Geography of Hymn Writers: Where to Visit Their Creative Spark

By John Zehring

“Geography of Hymn Writers” takes the stories of hymn writers and organizes them according to the geography of the authors – where they were born, where they served, or where they found a creative spark to produce their hymns. Like a travelogue, it is designed as a useful guide to provide you an index of geographic locations of the hymn writers, so that in your journeys, you can look up the authors of classic hymns and the locations from where their hymns were born.

Here is the challenge. Which of the author’s locations to feature? Should locations be organized by the author’s birth or death, where the author attended school, fell in love, experienced tragedies or events which influenced the hymn. Should it be organized by the hometown or the most important career position? The guiding criteria is this: VISITIBILITY. I attempted to identify the geographic location which generated the creative spark for the author’s hymn. Many people have lived in more than one location. If I were visiting a place where a hymnwriter wrote, which location would be the most likely I’d want to visit? For example, if a hymn author was born in Dublin, Ireland but ended up on Ontario, Canada – where his life experiences led him to write a hymn – the Ontario location would be featured. Other times, a place of birth or career is significant.

The stories in this volume all come from my book “Hymns: Their Stories and Their Messages”, which is a compendium of the seven books I have written about hymns. That book has more detail and includes meditations about the messages which spring forth from the hymns. “Geography of Hymn Writers” is a rearranging of those same stories, sorted by geography. May it serve you well in your journeys and guide your curiosity to consider where our hymns came from.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Zehring
• Release date: Jun 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005352721

John Zehring

John Zehring has served United Church of Christ congregations as Senior Pastor in Massachusetts (Andover), Rhode Island (Kingston), and Maine (Augusta) and as an Interim Pastor in Massachusetts (Arlington, Harvard). Prior to parish ministry, he served in higher education, primarily in development and institutional advancement. He worked as a dean of students, director of career planning and placement, adjunct professor of public speaking and as a vice president at a seminary and at a college. He is the author of more than sixty books and is a regular writer for The Christian Citizen, an American Baptist social justice publication. He has taught Public Speaking, Creative Writing, Educational Psychology and Church Administration. John was the founding editor of the publication Seminary Development News, a publication for seminary presidents, vice presidents and trustees (published by the Association of Theological Schools, funded by a grant from Lilly Endowment). He graduated from Eastern University and holds graduate degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary, Rider University, and the Earlham School of Religion. He is listed in Marquis' WHO'S WHO IN AMERICA and is a recipient of their Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. John and his wife Donna live in two places, in central Massachusetts and by the sea in Maine.

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Introduction

Having written more than half a dozen books about hymns and their stories and messages, I found myself becoming fascinated by where the authors came from, where they wrote their hymns, and the people or places which inspired them. Over the course of my research, I found a number of hymn writers who sent forth a great hymn into the world from a location which I had visited or known. As I grow older and travel more, I find that some of the places I have visited are home to the creative spark which generated a well-known or beloved hymn. I am so interested in the geographic location from which these hymns sprung that I wanted to gather them into a book organized by location. That way, any time I go to a new area, I can look up to see if a hymn was born nearby. It seemed to me to be useful to provide you, the reader, an index of geographic locations of the hymn writers so that in your journeys, you too can connect with the authors of classic hymns. And so… this book is like a travelogue of geographic locations where our hymns came from, organized by country and town, with the emphasis on where you might visit to connect with the author’s creative spark.

Here is the challenge. Which of the author’s locations to feature? Should I organize by the author’s birth or death, where the author attended school, or fell in love, tragedies or experiences which influenced the hymn, or the hometown or the most important career position?

To address these questions, I tried to reflect upon the geography of my own experiences to consider how to present a single location for a person. Like them, I too have moved about:

Prospect Park, PA – were I spent the first six years of my life

Springfield, PA – where I lived through high school and most of college. Wrote my first published devotionals there, as well as newspaper articles for school and college publications

Overbrook, PA – where my wife and I lived during my senior year of college, as house parents at a school for the blind.

Princeton, NJ – seminary and graduate school

Barrington, RI – first job as a college dean

Riverside, RI – first house, wrote first book

Richmond, IN – worked at a college, wrote three books and hundreds of articles

Bangor, ME – VP at a seminary, wrote book for Abingdon Press

Henniker, NH – VP at a college

Augusta, ME – changed careers and became a pastor

Kingston, RI – Senior Pastor

Andover, MA – Senior Pastor, wrote second book for Judson Press

Hubbardston, MA – retired, wrote third book for Judson Press. Then wrote more than fifty other books. Served three interim pastorates, where I may have done some of my best ministry and which I enjoyed immensely.

Hancock, ME – my second home, a cottage on the Maine coast, where I have researched, outlined, and written so many of my books – as I write this one in my writing shed looking out over the bay with Schoodic Mountain in the background.

Why so many moves? Two reasons. First, each move led to a higher level of responsibility, increased numbers of people served, and an advancement of the career. Second, I enjoy new adventures. So, of all the places I have lived, which one would I select as most visitable? It would have to be Hubbardston, where I feel my creativity grew to new heights and my production of books increased significantly. Or, perhaps my writing shed in Hancock, Maine from whence so many books were written and published. I will never be in the same league as the hymn authors I write about and I cannot imagine any of my readers ever wanting to visit a place of my geography, yet it is helpful to reflect upon how to represent the most important location of a writer’s life.

And so, how to organize hymn writers by geographic location? The guiding criteria: VISITIBILITY. I attempted to identify the geographic location which generated the creative spark for the author’s hymn. Many people have lived in more than one location. If I were visiting a place where a hymnwriter wrote, which location would be the most likely I’d want to visit? For example, if a hymn author was born in Dublin, Ireland but ended up on Ontario, Canada – where his life experiences led him to write a hymn – the Ontario location would be featured. Other times, a place of birth is significant. Please scroll to the end of the book for an index of hymns by location.

When we consider the lives of hymn authors and composers, we observed that like every person, they had full lives, with their mountain peaks, valleys, green pastures, successes and failures, disappointments and loves. Some, like Isaac Watts, were prolific prodigies, and produced a barrel-full of hymns new to his generation. Others scribbled off a hymn in less than an hour, wrote only that one hymn, and their name endures throughout generations because of their single brief creative authoring of a hymn which captured the hearts and affections of millions. Who would have ever known of twenty-five-year-old Joseph Mohr, a pastor in an Austrian village, except for his single hymn Silent Night?

My book Hymns: Their Stories and Their Messages is a compendium of the seven books I have written about hymns. Those books include not only information about hymn authors and sometimes the composers, but messages that flow out of the hymns. In this volume, I abbreviate the information about each hymn to make it more useful as a travelogue, but if you would like additional background about the hymns, I invite you to consult Hymns: Their Stories and Their Messages. All of the hymn stories in this book come from that compendium, so this book is really a simple rearranging of those same stories sorted by geography.

Notes about this book

Scriptures used in this work come from the New Revised Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.

I have attempted to use inclusive language wherever possible in the words I have written, although I have not altered the author’s reference to God as he. I recognize that the Divine has no gender and for many it may be just as appropriate and accurate to acknowledge God as Mother or Father. Whichever pronoun is used, consider God as a loving parent.

Hymns and their lyrics in this book come from the public domain. Hymns which are not in the public domain will be referenced only in passing to recognize them or to use a title or a few lines as a basis for a meditation.

As I worked on each hymn’s background, I found the hymn invading my subconscious, causing me to hum or sing it to myself all day long. Some of the hymn’s verses found their way into my prayers and I discovered that a prayer life is enriched by starting with words that lift prayer out of one’s own interests or needs to a higher level of praise, love, confession, or thanksgiving in words crafted by the hymn writers. And so, may this work inform you, undergird your devotion to God, provide you with some musical avenues to your personal prayers, and bring joyful music more deeply into your soul as you seek an encounter with the Divine.

John Zehring

Oberndorf, Austria

Silent Night

Silent night, holy night

All is calm, all is bright

'Round yon virgin Mother and Child

Holy infant so tender and mild

Sleep in heavenly peace

Sleep in heavenly peace

Silent night, holy night!

Shepherds quake at the sight!

Glories stream from heaven afar;

Heavenly hosts sing Al-le-lu-ia!

Christ the Savior is born!

Christ the Savior is born!

Silent night, holy night

Son of God, oh, love's pure light

Radiant beams from Thy holy face

With the dawn of redeeming grace

Jesus, Lord at Thy birth

Jesus, Lord at Thy birth

Sometimes when plans are confounded, the result comes out even better, as they did the night when the hymn Silent Night was written and composed.

A couple days before Christmas, the organist came to rehearse for the Christmas Eve program. The sanctuary of the parish church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria was decorated in greens. The organist placed his hands on the keyboard to practice. To his alarm, no sound came out! An inspection revealed that mice had gnawed holes in the leather bellows which supplied wind for the organ pipes. The holes could not be repaired in time for the much-loved Christmas Eve service.

The Pastor, Joseph Mohr, age twenty-five, was returning from a home visit where a new baby had arrived. The sight of the child in the arms of its mother inspired him. As evening approached, he walked home through falling snow. Overhead the stars twinkled, while on the white landscape there was complete silence. Joseph Mohr went to his study and wrote a poem about all the feelings he experienced that night. He then learned about the problem with the organ. How sad – no organ for Christmas Eve. What could he do?

Joseph Mohr went to his good friend, the village schoolmaster, named Franz Gruber, age thirty-one. He asked Franz if he could take the poem he wrote and set it to music that the people could sing without the organ. Franz Gruber crafted a simple tune which he named for the silent night which Joseph Mohr wrote about in his poem Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht. That beloved carol, inspired by a broken organ and the silence of an early evening walk through the snowy woods penned in 1818 high up in the alps of Austria, has become one of the most recorded songs in history: Silent night.

At the Christmas Eve Service that night, the now-famous carol was first performed by the young priest Joseph Mohr, who played the guitar and sang along with Franz Xaver Gruber, the choir director who had written the melody.

It is said that an organ builder and repair man working at the church took a copy of the song to his home village. There, it was picked up and spread by some traveling folk singers, who performed around northern Europe. In the early 1800’s it was performed for the King of Prussia and shortly thereafter another family of singers debuted the carol outside Trinity Church in New York City.

Port Hope, Ontario, Canada

Born Dublin, Ireland

What a Friend We Have in Jesus

What a Friend we have in Jesus,

All our sins and griefs to bear!

What a privilege to carry

Everything to God in prayer!

O what peace we often forfeit,

O what needless pain we bear,

All because we do not carry

Everything to God in prayer!

Have we trials and temptations?

Is there trouble anywhere?

We should never be discouraged,

Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Can we find a friend so faithful

Who will all our sorrows share?

Jesus knows our every weakness,

Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy-laden,

Cumbered with a load of care?

Precious Savior, still our refuge—

Take it to the Lord in prayer;

Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?

Take it to the Lord in prayer;

In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,

Thou wilt find a solace there.

Jesus offers an intimacy with God which is like a friendship. Friends have access to one another. They return each other's calls. They are ready to be there for their friend... and willing to stay with them, stand with them, and abide with them. Civilizations throughout the eons have wondered about the nature and character of God. Jesus the Son of God extends the awesome offer to be friends. I do not call you servants any longer… but I have called you friends. (John 15:15). Rather than standing at a distance to gaze at God from affair, Jesus invites you to enter into the presence of the Divine and to enjoy an intimacy with God, so that he is no longer a distant stranger, but our close friend.

A British magazine offered a prize for the best definition of a friend. Here's the entry which won: A friend is the one who comes in when the whole world has gone out. Jesus is the friend who comes to you when everyone else has gone out.

The Native American word for friend means One who carries my sorrows on his back. Jesus carries your sorrows on his back.

A little boy put it this way: A friend is someone who knows all about you and likes you just the same. Jesus knows all about you, gives you the gift of grace, and loves you just the same.

Jennie Churchill taught her boy Winston: Treat your friends as you do your pictures, and place them in their best light. How comforting to know that Jesus places you in your best light.

Joseph Scriven, author of What A Friend We Have In Jesus, was born in Dublin, Ireland to prosperous parents, in 1819. He received a prestigious education at Trinity University, worked as a teacher, and was engaged to a lovely woman. All was going his way until, the night before his wedding, he received the tragic news that his fiancée had accidentally drowned. He was crushed, and moved away, to Ontario, Canada.

In his despair, one part of the bible became special for Scriven – Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Scriven tried to develop a pattern of life where he lived the Sermon on the Mount. It was reported that he gave freely of his limited possessions, even sharing the clothing from his own body, if necessary, and never refused to help anyone who needed it. One report tells how a man observed Scriven working industriously in the streets of Port Hope with his sawbuck and saw. The man asked Who is that man? I want him to work for me. The answer came back: You cannot get that man. He saws wood only for poor widows and sick people who cannot pay. It was his gift and his ministry.

Scriven learned that back in Dublin his mother was seriously ill. He was heartbroken that he was not able to get back to be with her because he did not have enough money. He wrote her a letter of comfort enclosing a poem he wrote... a poem titled "What A Friend We Have In Jesus." Scriven’s poem contains the exact words of the hymn today.

Years after this young man left his home in Dublin – heart-broken over the accidental drowning

of his beloved on the eve of their wedding – in one of life's ironies Joseph Scriven died by drowning. Sadly, he did not live to see his song carried to every corner of the globe.

Find solace and soothing comfort in Scriven’s beautiful lyrics:

Is there trouble anywhere?

We should never be discouraged,

Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Can we find a friend so faithful

Who will all our sorrows share?

Jesus knows our every weakness,

Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Toronto, Canada

God, Who Touchest Earth With Beauty

God who touchest earth with beauty,

Make my heart anew;

With thy Spirit recreate me

Pure and strong and true.

Like thy springs and running waters,

Make me crystal pure;

Like thy rocks of towering grandeur,

Make me strong and sure.

Like thy dancing waves in sunlight,

Make me glad and free;

Like the straightness of the pine trees

Let me upright be.

Like the arching of the heavens,

Lift my thoughts above;

Turn my dreams to noble action,

Ministries of love.

Like the birds that soar while singing,

Give my heart a song;

May the music of thanksgiving

Echo clear and strong.

God who touchest earth with beauty,

Make my heart anew;

Keep me ever by thy Spirit

Pure and strong and true.

If you have ever been to a camp, particularly to a church or religious camp, you appreciate how campers develop an affection for nature as well as a commitment to tend it well. The hymn God, Who Touchest Earth With Beauty was written specifically for campers.

The author, Mary Susanne Edgar, was born in 1889 in Ontario, Canada. Mary was a playwright and author of poems, books and hymns. After receiving degrees from Canada’s Havergal College and the University of Toronto, she worked for years with the YWCA. She is best known for her development of Camp Glen Bernard for Girls in northern Ontario. It became a leader in environmental education. Edgar was the director from its beginning in 1922 until her retirement in 1956. Her hymn, penned in 1925 for campers, was awarded first prize in a contest conducted by the American Camping Association the following year. After traveling widely, Mary retired to Toronto, where she died at aged 84, in 1973.

The Bible tells about inner