Sunday, February 18, 2007

Sunday Hymn

We sang this song by Henry W. Baker at church today. The words are courtesy of the cyber hymnal. This new to me song, spoke to me of God's mercy and how my cry to him sometimes just whelms up from within me.

Out of the deep I call,
To Thee, O Lord, to Thee,
Before Thy throne of grace I fall;
Be merciful to me.

Out of the deep I cry,
The woeful deep of sin,
Of evil done in days gone by,
Of evil now within.

Out of the deep of fear
And dread of coming shame;
All night till morning watch is near
I plead the precious Name.

Lord, there is mercy now,
As ever was, with Thee,
Before Thy throne of grace I bow;
Be merciful to me.

Henry W. Baker, according to the cyber hymnal:
Baker was the son of Vice Ad­mir­al Hen­ry Lo­raine Bak­er. He at­tend­ed Trin­i­ty Coll­ege at Cam­bridge, was or­dained in 1844, and be­came as­sist­ant cur­ate at Great Hock­es­ley, near Col­ches­ter, Es­sex. In 1851, he be­came Vic­ar of Monk­land Pri­ory Church in Here­ford­shire, Eng­land, where he served most of his life. Up­on his fa­ther’s death in 1859, Bak­er as­sumed the fam­i­ly bar­o­net­cy. From 1860 to 1877, he was ed­it­or-in-chief of the An­gl­ican Hymns An­cient and Mo­dern, and con­tri­but­ed hymns, tunes, and trans­la­tions. This his­tor­ic hym­nal sold 60 mil­lion co­pies.
More information on Baker can be found here where we learn that
Dr. Julian says: "Of his hymns four only are in the highest strain of jubilation, another four are bright and cheerful, and the remainder are very tender but exceedingly plaintive, sometimes even to sadness." The language of his hymns is smooth and simple, the thought is correct and sometimes very beautifully expressed.

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