My Starred Hymns
My FlexScores
My Hymnals
My Purchased Files
Planning worship?
Check out our sister site, ZeteoSearch.org,
for 20+ additional resources related to your search.
- |
User Links
Search Results
Scatter Seeds of Kindness
Author: Mrs. E. H. Gates Appears in 93 hymnals First Line: Let us gather up the sunbeams Lyrics: 1 Let us gather up the sunbeams
Lying all around our path;
Let us keep the wheat and roses,
Casting out the thorns and chaff;
Let us find our sweetest comfort
In the blessings of today,
With a patient hand removing
All the briars from the way.
Refrain:
Then scatter seeds of kindness,
Then scatter seeds of kindness,
Then scatter seeds of kindness
For our reaping by-and-by.
2 Strange, we never prize the music
Till the sweet-voiced bird has flown!
Strange, that we should slight the violets
Till the lovely flowers are gone!
Strange, that summer skies and sunshine
Never seem one half so fair,
As when winter's snowy pinions
Shake the white down in the air. [Refrain]
3 If we knew the baby fingers,
Pressed against the window pane,
Would be cold and stiff to-morrow—
Never trouble us again—
Would the bright eyes of our darling
Catch the frown upon our brow!
Would the print of rosy fingers
Vex us then as they do now? [Refrain]
4 Ah! those little ice-cold fingers,
How they point our memories back
To the hasty words and actions
Strewn along our backward track!
How those little hands remind us,
As in snowy grace they lie,
Not to scatter thorns—but roses—
For our reaping by and by! [Refrain] Used With Tune: [Let us gather up the sunbeams]
Scatter Seeds of Kindness
[Let us gather up the sunbeams]
Appears in 64 hymnals Composer and/or Arranger: Silas Jones Vail, 1818-1883 Tune Key: G Major Incipit: 55111 11771 22231 Used With Text: Scatter Seeds of Kindness
[Let us gather up the sunbeams]
[Let us gather up the sunbeams]
Appears in 1 hymnal Composer and/or Arranger: T. Martin Towne Incipit: 12332 15123 44323 Used With Text: Gather Up the Sunbeams
[Let us gather up the sunbeams]
[Let us gather up the sunbeams]
Appears in 1 hymnal Composer and/or Arranger: J. R. M. Incipit: 33323 45153 44432 Used With Text: Gather Up the Sunbeams
[Let us gather up the sunbeams]
Let Us Gather Up the Sunbeams
Hymnal: The Salvation Army Songs and Music #159 (1917) Refrain First Line: Then scatter seeds of kindness Languages: English Tune Title: [Let us gather up the sunbeams]
Let Us Gather Up the Sunbeams
Let Us Gather Up the Sunbeams
Hymnal: Songs and Music #159 (1922) Refrain First Line: Then scatter seeds of kindness Languages: English Tune Title: [Let us gather up the sunbeams]
Let Us Gather Up the Sunbeams
Gather Up the Sunbeams
Author: Mrs. Albert Smith Hymnal: Welcome Songs #11 (1894) First Line: Let us gather up the sunbeams Refrain First Line: Let us find our sweetest comfort Languages: English Tune Title: [Let us gather up the sunbeams]
Gather Up the Sunbeams
S. J. Vail
1818 - 1883 Composer of "[Let us gather up the sunbeams] " in Service Songs for Young People's Societies, Sunday Schools and Church Prayer Meetings In his youth Silas Jones Vail learned the hatter's trade at Danbury, Ct. While still a young man, he went to New York and took employment in the fashionable hat store of William H. Beebe. Later he established himself in business as a hatter at 118 Fulton Street, where he was for many years successful. But the conditions of trade changed, and he could not change with them. After his failure in 1869 or 1870 he devoted his entire time and attention to music. He was the writer of much popular music for use in churches and Sunday schools. Pieces of music entitled "Scatter Seeds of Kindness," "Gates Ajar," "Close to Thee," "We Shall Sleep, but not Forever," and "Nothing but Leaves" were known to all church attendants twenty years ago. Fanny Crosby, the blind authoress, wrote expressly for him many of the verses he set to music.
--Vail, Henry H. (Henry Hobart). Genealogy of some of the Vail family descended from Jeremiah Vail at Salem, Mass., 1639, p. 234.
S. J. Vail
Ellen M. H. Gates
1835 - 1920 Person Name: Mrs. E. H. Gates Author of "Scatter Seeds of Kindness" in Calvary Songs Gates, Ellen, née Huntingdon, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, is the author of several popular pieces in the American Mission and Sunday School hymn-books. Of these the following have passed from the American books into Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos:—
1. Come home, come home, you are weary at heart. Invitation.
2. I am now a child of God. Saved through Jesus.
3. I will sing you a song of that beautiful land. Concerning Heaven.
4. O the clanging bells of time. Yearning for Heaven.
5. Say, is your lamp burning, my brother. Watching and Waiting.
Concerning her poem which is used as a hymn in America, "If you cannot on the ocean" (Duty), Duffield says her account of its origin is as follows:—"The lines were written upon my slate one snowy afternoon in the winter of 1860. I knew, as I know now, that the poem was only a simple little thing, but somehow 1 had a presentiment that it had wings, and would fly into sorrowful hearts, uplifting and strengthening them." (English Hymns, 1886, p. 257.)
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)
======================
Gates, Ellen, p. 1565, i., now (1906) of New York city, was born at Torrington, Conn., and married to Isaac E. Gates. Her poems, &c, were published as Treasures of Kurium, 1895. Concerning Dr. March's hymn, "Hark! the voice of Jesus crying" (q.v.), and Mrs. Gates's "If you cannot on the ocean," some confusion has arisen, mainly, we think, from the fact that the opening line of Mrs. Gates's hymn, written in 1860, and the first line of Dr. March's second stanza are nearly the same, i.e., "If you cannot on the ocean," and "If you cannot cross the ocean." The incident which associates the late President Lincoln's name with this hymn is thus set forth by Mr. Philip Phillips in his Singing Pilgrim, 1866, p. 97:—
"The words of this truly beautiful song ['If you cannot on the ocean'] were written by Mrs. Ellen H. Gates . . . When our lamented President Lincoln heard Mr. Phillips sing it at the Hall of Representatives in Washington, Feb. 29, 1865, he was overcome with emotion, and sent up the following written request [given in facsimile on p. 97] to Hon. Wm. H. Seward, Chairman, for its repetition:—' Near the end let us have "Your Mission" [the title of the hymn] repeated by Mr. Phillips. Don't say I called for it. A. Lincoln.' "
It was through this incident that the hymn became known through America as " President Lincoln's favourite hymn." [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)
Ellen M. H. Gates
James R. Murray
1841 - 1905 Person Name: J. R. M. Composer of "[Let us gather up the sunbeams]" in Royal Gems L.P.M. (1905, April 12). Obituary. New Church Messenger, p.209.
Murray.--At Cincinnati, March 10, 1905, James Ramsey Murray. Funeral services in the Church of the New Jersualem, March 13th.
James R. Murray was widely known in the musical world as the author of many songs and song books, and in the New Church in Chicago and Cincinnati as an affectionate, intelligent, and loyal New Churchman.
He was born in Andover (Ballard Vale), Mass., March 17, 1841. In early life he developed musical talent, and composed many minor pieces for local and special occasions. Later at North Reading, Mass., he attended Dr. George F. Root's School of Music, and was associated with William Bradbury and Dr. Lowell Mason. He enlisted in the Fourteenth Regiment of infantry, commonly known as the Essex County Regiment, and afterwards was changed to the First Regiment, Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, which was engaged in most of the battles fought by the Second Army Corps up to the surrender of General Lee.
"Daisy Deane," the first and most popular of his early song successes, was composed in 1863 in Virginia while in camp, words by his cousin, Thomas F. Winthrop. This song is known all over the world, and the Salvation Army is using an arrangement of it for one of their war cry songs.
In 1868 Mr. Murray married Isabella Maria Taylor of Andover; and they removed to Chicago. Here three children were born to them, two passing early to their heavenly home, the youngest, Winthrop Root Murray, is still living. It was during these first years in Chicago that Mr. and Mrs. Murray became interested in the New Church, while he was engaged with Root and Cady as editor of the Long Visitor, afterwards merged with the Musical Visitor. After the great fire of 1871 Mr. and Mrs. Murray returned East, where he was engaged in teaching in Lawrence and Andover, and as organist at the Old South Church in Andover. In 1881 they removed to Cincinnati and Mr. Murray became the editor of the Musical Viistor [sic] and head of the publication department of the John Church Company. Among the most popular of his books are "Pure Diamonds," "Royal Gems," "The Prize" and "Murray's Sacred Songs." The following titles will recall some of his best loved sacred songs: "At Last," "Calm on the Listening Ear of Night," "I Shall Be Satisfied," "There Shall No Evil Befall Thee," "Thine, O Lord, Is the Greatness," "The Way Was Mine," "How Beautiful Upon the Mountains," "Angels from the Realms of Glory."
His last great labor in the publishing department of the John Church Company was the seeing through the press five volumes of Wagner's music dramas, with full score and original German text, and an English translation. The immense and careful labor involved in the preparation of these volumes, with a really smooth and excellent English translation, had perhaps, as it was done under pressure, something to do with Mr. Murray's breakdown. Although for some reason Mr. Murray's name does not appear on the title page of these volumes, his friends knew of the place the work held in his affections and ambition.
Mr. Murray was a member of the Church Council of the Cincinnati Society for the last four years and took a deep interest in the building of the New Church, and in the inauguration of services, with all the changes looking to the improvement of the musical part of the service. The vested choir, organized by Mr. and Mrs. Lawson, which Mr. Murray as councilman had urged from the beginning, in their entrance to the church each Sunday singing the processional hymn participated in the funeral service, with a congregation of brethren and friends, all moved by deep love and profound respect for the consistent life and faith of a worthy Churchman and beloved friend.
--DNAH Archives
===================================
For a discussion of Murray and the tune MUELLER, see: Stulken, M.K. (1981). Hymnal companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship. Philadelphia : Fortress Press, p.170.
===================================
Also available in the DNAH Archives:
1. An excerpt from Christie, George A. (1927). New Free Church. In Music in Andover. Papers read at "Fagot Party" of the Andover Natural History Society.
2. Unsourced essay about Murray written soon after his death, likely from Andover, Mass., perhaps authored by Charlotte Helen Abbott.
James R. Murray
