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Chapter 7

The 1932 Hymnal, part 2

The 1932 Christian Science Hymnal was almost twice the size of the 1910 edition. It contained 298 texts set to 428 tunes. Thirty-six poems from the earlier edition had been deleted, with 130 new ones added, many set to new melodies. Others were paired with tunes already familiar to Christian Scientists. The new volume retained only 131 tunes from the former edition—the rest were new. 

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The 1932 edition of the Hymnal has included a number of printings over the years. Pictured here are a few from the Library’s collection. Staff photo.

The new edition wins its way

The Directors were sensitive to the feelings of a generation of Christian Scientists who had come to love the healing messages in the 1910 Hymnal. They evidently understood that the process of embracing the latest edition, with almost 300 new tunes, was daunting for some, and to help address this they made arrangements to hold hymn sings regularly in The Mother Church, after Wednesday meetings.¹ This helped members and Sunday School students become familiar with the new and sometimes challenging tunes. Christian Science branch churches were encouraged to follow that example. The Directors also authorized the Literature Distribution Committee at The Mother Church to make copies of the 1910 edition available to those requesting them for home use, to ease the discomfort of church members who found the new hymnal challenging.²

The Sentinel described one Mother Church hymn sing, held on September 30, 1932:

… the teachers and officers of The Mother Church Sunday School, and a number of the pupils, participated in the singing of new hymns from the revised Christian Science Hymnal. The occasion was a joyous one and the singing spontaneous and meaningful. Members of the Hymnal Revision Committee were present, and the Chairman of the Committee presided graciously and gave interesting information regarding the hymns to be sung. Those present who could sing in four-part harmony were asked to do so, since the beauty of many of the hymns is enhanced by such singing.³

A series of “Hymnal Notes” in The Christian Science Monitor supported the launch of the 1932 edition. Beginning with the October 17, 1932, issue, they appeared every two or three days in the newspaper’s feature section. The notes related fascinating stories about the hymns—their sources, traditions, and histories—as well as providing their authors and composers.⁴ A year later these notes were published in book form and became a companion volume to the Concordance to the Christian Science Hymnal.⁵ The foreword to the Hymnal Notes speaks eloquently about the importance of hymnody in the worship tradition:

Hymnody bears indeed an intimate relation to human life. The singing voice belongs to every man….

When men first began to know themselves free to find God, apart from priestly and political interference, they began to sing! And today, as groups of freemen meeting for prayer and praise to God, the churches may share each the other’s worship, in their songs. Barriers of creed, culture, nationality, melt before the fluent power of sacred poetry and music. Hymnody is called a “mirror of Christian history.”⁶

New texts and an international focus

Although the musical roots of the 1932 Hymnal continued to be essentially English, American, and German, this expanded book amplified the diversity of Christian Science hymnody considerably, introducing hymns from many different nationalities and earlier eras. There were 18 hymns from Scandinavian countries, as well as French, Hebrew, Spanish, Armenian, and Hussite tunes. Hymns from three Psalters (Genevan, Damon’s, Este’s) were included, as was a fourteenth-century Gregorian chant.

In addition to major composers such as Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Handel, Bach, Purcell, and Sullivan, tunes appeared by significant church musicians such as John Dykes, Hugh Allen, Percy Buck, and George Dyson. New texts included “Christ, whose glory fills the skies” by Charles Wesley, a founder of Methodism, and two additional poems of Scotsman James Montgomery—“God is our refuge and defense” and “When like a stranger on our sphere.”⁷ American poet John Greenleaf Whittier’s seven poems in the 1910 Hymnal were reduced to five, but still included “Dear Lord and Father of us all” (Hymns 49 and 50) and “O, he whom Jesus loved has truly spoken” (Hymn 217).

Three gospel hymns remained that Mary Baker Eddy loved: “I need Thee every hour” (Hymn 137), “I’m a pilgrim and I’m a stranger” (Hymn 415), and “O the clanging bells of time” (Hymn 418). Additionally, two new ones appeared: “I Love to Tell the Story (Hymn 414) and “O Weary Pilgrim, Lift Your Head” (Hymn 425). Two Christian Scientist composers were represented—the ever-faithful Frederic W. Root, who arranged Hymn 327, and Elizabeth Siedhoff, a Christian Science practitioner, who composed Hymn 429, closing out the volume with the appropriately named tune BOSTON.

Many favorite melodies, long loved in Protestant churches, were introduced, sometimes with new or modified texts. Three of the best-known were Hymn 330, “The King of Love” (a paraphrase of Psalm 23), and two Christmas carols: Hymn 417, “Joy to the World” (now set to George Frideric Handel’s melody), and Hymn 222, “O Little Town of Bethlehem” (set to Lewis H. Redner’s familiar tune).

Vaughan Williams’s SINE NOMINE, Hymn 66, is considered one of the masterpieces of twentieth-century hymnody. Williams composed it in 1906 for The English Hymnal, set to the words “For all the saints, who from their labours rest.” Violet Hay, the practitioner, teacher, and hymnal committee member who contributed seven texts, must have sensed that Christian Scientists would heartily embrace this tune. She approached Williams and secured what was at the time unprecedented permission to allow the Christian Science church to set the tune to her text “From these Thy children gathered in Thy name.”⁸

The clear, easily readable layout of the 1932 Hymnal resembled the 1910 edition. In addition to alphabetical listings of first lines and tunes, the index included several new features: tempo indications, a metrical list of tunes, and an alphabetical listing of composer and author names.

The metaphysical content deepens

A number of alternative tunes for Eddy’s poems were added to the 1932 Hymnal. The 1892 edition had contained just three settings each to “Christ My Refuge” and “‘Feed My Sheep,’” and there was just one setting to “Communion Hymn.” With two settings, “Christmas Morn” was added in the 1903 printing. When “Mother’s Evening Prayer” was included in the 1910 edition, the Christian Science field could sing five poems by Eddy, set to nine tunes. With the addition of “Love” and “Satisfied” in 1932, congregations were able to choose from seven of her poems set to 34 melodies, including several tunes composed specifically for this edition.

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Photo of William P. McKenzie, 1894. J.H. Kent. P01300.

Among significant additions were musical settings of poems that Eddy had quoted in her writings. For example, a verse from Ivanhoe, Sir Walter Scott’s 1819 historical novel, became the basis for Hymn 385:

When Israel, of the Lord beloved,
Out of the land of bondage came,
Her fathers’ God before her moved,
An awful guide, in smoke and flame.¹⁰

A second example comes from James Russell Lowell’s 1845 poem, quoted in Eddy’s book Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896:

Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne.
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.¹¹

In the 1932 Hymnal, Lowell’s words were adapted for Hymn 258:

Though her portion be the scaffold,
And upon the throne be wrong,
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow
Keeping watch above His own.

Other notable changes were made to the words of some hymns, bringing them into harmony with the teachings of Christian Science.

A warm reception

Five years of prayerful and dedicated work by the revision committee had resulted in a hymnal of the highest quality. It was an accomplishment that was recognized almost immediately, both in the United States and abroad, by music and hymnal experts. Leo Rich Lewis, professor of music at Tufts College, who served as a consultant to the final committee, wrote this in a review titled “New Christian Science Hymnal Shows Discriminating Choice”:

… Christian Scientists, perhaps more than any other religious group, lay stress on congregational singing…. Solos are heard but the congregation is the chief singer everywhere….[Thus] the prospective influence of this new book is incalculable …. Viewing…the new Hymnal with reference to contributions by Christian Scientists …. The recent and new material is very widely varied. Some poems embody the characteristic and even militant thought of the movement; but far more are pure religious lyrics, heartfelt in utterance, winning in thought, in purpose, and in form…. Thus have Christian Scientists laid a substantial foundation for worthy lyrical expression of their beliefs and aspirations.¹²

The Musical Times of London had this to say:

It is evident that a vast amount of expert work has been done to compile a collection of hymns not only suitable to the needs of the particular denomination, but of considerable value, literary, musical, and devotional, to all who are interested in Christian hymnology….

From many countries other than the English-speaking ones, tunes of an essentially native character have been selected, and it is interesting to notice the strongly differing characters of these tunes…. [This is] a collection which one cannot but regard as an important contribution to the service of Christian worship.¹³

And the Kentish Observer warmly predicted:

Hymns have always reflected the temper of the age…. The book has several really excellent new hymns …. It may indeed prove that Christian Scientists are on the way to creating a new book of Psalms. Certainly they have the opportunity to do so, if they will. They have a living faith, they are progressive, and they are active in composing poems. … [F]or, as is well known, Christian Scientists are in the habit of using their hymns not only publicly in their services, but privately at home, in their practice of healing….¹⁴

In the months immediately following publication, many Christian Scientists sent letters of appreciation to the Directors. The October 22, 1932, Sentinel reported on some of them:

Letter after letter to the Directors of The Mother Church speaks the praise of workers in the Field who have received the revised Hymnal with joyous appreciation. A Christian Scientist writes, “I am sure the singing and practicing of these new hymns will do much to bring about a greater unity and harmony in all our hearts;” another: “The beauty of the whole book is a joy in countless ways, particularly as it shows the great progress of our movement. The added words of our dear Leader and several old familiar hymns brought tears of gratefulness. How we shall enjoy singing them with the realization of their healing message!”

Some expressions of gratitude mentioned the universality of the new Hymnal and the fact that it included well-loved hymns from many countries. A Norwegian, brought up in the Lutheran Church, wrote of her happiness to find in the Hymnal several of the old Lutheran hymns of her childhood and referred to Whittier:

For all of good the past hath had
Remains to make our own time glad.¹⁵

Three months later, the Sentinel printed further evidence of gratitude:

Many letters of praise for the revised Christian Science Hymnal continue to reach the Directors of The Mother Church. Letters expressing disappointment or a reluctance to accept this edition in place of the 1910 edition are few indeed. One writer states: “The new Hymnal has brought a lesson to me not to cling to the old, but joyfully to accept the new. I found myself clinging to the old Hymnal, but as I diligently sought the beauties of the new one, I have been so enriched in thought and musical expression that I am overflowing with gratitude.”¹⁶

A few letters told how church members struggled as they worked to incorporate the new edition into their lives:

Another writes that she could not see the good in revising the Hymnal and felt that the revised hymns would not bring such healing as those in the older edition. She was willing to contribute to the fund with which her branch church was to purchase the revised Hymnals and willing to remain after the Wednesday evening meetings to familiarize herself with the new music. She writes that she “caught” herself voicing to another the thought of “not caring for the revised Hymnal.” However, through reading the Item of Interest which appeared in The Christian Science Journal of December, 1932, telling of the workers in the printing plant at Kingsport, Tennessee, who, being fond of music, had hummed the Christian Science hymns as they worked, she began to think of the healing truth in the revised Hymnal, and now expresses her gratitude for it.¹⁷

The 1932 Hymnal, contributing significantly to the healing element of the church services, launched a new era in Christian Science hymnody. With the passage of time—and the willingness of members around the globe to embrace and enjoy the “beauty of the new”—it would serve the Christian Science movement well into the twenty-first century.

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