18th Century Hymns Add Modern Perspective

by Janet Riswold

This week former reference librarian and Sierra College administrator Janet Riswold reflects on some old hymns and their unexpected relevance to contemporary anxieties. Janet writes with precision, insight and wit. Enjoy. R. Brown

Sometime mid-pandemic, an old hymn started popping into my head uninvited. Not a hymn I  particularly like, but one that surprisingly resurfaced in my memory.

I know this song from church back about 50 years ago. I became the church organist at a small town church when I was about 13 years old. One of the favorite events for the congregation was an occasional hymn sing. The selections were not predetermined; instead the congregants would shout out the page numbers of the hymns they wanted to sing. For my 13 year-old self, this was an exercise in patience, as I generally found the requests repetitive and the songs ancient. It was mostly the old folks who attended, and they loved singing the hymns of their youth. Inge always asked for How Great Thou Art, Emma wanted Down by the Riverside, and my Aunt Alice had a few favorites, but one she requested often and the one that left me repeatedly uninspired was titled Safely Through Another Week.

Wow. Safely through another week. Big whoop - I would think, sarcastically. Someone actually wrote a song about that?

Indeed someone did. John Newton of Amazing Grace fame, wrote this B side hymn. This guy lived through most of the18th century and undoubtedly witnessed some horrific circumstances, but what of my Aunt Alice’s fondness for the hymn?

Aunt Alice was born in 1899 in a sod house in Oklahoma territory. When she was 11, local folks were predicting Halley's Comet would set the earth on fire; a terrifying thought for a young girl. Just a few years later, the North Canadian river, which flowed through the family farm, flooded overnight and swept away the homes of her neighbors. What next? When Alice was 14, World War One broke out, and just as the war was finally ending, the Spanish Flu pandemic killed thousands in Oklahoma.

Like others in her generation, Aunt Alice went on to marry, raise her children during the Great Depression, and endure another world war.

As I reflect on the timeline of her life, and realize that 100 years later we find ourselves living through a series of historic events frequently described as “unprecedented “, my cynicism has slowly transformed into understanding, if not appreciation for the simple gratitude of getting through another day intact.

Though I pursue the exhilaration of the occasional mild adventure, the idea of making it safely through another week holds more appeal than it did when I was 13.

And even though I still don’t like the plodding melody or the wooden lyrics, I have more respect for the first line: Safely through another week, God has brought us on our way….

I think I get it now, Aunt Alice.