siteicon4

This hymn, which reminds us of the sounds of early Americana, is one of the oldest published American folk hymns. The lyrics were written by George Atkins and first published in 1819. The traditional tune, Holy Manna, is a pentatonic (based on only five notes) melody in Ionian mode originally published by William Moore in Columbian Harmony, a four-note shape-note tunebook, in 1829. Like most shape-note songs from that century, it is usually written in three parts. It is commonly sung as the opening song at shape-note singing events.

This is one of America’s revival hymns. It was authored during the middle years of America’s Second Great Awakening. It’s author, George Askins, was born in Ireland. He immigrated to the United States as an adult. He was a Methodist and became an itinerant preacher for the Baltimore Conference in 1801. He was appointed to other circuits as well, mostly in Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky. He died in Frederick, Maryland, February 28, 1816.

Rev. John Stamper, a contemporary of Askins, describes Askins this way: “He was a man of small stature, and a cripple, one of his legs being withered up to the hip; yet he was more active on foot than any cripple I ever saw. Notwithstanding his bodily infirmity, he was full of spirit, and a stranger to fear. No threats could deter him from speaking his sentiments, no matter who might hear them, and he would reprove sin wherever or by whomever committed. In doing this, he often gave great offense, and on one or two occasions suffered personal injury. He was a great stickler for the peculiarities of Methodism. . .. Askins was a good preacher because he preached a pure gospel in the power and demonstration of the Spirit. . . He was an impassioned and often eloquent orator, and I have seen whole congregations stand aghast while he was descanting upon the punishment of the wicked.”

A native of the small Kentucky town of Franklin, Thomas Obediah Chisholm (1866-1960) was born in a log cabin. He lacked formal education. Nevertheless, he became a teacher at age sixteen and the associate editor of his hometown weekly newspaper, the Franklin Advocate, at age twenty-one.

In 1893 Chisholm became a Christian through the ministry of Henry Clay Morrison, the founder of Asbury College and Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. Morrison persuaded Chisholm to move to Louisville where he became editor of the Pentecostal Herald. Though he was ordained a Methodist minister in 1903, he served only a single, brief appointment at Scottsville, Kentucky, due to ill health. Chisholm relocated his family to Winona Lake, Indiana, to recover, and then to Vineland, New Jersey, in 1916 where he sold insurance. He retired in 1953 and spent his remaining years in a Methodist retirement community in Ocean Grove, New Jersey.

By the time of his retirement, he had written more than 1200 poems, 800 of which were published. They often appeared in religious periodicals such as the Sunday School Times, Moody Monthly, and Alliance Weekly. Many of these were set to music.

Chisholm had sent a number of his poems to the Rev. William H. Runyan (1870-1957), a musician with the Moody Bible Institute and one of the editors of Hope Publishing Company in Chicago. It was written in Baldwin, Kansas, in 1923, and was first published in my private song pamphlets.” George Beverly Shea (1909-2013), the famous Canadian-born singer of the Billy Graham Crusades, introduced this hymn to those attending the evangelistic meetings in Great Britain in 1954. It immediately became a favorite.

The story behind one of the most well-known hymns “It Is Well With My Soul” or you may see the title “When Peace Like A River” is truly a story that seems made for a movie.

The author of the lyrics, Horatio Spafford, was a Presbyterian layman, successful lawyer and real estate investor in Chicago. When the Great Chicago Fire happened in 1871, Horatio lost his fortune. Before the Chicago Fire his four-year old son died from scarlet fever.

The family was under a lot of stress and his wife was so overcome with grief he decided to send his wife and four daughters to England for a vacation on the S. S. Ville de Havre. He was going to join them later after he finished with some business he had to take care of. The ship his family was traveling on was involved in a terrible collision while crossing the Atlantic Ocean on November 22, 1873 and sank in 12 minutes. All four of his daughters died along with more than 200 people. When his wife Anna reached Cardiff, Wales, she sent her husband a telegram that began: “Saved alone. What shall I do?”

After receiving the telegram, Horatio immediately set sail for England. During the voyage the captain was aware Horatio had lost his four daughters in the collision. He requested for Horatio to join him. He pointed out the location where the collision occurred. A devout Christian he thought about his four daughters and he was comforted by the hope he had. He rushed to his room and he penned the words to a poem. The conductor of Marietta Pops has a reproduction of the hand-written letter written by the hymn’s author regarding this favorite hymn of many.

Samuel Stennett (1727-1795), an English Baptist, came from a long line of ministers. He was the son of a Seventh-Day Baptist pastor.

In the 18th century, university education was not easily available to nonconformist families—those who refused to swear allegiance to the Church of England. Stennett did study at the academy at Miles End with distinction, however.

In spite of his nonconformist religious stance, Stennett was a personal friend to the reigning monarch, King George III. Stennett was honored in 1763 with a doctor of divinity degree from King’s College, Aberdeen, for his accomplishments.

He served as an assistant to his father in his congregation in 1747 and assumed the position of pastor upon his father’s death in 1758. He was called as pastor of the Sabbatarian Baptist Church in 1767, a congregation that had been served by his grandfather, but declined the call. While continuing his other position, he preached to the Sabbatarian congregation every Saturday for 20 years.

John Rippon, an English Baptist pastor, published in 1787 an influential collection, A Selection of Hymns from the Best Authors. Thirty-eight of Stennett’s hymns appeared in this popular collection. Among those was a hymn under the heading of “Heaven Anticipated” with the title of “The Promised Land” in eight four-line stanzas.

The hymn as it appeared in America looked and sounded much different. William Walker’s The Southern Harmony (1835) was the first to include “The Promised Land.” This was one of the most popular of the 19th-century, oblong-tune books with shaped notes.

The tune PROMISED LAND was paired with the text. The Southern Harmony attributes the tune to “Miss M. Durham” but we know nothing else about the composer. The tune has many of the characteristics the traditional folk melodies of the time.

The hymn originates from the Appalachian region of the United States in the early 1800s. While hymnals were not commonplace at the time, the lyrics were first published in two different camp meeting songbooks in 1811, one in Lynchburg, Virginia, and the other in Lexington, Kentucky.

Because hymn books were rare, authors would often write lyrics that were simple and repetitive to aid congregations in learning the songs. This was not indicative of a poor writer, rather the repetition served to increase retention of the words and message.

The tune of the hymn was similar to a 1701 English song, “The Ballad of Captain Kidd,” which recounted the exploits of a sailor who had been executed for piracy. Many other popular songs had also been set to the same melody. In this way, the tune was memorable and easy to learn, much like “The Star-bangled Banner” or “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” each coming from old drinking songs.

Furthermore, the song was discovered by composer William Walker during his travels in Appalachia and published in 1835 in his collection of shape note hymns, The Southern Harmony. Shape note singing was a popular form of musical notation using shapes to denote different pitches. Since most people in that day could not read music, shape notes made it possible for everyone to sing.

The origins of this hymn may be found with Swedish pastor Carl Boberg around 1886. Boberg (1859-1940) was a leading evangelist of his day and the editor of an influential Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sweden periodical Sanningsvittnet (“Witness of the Truth”). Boberg served in the Swe¬dish par¬lia¬ment and published sev¬er¬al vol¬umes of po¬e¬try, including hymns. He al¬so helped com¬pile the first two hymn¬als for the Swe¬dish Co¬ve¬nant Church.

Boberg’s inspiration is said to have come one day when he was caught in a thunderstorm on the southeastern coast of Sweden. The violence of the storm followed by the return of the sun and the singing of birds left him falling to his knees in awe. Soon he penned the nine stanzas of the original version in Swedish beginning with “O Store Gud, nar jag den varld beskader.” Several years later, Boberg unexpectedly heard his poem sung by a congregation to an old Swedish folk melody.

The subsequent history of the poem is somewhat unclear, but interesting. An earlier literal English translation of four of the stanzas by E. Gustav Johnson in 1925 began “O mighty God, when I behold the wonder.” This version never caught on, however, though it may be found in some hymnals however, the most accepted first line begins, “O Lord, My God, when I in awesome wonder.…”