Seized by a Great Affection

WORSHIP IN THE SANCTUARY

SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

“The Church’s One Foundation”

This hymn was written by Samuel J. Stone (1839-1900). In her series, Stories of The Hymns, Karen Silvis shares this:

In 1866, an influential and liberal Anglican bishop wrote a book which attacked the historic accuracy of the Pentateuch. This caused a widespread controversy throughout the Anglican church. A pastor ministering to the poor of London at the time was deeply disturbed by the debate. He wrote a collection of twelve creedal hymns which were based on the Apostle's Creed. His purpose was to
instruct his people in the truth and to combat the liberal attacks on the Bible. The author of these hymns was Samuel J.Stone and Stone knew that the foundation of the church must be the Lordship of Christ and not the views of the people. His hymn, "The Church's One Foundation" was based on the Ninth Article of the creed, which reads, "The Holy Catholic (or Universal) Church; the Communion of Saints; He is the head of this Body."
It was from this cauldron of doctrinal dispute and crisis over a century ago that one of the great hymns of our faith came into being. Stone's faith in the inspiration of Scripture, his refusal to compromise before the Higher Criticism of his day, and his conviction of the Lordship of Christ has given us this stately hymn.

Click here to listen to this great hymn:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=molBcp8S_Ng

Click here to purchase on iTunes:
The Church's One Foundation - The World of Favourite Hymns

“Crown Him with Many Crowns”

This worshipful text is the combined effort of two distinguished Anglican clergymen, each of whom desired to write a hymn of exaltation to our suffering but now victorious Lord.
Matthew Bridges' version first appeared in 1851 with six stanzas. Twenty-three years later Godfrey Thring wrote six additional stanzas, which appeared in his collection Hymns and Sacred Lyrics. The hymn's present forrn includes stanzas one, two, and four by Bridges and the third verse by Thring.
Each crown in this hymn text exalts Christ for some specific aspect of His person or ministry—

(1) Stanza one for His eternal Kingship;

(2) stanza two for His love demonstrated in redemptive suffering;

(3) stanza three for His victorious resurrection and ascension, and

(4) stanza four as a member of the Triune Godhead ever worthy of worship and praise.

The tune, Diadernata (the Greek word for crowns), was composed especially for this text by George Elvey, a noted organist at St. George's Chapel in Windsor, England, where British royalty often attend.
Click here to read more about this hymn:
http://songsandhymns.org/hymns/detail/crown-him-with-many-crowns

Click here to listen to the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdK4lzg8gsU

Click here for another arrangement:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWCEFKsZqLY

Click here to purchase “Crown Him with many Crowns”
Crown Him With Many Crowns - The World of Favourite Hymns

"O Worship the King"

This great hymn was written by Sir Robert Grant. Who would later become the Governor or Bombay. He wrote a hymn which is considered one of the greatest in the English language. Reading William Kethe's translation of Psalm 104 in a 1561 psalm book prompted Robert to write his own version of the psalm, familiar to millions of church-goers.

O Worship the King all glorious above!
O gratefully sing his power and his love,
Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of days,
Pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise.

Click here for a guitar arrangement of the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtytasU9j7Y

Click here for an organ arrangement:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=veDdPLdWugQ

Click here to purchase a version of "O Worship the King"
O Worship the King - 100 Church Classics

“Thou Art Worthy”

Pauline Michael was born on October 13, 1898 in Portland, Indiana. Along with her parents, Otto and Ella Michael, she settled in Stockton, CA. Her mother, Ella was a musician and played the piano and organ. When Pauline's mother was unable to make it to a funeral service to play the organ, she sent Pauline, and that was her first experience of playing for the public. At age 12, she was filled with the Holy Spirit and received 3 gifts...the Word of Wisdom, a Shepherd's heart, and the gift of Music. She then became a pianist for local churches. Pauline played an organ at street meetings. She and her mother were very active in Street Meetings, and Missions. Her mother was very musical and has written several Sacred Songs. She has also written many poems.

In 1920, Pauline was healed by the prayers of Smith-Wigglesworth.

In 1915 she was married to Louis Mills. She had 6 children and lived in Stockton. In 1944 she moved to Los Angeles with her 3 younger daughters, and attended and graduated from L.I.F.E. Bible College with her son, Dick Mills, who was just out of the Air Force.

In 1940 she began to set the scriptures to music, 25 years before the body of Christ accepted them.

In 1975, she was ordained a minister in Los Angeles by L.I.F.E. Bible College. Pauline has ministered by song and speaking across the United States, Australia, and England.

Pauline felt that she was born before her time, because the Lord had given her the gift of writing music to scriptures long before it became received in the churches.

The way "Thou Art Worthy" came about was when Pauline was traveling with her son on an Evangelistic tour. He asked the congregation to send up their favorite scripture and that his mother would write music to the song before the service was over. She did not know that he was going to do this. By the end of the service, she had chosen the scripture from Rev. 4:11, "Thou Art Worthy" and the Lord gave her the music, and she sang it before the service was over. Later the Lord gave her the verse. This song is written in 16 languages.

At the age of 94, on December 18, 1991 she went to join the Heavenly Band.

Click here to listen to the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJy1yd4f_jg

Click here to purchase the song:
Thou Art Worthy - The Best of the New Songs

"The Solid Rock"

The name of Edward Mote does not often rest on the lips of the church today in the saym fashion as Fanny J. Crosby, B.B. McKinney, Ira Sankey, or other greats in hymnody. However, the testimony of his life is one that should inspire all Christians. Mote was note brought up in a godly home and did not have the advantage of early exposure to Scripture. In fact, his parents managed a pub in London and often neglected young Edward, who spent most of his Sundays playing in the city streets. Of his theological upbringing, he said “So ignorant was I that did not know that there was a God.”

Eventually Mote became exposed to the Word of God, and was baptized at the age of 18. This event, however, did not send Mote immediately into the ministry. He was apprenticed to become a cabinetmaker, a career which he successfully conducted for another 37 years. Eventually, at the age of 55, he became pastor of a Baptist church in Horsham, Sussex, where he did not miss a Sunday in the pulpit for the next 21 years.3 He resigned from this pastorate in 1873 due to ill health, and died the following year at the age of 77.

It was with this background that Mote wrote the hymn we have today, "The Solid Rock." It was during his career as a cabinetmaker that the hymn came into being. One morning in 1834 as he was walking to work, it entered his mind to write a hymn. By the time he got to work, he had the chorus. He wrote four more verses over the course of that day and two additional verses before he was finished.

‘On Christ the solid Rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand.’

In the day I had four first verses complete, and wrote them off. On the Sabbath following I met brother King as I came out of Lisle Street Meeting…who informed me that his wife was very ill, and asked me to call and see her. I had an early tea, and called afterwards. He said that it was his usual custom to sing a hymn, read a portion, and engage in prayer, before he went to meeting. He looked for his hymn-book but could find it no where. I said, ‘I have some verses in my pocket; if he liked, we would sing them.’ We did, and his wife enjoyed them so much, that after service he asked me, as a favour, to leave a copy of them for his wife. I went home, and by the fireside composed the last two verses, wrote the whole off, and took them to sister King…As these verses so met the dying woman’s case, my attention to them was the more arrested, and I had a thousand printed for distribution.

Click here to listen to an arrangement by the Cadet sisters
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJnb3l9UuYU&feature=related

Here is a more traditional arrangement of the song on organ:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d1QpfGPYTU

Click here to purchase a version of “The Solid Rock”:
The Solid Rock - 25 Hymns of Hope & Heaven

"Take my Life and Let it Be"

Frances R. Havergal wrote the following about how he wrote the song: I went for a lit¬tle vi¬sit of five days (to Are¬ley House). There were ten per¬sons in the house, some un¬con¬vert¬ed and long prayed for, some con¬vert¬ed, but not re¬joic¬ing Christ¬ians. He gave me the pra¬yer, “Lord, give me all in this house!” And He just did. Be¬fore I left the house ev¬ery one had got a bless¬ing. The last night of my vis¬it af¬ter I had re¬tired, the gov¬ern¬ess asked me to go to the two daugh¬ters. They were cry¬ing, then and there both of them trust¬ed and re¬joiced; it was near¬ly mid¬night. I was too hap¬py to sleep, and passed most of the night in praise and re¬new¬al of my own con¬se¬cra¬tion; and these lit¬tle coup¬lets formed them¬selves, and chimed in my heart one af¬ter ano¬ther till they fin¬ished with “Ever, On¬ly, ALL for Thee!”

Click here for a great arrangement:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU9Pi4g_3No

Click here for another arrangement of the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma-RUB28iYE

Click here to purchase a version of “Take my Life and Let it Be”
Take My Life and Let It Be - 25 Hymns of Prayer and Invitation

“Holy, Holy, Holy”

Holy, Holy, Holy is a hymn written by Reginald Heber (1783-1826). Its lyrics speak specifically on the Trinity as stated in Christian theology. It was written specifically for the use on Trinity Sunday, which occurs eight weeks after Easter The tune used for this hymn, "Nicaea", was named after the Nicaean Council in 325. It was composed by John Bacchus Dykes in 1861 specifically for the lyrics. The composer wrote many tunes to hymns (over 300) and many are still in use today.

Click here to listen to the story behind the song:
http://hymns.lifespringonline.com/?p=13

Click here to read more about the song:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy,_Holy,_Holy

Click here to hear a vocal arrangement:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTuPeErzEWk&feature=related

Click here to listen to an organ arrangement:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=una7Q2z0WME

Click here to listen to another organ
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWCXI-b0O54

Click here for an acoustic guitar arrangement:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFrhK1n_K9M

Click here to purchase “Holy, Holy, Holy”
Holy Holy Holy - 100 Best Loved Hymns

“A Mighty Fortress is our God”

(German, Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott) is the best known of Martin Luther's hymns. Luther wrote the words and composed the melody sometime between 1527-1529.[ It has been translated into English at least seventy times and also into many other languages. The words are a paraphrase of Psalm 46.The most popular English version, "A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing," was translated by Frederick H. Hedge in 1853. Another popular English version by Thomas Carlyle begins "A safe stronghold our God is still."

Click here to read more about this great hymn:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Mighty_Fortress_Is_Our_God

Click here to worship along with Steve Green:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRJHKzU_t1M

Click here to purchase a version of “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God - Majestic Hymns