Hymns
For many years, we've taught our children the hymns of the faith through what we call the Hymn of the Week. Each day we sing all the verses of the song we're learning and explain one of the verses. By the end of the week, even the young children have learned to sing the hymn and…
Welcome to the last post in our series on Hark the Herald Angels Sing. If this is the first one you've seen, you may want to begin with our Introduction. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="399"] The Garden of Eden, Jan Brueghel the Elder, 1615[/caption] Come, Desire of nations, come, Fix in us Thy humble home; Rise,…
This is the third stanza in our Hymn of the Week series. To read the whole story, start with the introduction from Sunday or the second stanza, Monday. * * * * * [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="427" caption="Rembrandt"][/caption] Hail the heav’nly Prince of Peace! Hail the Sun of Righteousness! Light and life to all He…
Usually, teaching the first stanza of familiar hymns means correcting misunderstandings about the language (like angels singing, "Hark!"). The second stanza is where you usually find the first totally new lyrics. It's where you often find new insights, too, since the words are are fresh and we haven't grown complacent from hearing them a hundred…
This is one of those hymns that we think we all know, but usually only sing the first verse. This is like nibbling on the salad and walking out on the feast. Charles Wesley packed so much Biblical truth into this carol, you not only don't want to miss it, but you ought to make…
We just love Thanksgiving! What a wonderful holiday! Leading up to the day, we teach our children great hymns of Thanksgiving, such as "We Gather Together," "Come Ye Thankful People, Come," "Count Your Blessings," and "Now Thank We All Our God." We particularly love "We Gather Together," because it was a Dutch song of the proper…
This is probably the most popular of the Thanksgiving hymns! Come, Ye Thankful People, Come Words: Henry Alford, 1844 Music: George J. Elvey, 1858 Come, ye thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home; All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin. God our Maker doth provide for our wants to be…
This is another favorite. This is a Dutch hymn written in 1597 to celebrate a great victory, 23 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth! Since the Pilgrims lived for a time in Holland, it's especially appropriate to include in our Thanksgiving hymnbook. We Gather Together Words & Music: Adrianus Valerius English Translation: Theodore Baker,…
The next few Sundays we'll be posting songs of thanksgiving. I love the old German hymns which have made it into our songbooks here -- this is one of my favorites for Thanksgiving or any time of year! Be sure and read the background story on NetHymnal (follow the link): Now Thank We All Our God…