{"id":4578,"date":"2016-01-09T09:43:33","date_gmt":"2016-01-09T15:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/?p=4578"},"modified":"2016-01-09T09:49:12","modified_gmt":"2016-01-09T15:49:12","slug":"songs-of-thankfulness-and-praise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/songs-of-thankfulness-and-praise-4578.htm","title":{"rendered":"Songs of Thankfulness and Praise"},"content":{"rendered":"

1. Songs of thankfulness and praise,
\nJesus, Lord, to Thee we raise,
\nManifested by the star
\nTo the sages from afar;
\nBranch of royal David\u2019s stem
\nIn Thy birth at Bethlehem;
\nAnthems be to Thee addressed,
\nGod in man made manifest.<\/p>\n

2. Manifest at Jordan’s stream,
\nProphet, Priest, and King supreme,
\nAnd at Cana, Wedding-guest,
\nIn Thy Godhead manifest;
\nManifest in power divine,
\nChanging water into wine.
\nAnthems be to Thee addressed
\nGod in man made manifest.<\/p>\n

3. Manifest in making whole
\nPalsied limbs and fainting soul;
\nManifest in valiant fight,
\nQuelling all the devil’s might;
\nManifest in gracious will,
\nEver bringing good from ill.
\nAnthems be to Thee addressed,
\nGod in man made manifest.<\/p>\n

4. Sun and moon shall darkened be,
\nStars shall fall, the heavens shall flee;
\nChrist will then like lightning shine,
\nAll will see His glorious sign;
\nAll will then the trumpet hear,
\nAll will see the Judge appear;
\nThou by all wilt be confessed,
\nGod in man made manifest.<\/p>\n

5. Grant us grace to see Thee, Lord,
\nMirrored in Thy holy Word;
\nMay we imitate Thee now
\nAnd be pure as pure art Thou
\nThat we like to Thee may be
\nAt Thy great Epiphany
\nAnd may praise Thee, ever blest,
\nGod in man made manifest.<\/p>\n

The Hymnal is the liturgical book of the laity, and the Episcopal Hymnal of 1940, which Mount Calvary uses, was carefully thought out in both its organization and choice of hymns. The Epiphany hymn Songs of Thankfulness and Praise was written by Christopher Wordsworth, the nephew of the poet William Wordsworth. Christopher Wordsworth was an athlete, classicist, poet, and Anglican bishop of Lincoln, to which he was appointed by Disraeli. He wrote the hymn for the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany and described it as \u201crecapitulation of the successive manifestations of Christ, which have already been presented in the services of the former weeks throughout the season of Epiphany; and anticipation of that future great and glorious Epiphany, at which Christ will be manifest to all, when he will appear again to judge the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"(c)<\/a>

Christopher Wordsworth as Master of Trinity College<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Epiphany means \u201cmanifestation.\u201d The Son of God existed eternally, but he was manifested in time. First of all at his birth to the Jews in the persons of the shepherds, as he was the offspring of David, the \u201cbranch of royal David\u2019s stem\u201d; but then to the pagans, the Gentiles, the \u201csages from afar.\u201d He began to fill the prophecies that all nations would come to worship the Lord.<\/p>\n

\"Epiphany<\/a>
\nAgain he was manifested at his Baptism in the Jordan, when the Spirit in the form of a dove descended on him and a voice was heard from heaven, \u201cThou art my beloved Son; with Thee I am well pleased.\u201d His Sonship was publicly announced.<\/p>\n

\"Baptism<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

John emphasizes that Jesus worked his first miracle at Cana, \u201cChanging water into wine.\u201d He \u201cmanifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him.\u201d Jesus continues working his miracles to manifest his Godhead, and his miracles are not miracles to punish sinners, but in healing bodies, \u201cin making whole\/Palsied limbs and fainting soul,\u201d and in delivering men from the power of Satan, \u201cquelling all the devil\u2019s might,\u201d first in his exorcisms and at the end, in the “valiant fight\u201d of his death and descent into Hell to destroy the power of the devil and of death.<\/p>\n

\"Jesus<\/a><\/p>\n

This stanza refers to Jesus, \u201cever bringing good from ill.\u201d The existence of evil, suffering, and death is a mystery: how could a loving God allow such things. But in the life of Jesus on earth we see a manifestation of God\u2019s \u201cgracious will,\u201d that \u201cever\u201d brings good from evil. How this will be is not yet fully manifest.
\nThe 1940 Hymnal unfortunately does not use the fourth stanza of the hymn, the stanza which explicitly refers to the end of the world, when \u201cstars shall fall, the heavens shall flee\u201d at the sound of the trumpet, and \u201call will see the Judge appear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Last<\/a><\/p>\n

But the last stanza also refers to the End and our preparation for it. The purpose of the Scriptures is to show us Christ, \u201cmirrored in Thy holy Word.\u201d We imitate Jesus by becoming pure as He is pure, free from all sin, both justified and sanctified. We are indeed divinized, \u201clike\u201d The Son, \u201cpartakers of the divine nature.\u201d This stanza mentions \u201cThy great Epiphany,\u201d which is the end of the world, when Jesus will be fully manifest as Judge in his divine power over all creation. At the end all will be praise, as God reveals His gracious purpose for creation and history, and in the vision of that, we will be \u201cblest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hymns for specific events often incorporate references to the main events of the history of salvation, so that we do not forget the important connections among the events. Jesus was born so that he could die, and he died so that he could rise and return as the Judge of all the world. At Christmas especially it is easy to indulge sentimentality, forgetting the dark shadows that already are present, and the light that will at the end conquer those shadows. The greatest hymns remind us of this.<\/p>\n

PS<\/em> This hymn has been modified in many hymnals because it uses the word \u201cman,\u201d which is offensive to the ears of those who do not want any mention of masculinity in the Church. The line is changed to \u201cGod in flesh made manifest,\u201d which is theologically correct, but of course eliminates the rhetorical connection between \u201cmanifest\u201d and \u201cman.\u201d Rhetoric persuades not so much by logic as by making an idea seem natural and inevitable: Where else should God be man<\/strong>ifest but in man<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1. Songs of thankfulness and praise, Jesus, Lord, to Thee we raise, Manifested by the star To the sages from afar; Branch of royal David\u2019s stem In Thy birth at Bethlehem; Anthems be to Thee addressed, God in man made manifest. 2. Manifest at Jordan’s stream, Prophet, Priest, and King supreme, And at Cana, Wedding-guest, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,1229],"tags":[1231,1232,1230],"class_list":["post-4578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglicans","category-hymns","tag-christopher-wordsworth","tag-hymns","tag-songs-of-thankfulness-and-praise","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4578"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4587,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4578\/revisions\/4587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}