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O God! To Thee Our Hearts Would Pay
Author: William Gaskell Meter: 8.6.8.6 Appears in 16 hymnals Lyrics: 1 O God! to Thee our hearts would pay
Their gratitude sincere,
Whose love hath kept us, night and day,
Throughout another year.
2 Of every breath, and every power,
Thou wast the gracious source;
From Thee came every happy hour
Which smiled along its course.
3 And if sometimes across our path
A cloud its shadows threw,
Thou didst not waft it there in wrath,
But loving-kindness true.
4 For joy and grief alike we pay
Our thanks to Thee above;
And only pray to grow each day
More worthy of Thy love. Used With Tune: AZMON Text Sources: A Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion by Samuel Longfellow and Samuel Johnson (Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields, 4th ed., 1849)
O God! To Thee Our Hearts Would Pay
O God! To Thee Our Hearts Would Pay
Author: William Gaskell Hymnal: The Cyber Hymnal #10705 Meter: 8.6.8.6 Lyrics: 1 O God! to Thee our hearts would pay
Their gratitude sincere,
Whose love hath kept us, night and day,
Throughout another year.
2 Of every breath, and every power,
Thou wast the gracious source;
From Thee came every happy hour
Which smiled along its course.
3 And if sometimes across our path
A cloud its shadows threw,
Thou didst not waft it there in wrath,
But loving-kindness true.
4 For joy and grief alike we pay
Our thanks to Thee above;
And only pray to grow each day
More worthy of Thy love. Languages: English Tune Title: AZMON
O God! To Thee Our Hearts Would Pay
O God! to thee our hearts would pay
Author: Gaskell Hymnal: Hymn Book for Christian Worship. 8th ed. #a705 (1864) Languages: English
O God! to thee our hearts would pay
O God, to thee our hearts would pay
Author: William Gaskell Hymnal: The College Hymn and Tune Book #d81 (1868)
O God, to thee our hearts would pay
William Gaskell
1805 - 1884 Author of "O God! To Thee Our Hearts Would Pay" in The Cyber Hymnal Gaskell, William, M.A., son of Mr. William Gaskell, was born at Latchford (a suburb of Warrington, on the Cheshire side of the Mersey), 24 July, 1805. He was educated at Manchester New College and at the University of Glasgow, where he graduated M.A. in 1825. In 1828 he became co-pastor with the Rev. J. G. Robberds at Cross Street Unitarian Chapel, Manchester, a position he held until his death. Mr. Gaskell was a man of cultivated mind and considerable literary ability. His publications include Lectures on the Lancashire Dialect, 1853, a small volume of Temperance Rhymes, 1839, and various theological works. In 1832 he married Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson, who afterwards attained celebrity as the authoress of Mary Barton, and of other popular tales. He died June 11, 1884, and is buried at Knutsford. To the second edition, 1856, of the 1st Series of Lyra Germanica Mr. Gaskell contributed "A sure Stronghold our God is He," a translation of Luther's “ Ein' feste Burg" (q.v.), replacing a version by Miss Winkworth in the first edition. He also contributed 79 hymns to Beard's Unitarian Collection of Hymns for Public and Private Worship, 1837. [George Arthur Crawford, M.A.]
The following hymns by Gaskell still in common use are found chiefly in Unitarian hymnbooks, including Martineau's Hymns, &c, 1840, and Hymns of Praise and Prayer, 1873; Hedge & Huntington's Hymns for the Church of Christ, Boston, U.S.A., 1853; Longfellow & Johnson's Book of Hymns, Boston, 1848, and their Hymns of the Spirit, Boston, 1864; and the American Unitarian Association's Hymn [& Tune] Book, &c, Boston, 1868 :—
1. Dark, dark indeed the grave would be. Death and Burial.
2. Darkness o'er the world was brooding. The Dayspring.
3. Dark were the paths our Master trod. Sympathy with Christ.
4. Father, glory be to Thee. Doxology.
5. Forth went the heralds of the cross. Power of Faith.
6. How long, O Lord, his brother's blood? In time of War. From this "O hush, great God, the sounds of war," is taken.
7. I am free, I am free, I have broken away. The New Birth.
8. In vain we thus recall to mind. Holy Communion.
9. Mighty God, the first, the last. Infinite Knowledge.
10. No more, on earth no more. Death and Heaven.
11. Not in this simple rite alone. Holy Communion.
12. Not on this day, 0 God, alone. Sunday.
13. O God, the darkness roll away. Missions.
14. O God, to Thee our hearts would pay. Old Year.
15. 0 God, who knowest how frail we are. Seeking Strength.
16. 0 not to crush with abject fear. Christ's Work.
17. Our Father, through the coining year. The original begins, "Father, throughout the coming year."
18. Press on, press on, ye sons of light. Continuance in well-doing.
19. Sleep not, soldier of the cross. Faithfulness.
20. Thanks, thanks unto God! Who in mercy hath spoken. Gratitude for the Gospel.
21. Through all this life's eventful road. Walking with God.
22. To Thee, the Lord Almighty. Doxology.
23. Unto Thy temple, God of Love. Divine Worship.
24. We join to [crave] pray with wishes kind. Holy Matrimony.
25. We would leave, 0 God, to Thee. Original: "We would cast, 0 God, on Thee." Rest in God.
26. When arise the thoughts of sin. Looking to Jesus.
These hymns all appeared in Beard's Collection, 1837. In addition there are:—
27. Calmly, calmly lay him down.
28. 0 Father, [gladly] humbly we repose.
29. 0 hush, great God, the sounds of war. For Peace.
The dates of these hymns we have not been able to determine. No. 27 is in Hopps's Hymns for Public Worship, 1858 ; and Nos. 28 and 29 are in Hedge & Huntington's Hymns for the Church of Christ, 1853.
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
William Gaskell
Lowell Mason
1792 - 1872 Arranger of "AZMON" in The Cyber Hymnal Dr. Lowell Mason (the degree was conferred by the University of New York) is justly called the father of American church music; and by his labors were founded the germinating principles of national musical intelligence and knowledge, which afforded a soil upon which all higher musical culture has been founded. To him we owe some of our best ideas in religious church music, elementary musical education, music in the schools, the popularization of classical chorus singing, and the art of teaching music upon the Inductive or Pestalozzian plan. More than that, we owe him no small share of the respect which the profession of music enjoys at the present time as contrasted with the contempt in which it was held a century or more ago. In fact, the entire art of music, as now understood and practiced in America, has derived advantage from the work of this great man.
Lowell Mason was born in Medfield, Mass., January 8, 1792. From childhood he had manifested an intense love for music, and had devoted all his spare time and effort to improving himself according to such opportunities as were available to him. At the age of twenty he found himself filling a clerkship in a banking house in Savannah, Ga. Here he lost no opportunity of gratifying his passion for musical advancement, and was fortunate to meet for the first time a thoroughly qualified instructor, in the person of F. L. Abel. Applying his spare hours assiduously to the cultivation of the pursuit to which his passion inclined him, he soon acquired a proficiency that enabled him to enter the field of original composition, and his first work of this kind was embodied in the compilation of a collection of church music, which contained many of his own compositions. The manuscript was offered unavailingly to publishers in Philadelphia and in Boston. Fortunately for our musical advancement it finally secured the attention of the Boston Handel and Haydn Society, and by its committee was submitted to Dr. G. K. Jackson, the severest critic in Boston. Dr. Jackson approved most heartily of the work, and added a few of his own compositions to it. Thus enlarged, it was finally published in 1822 as The Handel and Haydn Society Collection of Church Music. Mason's name was omitted from the publication at his own request, which he thus explains, "I was then a bank officer in Savannah, and did not wish to be known as a musical man, as I had not the least thought of ever making music a profession." President Winchester, of the Handel and Haydn Society, sold the copyright for the young man. Mr. Mason went back to Savannah with probably $500 in his pocket as the preliminary result of his Boston visit.
The book soon sprang into universal popularity, being at once adopted by the singing schools of New England, and through this means entering into the church choirs, to whom it opened up a higher field of harmonic beauty. Its career of success ran through some seventeen editions. On realizing this success, Mason determined to accept an invitation to come to Boston and enter upon a musical career. This was in 1826. He was made an honorary member of the Handel and Haydn Society, but declined to accept this, and entered the ranks as an active member. He had been invited to come to Boston by President Winchester and other musical friends and was guaranteed an income of $2,000 a year. He was also appointed, by the influence of these friends, director of music at the Hanover, Green, and Park Street churches, to alternate six months with each congregation. Finally he made a permanent arrangement with the Bowdoin Street Church, and gave up the guarantee, but again friendly influence stepped in and procured for him the position of teller at the American Bank.
In 1827 Lowell Mason became president and conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society. It was the beginning of a career that was to win for him as has been already stated the title of "The Father of American Church Music." Although this may seem rather a bold claim it is not too much under the circumstances. Mr. Mason might have been in the average ranks of musicianship had he lived in Europe; in America he was well in advance of his surroundings. It was not too high praise (in spite of Mason's very simple style) when Dr. Jackson wrote of his song collection: "It is much the best book I have seen published in this country, and I do not hesitate to give it my most decided approbation," or that the great contrapuntist, Hauptmann, should say the harmonies of the tunes were dignified and churchlike and that the counterpoint was good, plain, singable and melodious.
Charles C. Perkins gives a few of the reasons why Lowell Mason was the very man to lead American music as it then existed. He says, "First and foremost, he was not so very much superior to the members as to be unreasonably impatient at their shortcomings. Second, he was a born teacher, who, by hard work, had fitted himself to give instruction in singing. Third, he was one of themselves, a plain, self-made man, who could understand them and be understood of them."
The personality of Dr. Mason was of great use to the art and appreciation of music in this country. He was of strong mind, dignified manners, sensitive, yet sweet and engaging.
Prof. Horace Mann, one of the great educators of that day, said he would walk fifty miles to see and hear Mr. Mason teach if he could not otherwise have that advantage.
Dr. Mason visited a number of the music schools in Europe, studied their methods, and incorporated the best things in his own work. He founded the Boston Academy of Music. The aim of this institution was to reach the masses and introduce music into the public schools. Dr. Mason resided in Boston from 1826 to 1851, when he removed to New York. Not only Boston benefited directly by this enthusiastic teacher's instruction, but he was constantly traveling to other societies in distant cities and helping their work. He had a notable class at North Reading, Mass., and he went in his later years as far as Rochester, where he trained a chorus of five hundred voices, many of them teachers, and some of them coming long distances to study under him. Before 1810 he had developed his idea of "Teachers' Conventions," and, as in these he had representatives from different states, he made musical missionaries for almost the entire country. He left behind him no less than fifty volumes of musical collections, instruction books, and manuals.
As a composer of solid, enduring church music. Dr. Mason was one of the most successful this country has introduced. He was a deeply pious man, and was a communicant of the Presbyterian Church. Dr. Mason in 1817 married Miss Abigail Gregory, of Leesborough, Mass. The family consisted of four sons, Daniel Gregory, Lowell, William and Henry. The two former founded the publishing house of Mason Bros., dissolved by the death of the former in 1869. Lowell and Henry were the founders of the great organ manufacturer of Mason & Hamlin. Dr. William Mason was one of the most eminent musicians that America has yet produced.
Dr. Lowell Mason died at "Silverspring," a beautiful residence on the side of Orange Mountain, New Jersey, August 11, 1872, bequeathing his great musical library, much of which had been collected abroad, to Yale College.
--Hall, J. H. (c1914). Biography of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company.
Lowell Mason
C. G. Gläser
1784 - 1829 Person Name: Carl Gläser Composer of "AZMON" in The Cyber Hymnal Carl Gotthelf Gläser Germany 1781-1829. Born at Weissenfels, Burgenlandkreis, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany, he received musical training from his father, after which he attended St. Thomas school in Leipzig. He became an author and composer. At Barmen he taught voice, piano, and violin. He also wrote and conducted chorale music. He died at Barmen.
John Perry
C. G. Gläser
