Noteworthy Blog

Henry Francis Lyte’s father abandoned his family after sending Henry and his brother off to boarding school. Henry’s mother moved to London where she and his youngest sibling died. The headmaster at the school recognized Henry’s talent for writing poetry and took him in as well as paid his tuition. From there he would go on to Trinity University in Dublin, initially with an interest in medicine that he would quickly release for the pursuit of theology. The sudden passing of a clergyman friend of his a few years after university would further shape Lyte’s pathway through life. Becoming more concerned with the hearts of the people, he became more evangelistic in ministry. Lyte’s extensive literary knowledge, expertise in music, and his personal library, considered by some to be, at the time, one of the most extensive and valuable in West England, would not keep him from identifying and relating to the fishermen and their families that he ministered to in grea...

While living under the spiritual care of Rev. John Newton, William Cowper (pronounced Cooper) wrote “There Is A Fountain.” It was first published in 1772 and has since found its way into more than 2,440 hymnals, surpassing John Newton’s “Amazing Grace” by over 1,000 hymnal publishings in a similar time frame. Born to John and Ann Cowper, he descended from the British aristocracy. His father, John, was chaplain to King George II and nephew of the first Earl Cowper, and his mother, Ann’s bloodline can be traced back to King Henry III. Sadly, his mother passed when he was just 6 years old, and he was sent off to boarding school soon after. This tragedy would become the catalyst for a life-long battle with deep, destructive depression. Despite a very promising legal and political career path, roughly 26 years after his mother’s passing, his mental illness drove him to a failed suicide attempt that would then land him in an asylum for 18 months. That time would set about a spiritual renewal...

“Near The Cross” was written by none other than hymn-writing royal, “Fanny Crosby.” Published in 1869, it is one of over 8,000 gospel songs she would write in her lifetime. Crosby is known for her unique hymn-writing ability, painting vivid word pictures despite being blind since she was 6 weeks old. This ability is supported by her incredible capacity for memory. By age 10, she was memorizing five chapters of the Bible each week. Five years later, she had committed to memory the Pentateuch, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, many of the Psalms, and all four Gospels. At this time, she enrolled in the New York Institute for the Blind, where she studied for 8 years. Following that, she became a teacher of English grammar, rhetoric, and history. Since Braille had just been developed, Crosby never used the system. Instead, she would dictate to various transcribers. One of them, an assistant teacher at the time, would later become known as President Grover Cleveland. This, however, wasn’t her first...

“For it is good to sing praises to our God,” the Psalmist writes in Psalm 147:1. (ESV) “All People That On Earth Do Dwell” is one of the oldest hymns still sung today. It dates back to the Scottish Psalter in 1561. When the settlers landed in Jamestown in 1607, they likely had a Psalter and would’ve possibly been singing this hymn in their worship services as they laid the foundations of our great nation. It was likely included in the first book ever published in the colonies, The Bay Psalm Book (1640). The 1500s were an exciting time to be alive. Calvin and Luther were reforming the Protestant church, while Queen Mary simply settled all her church disputes with fire and blood. And you thought the past few years were bad! According to the Hymnology Archive, the English borrowed the tune “Geneva 134” from the French Psalter, originally used for Psalm 134, and began to refer to it as “Psalm 100.” In 1696, the name “Old 100th” would catch on as composers continued to write new tunes for ...