Hymns seem to be turning around in popularity these days. You see folks like Chris Tomlin and David Crowder rewriting them and revamping their style to match the demands of the populace (e.g., Amazing Grace-My Chains are Gone).
What is a hymn, really?
I’ve been reading this hymn book that was given to my father more than 30 years ago, and which happened to have been published in 1881, and it states the following about hymns:
“Three things are needed for a hymn book: a basis of truth and sound doctrine; something, at least, of the spirit of poetry, though not poetry itself, which is objectionable, as merely the spirit and imagination of man; and thirdly, the most difficult to find of all, that experimental acquaintance with truth in the affections which enables a person to make his hymn (if led of God to compose one) the vehicle, in sustained thought and language, of practical grace and truth which sets the soul in communion with Christ, and rises even to the Father, and yet this in such sort that it is not mere individual experience, which, for assembly worship, is out of place. In a word, the father’s love, and Christ developed in the soul’s affections, rising in praise back again to its source.”
It also states that hymns ought to be simple and full of Christ, as well as the Father’s love. It is not about us, or our wants.
