William Bingham Tappan, 1794-1849
A midnight hymn, depicting the darkness and sadness of Gethsemane. It is often sung at communion services held on Thursday evening before Good Friday.
William Bingham Tappan, a clock maker, was an influential leader in Sunday school work in the Congregational Church in America. In early manhood he taught school in Philadelphia, and then from 1826 until his death he was in the employ of the American Sunday School Union as manager and superintendent at Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Boston. He wrote and published eight or ten volumes of poetry of no special significance.
MUSIC. OLIVET’S BROW was composed for this hymn and was first published in The Shawm, 1853, by Bradbury and Root.
William Batchelder Bradbury, 1816-68, was born in York, Maine. After many struggles, due to poverty, he learned music from Lowell Mason and G. J. Webb and began conducting singing classes. He did outstanding work in New York City in teaching music to children. His Juvenile Music Festivals at the Baptist Tabernacle became an important feature of New York’s musical life and gave a powerful stimulus to the introduction of music into the public schools. In 1847, he went abroad for further study in music. Upon returning to America, he became associated with Geo. F. Root, Thos. Hastings, and Lowell Mason in musical Normal Institute work. The group collaborated in the production of a new type of church music, known as gospel songs, which swept the country during the revivalistic work of Moody and Sankey.
104. There is a green hill far away
Mrs. Cecil Frances Alexander, 1823-95
A popular hymn on the atonement, written for children but appropriated for general use with all ages. It was first published in the author’s Hymns for Little Children, 1848, her most famous book which ran into 100 editions. The accuracy of the first line may well be questioned for the Gospels do not state that Jesus was crucified on a hill, only that it was a place called “the skull” (Lk. 23:33). In any case, the sun-baked Judean hills are seldom green.
Cecil Frances Humphrey, daughter of Major John Humphrey, was a native of Ireland. Her father was an Englishman who, as a landowner and government agent, went to reside in Ireland. In 1850, she married the Rev. Wm. Alexander who, after spending many years in obscure parish work, was elected Archbishop of Armagh and later Primate of all Ireland. Mrs. Alexander was preëminently a writer for little children, her verses being characterized by simplicity and tenderness and poetic beauty; but she also contributed some notable church songs, e.g., “Jesus calls us o’er the tumult” ([140]).
To make the truths of the church catechism interesting and intelligible to little children, Mrs. Alexander wrote a series of poems to illustrate the Apostle’s Creed. This hymn is on the clause “suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried.” “All things bright and beautiful” ([410]) was written for the first clause, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” For the second clause, “And in Jesus Christ His Son, born of the virgin Mary” she wrote “Once in royal David’s city” ([412]).