“The
Song of the Righteous Is a Prayer Unto Me” -
Four Founders of Latter-day Saint Hymnody
by Bruce T. Forbes, copyright 2006
This was originally written for a non-Latter-day Saint
audience -
hymns quoted and historical items discussed were catered for that
audience.
This is a modified version of the submitted manuscript.
Hymns that don't have a link are found in the current LDS hymnal
without any omissions or changes from the writer's original version.
Whenever hymnals are compiled, the end product gives great insight not
only into the collective mind and heart of those compiling it, but into
the hearts and minds of the individuals in the congregation. Although
they may all believe and adhere to the same beliefs and principles,
their perspectives are still as varied as the individuals themselves,
and as a group they also set a foundation for those who follow. The
purpose of this article is to introduce four founders of hymnody in the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
the part they played, the views they gave us, and the direction each
took in their work and calling: a prophet’s wife, a printer and civic
leader, a fire-and-brimstone preacher, and a meticulous,
practical-minded New Englander. Each is worthy their own article, but
when seen together the reader is given a good view of how early
Latter-day Saint (LDS) hymnody laid a foundations for those who
followed.
To
understand LDS hymnody, however, the reader needs to know a just little
of where Latter-day Saints came from and where they are headed, as both
have great bearing on the hymns they have contributed to Christianity’s
vast hymnody library.
In
1820 fourteen-year-old Joseph Smith knelt in a secluded grove on his
father’s farm to pray. A family of eleven, they were divided over
religion, family members having joined at least three different
denominations. Joseph didn’t think a ‘God of Order’ could countenance
such confusion, and, following the instructions of the Apostle James –
“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all
men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let
him ask in faith, nothing wavering…” (James 1:5-6) – he retired to a
private place to pray and expected through faith some sort of answer.
Latter-day Saints unashamedly proclaim that God the Eternal Father and
His Son Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph, and the boy was told to ask his
question. Joseph asked which church he should join, and the divine reply
was that Christianity in general had wandered too far from the purity
and simplicity of the church Christ established while in mortality and,
if the young man lived worthily, Christ would restore His former church
in these ‘latter-days’ though him, with all its knowledge, gifts, and
divine authority. Joseph organized this church in 1830 in upstate New
York, amid constant persecution most often led by local ministers. In
search of the religious freedoms guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution,
the growing church fled to Ohio, then to Missouri, then Illinois, and
finally to the barren wilds of the Great Salt Lake Valley. There the
seed germinated and grew until today Latter-day Saints are found around
the world.
According to divine instruction, the purpose of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints is to act as “the voice of him that
crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight
in the desert a highway for our God” (Isaiah 40:3), preparing the
world for the Savior’s Second Coming and His subsequent Millennial
Reign. This re-establishment of Christ’s ancient church includes the
eventual restoration of the House of Israel, with all those who are
righteous being gathered and ‘adopted’ into the House of Israel; it no
longer representing just the seed of Abraham but the entire community of
the righteous - thus LDS hymnody will refer to the community of
believers as ‘Israel’.
The
divine commission for Latter-day Saints is to build a community made up
of a ‘Zion people’, Zion being defined in LDS theology as those who are
‘pure in heart’. The Latter-day Saint goal is to establish an outpost of
‘Zion’ wherever they find converts. Because of this divine commission,
Latter-day Saints appear to have a few extra topics on which to sing.
They see the prophecies of the early Apostles as being fulfilled in
regards to a restoration – a “restitution of all things” (Acts 3:21) -
and they see themselves thick in the middle of it, whether they like it
or not. They see themselves as having been commissioned to prepare the
world for Christ’s triumphant return. They also see, especially with the
family of Judah currently returning to their ancient lands, the coming
of the day that the gospel will be returned not only to the Jews but to
the other eleven tribes that make up the House of Israel.
Emma Hale Smith
In
July 1830 the Lord instructed the prophet Joseph Smith to appoint his
beloved wife Emma to ‘the calling’ of creating the first LDS hymnal:
“And it shall be given thee, also, to make a selection of
sacred hymns, as it shall be given thee, which is pleasing unto me, to
be had in my church. For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart;
yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be
answered with a blessing upon their heads.”
What
qualified Emma Smith for the task of compiling a hymnal? What special
talent did she have? The few clues found in history contradict each
other,
and Heaven has kept the secret these many years.
Emma
was born on July 10, 1804, in what was then Harmony Township (now
Oakland), Pennsylvania.
Her parents, Isaac and Elizabeth Lewis Hale, were the first permanent
white settlers in the valley. The seventh of nine children, she spent
her childhood working the farm, learning to ride horses, and canoeing on
the nearby Susquehanna River. She also completed a year past a normal
grammar school education.
Emma
met Joseph when he and his father arrived in Harmony to work a season
for an acquaintance of the Hale family. Joseph twice asked for her
father’s permission to marry Emma and was twice refused. Emma took
matters into her own hands and married without her father's permission
at the then-spinster age of twenty-two, and she moved to Manchester, New
York to live with the Smith family.
Late
in 1827 Joseph, accompanied by Emma, obtained the gold-metal plates from
which he was to translate the Book of Mormon. Never permitted to see the
plates per divine instruction, Emma still handled them many times while
in the protective cover she had sewn for them. She was first in
assisting her husband in protecting and hiding them against many violent
attacks by townspeople who sought them for the fortune they saw in the
gold. Emma’s hometown became a refuge for the young couple, Joseph
hoping to translate in peace. He bought a small farm from his
father-in-law and engaged in periodic farming, but the translation work
was his priority. Emma became the first of several scribes who wrote for
Joseph has he dictated. On June 15, 1828 Emma gave birth to their first
child, a son who only lived a few hours. When Harmony residents began to
hinder Joseph’s work and Emma’s safety, they moved to Fayette, New York,
where they were taken in by family friend, John Whitmer. There Emma was
cared for during her recovery from childbirth while the Book of Mormon
translation was completed.
On
April 6, 1830, Joseph Smith officially organized the ‘Church of Christ’,
as it was first called. By June Joseph had been arrested numerous times
for the dual crimes of preaching from the Book of Mormon and claiming
revelation – both seen as sources of public disturbance. Emma endured
each arrest with the aid of the extended Smith family and the Whitmer
family, with whom she and Joseph were still residing.
Joseph and Emma returned to Harmony in July of 1830, and it was there
that the revelation calling Emma to compile the first hymnal was given.
Two months later they were back in Manchester, New York, where Joseph
was readying church members to move farther out onto the frontier in an
attempt to escape persecution.
The
church moved to Kirtland, Ohio in January of 1831. In April Emma gave
birth to twins, both of whom died within hours. A friend, Julia Murdock,
died after also giving birth to twins, and unable to care for them alone
the widower, John Murdock, asked Joseph and Emma to raise his twins as
their own. They gladly accepted, naming the infants Joseph and Julia.
No
one could have understood Emma’s faith as she stood beside her husband.
Proclaiming that Christ had restored His church in its purity and
simplicity and that a prophet once more directed Christ’s church on
earth did not sit well with most ministers and preachers any more than
the idea that this same prophet had also brought forth a book of
scripture to stand as a companion to the Holy Bible and as a second
witness of Christ. Emma stood firm in her faith, keeping the family
running while Joseph conducted church business or was under arrest at
the complaint of another of many ministers who disagreed with
‘Mormonism’.
In March of 1832 she was held back by a mob that broke down their door
in the middle of a freezing night and dragged Joseph out, stripped him,
then tarred and feathered him. Five days later they mourned the death of
their adopted son Joseph – ill with a cold the night of the tarring and
feathering, exposure to the freezing temperatures claimed his life. The
Smith family came to understand that prophets do not suffer alone.
A
month after the death of the child, Emma finished compiling the first
hymnal for the fledging church. William W. Phelps, scribe to Joseph, was
then assigned the task of editing and printing the volume.
Again the question is asked: What skill or talent did Emma have that the
Lord chose her for this work? Historians continue to debate and Heaven
continues to keep its council. To many, her fulfilling of this calling
is a reminder that oftimes no special talent is needed when the Lord
calls – one simply responds and He opens the way for the task to be
accomplished. As one ancient prophet said, “I will go and do the
things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no
commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way
for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.”
One
thing that strikes me each time I read through Emma’s hymnal, however,
is the principle of Hope. If one were to write an article on the hymnal
itself, one would be able to quote hymns expressing hope in returning to
the arms of a loving God; hope of being worthy of His love; and hope of
seeing His return and Millennial Reign. Perhaps Hope was the gift Emma
possessed that qualified her for this work.
Emma’s work for the Lord did not end with the publication of this first
hymnal. She was later called to compile a second hymnal, published in
1841 in Nauvoo, Illinois which contained 304 hymns. She was subsequently
called by her husband to head the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo when
it was organized in 1842, putting her at the forefront of the charitable
work of the women of the church. Upon the murder of Joseph and his
brother Hyrum in 1844, she and their five surviving children remained
behind as the bulk of the church headed west and settled in the Great
Salt Lake Valley. Upon her death in 1879 her body was quietly laid to
rest beside Joseph’s grave along banks of the Mississippi River.
William W. Phelps
William W. Phelps (better known as W. W. Phelps) was born at Hanover,
New Jersey in 1792.
A well-educated man, he was seeking public office when he first heard of
Mormonism and the Book of Mormon. He traveled to Kirtland, Ohio to
further investigate and was baptized in 1831. He became a scribe to
Joseph Smith and was given charge of nearly all editing and printing
work for the church.
Phelps was called to edit and supervise the printing of Emma’s
collection of ninety hymns - if authors’ names had been included the
congregation would have seen the name of Isaac Watts sixteen times,
John Newton three times,
and twice each Charles Wesley
and Samuel Medley.
Out of these ninety hymns, thirty-eight were written by LDS composers;
twenty-one verified as being penned by Phelps with another seven he
either wrote or edited – no previous copies have been found for
verification.
(See Author
Index.) Additionally, he edited
twelve pre-existent texts to fit the restorationist, millennial theme so
prevalent with church members of the time.
For instance, Watts’ Christmas anthem became a millennial hymn by
changing it to “Joy to the world, the Lord will come / And
earth receive her King”. (The 1841 hymnal restored it to its rightful,
original Christmas context.)
During this editing phase, Phelps moved his family to Independence,
Missouri to help build the Latter-day Saint community there and to
establish the church’s official printing press. They had lived there
barely a year when an armed mob of four to five hundred men came upon
the Latter-day Saint community and began to destroy it. They tore down
the two-story brick building that housed the press and the Phelps
family, destroying the press, the books and papers, and drove the family
out into the street as their home was literally demolished. Phelps
himself was tarred and feathered. Over a thousand Latter-day Saints were
forced from their property and into the forest – many whipped and
beaten. They were allowed to take nothing with them.
Phelps wrote “Now Let Us Rejoice” following this experience. The
frustration and defeat the church members felt – combined with the
anticipated hunger and cold of the coming winter – were the impetus that
caused him to write of better times ahead.
Nine
Phelps texts remain in the 1985 hymnal and are among the greatly-loved
by church members. Between the three writers explored in this article,
Phelps’ writing centered more specifically on the praising and
celebratory aspects of the gospel, especially in the ‘Restored Gospel’
as taught in the LDS faith. His texts display rejoicing in the fact that
the Heavens were once more open as well as a hope of things to come.
Whereas Parley P. Pratt’s millennial hymns were more doctrinal in nature
– not to mention dwelling on a vengeful Lord who will come in power,
smite the wicked, and liberate the captive - Phelps chose to celebrate
the joy and peace that would accompany the righteous upon the Lord’s
coming.
“O
God, the Eternal Father”, Phelps’ sacramental text, celebrates not only
the sacrifice Christ made in atoning for our sins, but it also displays
the beauty of the entire plan to redeem all mortals – to win us back
with a love more infinite than we can presently understand. The only
sacramental text from the 1835 hymnal in the current hymnal, it has
nevertheless been reduced to only four of the original verses – while
verses five through eight are beautiful witnesses for the Messiah and
His mission, they were omitted in order to center the text more on the
ordinance of the Sacrament itself.
After the mob violence in Independence, it was two years before a press
was secured to print the book. Edited and finalized a final time in
1835, the manuscript for the hymnal was sent to press and copies were in
the hands of the Latter-day Saints in time for the dedication of the
Church’s first temple in Kirtland, Ohio in March of 1836.
Without question the most-loved Phelps text was written for and sung at
the dedication of the temple in Kirtland, and it has become a standard
at most chapel dedications and all temple dedications throughout the
church. "The Spirit of God", the final hymn in the 1835 hymnal,
celebrates the restoration of Christ’s church, the future Millennial
times, and the restoration of the House of Israel. In this particular
text, Phelps’ genius in covering subjects while remaining a praise hymn
and not turning into a doctrinal essay is clearly displayed. Verses four
and five have been dropped in the current hymnal, concentrating the
theme more on the restoration of Christ’s church and His future
Millennial Reign. The tune used in the current hymnal is Assembly, Anon.
Although excommunicated for a two-year period, Phelps returned to full
fellowship while the church was in Nauvoo, Illinois and remained
faithful the rest of his life. In Utah he became one of the first
regents of the University of Deseret (now the University of Utah) and
was a representative in the Utah territorial legislature. He died in
1872, leaving not only a large portfolio of hymns but a lifetime of
service as his marks in life.
Parley P. Pratt
Considered one of the most significant missionaries, writers, poets, and
thinkers in the early years of the church, Parley Parker Pratt was one
of the central figures in expounding the doctrines of the Restored
Gospel before the world.
Born on April 12, 1807, in Otsego County, New York, he was the third son
of Jared and Charity Pratt. He married Thankful Halsey in 1827, and they
established themselves in Lorain County, Ohio. There Parley became a
member of the Reformed Baptist Society (Campbellite). Within a few years
Parley came in contact with a Baptist deacon who introduced him to a
copy of the Book of Mormon. As a result he investigated the church and
was baptized in September of 1830.
Pratt spent most of the rest of his life as a proselyting missionary. He
was ordained an apostle on February 21, 1835, and sustained as a member
of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, one of the top-most governing
bodies of the church. Emma’s hymnal included three Pratt texts, and
later that year while on a mission to the eastern states, he published
eleven more in conjunction with a long narrative poem in six chapters
entitled ‘The Millennium, A Poem’ - becoming the first known published
book of LDS poetry. While two Pratt texts were included in the 1835
hymnal, with another three he may have written
(See Author
Index for Pratt's texts in LDS hymnals), they are no longer in
the LDS hymnal, while eight other Pratt texts have taken their place.
As
mentioned earlier, Latter-day Saints were brutally driven from
Independence in Jackson Country, Missouri. They fled north across the
Missouri River to Clay County, were they were received on condition that
they leave when asked. The body of the Church moved north once more to
the newly-created Caldwell County, establishing several communities. In
the winter of 1838-39, they were driven again from their homes, farms,
and businesses and found refuge across the Mississippi River in Quincy,
Illinois in order to escape an extermination order drafted and signed by
Missouri Governor Wilburn W. Boggs. In all nearly two thousand
Latter-day Saints died in Missouri due to mob violence. As Missouri
Senator Christopher Bond so adequately expressed,
"Treatment of the people of the Mormon Church in Missouri
during the late 1830s and beyond was barbaric. Women were raped and
tortured. Men were killed by mobs or driven out of the state. Their
property was stolen. The lucky ones were the ones who were left alive
with nothing and were forced to make their way into a more hospitable
state.
"What makes it so difficult to understand is that this
barbarism was state-sanctioned and even state-ordered. Governor Lilburn
Boggs issued the extermination order making it legal to kill anyone who
belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Pratt suffered persecution with the rest of the Saints in Missouri and
spent nine months imprisoned on false charges before escaping to
Illinois in July 1839. It was during this time of finding refuge in
Illinois that Parley P. Pratt wrote “Come, O Thou King of Kings”.
First published in 1840, it is plea for the God of Israel to free His
people from abuse and persecution. It appeals for an end to all sin in
the world and looks forward to the day when all the righteous will join
on Zion’s Hill and fill the heavens with anthems of praise and
rejoicing, ending with praise to the Prince of Peace.
A
month after gaining his freedom, Pratt left on an apostolic mission to
the British Isles, and at a conference in Preston, England, Parley was
named editor of the newly created ‘Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star’,
which became the Church's longest continuous periodical - 1840 to 1970.
During this time he also assisted in compiling and publishing the first
LDS hymnal in England – the ‘Manchester Hymnal’ - which contained fifty
of his own texts. After the Saints’ exodus from Illinois to what became
the Utah Territory, this hymnal became the church’s official hymnal
until the 1927 hymnal was published.
“The
Morning Breaks, the Shadows Flee” was first printed in the LDS newspaper
‘Millennial Star’ in 1840 and was included in the Manchester Hymnal
later that year and has been a staple of LDS hymnals since. Some
scholars believe Pratt might have been inspired by Charles Wesley's
poem, "Wrestling Jacob," based on Genesis 32, wherein Jacob questions
the heavenly visitor about his identity and then, in the poem, exclaims:
"The morning breaks, the shadows flee: / Pure universal Love Thou art!" This text stirs the hearts
of many Latter-day Saints for an altogether different reason than that
of the Wesley poem. They see the appearance of the Father and the Son
and the restoration of Christ’s church through the prophet Joseph as a
glorious ‘sunrise’ of divine knowledge and power after the gloom of ages
between Christ’s death and the restoration of the gospel; the returning
of a promised light to a world waiting for that light to shine. Not only
does this text speak of the glorious dawning of a new era, but it stands
as an invitation to all peoples – all the “ransomed children” are
invited to gather once more by He who is making His arm bare so the
world may know His power and majesty. It is a fitting hymn for a church
whose perceived mission is to prepare the world for His coming.
After this mission, Pratt was called to preside over the church in New
England and the Mid-Atlantic states with headquarters in New York City.
Here he published a periodical entitled ‘The Prophet’. In 1851 he was
called to preside over a "General Mission to the Pacific" with
headquarters in San Francisco. He, his wife Phebe, and another
missionary sailed to Valparaiso, Chile, in September 1851. Frustrated by
the language, poverty, the death of an infant son, as well as
ecclesiastical and political opposition to their work, they returned to
San Francisco in March 1852 to direct the work throughout the rest of
the Pacific.
Pratt’s first published missionary tract, ‘A Voice of Warning’ (1837),
became a model for future LDS tracts. Other Pratt tracts included ‘Late
Persecutions of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, With a
Sketch of Their Rise, Progress and Doctrine’ (1840); and ‘Key to the
Science of Theology’ (1855).
In
1856 Pratt was called on a final mission to the Eastern states. A year
later he was killed defending his wife against an attacker.
Besides the volumes published in his lifetime, a grandson also published
a fifty-hymn volume titled “Millennial Hymns of Parley Parker Pratt” in
1913 through Cambridge University Press.
Eliza R. Snow
Born
January 21, 1804 in Becket, Massachusetts, Eliza Roxey Snow was two
years old when her family moved to Mantua, Ohio, bringing with them
their New England ethics of hard work, self-reliance, self-discipline,
and a detailed, meticulous quality in all you do.
Eventually growing to a family of seven children, the girls were
award-winning seamstresses and straw weavers. Eliza had a special
affection for her brother Lorenzo, ten years her junior, with whom she
shared a love of literature and patriotism. Her father held several
public offices, and she often assisted him with clerical duties, which
brought her into contact with community leaders and helped her develop
organizational and verbal skills she would use in support of the Lord’s
work for the rest of her life.
Active Baptists, the Snow family embraced the same Campbellite movement
Parley P. Pratt had embraced. In 1831, when the church moved to
Kirtland, Joseph and his small family were residing on a farm some five
miles from the Snow family. Upon hearing the ‘Restored Gospel’ being
preached, most of the family embraced it without hesitation. Two
holdouts, however, were Eliza and Lorenzo. Although Mormonism was all
she had hoped for in a religion, Eliza was determined not to rush
into anything that seemed to her to be too good to be true. It wasn’t
until 1835 that she became a member of the church, encouraging Lorenzo
to follow. (He later became an apostle and then fifth president and
prophet of the Church.) Hired by the Smiths, she became school teacher
for the extended Smith family, which led to work as editor and copyist
for Joseph and his council, and, although not stated as such in history,
became what is today called the office manager. She would continue this
association with Joseph and his counselors for the rest of Joseph’s
life.
Joseph Smith referred to Eliza as ‘Zion’s Poetess’. Nothing happened
that she didn’t write at least a ten-verse poem to commemorate. Current
events, events in the church, deaths of prominent leaders – very few
things escaped her pen. Times of jubilation were recorded right along
side times of hardship and trial. Consider her single verified text in
the 1835 hymnal, “Great is the Lord”.
A
striking contrast to this hymn are words penned shortly after the Saints
were driven out of Missouri. While Pratt’s “Come O Thou King of Kings”,
written at the same time, was pleading to God to relieve the Saints,
Eliza’s text turned instead towards the people to remind them that Peace
was still there for the taking.
“Though Outward Trials” may throng their
way, there was still peace in their hearts and in the fact the Lord was
leading them. Eliza’s practical mind rightfully concluded that wallowing
in self-pity would get the Saints nowhere - they needed to pick
themselves up and move forward while looking towards the day when all
persecutions would cease and God and His Son would eventually triumph.
When
the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo was organized in 1842, Eliza was
called as secretary. Her meticulous notes were a blessing to the Church
as they detailed the charity and service of the women of the city. In
1866, when Brigham Young, successor to Joseph Smith, reorganized the
Relief Society as a church-wide auxiliary, Eliza was called to head the
organization, a post she held for twenty-one years.
To
do justice to Eliza as Relief Society president is an enormous task -
entire books have been written on her administration. To summarize: she
not only organized the women to care for their own families and then for
the poor, sick, and needy, but to do so she became editor of the first
woman’s newspaper in the world, the ‘Women’s Exponent’. She edited the
first women’s magazine, helped found Utah’s first hospitals, assisted in
the organization of: the first LDS Sunday School (including the
publishing of Sunday School hymnals); a Young Ladies’ auxiliary and
magazine; and the children’s auxiliary, magazine, and hymnal. She
oversaw a women’s cooperative store through which women could sell their
crafts to earn finances to help with their families. She saw to the
creation of a silk industry run by LDS women. She oversaw Brigham
Young’s program of sending LDS women East for medical educations with
the intent of staffing medical offices and hospitals throughout the Utah
Territory – Brigham’s goal was three medically-trained women in each
congregation.
It
wasn’t all auxiliaries, magazines, and hymnals, however – these were
merely the tools used to further build the Kingdom of God. By the end of
her first ten years in office she had not only rallied the women to care
for their families and neighbors, but she was able to report to Brigham
Young that between 1866 and 1874 the women of the Relief Society had
raised and disbursed over $82,000 to aid the poor among them, raise
church and other buildings, help financially-destitute converts emigrate
to Utah, and for other miscellaneous charities and missionary work.”
Eliza’s constant theme was for Latter-day Saint women to reach for their
divine nature and nurture it. Her words still echo from pulpits today:
“It is the duty of each one of us to be a holy woman. We
shall have elevated aims, if we are holy women. We shall feel that we
are called to perform important duties. No one is exempt from them.
There is no sister so isolated and her sphere so narrow but what she can
do a great deal towards establishing the kingdom of God upon the earth.”
Eliza emphasized the need for women to first set in order their own
homes and families so they would have the time and ability to reach out
and assist others. In a day and age when Women’s Emancipation was
sweeping across the country, she was vocal in reminding women they were
merely their husband’s equal and not his superior.
In
Eliza’s lifetime three volumes of her poetry were published, and from
those volumes have come texts still sung as hymns by Latter-day Saints.
Two of her texts appeared in Emma's hymnal, but many more have been set
to music and included in hymnals since that time.
(See Author
Index.)
Eliza once said that “words are the weakest as well as the strongest
things on earth. They are weak when they betray our spirits, and they
are strong when they obey an intelligent will.”
Nowhere is this shown better than in two greatly-beloved sacramental
texts she penned. With words obedient to her ‘intelligent will’, she
captured the agony Christ endured with the majestic love He displayed
for those whose sins He purchased. Some have suggested the purpose of
“Behold the Great Redeemer Die” was to bring attention not only to the
suffering of Christ but to the purpose and meaning of His sacrifice. To
do this it takes us step-by-step through the Crucifixion. Then, as a
conclusion, declares with both joy and simplicity: ‘He lives - he
lives.’"
For many this text stands as an eloquent statement of Christ’s true
manliness and divinity. He knew His mission must be fulfilled to bring
about the redemption promised by the Father, so He endured the
humiliation heaped upon Him by those who were daring Him to ‘prove’ He
was the Son of God by saving himself. Fulfilling the commission from the
Father was more important than personal pride or ‘manhood’ as the world
might define manhood. He thus became the true symbol of Manliness.
“How
Great the Wisdom and the Love”, another sacramental hymn, opens with
Christ, the ‘Anointed One’, in His Father’s court, receiving His divine
commission. It celebrates both His sacrifice and His obedience, then
goes on to remind us that He “marked the path and showed the way” for us
to follow. Thus we celebrate His life, mission, and sacrifice –
acknowledging our need to follow Him.
When
the Primary Association, the children’s auxiliary, was formed, Eliza R.
Snow helped compile and edit their first hymnal. Recognizing the need
for an upbeat marching song, she penned “In Our Lovely Deseret”
to George F. Root’s great marching tune 'Sheffield' as a song to remind
children of many of the do’s and don’ts of life. Still in today’s
hymnal, many Latter-day Saints believe this text to be a relic. The only
thing outdated, however, is that Latter-day Saints no longer gather to
one place – otherwise the habits and practices it reminds the children
of are still as valid today as when they sang these words on their way
to school and church a hundred-plus years ago. Some relics are worth
dusting off and keeping alive.
During the last half of the nineteenth century hundreds of thousands of
converts left the persecution occurring in the eastern United States and
Europe and ‘gathered to Zion’. Many historians claim it was the largest
religious migration since the Israelite exodus from Egypt as recorded in the Old Testament.
Comparison of the two religious migrations was natural to many, and soon
converts seeking Zion were comparing their goal of the Utah Territory to
the ancient Israelites seeking their Promised Land, complete with
flowing milk and honey (Exodus 3:8) and a vine and fig tree under which
the weary wanderer would repose for the remainder of their day (Micah
4:4). Knowing that a ‘Zion Society’ was being reared in Utah’s valleys,
many expected a completed Zion to be waiting for them – a perfect
society they mistakenly interpreted to be a world in which they would be
taken care of without having to care for themselves or for others. And,
they also began to believe there would no longer be any trials,
temptation, or persecution once they arrived in Zion. Many immigrants
were disappointed Zion wasn’t everything they wanted it to be when they
finally arrived.
Eliza’s practical mind came into play.
“Think Not When You Gather to
Zion”, she wrote, that all is well and that you are going to be pampered
by those of us who arrived before you. She reminded the gathering
converts that if they were to have a vine and fig tree they would be
expected to build irrigation ditches and plant and nurture the crop; if
they wanted a perfect society they would have to help build it – Utah
was full of mere mortals still striving to build the promised Zion
Society; it was not yet a completed project, and all would be expected
to work to make it happen.
This
text remained in LDS hymnals until 1985, the timeliness of its message
having faded – since 1900 converts have been encouraged to remain where
they live and build up Zion in their corner of the world. However faded
by history, the words still ring true for those building their own Zion
outpost. Calling upon images such as the refiner’s fire (Malachi 3:2)
and the gathering and separating of the wheat from the tares (Matthew
13:24-30), Eliza painted the picture that perfection was still a process
and that the end product had not yet come about. She went on to assure
them that “the great prince of darkness” still held sway over the hearts
of all men and women and that resisting temptation was still part of the
perfection process.
(See Author
Index for Sister Snow's texts used in LDS hymnals.)
Parting Thoughts
Occasionally a people pause to look back at where they have been to
better orient themselves for where they are going. When LDS hymnists
look back they see Parley P. Pratt, W. W. Phelps, Eliza R. Snow, and
Emma Smith standing among many others who began the path today’s LDS hymnists
are still blazing. So many are pausing to look back that some
LDS-oriented recording studios are resurrecting some of the old hymns,
one even releasing “Greatest Hymns” albums celebrating the texts of
Eliza R. Snow and Parley P. Pratt.
And, after this look back, they press forward with fresh hymns that tell
of where they’re going. The current hymnal has lost hymns that speak of
building Zion only in broad, general terms while it has gained
significant hymns reminding us ‘how-to’ build a Zion Society: Love,
Charity, and Service. Hymns such as “Because I Have Been Given Much”,
“Called to Serve”, “Have I Done Any Good?”, “Each Life that Touches Ours
for Good”, “As I Have Loved You”, and “Dear to the Heart of the
Shepherd” mark the emphasis on serving our fellow beings that is one of
the few things people readily and correctly understand about
today’s ‘Mormons’.
Each
of the writers explored in this article looked forward to the same day
in the world’s time when the Messiah would return, hatred and wickedness
would cease, and He would reign personally on the earth. Though they
all looked in the same direction, they still gave us views as different as
their personalities and life experiences. And the first person explored
here - the quiet, unassuming prophet’s wife - was able to gather texts
from these diverse writers and establish what is still a firm foundation
for today’s LDS hymnists.
LDS
hymnals praise and celebrate the divinity and ministry of Jesus Christ
and call to remembrance many points of mutually-believed Christian
doctrine. They contain hymns written by hymnists of other religions
which teach these dearly-held ‘common ground’ principles. But, they also
contain home-grown hymns celebrating the restoration of Christ’s church
as taught by Latter-day Saints and celebrate His future return. Unlike
many Christians who sing these hymns by way of anticipation, however,
for Latter-day Saints they are a reminder of the responsibility
the Lord has put upon them to prepare the world for His coming.
If,
as the Lord told Emma Smith, the “the song of the righteous is a prayer
unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads”,
then these writers have selflessly shared their prayers with us, that we
might join our voices with theirs in commemorating not only the mortal
ministry of Jesus of Nazareth but also in anticipation of the His
return. Just as Latter-day Saints celebrate the many ‘common ground’
truths, let us pause and, though hymns unique to the Latter-day Saint
movement, discover what else there is to celebrate - and anticipate.
NOTES:
