The Hymn with Exclamation Points
After Dr. Charles Kendall Gilbert was elected to succeed Bishop William T. Manning as head of the Protestant Episcopal diocese of New York in the latter part of January, 1947, The New York Times said in an editorial: “It will now be his responsibility to build his church on ever stronger foundations in a world beset by doubt, bewilderment and confusion. But it is also an inspiring task. The hymn sung before his election was dedicatory:
“‘Rise up, O men of God!
Have done with lesser things.’”
“That hymn will be sung when everything else about you is forgotten,” the great pulpit orator of Brooklyn, Dr. S. Parkes Cadman, once remarked to the author of the vigorous hymn which both clergymen and laymen sang together on that responsible day.
“Every stanza has at least one exclamation point,” remarked Dr. Charles A. Boyd, when he called attention to this peculiar feature of the hymn written by Dr. William Pierson Merrill. In fact, out of the four stanzas in the copy now in front of the writer, two of these have two exclamation points each. The vivid style of this hymn, therefore, is an emphatic call for speedy action. The hymn was written to incite men to “do something,” and to do it without delay. Hence the call:
“Give heart and mind and soul and strength
To serve the King of kings.”
This hymn was written for a definite purpose and a particular occasion. It came to us early in the twentieth century when the Brotherhood movement was one of large proportions in some of the great denominations in the United States; and the large conventions which were held in vital centers of the country were scenes of tremendous enthusiasm. During that period Nolan R. Best, then editor of The Continent, remarked to Dr. Merrill that there was need of a Brotherhood hymn. The suggestion lingered in the mind of the latter. About the same time (1911) Dr. Merrill read an article by Gerald Stanley Lee on “The Church of Strong Men.” “I was on one of the Lake Michigan steamers,” Dr. R. G. McCutchen quotes him as saying, “going back to Chicago for a Sunday at my own church, when suddenly this hymn came up, almost without conscious thought or effort.”
Quickly the hymn made an appeal to various denominations, which included it in their revised hymnals. Other countries, also, approvingly placed this hymn in their new books. Thus it is found in The Hymnary of the United Church of Canada, and The Methodist Hymn Book, London. Dr. Merrill once said, “It has given me very deep satisfaction to have the hymn obtain such general use. Several times each year I am asked for permission to include it in some new collection of hymns.” But, as Dr. C. M. Washburn has remarked, “Any hymnal is enriched because of the inclusion of these challenging lines.”
A newspaper reporter (Ernest J. Bowden) in an upstate city of New York has an assignment each Sunday to attend a selected church, and then write his impressions. He is peculiarly sensitive to the music rendered, and often makes illuminating comments on the same. He was peculiarly gratified when, on a December Sunday, he was assigned to a Presbyterian church to report a visiting minister. Thirty years earlier he had heard a new hymn sung in a city in California, and he had remembered the name of the writer. Now came the opportunity to hear him. After the service he met the author, and the two talked about Dr. Merrill’s choice hymn. The author told the newspaper man that while on a trip to Oriental missions he had heard this hymn sung in both Japanese and Chinese. Also, it was sung at a meeting in India which he addressed. At the close of the gathering Dr. Merrill said to the leader of the music, “It was very thoughtful of you to sing my hymn.”
“We didn’t know that you wrote it; we sang it because we like it,” was the reply.
“Better still,” continued Dr. Merrill. “That’s the finest tribute it could have received.”
This sketch was then given by the reporter of Dr. Merrill, in 1944, “He is a genial soul, free and friendly as the gospel he preached in Brick Church, New York. He retired in 1938, and is now climbing toward eighty. But you would never think it to see him. His voice rang clear as a bell through every pew.” Then, speaking as a layman, he remarked: “When a group of men have been sitting for hours, or days, in conference, threshing over the routine of church or community, what more fitting climax could there be than the call to sing in parting:
“‘Rise up, O men of God!
Have done with lesser things;
Give heart and mind and soul and strength
To serve the King of kings.’”
The wide service rendered by this hymn to the Christian Church is indicated by the fact that when the Bishop of Ripon congratulated Dr. Merrill on having written such a choice and practical hymn, he said: “I use it at every communion service in my diocese where young people are received into the church.” Thus did the Episcopalian leader pay tribute to the appeal of the hymn written by the eminent Presbyterian author. Doubtless this hymn is destined to play a valiant part in helping to
“Bring in the day of Brotherhood
And end the night of wrong.”
I cherish a program sent me by a friend who lives in a Cornish town beyond the wide Atlantic. It outlined a great service of thanksgiving for the return of peace held in one of the largest churches in the county, when the several churches of the community participated. The rector of the parish and the several ministers of the town united in conducting a carefully prepared service of hymns, responsive readings, prayers and addresses. Thus they that day remembered those who had fallen in World War II. Then, in closing, those men, women and youth, which packed the great building, led by a worthy choir, stood and sang the hymn of our American author:
“Rise up, O men of God!
The Church for you doth wait,
Her strength unequal to her task;
Rise up, and make her great!”
Then came the closing stanza, with also two exclamation points:
“Lift high the cross of Christ!
Tread where His feet have trod;
As brothers of the Son of Man,
Rise up, O men of God!”
CHAPTER II
MORNING MELODIES
“But I sing of thy strength,
a morning song to thy love.”
(Psa. 59:16, Moffatt).
“For lovely morning songs we have:
(1)
‘Come, my soul, thou must be waking;
Now is breaking
O’er the earth another day.’
(2)
‘When morning gilds the skies,
My heart awaking cries,
May Jesus Christ be praised!’
(3)
‘Fairest Lord Jesus,
Ruler of all nature,
O Thou of God and man the Son,
Thee will I cherish
Thee will I honor,
Thee, my soul’s Glory, Joy, and Crown.’
The third of these is something which seems to me a perfect hymn.”—From an address by Dean Howard Chandler Robbins at the Northfield General Conference, 1938.