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Show They don't write hymns like they used to Ye Saints who dwell on Europe's shore. .el not vimr hearts lie faint: Let each press an to things hejore. And he indeed a Saint. Your brethren in America Are one in heart with yon. Anil thev are toiling night and day For 'ion 's leelfure loo. They even note are driven forth To track the wilderness: Thev leave the country of their birth For truth and righteousness. I found the old hymn book in a box of things I collected from my parents' home after my mother died. In the process of going through her keepsakes seven years ago, we found photos of grandparents and great grandparents I'd ' never known, photos nobody else seemed to want. The keepsakes included some old books and a small box with medals, a tiny fan and other items that must have meant something to someone, since they had obviously been kept for a long time. So decided to keep them a little longer. We placed the photos, the keepsakes, keep-sakes, and several of the books in a cardboard box, put the box on a high : shelf, and left it there for the future. ' Someday, we figured, we'd get out the old box and figure out who everybody was ' in all those photographs. Someday we'd put things in order. When I was asked to speak in my daughter's Sunday School class about her ancestors, my wife dug out the box and Nancy and I looked through it for something to show. That's when I picked up the old hymn book. Tune: "Cod Save the Oueen " Itless thou our Prophet dear: May health and comfort cheer His noble heart: His words with fire impress the editor's column , By MARC HADDOCK On souls that Thou if ill bless: or gold may they caress. Hut free impart. "Manchester, 1840" reads the date on the preface page. If the small hymn book is a second printing, that page has been torn out. It was printed for members of the LDS Church in England in earlier times -and probably came from there with one of my great grandparents, although I have no idea which one. I found the book fascinating. The pages are about three-and-a-half by five inches, the book just over an inch thick. On the 430 small pages are inscribed the lyrics (but no music) to 345 hymns the Saints used to sing - and some insight into the way early Church members viewed themselves, their world and their new religion. The book contains many familiar titles which can be heard in ward houses in town every Sunday: "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief," "Behold the Great Redeemer Die," "Come, Come Ye Saints," "Come Listen to a Prophet's Voice," and many, many more. Certain names show up again and again as authors of the hymns, names like E.R. Snow, P.P. Pratt, J. Taylor and W.W. Phelps. But there are a lot of hymns you won't hear any more, because of changing times. After all, when's the last time you sang this number by John Taylor in Sacrament Meeting: The I pper California. () that's the hind for me! It lies beliceen the mountains and the great Pacific sea: The Saints can be supported there. And taste the sweets of liberty In I' pper California. O. that's the land for me. Given the current regard with which many Utahn's hold Califor-nians, Califor-nians, that's not a popular hymn in my ward. And anyway, there's no hint that I can see as to how to sing this particular par-ticular melody, although it looks as though it might be rousing. With others, like the tune written to the tune of "God Save the Queen," there's no doubt as to how the song should sound. That's also true of this hymn by Parley P. Pratt, but I'll let you guess the tune: O Saints, hare you seen, o'er yon mountain's proud height. The day-star of promise so brilliantly beaming Its rays shall illumine the world with its iighl. And the ensign of '.ion exullinglv streamings -. . .;. , . - All nations invite to walk in its light. And join to maintain the proud standard of right. The Standard of .ion! O long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. How did they see their world? As part of my presentation, I told a story of a confrontation between my great grandfather and some Indians near Fort Hall, where he was hauling some oats by wagon. The American Indian was a romantic figure in England, where Edward Haddock was reared, and some of the romance is seen in this hymn about the native Americans- O. stop and tell me. R,.,l l II ho nre yim. why y r, And how you get vowrini Have you no Vi. mnw II ith stature straight, in,l ilrliy And decked in unlive pri,!,,. Milh feathers, paints ,m,l lmilKjle lie willingly replied: "I once was pleasant fyir,N If hen Jiii dIi fr me pmyed. Hut 0. mic blessings vanish. When mini from Vl hs s(mVfli Kejore your nation knewm. Some lliiiiisunil m, nuts tifztt. Our fathers fell in darkness. And wandered In n,l frn." It was a time when the hymns were used to teach Mormon doctrine, doc-trine, and there was a broad variety of subjects probably not familiar to , modern church-goers. The hymnal includes a hymn about conference, a hymn about baptism for the dead, two hymns about American Indians, hymns about the destruction of the Nephites and a hymn about the completion ol the Temple in Nauvoo, and 14 hymns specifically written for funerals. I There's even a hymn - just one -about plural marriage, which urges: a "Through him wlw ItMs h sealing power Ye faithful ones, iclwheed Celestial hues, lake many mm. ( and rear a righteous sml. I've been reading and re-reading these hymns. Some seem humorous, Ll others downright silly, many o! tin lyrics are forced. But to the people who sang them, they were a means of worship, i ; way to seek strength and share brotherhood. j To me they are a link to the past, to those who left their country to come to "Upper California," but t ended up in Bear Lake -a far a; from the land of sunshine. p)e . Moi |
