I love old books and collect them. A couple of weeks ago, I found an old book titled
One Hundred and One Hymn Stories. Some of them are quite interesing. Here is one about a familiar favorite.
quote:
Faith of our Fathers Living Stillby Frederick William Faber 1814-1863
THE Singing of hymns to the "Lord and Master of us all" is the greatest bond between Christians of different forms of faith. Evangelical churches sing hymns by the Unitarian poets, such as Sir John Bowring's "In the Cross of Christ I Glory," and Sarah Flower Adams's "Nearer, My God, to Thee," and the Roman Catholic hymns of Father Faber, and Cardinal Newman's "Lead, Kindly Light"; while Charles Wesley's "Jesus, Lover of My Soul," and "Onward, Christian Soldiers," by Sabine Baring-Gould, are sung with fervor by Romanists.
It is curious that just as Faber, once a priest in the Church of England, in sympathy with the Oxford Movement, followed Newman in 1846 into the Roman Catholic Church, his hymn, "Faith of Our Fathers," has traveled in the opposite direction, and by an editorial modification of its theological teaching has been changed from an expression of Romanist faith into one of the great war-songs of modern Protestantism. Faber wrote, having distinctly in mind the heroes and martyrs of Catholicism:
Faith of our fathers! living still
In spite of dungeon, fire, and sword,
How Ireland's heart beats high with joy.
His lines, uttering the Mariolatry of his Church,
Faith of our fathers! Mary's prayers
Shall win our country back to thee,
were altered in a Unitarian hymnal to
Faith of our fathers! Good men's prayers
Shall win our country all to thee.
He states in his Preface to Jesus and Mary, in which this hymn first appeared, that his purpose was to supply Catholic hymns with the fervor and simplicity of the Olney Hymns and the Wesley hymns.
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Even so come, Lord Jesus
Linda
