Sunday, July 29, 2007

My Jesus I Love Thee / Boundless Salvation

This coming Sunday Mrs Haruo and I will probably be doing the special music at church. It will be Communion Sunday, and we have no time to practice (she's out of town), so what Verne the Organist and I have tentatively settled on is two numbers:
  • first we will sing three verses of "When Love Is Found" (which was sung at our wedding, and Verne keeps wanting us to reprise), but whereas at our wedding we (the congregation: it was the processional hymn, trilingually in English, Esperanto and Japanese) sang vv. 1-3 per Wren and then Marilyn Hillyer's emendation of v. 5, ending "Lift up your hearts! Let love be fed / Through each deed done, through each word said", this time we will sing straight Wren, but omit vv. 3 & 4. It will, after all, be Communion Sunday.
  • then we will sing the following text:

    My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine;
    For Thee all the follies of sin I resign.
    My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou;
    If ever I loved Thee, if ever I loved Thee,
    If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

    I love Thee because Thou has first loved me,
    And purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree.
    I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow;
    If ever I loved Thee, if ever I loved Thee,
    If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

    Oh, who’s like my Savior? He’s Salem’s bright King;
    He smiles and He loves me and helps me to sing:
    I’ll praise him, I’ll praise Him with notes loud and clear,
    While rivers of pleasure, while rivers of pleasure,
    While rivers of pleasure my spirit shall cheer.

    And now, hallelujah! the rest of my days
    Shall gladly be spent in promoting His praise
    Who opened His bosom to pour out this sea
    Of boundless salvation, of boundless salvation,
    Of boundless salvation for you and for me.
The words to the last four stanzas will be in the bulletin, and maybe even on the wall, and we will encourage the congregation to sing along. The problem, the thing that makes it a concern of My Wish Hymnal, is the identification of the tune and its composer. The Christian Life Hymnal calls it Boundless Salvation, sets General Booth's hymn of that title to it, and ascribes it to J. Ellis. The Worshiping Church sets Featherston(e)'s "My Jesus, I Love Thee" to it, calls it Affection, and ascribes it to E. F. Miller. And The Cyber Hymnal™ calls it My Jesus I Love Thee by J. Ellis, but mentions it only in connection with Booth's "Boundless Salvation" text.

I hashed much of this over several years ago in a thread at the Mudcat Café, so I hereby incorporate all this verbiage.

What I still need to know is to whom to attribute this tune (MIDI) and what to call it.

Leland = Haruo

2 comments:

Dorothy said...

"My Jesus I Love Thee" is such a beautiful hymn! I really love it. But sorry, Leland, I have no idea who should get the credit for its composition. I hope someone else can shed some light on that for you.

K Bruner said...

The last verse is the final verse of seven verses from Oh Boundless Salvation, often called "The Founder's Song" by those in the Salvation Army. I don't recognize the other lyrics, however. I have the music in front of me, but it doesn't identify the composer.