"Hymn singing reflects a congregation's spiritual vitality and their response to God's grace.

In this special seasonal edition, bestselling author Robert J. Morgan shares the incredible stories behind traditional holiday hymns of faith, including Christmas, Easter, and more. Is there a festive season of the year that is complete without one of your favorite hymns? Not only do hymns connect you to great memories, but they also reveal the faith of those who lived throughout history. As Robert Morgan explored the stories behind some of the best-loved hymns, he found fascinating accounts of tribulations, triumphs, struggles, and hope—ordinary people who connected with God in amazing ways, sharing their experiences through song. Included inside this special edition are: 150 devotional-style stories with the words and music to each hymn Includes hymns for holidays including Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and more Jagged edged paper, giving it a classic feel Includes a complete hymn index by title, first line, and songwriter Perfect for use as a daily devotional, teaching illustration, or for song leaders and music ministers Discover the inspiration behind your favorite hymns. Find new favorites as you relate to the people whose walk of faith led them to write these classic songs of praise. Share these stories with your family, friends, and church, and find more depth and meaning as you worship God through song.

Consider the worshipful lyrics of "Holy, Holy, Holy"; the comforting assurance of "His Eye Is On the Sparrow"; the trusting submission of "Have Thine Own Way, Lord"; the bold declaration made by "O for a Thousand Tongues." They are some of our greatest hymns--and some of the most powerful words in Christendom. Lyrics that help us grasp the reality of faith, set to beautiful music that speaks to our hearts. The stories behind the hymns are powerful as well. In this book the authors have detailed the intriguing and often tragic circumstances from which many of our best-loved hymns came. They are stories about the private struggles and personal triumphs these men and women hymn writers experienced--stories that give their already-meaningful songs added significance. Great Christian Hymn Writers is a wonderful resource for worship services, devotional talks, and home schools, as well as for use in your private devotions. And it's worthwhile reading for anyone who's interested in learning where these hymns came from and how it is that they continue to affect us so much.

Hymns are more than beautiful musical compositions; they provide us with a heightened language for praising and speaking to God, all while teaching us theology that reflects both the depth and complexity of Our Lord. Sacred hymns in our day have given way to “fifth-rate poetry set to fourth-rate music,” as C.S. Lewis once remarked. At times, the music used in worship can make us feel as though the culture is usurping the Church rather than being transfigured by it. There is a clear and present need to resurrect those distinctively different songs with a distinctively different vocabulary for people who want to live distinctive lives as followers of Christ. In these pages, Fr. George William Rutler introduces and reflects upon dozens of the greatest hymns written from the earliest years of the Church through the Twentieth Century. The text and composition of each hymn is included, as well as inspiring accounts of their authors and composers, fascinating stories and historical events connected with them, and notes on the significant contributions each one made to theology and music. Fr. Rutler has recovered here a rich musical legacy that will help us to give glory to our God who is Lord of all.

Here are 365 classic hymn texts, along with stories of how they came to be written. This is an ideal startling point for personal or family devotions.

The Complete Book of Hymns brings to life the stories behind more than 600 hymns and worship songs. With background on the composer, the inspiration behind the lyrics, scriptural references for devotional consideration, and a sampling of the song lyrics, this book brings forth the message of these great songs of the faith like never before!

Understanding the culture of living with hymnbooks offers new insight into the histories of poetry, literacy, and religious devotion. It stands barely three inches high, a small brick of a book. The pages are skewed a bit, and evidence of a small handprint remains on the worn, cheap leather covers that don’t quite close. The book bears the marks of considerable use. But why—and for whom—was it made? Christopher N. Phillips’s The Hymnal is the first study to reconstruct the practices of reading and using hymnals, which were virtually everywhere in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Isaac Watts invented a small, words-only hymnal at the dawn of the eighteenth century. For the next two hundred years, such hymnals were their owners’ constant companions at home, school, church, and in between. They were children's first books, slaves’ treasured heirlooms, and sources of devotional reading for much of the English-speaking world. Hymnals helped many people learn to memorize poetry and to read; they provided space to record family memories, pass notes in church, and carry everything from railroad tickets to holy cards to business letters. In communities as diverse as African Methodists, Reform Jews, Presbyterians, Methodists, Roman Catholics, and Unitarians, hymnals were integral to religious and literate life. An extended historical treatment of the hymn as a read text and media form, rather than a source used solely for singing, this book traces the lives people lived with hymnals, from obscure schoolchildren to Emily Dickinson. Readers will discover a wealth of connections between reading, education, poetry, and religion in Phillips’s lively accounts of hymnals and their readers.

Providing literary analysis and historical background, Leland Ryken invites us to experience great hymns as powerful works of devotional poetrysavoring elements that we easily miss when singing them.