The author of this hymn had a unique career. Robert Robinson, born in Norfolk, England, of lowly parentage, was left fatherless at eight to be the sole support of his widowed mother. At fourteen he was apprenticed to a barber in London who frequently reprimanded him for giving too much time to the reading of books and too little to business. At seventeen he heard the great evangelist Whitefield preach a sermon on Matthew 3:7 and decided to dedicate his life to God. His complete conversion he dates a few years later, 1755. He began preaching under the Methodists but soon developed independent views and in 1759 he received adult baptism and united with the Baptists. Shortly afterwards he became the pastor of a small Baptist church in the university town of Cambridge. He was a gifted scholar, and though he had little formal education, he held the respect of Cambridge students, notwithstanding the taunts of university professors. Serving a small and poor congregation and being without finances to support his large family, he helped himself by engaging in farming and carrying on business as a coal and corn merchant while preaching twice a Sunday and holding evangelistic meetings during the week. In this he succeeded in a very remarkable measure, aided by the fact that he knew the soil and the tillers of the soil and was gifted with the sense of humor and a Spurgeon-like wit. Besides this hymn, he also wrote the well-known hymn, “Come, Thou fount of every blessing” ([189]).
MUSIC. CRUCIFER, originally known as “Bethany,” was composed by Henry Smart for “Jesus, I my cross have taken.” The composer favored unison singing of this melody, at moderate tempo. Most congregations will find the pitch range in the melody too wide for best results in unison singing.
Henry Smart, 1813-1879, turned from the legal profession to devote his life to music. Though largely self-taught, he became one of England’s distinguished organists and builder of organs. He suffered from poor eyesight and the last fourteen years of his life he was totally blind, but he kept on playing and composing for he had a very retentive memory and possessed a rare skill in extempore playing. Smart was a strong advocate of congregational singing, but favored the unison singing of melodies, and had a decided prejudice against what he considered unduly fast congregational singing.
47. I sing the mighty power of God
Isaac Watts, 1674-1748
A hymn of praise, magnifying the power, wisdom, goodness, and omnipresence of God as revealed in creation. It appeared first in Watt’s Divine and Moral Songs for the Use of Children where it was entitled, “Praise for Creation and Providence.” The original has eight stanzas.
For comments on Watts see [No. 11].
MUSIC. ELLACOMBE is a cheerful, unpretentious tune that deserves to be better known. The source designated is Gesangbuch der Herzogl published in 1784, but some of our best authorities are content to leave its exact origin in doubt. It found its way into English hymnals soon after it was published in Vollständige Sammlung der gewöhnlichen Melodien zum Mainzer Gesangbuche, by X. L. Hartig, in 1833.