Meridian Magazine :: History Bits: What Do Hymns Tell Us?

I hold in my hands a book, a little smaller in dimensions than a three by five-inch card. The title page reads A Collection of Sacred Hymns for the Church of the Latter Day Saints. No author is listed, but these hymns are “selected by Emma Smith." The little book was published at Kirtland, Ohio, in 1835. How much can we learn from this single primary source about the "little flock" of Latter-day Saints in that year?

There are ninety of these hymns, words only. They could be sung to standard melodies of the day. Depending on the meter, a given tune could be used for a number of different hymns. Or for variety a single hymn could be sung to different melodies.

Another interesting point is that no author is listed for the words of the individual hymns. Only from other sources do we learn who wrote the words. Here the entire focus is on the words themselves.

Number 1 starts out with this stanza: Know then that ev’ry soul is free / To choose his life and what he’ll be; / For this eternal truth is given, / That God will force no man to heaven. Already I, a reader from another century, conclude that these people were not determinists, believers in a predestined course of life. They believed in moral agency, in free will.

These people observed the Sabbath day, singing in number 24: Gently raise the sacred strain, / For the Sabbath’s come again, / That man may rest, / And return his thanks to God, / For his blessings to the blest.

The Sabbath was considered a happy type of things to come, / when the saints are gather’d home.

Number four goes like this: Glorious things of thee are spoken, / Zion, city of our God! / He whose word cannot be broken, / Chose thee for his last abode. Continuing to read, we discover that the inhabitants of the holy city, relying on Jesus, are “kings and priests to God ..." They are a separated people, a blessed people, awaiting the coming of the Lord.

In number 50, we read Farewell, our friends and brethren! / Here take the parting hand. / We go to preach the gospel / To ev’ry foreign land. This was a missionary church. They gathered, but they also went abroad, carrying a message to the world. Farewell, farewell our country-- / Our home is now abroad / To labor in the vineyard, / In righteousness for God. / The gallant ships are ready / To waft us o’er the sea, / To gather up the blessed, / That Zion may be free.

They practiced baptism by immersion. Here is hymn 53: As ‘twas said to Nicodemus, So I must be born again; / ‘Tis by water and the Spirit / I the promise may obtain. / So I will obey the Savior, / Keep his law and do his will, / That I may enjoy forever, / Happiness on Zion’s hill.

That is another theme mentioned in many of the hymns – the expected Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The people who used this little book were adventists, believers in an imminent event. In number 14 we find this stanza: When Jesus comes as flaming flame, / For to reward the just, / The world will know the only name, / In which the saints can trust. Even words traditionally sung at Christmastime are here, in hymn 15, turned into a proclamation of the Second Coming: Joy to the world, the Lord will come.

Hymn 90, in smaller type, is especially interesting. The Spirit of God like a fire is burning; / The latter day glory begins to come forth; / The visions and blessings of old are returning; / The angels are coming to visit the earth. People who recited or sang these words believed they were in the midst of a “latter day" outpouring of blessings, including revelations and angelic visitors.

The same hymn speaks of sacred washings and anointings. (The temple in Kirtland would be dedicated a year later, and this hymn would be sung.) Again the adventist expectation: How blessed the day when the lamb and the lion / Shall lie down together without any ire; / And Ephraim be crown’d with his blessing in Zion, / As Jesus descends with his chariots of fire.

It is abundantly clear that people who sang these hymns believed in Jesus Christ. In number 57, they sang: O God th/eternal Father, / Who dwells amid the sky, / In Jesus’ name we ask thee / To bless and sanctify, / (If we are pure before thee,) / This bread and cup of wine, / That we may all remember / That off’ring so divine.

Or number 64: And did my Savior die, / And shed his blood for me? / O! What's the reason why, / Ungrateful I should be? / Why should I fear to speak, / And own my Savior’s name, / Or bow before his feet, / Or sing aloud his fame?

Other subjects could be noted. Since this book does not carry such information, I do not tell which songs were borrowed from previous collections, which adapted, and which written by members of the restored church of Jesus Christ. I do not explore the subsequent development of hymnology among the Latter-day Saints, a fascinating story that has been investigated in theses, dissertations, and books. For the moment, I am simply looking at a little hymnal (actually a facsimile reprint) that fits into the palm of one's hand.

We do not learn everything by looking at a single book. But remembering that Latter-day Saints sang these songs again and again, we can perhaps learn a great deal. Raising their voices together in song, they gave repeated assent to several basic beliefs.

They would have been surprised, I think, to discover that they were later accused of not believing in Jesus Christ. In subsequent generations right down to the present, bearers of false witness would thus defame them.

Shaking their heads in disbelief at the willful misrepresentation, the Saints of 1835 might say, “Let’s bear our testimony once again. Number 79. All together now." I know that my Redeemer lives; / What comfort this sweet sentence gives! / He lives, he lives who once was dead, / He lives, my ever living head! ... He lives, all glory to his name! / He lives, my Jesus, still the same: / O the sweet joy this sentence gives, / I know that my Redeemer lives.