A Relic From The Past

A RELIC FROM THE PAST

JERRY DEPEW

Not long ago, I attended the wedding of my nephew in Beaumont, Texas. It was a grand church wedding, but I saw something at the church that took my breath away. As I sat down, I noticed in the enclosure in the back of the pew something that is rare in churches these days.

I had to grab it, touch it, and look it over. It was difficult to believe that I actually was holding a hymnal. Didn't this pastor know that it is considered "old fashion" to have hymnals anywhere in the church? Didn't he know that the new trend and fad is to sing only contemporary worship songs?

Gazing at this old relic, I decided to open it, and look through it. Paging through the old relic, hymns of my childhood raced through my mind. How Great Thou Art was of them. What a great old hymn of the church! What a great worship song, yet it is rare to hear it in the churches anymore.

On another page, the hymn Rock Of Ages caught my eye. I remember reading the story of how this great song was written. It was written by Augustus Toplady and published in 1775. According to the book, The Romance of Song, the author, who lived in England, was making his way home through a rocky glen. He was overtaken by a severe thunderstorm. Seeing a massive hundred foot rock, he noticed a cleft down the center. He took refuge in the cleft from the fury storm. While being sheltered from the storm, he thought of how our Lord is a rock and shelters us from the storms of life. He penned these words:

Rock of Ages cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee;

Let the water and the blood,

From thy riven side which flowed,

Be of sin the double cure:

Cleanse me from its guilt and power.

The last part of that stanza was later changed to read: Cleanse from its guilt and make me pure.

Songs of Prayer

Rock of Ages is a wonderful prayer. When one sings this song to the great King, he praying for the Blood of the Lamb to cleanse him from sin. When sung from the heart, the words of this song works. Speaking of prayer songs, on another page of the old relic, a song by the late Albert E. Brumley caught my eye. Brumley is famous for the song I'll Fly Away, but he also wrote hundreds of other great songs. One of them is: I Cannot Find The Way Alone. Here are some of the words of that great song:

As I journey thru this vale of sorrow,

The way seems so strange and unknown,

Lord, I need a helping hand to borrow,

For I cannot find the way alone.

I cannot find the way without thee,

Dear Lord, look down from thy throne.

And make Thy light to shine about me,

For I cannot find the way alone.

As you travel through this world, you need someone to travel with you, someone to hold your hand. And there is no greater hand than the Hand of the Lord. Isaiah 41:13 says: For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.

Songs About The Blood

Other songs that caught my eye were songs about the Blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. Here are the titles of some of those old, great songs. The Old Rugged Cross. There's Power in the Blood. Are You Washed in the Blood? At The Cross. At Calvary. I Believe He'd Go To Calvary For Me. Jesus Saves. Jesus Paid It All. Near The Cross. Nothing But The Blood. The Blood That Stained The Old Rugged Cross. These are just a few of the precious songs about the blood that was shed for our sins; there were many more.

When sinners go to a church where only contemporary praise songs are sung, they leave with a good feeling. They go home with the attitude that they have done their duty for the week; they have praised the King of the universe and all is well.

But when sinners go to a church where songs about the Blood of the Lamb are sung, they fall under conviction. Why? Because they don't have a right to sing these songs until they have been washed in The Blood That Stained the Old Rugged Cross.

Many years ago, a major denomination deleted all songs about the blood from its hymnal. Today, that denomination is struggling with homosexuals demanding to be in the pulpit.

Many evangelical churches of today have thrown their hymnals away. When they did this, they threw away songs that came through the flood, the fire, and the blood. An old song titled God Leads His Children puts it this way:

Some through the water,

Some through the flood,

Some through the fire,

But all through the Blood,

Some through great sorrow,

But God gives a song,

In the night season,

And all the day long.

Many of the great old hymns and gospel songs came in the middle of the night to a dear saint who had just gone through a trial or tribulation. God gave them a song in the night, and He can give you one too.

If you would like to hear some of these great songs, attend a Bill Gaither concert. You will always hear some of the old songs about the blood, as well as new ones. And the Gaither concerts are always packed out.

A Vacuum In The Heart

Why is this happening? Well, there is a vacuum in the souls of man to hear songs about the Blood of the Lamb, songs about the Cross, songs of prayer, songs from the heart, and songs of praise. You will not always hear these songs in some churches.

In some churches, all you will hear are contemporary worship songs. These churches are in the same spiritual rut as those who will sing only traditional gospel songs and will not allow some contemporary worship songs. We need to pray for the song leaders so that God will give them wisdom and knowledge about which songs to sing.

According to an article in the USA Today, people are gathering outside the churches all over the country to sing hymns. The paper quotes Jim Johnson, minister of music for the Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Columbia, S.C., as saying this: "In an age when so many churches are substituting entertainment for worship, many people are finding that shallow and not sustainable." A Methodist minister said, "Hymns are a means of connecting with God. There's a saying, "He who sings, prays twice."

reprinted from Eagleflight