Category Archives: Hymns

God of Our Fathers ~ Hymn

God of Our Fathers

God of our fa­thers, whose al­migh­ty hand
Leads forth in beau­ty all the star­ry band
Of shin­ing worlds in splen­dor through the skies
Our grate­ful songs be­fore Thy throne arise.

Thy love di­vine hath led us in the past,
In this free land by Thee our lot is cast,
Be Thou our rul­er, guard­ian, guide and stay,
Thy Word our law, Thy paths our chos­en way.

From war’s alarms, from dead­ly pes­ti­lence,
Be Thy strong arm our ev­er sure de­fense;
Thy true re­li­gion in our hearts in­crease,
Thy boun­te­ous good­ness nour­ish us in peace.

Refresh Thy peo­ple on their toil­some way,
Lead us from night to nev­er end­ing day;
Fill all our lives with love and grace di­vine,
And glo­ry, laud, and praise be ev­er Thine.

Words: Daniel C. Roberts, 1876.

Deeper and Deeper ~ Hymn

Deeper and Deeper

Into the heart of Je­sus
Deeper and deep­er I go,
Seeking to know the rea­son
Why He should love me so,
Why He should stoop to lift me
Up from the mi­ry clay,
Saving my soul, mak­ing me whole,
Though I had wan­dered away.

Into the will of Je­sus,
Deeper and deep­er I go,
Praying for grace to fol­low,
Seeking His way to know;
Bowing in full sur­ren­der
Low at His bless­èd feet,
Bidding Him take, break me and make,
Till I am mold­ed, com­plete.

Into the cross of Je­sus
Deeper and deep­er I go,
Following through the gar­den,
Facing the dread­ed foe;
Drinking the cup of sor­row,
Sobbing with brok­en heart,
O Sav­ior, help! Dear Sav­ior, help!
Grace for my weak­ness im­part.

Into the joy of Je­sus
Deeper and deep­er I go,
Rising, with soul en­rap­tured,
Far from the world be­low.
Joy in the place of sor­row,
Peace in the midst of pain,
Jesus will give, Je­sus will give;
He will up­hold and sus­tain.

Into the love of Je­sus
Deeper and deep­er I go,
Praising the One who brought me
Out of my sin and woe;
And through eter­nal ag­es
Gratefully I shall sing,
O how He loved! O how He loved!
Jesus, my Lord and my king!

Words: Oswald J. Smith, 1914.

Battle Hymn of the Republic ~ Hymn

Battle Hymn of the Republic

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps;
His day is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery Gospel writ in burnished rows of steel;
As ye deal with My contemners, so with you My grace shall deal;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel,
Since God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Since God is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet;
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.

Words: Ju­lia W. Howe, 1861, alt. This hymn was born dur­ing the Amer­i­can ci­vil war, when Howe vis­it­ed a Un­ion Ar­my camp on the Po­to­mac Riv­er near Wash­ing­ton, D. C. She heard the sol­diers sing­ing the song “John Brown’s Body,” and was tak­en with the strong march­ing beat. She wrote the words the next day:

I awoke in the grey of the morn­ing, and as I lay wait­ing for dawn, the long lines of the de­sired po­em be­gan to en­twine them­selves in my mind, and I said to my­self, “I must get up and write these vers­es, lest I fall asleep and for­get them!” So I sprang out of bed and in the dim­ness found an old stump of a pen, which I re­mem­bered us­ing the day be­fore. I scrawled the vers­es al­most with­out look­ing at the p­aper.

The hymn ap­peared in the At­lant­ic Month­ly in 1862. It was sung at the fun­er­als of Brit­ish states­man Win­ston Church­ill, Amer­i­can sen­at­or Ro­bert Ken­ne­dy, and Am­er­i­can pre­si­dents Ron­ald Rea­gan and Ri­chard Nix­on.

The Battle Hymn of the Republic is also known by the title, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory.

My Voice Shalt Thou Hear in the Morning ~ Hymn

My Voice Shalt Thou Hear in the Morning

My voice shalt Thou hear in the morn­ing,
O Je­sus, my Sav­ior, my all;
While na­ture its mu­sic is wak­ing,
On Thee from my heart will I call.

Refrain

My voice shalt Thou hear in the morn­ing,
My praise to the hills shall as­cend,
I’ll join with the glo­ri­fied mill­ions
A chor­us that nev­er shall end.

My voice shalt Thou hear in the morn­ing,
O Je­sus, my shep­herd and king;
Refreshed with the dews of Thy mer­cy,
Thy won­der­ful love will I sing.

Refrain

My voice shalt Thou hear in the morn­ing,
At noon­day, at eve, and at night;
I’ll tell of Thy good­ness for ev­er,
My hope, my sal­va­tion, my light.

Refrain

Words: Fanny Crosby, 1892.

Father, Lead Thy Little Children ~ Hymn

Father, Lead Thy Little Children

Father, lead Thy lit­tle child­ren
Very ear­ly to Thy throne;
We will have no gods be­fore Thee;
Thou art God, and Thou alone.

Refrain

Lead, O lead Thy lit­tle child­ren
Very ear­ly to Thy throne;
We will have no gods be­fore Thee;
Thou art God, and Thou alone.

In the Bi­ble Thou hast taught us
All our thoughts to Thee are known;
Thou canst see us in the dark­ness;
Thou art God, and Thou alone.

Refrain

Though the hea­then bow to id­ols,
They have made of wood and stone,
We have Christ­ian friends to tell us
Thou art God, and Thou alone.

Refrain

Thou dost give us all our com­forts,
Everything we call our own
Comes from Thee, our heav’n­ly Fa­ther;
Thou art God, and Thou alone.

Refrain

Words: Fanny Crosby, 1883.

Soldiers of Christ, Arise ~ Hymn

I was going to narrow down the 16 stanzas of this hymn/poem that Charles Wesley wrote but on second thought decided to post it all. I’m putting the definitions of some of the ‘old’ words at the end for my benefit and maybe yours.

Soldiers of Christ, Arise

Soldiers of Christ, arise,
And put your armor on,
Strong in the strength which God supplies
Through His eternal Son.
Strong in the Lord of hosts,
And in His mighty power,
Who in the strength of Jesus trusts
Is more than conqueror.

Stand then in His great might,
With all His strength endued,
And take, to arm you for the fight,
The panoply of God;
That, having all things done,
And all your conflicts past,
Ye may o’ercome through Christ alone
And stand entire at last.

Stand then against your foes,
In close and firm array;
Legions of wily fiends oppose
Throughout the evil day;
But meet the sons of night,
And mock their vain design,
Armed in the arms of heavenly light,
Of righteousness divine.

Leave no unguarded place,
No weakness of the soul,
Take every virtue, every grace,
And fortify the whole;
Indissolubly joined,
To battle all proceed;
But arm yourselves with all the mind
That was in Christ, your head.

Let truth the girdle be,
That binds your armor on,
In faithful, firm sincerity
To Jesus cleave alone.
Let faith and love combine
To guard your valiant breast:
The plate be righteousness divine,
Imputed, and impressed.

Still let your feet be shod,
Ready His will to do,
Ready in all the ways of God
His glory to pursue:
Ruin is spread beneath,
The Gospel greaves put on,
And safe through all the snares of death
To life eternal run.

But, above all, lay hold
On faith’s victorious shield;
Armed with that adamant and gold,
Be sure to win the field:
If faith surround your heart,
Satan shall be subdued,
Repelled his every fiery dart,
And quenched with Jesus’ blood.

Jesus hath died for you!
What can His love withstand?
Believe, hold fast your shield, and who
Shall pluck you from His hand?
Believe that Jesus reigns,
All power to Him is given:
Believe, till freed from sin’s remains;
Believe yourselves to Heaven.

Your Rock can never shake:
Hither, He saith, come up!
The helmet of salvation take,
The confidence of hope:
Hope for His perfect love,
Hope for His people’s rest,
Hope to sit down with Christ above,
And share the marriage feast.

Brandish in faith till then
The Spirit’s two-edged sword,
Hew all the snares of fiends and men
In pieces with the Word;
’Tis written; This applied
Baffles their strength and art;
Spirit and soul with this divide,
And joints and marrow part.

To keep your armor bright,
Attend with constant care,
Still walking in your captain’s sight,
And watching unto prayer.
Ready for all alarms,
Steadfastly set your face,
And always exercise your arms,
And use your every grace.

Pray without ceasing, pray,
Your captain gives the word;
His summons cheerfully obey
And call upon the Lord;
To God your every want
In instant prayer display,
Pray always; pray and never faint,
Pray, without ceasing, pray!

In fellowship; alone,
To God with faith draw near;
Approach His courts, besiege His throne
With all the powers of prayer:
Go to His temple, go,
Nor from His altar move;
Let every house His worship know,
And every heart His love.

To God your spirits dart,
Your souls in words declare,
Or groan, to Him who reads the heart,
The unutterable prayer.
His mercy now implore,
And now show forth His praise,
In shouts, or silent awe, adore
His miracles of grace.

Pour out your souls to God,
And bow them with your knees,
And spread your hearts and hands abroad,
And pray for Sion’s peace;
Your guides, and brethren, bear
For ever on your mind;
Extend the arms of mighty prayer,
In grasping all mankind.

From strength to strength go on,
Wrestle, and fight, and pray,
Tread all the powers of darkness down,
And win the well-fought day;
Still let the Spirit cry
In all His soldiers, Come!
Till Christ the Lord descends from high
And takes the conquerors home.

Words: Charles Wesley, 1741.

endued: endow or provide with a quality or ability (past tense)

Panoply: a complete set of arms or suit of armor.

Indissolubly: in a way that is impossible to take apart or bring to an end, or exists for a very long time.

Imputed: Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardons all our sins, and accepts us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.

greaves: a piece of armor used to protect the shin

My Song is Love Unknown ~Hymn

 

 

My Song is Love Unknown

My song is love un­known,
My Sav­ior’s love to me;
Love to the love­less shown,
That they might love­ly be.
O who am I, that for my sake
My Lord should take frail flesh and die?

He came from His blest throne
Salvation to be­stow;
But men made strange, and none
The longed for Christ would know:
But O! my friend, my friend in­deed,
Who at my need His life did spend.

Sometimes they strew His way,
And His sweet prais­es sing;
Resounding all the day
Hosannas to their king:
Then Cru­ci­fy! is all their breath,
And for His death they thirst and cry.

Why, what hath my Lord done?
What makes this rage and spite?
He made the lame to run,
He gave the blind their sight,
Sweet in­ju­ries! Yet they at these
Themselves dis­please, and ’gainst Him rise.

They rise and needs will have
My dear Lord made away;
A mur­der­er they saved,
The Prince of Life they slay,
Yet cheer­ful He to suf­fer­ing goes,
That He His foes from thence might free.

In life, no house, no home
My Lord on earth might have;
In death no friend­ly tomb
But what a strang­er gave.
What may I say? Heav’n was His home;
But mine the tomb where­in He lay.

Here might I stay and sing,
No sto­ry so di­vine;
Never was love, dear King!
Never was grief like Thine.
This is my friend, in whose sweet praise
I all my days could glad­ly spend.

Words: Samuel Crossman, 1664.

Moment by Moment ~ Hymn

Moment by Moment

Dying with Je­sus, by death reck­oned mine;
Living with Je­sus, a new life di­vine;
Looking to Je­sus till glo­ry doth shine,
Moment by mo­ment, O Lord, I am Thine.

Refrain

Moment by mo­ment I’m kept in His love;
Moment by mo­ment I’ve life from ab­ove;
Looking to Je­sus till glo­ry doth shine;
Moment by mo­ment, O Lord, I am Thine.

Never a tri­al that He is not there,
Never a bur­den that He doth not bear,
Never a sor­row that He doth not share,
Moment by mo­ment, I’m un­der His care.

Refrain

Never a heart­ache, and nev­er a groan,
Never a tear­drop and nev­er a moan;
Never a dan­ger but there on the throne,
Moment by mo­ment He thinks of His own.

Refrain

Never a weak­ness that He doth not feel,
Never a sick­ness that He can­not heal;
Moment by mo­ment, in woe or in weal,
Jesus my Sav­ior, ab­ides with me still.

Refrain

Words: Daniel W. Whittle, 1893.

While I was attending the World’s Fair in Chicago, Henry Varley, a lay preacher from London, said to Major Whittle: “I do not like the hymn ‘I need Thee every hour’ very well, because I need Him every moment of the day. Soon after Major Whittle wrote this sweet hymn…[He] brought the hymn to me in manuscript a little later, saying that he would give me the copyright of both the words and music if I would print for him five hundred copies on fine paper, for distributing among his friends. His daughter, May Whittle, who later became the wife of Will R. Moody, composed the music. I did as Mr. Whittle wished; and I sent the hymn to England, where it was copyrighted on the same day as at Washington.

In England the hymn became very popular. Falling into the hands of the well-known Rev. Andrew Murray, of South Africa, then visiting London, he adopted it as his favorite hymn. A year later Mr. Murray visited Northfield [Massachusetts], and while holding a meeting for men in the church he remarked, If Sankey only knew a hymn which I found in London, and would sing it, he would find that it embraces my entire creed.

I was very anxious to know what hymn it was, and when he had recited it I said to him: Doctor, that hymn was written within five hundred yards of where we are standing.

For years Dr. Murray had his wife sing this hymn in nearly all his meetings. It also became a great favorite in South Africa during the war.

Sankey, pp. 190-91

ht: Cyberhymnal

Ten Thousand Times Ten Thousand ~ Hymn

Ten Thousand Times Ten Thousand

Ten thou­sand times ten thou­sand
In spark­ling rai­ment bright,
The ar­mies of the ran­somed saints
Throng up the steeps of light;
’Tis fin­ished, all is fin­ished,
Their fight with death and sin;
Fling op­en wide the gold­en gates,
And let the vic­tors in.

What rush of al­le­lu­ias
Fills all the earth and sky!
What ring­ing of a thou­sand harps
Bespeaks the tri­umph nigh!
O day, for which cre­ation
And all its tribes were made;
O joy, for all its for­mer woes
A thou­sand­fold re­paid!

O then what rap­tured greet­ings
On Ca­naan’s hap­py shore;
What knit­ting sev­ered friend­ships up,
Where part­ings are no more!
Then eyes with joy shall spar­kle,
That brimmed with tears of late;
Orphans no long­er fa­ther­less,
Nor wi­dows de­so­late.

Bring near Thy great sal­va­tion,
Thou Lamb for sin­ners slain;
Fill up the roll of Thine elect,
Then take Thy pow­er, and reign;
Appear, De­sire of na­tions,
Thine ex­iles long for home;
Show in the heav’n Thy pro­mised sign;
Thou Prince and Sav­ior, come.

Words: Henry Alford, 1867.

Our Friend Ken

Ken’s Memorial Service was held on May 8th, 2026. We traveled to Southern California for the service.

Ken and Heidi’s son, son in law, daughter and grandsons all spoke, read scripture, in honor of their dad’s, pop pop’s, memory. They spoke much of Ken’s love for his Savior, Jesus Christ.

Old Testament Readings:

Isaiah 40:31 ~ …but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 45:22 ~Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.

Isaiah 12:2 ~ Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.

Psalm 56:3-4 ~ When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?

Joshua 1:9 ~ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

New Testament Readings:

John 14:1~ Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

1 Peter 5:7 ~ …casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

Philippians 3:20-21 ~ But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

My brother-in-law led the congregation in singing. We sang, How Great Thou Art, It is Well with my Soul, and “God be with you till we meet again”.

God be with you till we meet again;
By His counsels guide, uphold you,
With His sheep securely fold you;
God be with you till we meet again.

Refrain

Till we meet, till we meet,
Till we meet at Jesus’ feet;
Till we meet, till we meet,
God be with you till we meet again.

Our kids and our nieces with Ken’s daughter.

After the beautiful service we had time to catch up with friends and family at a reception at the church. It was so good to see old friends we haven’t seen for ages. I should have taken more photos.

All my sisters in order of birth.

My college bestie who was married to my cousin.

My dear friend, Ken’s beloved wife, Heidi.

The memorial for Ken was held at the same church that Ken and Heidi got married in back in November of 1978. I was the matron of honor, pregnant with our firstborn son. Greg and I were both in the wedding. We met Ken when he started dating Heidi.

The photo above is after the wedding reception at our home in Huntington Beach. Ken and Heidi opened wedding gifts and then changed and headed off for their honeymoon. That’s my dear old Pop watching on. Heidi and I spent so much time together that she was part of the family.

The upper photo in the collage was Christmas 1979 when they were expecting their first baby and the two lower photos were of our last time together as couples in November of 2025. Ken and Heidi traveled to our home to visit. It was a precious time of catching up and of also understanding that these were Ken’s final months on this earth. We had a glimpse of the suffering that they were in the midst of. It helped us to know how to pray for them in the months after this visit and leading up to Ken’s death.

This next song was one that Ken listened to the last months of his struggle and one that comforted him. He shared it with his dear family. It was played at the end of his memorial service.

It is such a comfort to know that Ken is with his Savior, Jesus Christ and that his suffering on earth is over.

Till we meet again, Ken, at Jesus’ feet!