I'm all for progress, and I can accept change, and I like the newer kinds of songs we seem to sing these days...I really do!
But just look at these excerpts from a few old hymns and tell me we don't need to sing these words and meditate on them every once and a while...
Be Thou my vision, o Lord of my heart. Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art. Thou my best thought, by day or by night, waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Take time to be holy, be calm in thy soul, each thought and each motive beneath his control. Thus led by his spirit to fountains of love, thou soon shall be fitted for service above.
Bring Christ your broken life, so marred by sin. He will create anew, make whole again. Your empty wasted years he will restore, and your iniquities remember no more. (okay, we did sing this one a couple of weeks ago and it touched me deeply.)
That's just 3 examples out of a wealth of great old hymns. I'm not saying we need to bring back all the old hymns...I'd be fine if I never sing I'll Fly Away ever again. And can we please pretend the song Jesus Is Coming Soon (AKA Troublesome Times are Here) never existed? Just bring back the ones with really good words, especially those which are also set to good music. Yep, those are the ones we need! Someone care to make a list and fax it to all the song leaders out there?
Thanks.
3 comments:
Agreed. I really love "O Sacred Head" and "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross"...among others.
I so totally agree! I like the new stuff, but we seem to be ignoring the old standards. If we do sing an old hymn in our church, it is mixed with a newer praise song. Just sing it straight!
i tend to like the old ones better. some of the newer ones sound like they were written in between naps on a Sunday afternoon.
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