Martin Manser - Best Loved Hymns and Readings

Love lives beyond the tomb

Love seeketh not itself to please

Make me a channel of your peace

Many waters cannot quench love

May the road rise to meet you

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord

Miss me – but let me go

Morning has broken

My God, how wonderful Thou art

My song is love unknown

Nearer, my God, to thee

A new heaven and a new earth

No coward soul is mine

No man is an island

No room at the inn

No single thing abides

The noblest Roman of them all

Now thank we all our God

O captain! my captain!

O come, all ye faithful

O come, O come, Emmanuel

O death, where is thy sting?

O for a closer walke with god

O for a heart to praise my God

O for a thousand tongues to sing

O God, our help in ages past

O Jesus, I have promised

O little town of Bethlehem

O love divine

O may I join the choir invisible

O Thou who camest from above

The old rugged cross

The Old Vicarage, Grantchester

Once in royal David’s city

Once more unto the breach, dear friends

Onward, Christian soldiers

Our revels now are ended

The parable of the Sower

Pippa passes

Praise, my soul, the King of heaven

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty

Prayer for generosity

The Prodigal Son

The quality of mercy is not strained

The race is not to the swift

A red, red rose

Rejoice, the Lord is King

Remember me when I am gone away

Remembrance of things past

Requiem

Resurrection hope

The road to Emmaus

Rock of ages

Rule Britannia

Say not the struggle naught availeth

Search me, O God, and know my heart

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day

The shepherd boy sings in the valley of humiliation

Silent night

The Soldier

Soldiers of Christ, arise

The Song of Solomon

Stand up! stand up for Jesus

Stone walls do not a prison make

Sweet spirit, comfort me

Swing low, sweet chariot

Take my life, and let it be

Tell me not, in mournful numbers

Tell me the old, old story

Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord

There is a green hill far away

There is no death!

There is therefore now no condemnation

There’ll always be an England

They shall not grow old

Thine be the glory

Those who are first will be last

The three wise men

Through all the changing scenes of life

Till the sun grows cold

To a good man of most dear memory

To God be the glory

To his coy mistress

To the virgins, to make much of time

To thine own self be true

Trust and obey

Turn the other cheek

Vitaï Lampada

We brought nothing into this world

We plough the fields, and scatter

We rest on Thee

We shall fight them on the beaches

The wedding at Cana

Were you there?

What a friend we have in Jesus

What is man?

What God has joined together, let no one separate

When I am dead, my dearest

When I survey the wondrous cross

When my hour is come

Where you go I will go

While shepherds watched their flocks by night

Who will separate us from the love of Christ?

Who would true valour see

Whoever welcomes one such child

Wives and husbands

The wolf shall live with the lamb

The Word became flesh

Author Index

Index of Bible references

Index of first lines

Index of themes

Acknowledgements

Copyright

About the Publisher

This collection of Best-loved Hymns and Readings has been compiled as a resource for personal devotion and also as a reference work. It will be useful for making selections for such services as weddings, Christenings, or funerals. You will find here many favourite and traditional hymns, poems, readings, and extracts from the Bible (e.g., ‘Amazing Grace’ and Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan), together with less familiar ones (e.g., Shakespeare’s ‘The quality of mercy is not strained’). Each hymn, reading, poem, etc., is given an introduction which sets its background or gives interesting or helpful information. All the readings are arranged in alphabetical order of title (ignoring ‘A’ or ‘The’ at the beginning of a title). For ease of reference there are also indexes at the end of the book to enable you to find a particular item by reference to its first line, its author, its overall theme or, where appropriate, its Bible reference.

These extracts have been compiled in the hope that they will provide inspiration and encouragement both for everyday life and also at times of particular need and on special occasions.

Martin H. Manser

Henry Francis Lyte was vicar of the fishing port of Brixham, Devon, and wrote a number of greatly loved hymns, of which ‘Abide with me’ is perhaps the most celebrated. He wrote it shortly after his last sermon, knowing that his own death (at the premature age of 54) was imminent, having been diagnosed with tuberculosis.

In 1915 Nurse Edith Cavell famously derived strength from this hymn by singing it in her cell the night before she was executed by a German firing squad. Today it is also a great favourite with crowds at football matches.

The original reference is to Luke 24:29, which runs ‘Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.’

Abide with me! fast falls the eventide,

The darkness deepens; LORD, with me abide!

When other helpers fail, and comforts flee,

Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me!

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;

Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away;

Change and decay in all around I see:

O Thou, who changest not, abide with me!

I need Thy presence every passing hour;

What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?

Who like Thyself my guide and stay can be?

Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me!

I fear no foe with Thee at hand to bless:

Ills have no weight and tears no bitterness:

Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?

I triumph still if Thou abide with me.

Hold then Thy cross before my closing eyes!

Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies!

Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee:

In life and death, O Lord, abide with me!

Henry Francis Lyte (1793-1847)

This passage from. Genesis 2:18-24 is sometimes used as a Bible reading at weddings. It illustrates the mutual companionship and interdependence that exist in a marriage relationship.

Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.’ So out of the ground the LORD God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.’ Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.