The Words Are the Hymn, The Music Is the Hymn Tune

I have been singing in church choirs since I was 12. That's more than fifty years. I love hymns and also hymn tunes, but mostly the hymns. I have a fairly large of collection of hymn books. Most of the antique ones have no printed music. The congregation was just expected to know the tune. If you move from parish to parish and denomination to denomination you'll find that the hymn tune you expect to go with certain hymns is strange to other people. My daughter, who is a choir director, was always annoyed when the priest at the church where she worked always expected "O, Little Town of Bethlehem" to be sung to the tune "Forest Green", a tune she associates more with the hymn "How Beautiful the March of Days".

I'm going to attempt to post the text of the hymns for each week's readings in the Revised Lectionary. When I have time I may include a little history of the hymn, for every hymn, like all poetry, has a poet and a story behind it.

What Gift Can We Bring?

This fairly new hymn was written by Jane Marshall in 1980 for the 25th anniversary of her congregation, Northaven United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas.

What gift can we bring, what present or token?
What words can convey it, the joy of this day?
When grateful we come, remembering, rejoicing,
What song can we offer on honor and praise?


Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life by Frank Mason North
This hymn is well suited to the Gospel reading for June 26 - Matthew 10:40-42

1. Where cross the crowded ways of life,
where sound the cries of race and clan,
above the noise of selfish strife,
we hear your voice, O Son of man.

2. In haunts of wretchedness and need,
on shadowed thresholds dark with fears,
from paths where hide the lures of greed,
we catch the vision of your tears.

3. From tender childhood's helplessness,
from woman's grief, man's burdened toil,
from famished souls, from sorrow's stress,
your heart has never known recoil.

4. The cup of water given for you
still holds the freshness of your grace;
yet long these multitudes to view
the sweet compassion of your face.

5. O Master, from the mountainside
make haste to heal these hearts of pain;
among these restless throngs abide;
O tread the city's streets again.

6. Till all the world shall learn your love
and follow where your feet have trod,
till, glorious from your heaven above,
shall come the city of our God!

Here's a history of this hymn written by C. Michael Hawn of the Perkins School of Theology.

Frank Mason North (1850-1935) composed one of the first social gospel hymns devoted to the special needs of the increasing urban poor population... With New York City as his backdrop, North wrote "Where cross the crowded ways of life" at the suggestion of Caleb T. Winchester, for the committee that prepared the 1905 Methodist hymnal... When North was asked to compose a hymn on a missionary theme, he protested his ability to write hymns but promised to try his hand. Shortly before this appeal to prepare a hymn, he had preached a sermon on Matthew 22:9 with a translation of the passage as "Go ye therefore into the parting of the highways." This idea captured his imagination as he thought of the traffic of the great urban centers of the United States and beyond.