March 23, 2014:

Poetic Ponderings Chosen By The Pastor

“Songs We Seldom Sing”

      Our Red and Black Hymnals contain wonderful hymns we seldom if ever use in worship.  The words may be unfamiliar and the tunes difficult to sing.  Still, the messages these poets want to share with us can be profoundly helpful.

“O Perfect Love”

      Sometimes the hymns we seldom sing were once very popular but over time have lost their appeal.  Dorothy Frances Gurney (1858-1932) wrote this hymn at the request of her sister for a hymn suitable to sing at a wedding.  Mrs. Gurney wrote this hymn in fifteen minutes!  The hymn was frequently sung at weddings in the past but is seldom used today.  But the gentle hope it expresses of God’s perfect love in the life of a couple is still true.

                                    “O perfect Love, all human thought transcending,

                                    Lowly we kneel in prayer before thy throne,

                                    That theirs may be the love which knows no ending,

                                    Whom thou forever more dost join in one.

                                    O perfect Life, be thou their full assurance

                                    Of tender charity and steadfast faith,

                                    Of patient hope, and quiet, brave endurance,

                                    With childlike trust that fears nor pain nor death.

                                    Grant them the joy which brightens earthly sorrow;

                                    Grant them the peace which calms all earthly strife,

                                    And to life’s day the glorious unknown morrow

                                    That dawns upon eternal love and life.”  Amen.