After recently being convinced of the necessity of developing religious affections in my children, we have begun singing some of the more theological, God-centered hymns in our family devotions.
One benefit is exposure to some great texts. Another is discovering all the original stanzas of the more familiar texts, some of which have not made it into our hymnals. As an introductory exhibit, I offer stanza six of “All Creatures of Our God and King,” a thirteenth century hymn by Francis of Assisi.
And thou most kind and gentle Death,
Waiting to hush our latest breath,
O praise Him! Alleluia!
Thou leadest home the child of God,
And Christ our Lord the way hath trod.
O praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Dave,
You didn’t happen to read the book Worship in Song by Scott Aniol did you? I’m assuming by your Religious affections reference above that maybe you had. There is indeed a wealth of hymnody to tap into. I know it has been awhile since the two of us talked – I’ll have to stop in some time when I’m in your area of Ohio. I’ve got some in laws in Mansfield. Anyway our church in West Bend uses Hymns of Grace and Glory from Joan Pinkston. It has a lot of “new to us” but very old hymns that we have been learning. I highly recommend it as a family hymnal. Of course, Scott includes a great list of hymns in the back of his book as well…
Good to see you blogging – we’ll have to catch up some time. Later.
Caleb Roth
Hi Caleb,
Great to hear from you. Yes, I’ve read Scott’s book. I also sent you an email.
[...] some time ago, I started this series which, before today, had but one entry. Consider this the second. Most hymnals include no more than [...]