With broken heart and contrite sighThere were four surprises in singing it today.
A trembling sinner, Lord, I cry:
Thy pardoning grace is rich and free
O God, be merciful to me.
I smite upon my troubled breast,
With deep and conscience guilt oppressed;
Christ and His cross my only plea:
O God, be merciful to me.
Far off I stand with tearful eyes,
Nor dare uplift them to the skies;
But Thou dost all my anguish see:
O God, be merciful to me.
Nor alms, nor deeds that I have done,
Can for a single sin atone;
To Calvary alone I flee:
O God, be merciful to me.
And when, redeemed from sin and hell,
With all the ransomed throng I dwell,
My raptured song shall ever be,
God has been merciful to me.
Liturgical Year
My favorite hymnal recommends it for Ash Wednesday (HC), Lent I (MP and HC) and Lent V (EP). Not surprisingly, Hymnal 1940 and other hymnals list it as a Lenten or penitential hymn.
However — contrary to our hymnal guidelines — today we used it to support the gospel reading. The hymn is about the tax collector (publican) from this parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, which is Luke 18:9-14 and Trinity 11 in the historic one-year lectionary.
The usage was perfect. Today’s sermon was about the (familiar) lesson that Jesus teaches about confession of sin, penitence and humility, and the hymn allowed all of us to cement this message in our hearts by singing it.
It turns out this usage is exactly how it is scheduled in the 1996 Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary, the hymnal of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, the Norwegian Lutherans who didn’t join the ELC in 1917 (which later became the ELCA).
Origin of the Text
I didn’t recognize the name of the author, Cornelius Elven. So when I got home, I looked up the origins of the text and author. Julian’s Dictionary of Hymnology (via Hymnary) says
Elven, Cornelius, pastor for fifty years of the Baptist Church at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, was born in 1797, and died in 1873. His hymn, "With broken heart and contrite sigh” (Lent), is found in several collections in Great Britain and America. It was written in Jan., 1852 (Miller’s Singers & Songs, p. 449) for use at special services by his own congregation, and was included in the Baptist Psalms & Hymns, 1858.
The Hymnal 1940 Companion helpfully adds
This digression on the Parable of the Publican was written by Cornelius Eleven … It is based on St. Luke 18:13. It was first published in Baptist Psalms & Hymns, 1858, and in the [PECUSA] Hymnal of 1874.
So the intended use is actually for the parable and not the penitential season.
Recent Unpopularity
Hymnary is biased against older hymnals: by default, it only shows hymnals listing from 1979 onwards. Only 5 hymnals since 1979 list this hymn — but 202 before that date. Among the five, three are US denominational hymnals:
- Christian Worship: #303, the 1993 hymnal of Wisconsin Synod Lutherans
- Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary: #455
- Baptist Hymnal [2012]: #286, from the American Baptist Churches (a smaller, and more liberal denomination than the Southern Baptists). Google Books suggests that indicates that this is a slightly updated edition of the 1920 American Baptist hymnal, albeit one from the official American Baptist publisher located a few blocks from the denominational HQ.
However, I was shocked to discover that this Baptist stalwart has not appeared in a Southern Baptist hymnal of the 20th or 21st century. I manually verified with my bookcase that this text (or anything by Elven) does not appear in the 1940 The Broadman Hymnal or the 1956, 1975, 1991 or 2008 editions of The Baptist Hymnal — nor does it appear in the 2010 Celebrating Grace, an unofficial (and slightly less conservative) Southern Baptist hymnal.
Seeing such omission makes it less surprising that it was dumped by contemporary Episcopalians in Hymnal 1982. Also not surprising is that it passed unchanged from Hymnal 1940 as hymn #97 in Magnify the Lord (aka Book of Common Praise 2017), the 2017 Reformed Episcopal Church hymnal.
Melodic Divergence
In looking at US hymnals, these are the tunes I found
- Migdol: [PECUSA] Hymnal 1896 (87)
- Eisenach: [PECUSA] Hymnal 1916 (133)
- Nuremberg: [PECUSA] Hymnal 1872 (71, 2nd tune) in the Goodrich & Gilbert edition† of Hymnal 1872.
- St. Cross: the 1930 American Lutheran Hymnal and the 1958 Service Book and Hymnal
- St. Luke: Evangelical Lutheran Worship and Christian Worship
† In 1872, PECUSA standardized the text but not the music, so each edition had its own tune choices.
Babylon’s Streams is the tune I sang this morning. It is the tune Episcopalians (Reformed or not) published 2017, 1940 and the Goodrich & Gilbert edition of Hymnal 1872 (71, 1st tune), and has a very penitential feel. Also using this tune is the 1970 American Baptist Hymnbook for Christian Worship (#50), which lists three verses under “Forgiveness” rather than repentance.
Other than these three hymnals (BCP 2017 is not in Hymnary), the other 23 uses of the tune are given for other texts. The tune is also the subject of an organ chorale by English composer William Henry Harris (1883-1873), who served as the court organist of Windsor Castle. The “Fantasy on the Tune Babylon’s Streams” was performed as early as 1923.
The tune by composer and poet Thomas Campian (1567-1620) was the most lasting contribution of what would be an important transitional collection of tunes for the Church of England. As Valnetine (1951:254) summarized:
Other than these three hymnals (BCP 2017 is not in Hymnary), the other 23 uses of the tune are given for other texts. The tune is also the subject of an organ chorale by English composer William Henry Harris (1883-1873), who served as the court organist of Windsor Castle. The “Fantasy on the Tune Babylon’s Streams” was performed as early as 1923.
The tune by composer and poet Thomas Campian (1567-1620) was the most lasting contribution of what would be an important transitional collection of tunes for the Church of England. As Valnetine (1951:254) summarized:
Thomas Campion's First Book of Ayres, published in 1613, shows the influence of the madrigal in the loosening of the rigid form imposed in the Church Tunes. Thomas Campion wrote the words and composed the music for such hymns as "The Weather-beaten Sail" (S.P. 567) and "The Song of Joy" (S.P. 639). The best-known tune from this important book is "Babylon's Streams" (S.P. 124, E.R. 487, A.M.R. 228). These tunes, it is to be observed, were composed for hymns and not for Metrical Psalms. This is an advance in the history of the hymn tune.How this pairing was created in 1872 is not explained by the Hymnal 1940 Companion, and my search of Google Scholar produced no answers. Because it is not used in any other major hymnal (with a published hymnal companion), this story may be lost to history.
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