Through The Hymnbook

Guest (Male): The chimes have been ringing that beautiful old hymn of the church, "I Need Thee Every Hour." We welcome you to the organ loft to enjoy some beautiful music. Organ you sometimes hear, chimes you hear, once in a while the canary sings, and we hope that you'll enjoy this particular edition of Through the Hymnbook with the organist, the late Reverend Bert Jones. It's good to begin every day with the Lord, saying, "I need thee every hour." You sing right along as Bert plays.

Guest (Male): And let’s sing it together. I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior, I come to thee.

Guest (Male): The gospel songbook from which I am playing preaches a sermon every time someone looks at it, every time someone reaches to the hymnbook rack and picks it up. For the title of the songbook is the Make Christ King Songbook. Make Christ King, there it is on the cover. There it is on the opening title sheet: Make Christ King.

As this songbook was compiled in the year 1912 by E.O. Excell and by William Edward Biederwolf, it was undoubtedly their desire to include songs that would cause people to recognize the supremacy of Jesus Christ, and they called it the songbook title, Make Christ King.

I continue in this songbook, and it's a great song from 1907 in a book copyrighted in 1912. So the song was quite new: "A Volunteer for Jesus." A soldier true, others have enlisted, why not you? And it begins a call for loyal soldiers comes to one and all.

Guest (Male): The next song on the next page is the familiar song written by Dr. William S. Pitts, and it's the song, "The Church in the Valley." There’s a church in the valley, in the wildwood. This little church has precious memories. No lovelier place in the dale. No spot is so dear to my childhood as the little brown church in the vale.

Dr. William S. Pitts saw a lovely spot where he thought it would be wonderful to have a church, a little country church. He envisioned the church in his mind and he wrote the poem, "How sweet on a clear Sabbath morning to list to the clear ringing bell. Its tone so sweetly are calling, 'Oh, come to the church in the vale.'"

As he envisioned the church, later in life, he helped build that church and make it a reality. The church in the wildwood stands to this very day. Many people go there to have weddings performed. The familiar chorus says, "Oh, come, come, come to the church in the wildwood, come to the church in the dale. No spot is so dear to my childhood as the little brown church in the vale."

Guest (Male): Well, what do you say that we hear the church bell ring? And then we'll imagine the old pump organ at the little country church as it plays for us this familiar song. This arrangement from the year 1910 in a book from 1912. Remember that old pump organ in the little brown church? Or maybe you're remembering a little white church.

Guest (Male): Precious memories of that little country church of long ago. Turning over the pages, we come to the song, "Saved, Saved, Saved." I am playing this especially and dedicating it to Mr. and Mrs. Alof J. Palmer of Jamestown, New York, who have donated this very interesting songbook to our Through the Hymnbook library, the Make Christ King Songbook, copyrighted in the year 1912.

"Saved, Saved, Saved," this song was copyrighted in the year 1911, which means that it was just one year old when this book was printed. The way people love to sing this and how well congregations do sing it, it's hard to imagine that it's as recent as 1911. And think of it, it was just a brand-new song when it was chosen to be included in this book.

Guest (Male): There we heard, as it were, the bells on the carillon singing it out, "Saved, Saved, Saved," the great song, words and music by J.P. Schofield. We continue turning the pages and let me see what do we find next. It's a very unusual tune for the hymn, "O Love That Will Not Let Me Go." Usually, we hear "O Love That Will Not Let Me Go" today sung to this tune.

But in this book, it is written to a different tune. "O Love That Will Not Let Me Go," I have heard quartets especially sing this tune, and it's a beautiful tune. "O Love That Will Not Let Me Go, I rest my weary soul in thee. I give thee back the life I owe, that in thine ocean depths its flow may richer, fuller be."

Listen to this beautiful tune, probably just a bit different from that tune to which you sing it today. I can remember my father directing that tune when the choir at his church would sing.

Guest (Male): Leaping through the book, let me see, over here to page 101. Again, we are very thankful to Mr. and Mrs. Alof Palmer of Jamestown, New York, for donating this book to our Through the Hymnbook library. It's the cheerful gospel song I come to now called "Sunshine and Rain." The words are very interesting. Had we only sunshine all the year round, without the blessing of refreshing rain, would we scatter seed upon the fallow ground and hope to gather flowers, fruit, and grain?

The answer is no, we wouldn't expect to gather fruit if we only had sunshine. We need both sunshine and rain to make a proper balance, and the proper balance of sunshine and rain gives growth. So the message of the song is that in life, every day cannot be a sunny one, nor must every day be a rainy one, but the proper balance of both sunshine and rain.

Light and faith and love, showers from above, sunshine and rain to nourish the growing grain. Send us, Lord, the sunshine and the rain. Most of us are much more likely to pray, "Lord, send just the sunshine." But sunshine alone can make a desert, remember. I'll pick up that magnifying glass to see if I can tell you the copyright date. 1902 this song was written. No wonder my mother liked this song, because she was born in 1902.

Guest (Male): Can we prize the sunshine and deplore the rain, repining when the days are dark and dreary? Can we hope for pleasures yet deny the pain, or share the joys of life without the tear? Then comes the refrain, and I'll give you the words as we sing it along: sunshine and rain, refreshing, reviving rain. Light of faith and love, showers from above. Sunshine and rain to nourish the growing grain. Send us, Lord, the sunshine and the rain.

I hope that you are enjoying the music as played by the late Reverend Bert Jones. We're just pausing to let you know that you are enjoying Through the Hymnbook. We're so glad that you're here in the organ loft. You know, this particular book with the title Make Christ King, it's such an interesting title and amazing to think as people sang from that week after week, what an impression that would make to constantly see Make Christ King. It's really a very interesting title.

I would like to mention that if you would like to write, the mailing address is Through the Hymnbook, PO Box 575, Erie, Pennsylvania, 16512. The email address is organhymns@aol.com. If you would ever like to have a picture of Reverend Jones or know anything about possible recordings or CDs, just write and let us know, and we would be glad to send that information along to you. Now, there are some more beautiful hymns coming up, so enjoy and sing along if you know what Bert is playing.

Guest (Male): Here is a song that we have loved in our home for many years, but it's so hard to find this song. It comes from long ago, written in 1891, and it's called "No Room in the Inn." I play it now, thinking especially of my mother, who sang this as a solo often at Christmastime. We use it many times at Christmastime, but we need to be reminded of this song often.

No beautiful chamber, no soft cradle bed, no place but a manger, nowhere for his head. No praises of gladness, no thought for their sin, no glory but sadness, no room in the inn. The refrain says, "No room, no room for Jesus. Oh, give him welcome free, lest you should hear at heaven's gate, 'There is no room for thee.'"

Only trouble with some of these old songbooks, they print the words so small that it's very hard for someone with detached retinas to read the words. So I have my little magnifying glass here, and I use it from time to time.

Guest (Male): And here's a cheerful song that says, "My soul is so happy in Jesus. I am happy, happy in him." The song was written in 1902 by the editor of the book, E.O. Excell. "I am happy in him. I am happy in him. My soul with delight, by day and by night, for I am happy in him."

The great hymn of the city is here: "Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life." And here's a song for which I occasionally get requests. It's called "Memories of Galilee." It begins by saying, "Each cooing dove and sighing bough that makes the evening blessed to me, has something far diviner now; it bears me back to Galilee. Oh, Galilee, sweet Galilee, where Jesus loved so much to be. Oh, Galilee, sweet Galilee, come sing thy song to me."

Guest (Male): Thanks so much to Mr. and Mrs. Alof Palmer of Jamestown, New York, for giving this book, Make Christ King, to our Through the Hymnbook library. As I come to the close of the book, here's that beautiful song that reminds us we shall shine as the stars of the morning. Until next time, bye, and you keep singing.