Author - Robert J. Morgan
Publisher - Thomas Nelson
Pages - 290
This is such a lovely book! The artistic quality is charming - including a peaceful cover, vintage-style pages, and it is packed with stories and songs and inspiration!
Robert describes the history of music in worship. He explains the beauty of singing the psalms, the stories behind old hymns and their writers, and describes the emergence of new songs by new generations. He really brought to light for me how important the writers of worship song and hymns are to our lives!
Personally I own several hymn books and read and sing from them often. But Robert's book gives me a history behind the music. He talks about:
- Biblical Hymns
- Ancient Hymns
- Medieval Hymns
- German Hymns
- English Hymns
- Gospel Songs and American Hymns
- Contemporary Praise and Worship Music.
He clearly shows that, through the years, the music has weaved a story of our faith. He traces time- periods and events, like in Martin Luther's day (and his song "A Mighty Fortress is our God"), about what was going on when a song came from that era.
Here are a couple of examples:
" 'Bringing in the Sheaves' was composed by the 'Singing Evangelist,' Knowles Shaw, who was later to perish in a train wreck in Texas."(page 51)
" Civilla Durfee Martin, an evangelist's wife, wrote "His Eye is On The Sparrow" after she and her husband stayed with an infirmed couple in New York, who told her that the secret of their optimism was remembering that 'His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.' " (page 51)
You'll also find several of the hymns, with notes, so you can play and sing them yourself. The stories and descriptions in this book are fascinating and would make an excellent devotional book for family reading time.
*Disclosure - I received this book for review purposes.*
2 comments:
This sounds good! I found an old hymn book---Presbyterian, I think---at Salvation Army last month. It was written in the '40s, and I'm planning on establishing a routine of singing from it with the kids before bed. Good stuff ;)
Mrs. Sarah Coller
We have book one. My oldest daughter and I love reading through it together. I have even used it before we sing our hymn during family Bible time to capture the children's interest in the song. It has deepened the meaning and impact of each song we have sung in that book.
I had NO IDEA there was more than one book! I can't wait to look for the others:)
Post a Comment