishing hymns and preaching into his eighties. At 85 he suffered a stroke while preaching. A year later, as he lay dying, someone shared for Kelly's comfort the psalmist's declaration, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” Kelly found the strength to reply, “Not my will but Thine be done” and “The Lord is my everything.” He died a day after his 86th birthday in 1855.

Sing along with printed lyrics and majestic organ this You-Tube recorded at a large California church:
Praisethe Savior, Ye Who Know Him (Grace Community Church) - Bing video

P.S. This hymn came into my list of “beloved hymns” in the mid-1970s when I served at the Southern California headquarters of Wycliffe Bible Translators. (They've since moved their head offices to Florida.) I first heard that hymn in the office chapel services. I needed the hymnal to follow words and music, but around me, seasoned missionary-linguists joyfully sang it from memory.

SIMPLY TOLD

A monthly post on a hymn of the faith.

How do you describe for young children the awful scene and awesome truths of Christ’s crucifixion? An Irish minister’s wife, Cecil Frances (Humphries) Alexander, looked to her native land’s verdant hills and began:

There is a green hill far away/Outside a city wall,

Where the dear Lord was crucified/who died to save us all.

What’s believed today to be Jerusalem’s Golgotha—a scrubby hill with features resembling a skull—became a gentler scene as Mrs. Alexander sought to explain to little children why Jesus died for their sins. That hymn was part of her quest to present, via songs, the Apostle’s Creed and other Christian doctrines to children of her husband’s parish. Many of these youngsters lived in poverty and were illiterate, but she explained the faith’s great truths in ways they could understand and remember.

Born in 1823, even as a child she was writing poetry. In 1850, she married a minister who later became the Anglican primate (chief bishop) of Ireland. In their early parish in an impoverished area of Ireland, she especially reached out to the disadvantaged of her community, daily visiting the sick and poor and taking them food, warm clothes, and medical supplies.  Her husband wrote: “From one poor home to another she went. Christ was ever with her, and in her, and all felt her influence.”

Believing that basic Christian truths could be taught through hymns, she distilled major doctrines to songs with simple words that children could understand and easily memorize.  One major project was hymns based on the Apostles’ Creed. “All Things Bright and Beautiful” taught about God the creator, maker of heaven and earth. “Once in David’s Royal City” told the nativity story. “There is a Green Hill Far Away” described at a child’s level the story of Christ’s death for our sins.

She also composed hymns for adults, like “Jesus Calls Us,” written at her husband’s request for his sermon on Jesus calling Andrew to become a fisher of men. 

More than 400 hymn texts would carry her byline. Gathered into books, they included the 1848 “Hymns for Little Children,” one of history’s most successful hymn-publishing ventures with more than 100 editions. She turned her publishing success back into ministry, using royalties to help build a school for the deaf, support a ministry for at-risk women (“Derry Home for Fallen Women”), and back a district nurses service.

She died in 1895 at 77; her husband would die in 1911. St. Columb’s Cathedral in Derry, Northern Ireland, has a trio of stained-glass windows built in her honor. They depict three of her hymns: “Once in Royal David’s City,” “There is a Green Hill Far Away,” and “The Golden Gates are Lifted up.”

This YouTube video of a choir singing Mrs. Alexander’s hymn features scenes from her homeland.

There Is A Green Hill Far Away hymn with on-screen LYRICS - Bing video