Best Loved Hymns and Readings

Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son,

And praise the Spirit, Three in One:

William Henry Draper (1855-1933)

All people that on earth do dwell (#ulink_f85ebd56-1ad1-53c9-b2d4-834d6f6c6377)

This hymn, published in 1561, is based on Psalm 100 and has therefore come to be popularly dubbed ‘The Old Hundredth’. Its author was a Scottish-born minister in the Church of England who fled the country after the accession of the Catholic Queen Mary.

All people that on earth do dwell,

Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice:

Him serve with fear, His praise forth tell;

Come ye before Him and rejoice.

The Lord, ye know, is God indeed;

Without our aid He did us make;

We are His flock, He doth us feed,

And for His sheep He doth us take.

O, enter then His gates with praise,

Approach with joy His courts unto;

Praise, laud, and bless His name always,

For it is seemly so to do.

For why? the Lord our God is good,

His mercy is for ever sure;

His truth at all times firmly stood,

And shall from age to age endure.

William Kethe (d.1594)

All things bright and beautiful (#ulink_ec07b773-d26f-5476-b09b-b46e1c359e01)

Cecil Frances Alexander was an Irish hymn writer and poet who married William Alexander, Protestant bishop of Derry, in 1850. She bore her husband four children and, among other good deeds, helped her family to establish a school for ‘deaf and dumb’ children. She wrote some 400 hymns, among them such classics as ‘There is a green hill far away’ and ‘Once in royal David’s city’. The original third verse of this hymn, running ‘The rich man in his castle, / The poor man at his gate, / God made them, high or lowly, / And ordered their estate’, has long since been omitted.

All things bright and beautiful,All creatures great and small,All things wise and wonderful,The Lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens,

Each little bird that sings,

He made their glowing colours,

He made their tiny wings.

The purple-headed mountain,

The river running by,

The sunset, and the morning

That brightens up the sky:

The cold wind in the winter,

The pleasant summer sun,

The ripe fruits in the garden,

He made them every one.

The tall trees in the greenwood,

The meadows where we play,

The rushes by the water

We gather every day.

He gave us eyes to see them,

And lips that we might tell

How great is God Almighty,

Who has made all things well.

Cecil Frances Alexander (1818-95)

All we like sheep (#ulink_41c25c32-28fe-5032-94ef-164cd4f03646)

Isaiah 53, perhaps more than anywhere else in the Old Testament, contains clear prophecy of the sufferings and coming to glory of Jesus Christ. This passage is seen as a description of the ‘Suffering Servant’, a role that, together with that of the conquering lordship of the expected Messiah, was uniquely fulfilled in Christ.

Handel used this passage in his oratorio, Messiah.

Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?