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Songs
of Holiness - Part 5
by
Major Melvyn Jones
In this the last of five articles about holiness songs I move
from the songbook of The Salvation Army to the hymnbook of the
Keswick Convention: Hymns of Consecration and Faith. I possess
a copy of the second edition of this hymnbook. The opening
page contains a hidden tragedy.
Hymns of Consecration and Faith
For use at General Christian Conferences, Meetings for the
Deepening of the Spiritual Life, and Consecration Meetings
First edition compiled and arranged by
Rev. J Mountain
New and Enlarged Edition Compiled and Arranged by
Mrs. Evan Hopkins
Marshall, Morgan & Scott Ltd
London
and Edinburgh
Before I refer
to the hidden tragedy I briefly mention that The Salvation
Army has links with this page. Morgan was a member of the
early day committee of the Christian Mission. Evan Hopkins was
an Anglican vicar who was deeply impressed by the methods of
The Salvation Army, which he copied.
Hopkins
played an important part in the setting up of the Anglican
Church Army.
However let me
now uncover the hidden tragedy. It can be found in the
statement: First edition compiled and arranged by Rev. J
Mountain. What is not stated is that Robert Pearsall Smith
played an important part in its creation. Smith together with
his wife Hannah Whittal played a prominent part in the
promotion of holiness – The Higher Life – in Victorian
Britain. Yet there is no mention made of Smith in either the
first (1875) or second (1890) edition of this hymnbook. It
states the truth, but not the whole truth, that the first
edition was compiled and arranged by Rev. J Mountain: but any
reference to Smith had been quietly dropped.
The tragedy? Smith, the influential promoter of holiness in
the early days of the Higher Life Movement, had been involved
in an inappropriate relationship with a young lady. As a
result he was quietly airbrushed out of the records and never
again took part in the British holiness scene. The full
details of what happened will never be known because the
situation was handled in a clandestine manner. Singing the
songs of holiness – even compiling a songbook of holiness
songs – is one thing. Recognising the reality of sin and
living the life of holiness is another. We are not called to
just sing about holiness or to only seek after holiness but
rather we are called – by the grace of God – to be holy.
I
end where I started, with scripture: a passage that contains
one of the greatest holiness songs. It is a passage that puts
God first – high and exalted: that has man recognising his
sinfulness in the presence of a holy God; a sinful man
cleansed by the action of God not by his own works; a man thus
fitted and ready to respond to God’s call to service. This is
good Army holiness teaching!
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw
the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train
of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each
with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with
two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.
And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the
LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." At the
sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and
the temple was filled with smoke. "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am
ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a
people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the
LORD Almighty." Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live
coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the
altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has
touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin
atoned for." Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom
shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am
I. Send me!"[1]
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is
full of his glory."
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