Hymn: Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken

Sung in Worship: July 7, 2024

This is another hymn written by John Newton, the born-again author of “Amazing Grace “ and former slaver who became an ardent abolitionist and ally of William Wilberforce. Newton wrote it for Easter day in 1775 and included it in Olney Hymns. It was originally five 8-line stanzas, but all five are now rarely used. Newton’s fourth stanza, celebrating the saved in heaven as kings and priests, is usually omitted, and his third, with its imagery of the Israelites’ flight from Egypt, is often omitted, as in REH, or the second half is altered. The version using Newton’s stanzas 1, 2, and 5, which has become the most frequent, first appeared in Thomas Cotterill’s Selection of Psalms and Hymns (1819). In the last stanza Newton’s “Saviour, if of Zion’s city” often becomes “Saviour, since . . . ,” especially in evangelical hymn books.

The tune is either “Abbot’s Leigh,” which I have written about in connection with the hymn God is love, let all adore him, or “Austria,” by Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809). In 1797, having returned to Austria from England, Haydn was commissioned to compose music for an Austrian anthem celebrating the Hapsburg Emperor, Franz Joseph, similar to England’s Royal Anthem; the words are by the poet Lorenz Haschka. Haydn may have taken a Croatian folk tune as the basis for his work. Later he used elements of the tune again in his “Emperor “ Quartet. Haydn’s music was the national anthem of the Austro-Hungarian empire (with altered words) until 1918. In 1841 the poet August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote a poem, celebrating German unification (Das Lied der Deutschen), to be sung to Haydn’s music. Hoffman’s poem became the national anthem of Germany in 1922, of West Germany, and of Germany today, though use of the first two stanzas is now discouraged because of their association with the Nazi party. Only the final stanza is officially used. Because of objections to the Nazi connection of the music, the tune “Abbot’s Leigh” was written as an alternative. Newton’s words were first set to the tune “Austria” in the Primitive Methodist Hymnal (1889), and later that year in the Supplement to the second edition of A&M.