Until a few days ago I had never heard of William Newell. A friend recently told me that he’d bought Newell’s commentary on Revelation and I had to google the author. We’ve sung At Calvary many times at church, but how many people notice the hymn writer unless they are someone really famous like Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, or Ira Sankey? Newell wrote the words to this song as sort of an autobiography (see below). He was a respected Bible teacher, conference speaker, and author of three verse-by-verse commentaries. Only God knows how many lives have been changed by grace at Calvary. I look forward to meeting them in Heaven!

At Calvary

by William Newell

Years I spent in vanity and pride,

Caring not my Lord was crucified,

Knowing not it was for me He died on Calvary

Refrain:

Mercy there was great and grace was free,

Pardon there was multiplied to me,

There my burdened soul found liberty–

At Calvary.

By God’s Word at last my sin I learned–

Then I trembled at the Law I’d spurned,

Till my guilty soul imploring turned to Calvary.

[Refrain]

Now I’ve giv’n to Jesus ev’rything,

Now I gladly own Him as my King,

Now my raptured soul can only sing of Calvary.

[Refrain]

O the love that drew salvation’s plan!

O the grace that brought it down to man!

O the mighty gulf that God did span at Calvary.

[Refrain]

* William R. Newell (1868-1956)

Born in Savannah, Ohio, William R. Newell is remembered as a pastor, evangelist, Bible teacher, author, conference speaker and writer of the beloved hymn, At Calvary. The hymn captures his personal testimony.

In his youth, Newell was known as a troubled and wayward teen. As a last resort, his father wrote to the president of Moody Bible Institute, begging him to allow his son to enroll. Since the college was only open to serious Bible students, the president opposed the idea at first, but finally agreed that Newell would be enrolled on the condition that he would meet with the president daily and take his studies seriously.

Because of a father’s prayers, a college president’s commitment and a teen’s perseverance, Newell eventually graduated. He knew it was only by the grace of God that his life had been turned around and he had been able to accomplish so many good things. After Moody, he graduated from Wooster (Ohio) College in 1891, studied at Princeton and Oberlin Seminaries and, after ordination, pastored the Bethesda Congregational Church in Chicago until 1895.

As assistant superintendent at Moody Bible Institute, Newell displayed his gift of Bible exposition at his city-wide Bible classes in Chicago, St. Louis and Toronto. This led to publication of his well-known commentaries, “verse-by-verse” explanations on Romans, Hebrews and The Book of Revelation, still widely used today.

In 1895, Newell wrote his personal testimony as a poem, the lines sharing his thoughts about his conversion and Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. It is said that he wrote the words quickly on an old envelope in his classroom. He showed the lyrics to his friend, Dr. Daniel Towner, director of music at Moody, and in an hour At Calvary was a finished work.

Newell died April 1, 1956, in DeLand, Florida. Understanding the great importance of God’s grace in Christ is difficult for some to understand, but Newell communicated that truth in a profound and lasting way through a personal, and moving, song.

“There is a Fountain Filled with Blood” is sometimes omitted from hymnals on the grounds that the metaphor, “fountain filled with blood” is offensive. But there is sufficient interest by many people whose interest is in the Lamb of God and the blood shed for our sins and the sins of the whole world. This favorite hymn has found its place in hymnals for more than two centuries. (It is Hymn #175 in Living Hymns.)

[A rendition of this hymn by George Beverly Shea was the theme song for “Fellowship Time” hosted by Pastor Joseph Stringer every Sunday morning for more than 20 years on WCCM in Lawrence, Mass. This half-hour Bible study was must-listening for us during breakfast before we went to the Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church in North Andover where we heard Pastor Stringer again!]

There is a Fountain Filled with Blood

by William Cowper *

There is a fountain filled with blood

Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;

And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,

Lose all their guilty stains:

Lose all their guilty stains,

Lose all their guilty stains;

And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,

Lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see

That fountain in his day;

And there may I, though vile as he,

Wash all my sins away:

Wash all my sins away,

Wash all my sins away;

And there may I, though vile as he,

Wash all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood

Shall never lose its pow’r,

Till all the ransomed Church of God

Be saved, to sin no more:

Be saved, to sin no more,

Be saved, to sin no more;

Till all the ransomed Church of God

Be saved to sin no more.

E’er since by faith I saw the stream

Thy flowing wounds supply,

Redeeming love has been my theme,

And shall be till I die:

And shall be till I die,

And shall be till I die;

Redeeming love has been my theme,

And shall be till I die.

When this poor lisping, stamm’ring tongue

Lies silent in the grave,

Then in a nobler, sweeter song

I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save:

I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save,

I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save;

Then in a nobler, sweeter song

I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save.

* William Cowper (1731-1800) The simple life of William Cowper, marked chiefly by its innocent recreations and tender friendships, was in reality a tragedy. His mother died when he was six years old. Educated to be a solicitor, he failed to take the exam because his sensitive spirit was consumed by fear of appearing before the bar. He fell in love, but the marriage was forbidden by her father. He never married. What followed was years of melancholy, depression, and attempted suicides.

For the last two decades of his life, William Cowper lived in Olney, where John Newton was his pastor and he assisted Newton in his pastoral duties. His emotional state swung from extreme highs to depressing lows. When a close friend died he experienced months of depression.

His great poems show no trace of his monomania and are full of healthy piety. His poetry marks the contrasting presence of a quiet nature. The spiritual ideas of his hymns are identical with those of John Newton who wrote “Amazing Grace”; their highest note is peace and thankful contemplation, rather than joy. Cowper and John Newton collaborated on the important hymn collection Olney Hymns (1779), to which Cowper contributed sixty-eight hymn texts.

A verse that is familiar to many comes from one of his Olney Hymns, “Light Shining Out of Darkness,” 1779

GOD moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness;

but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”

I Corinthians 1:18

Hallelujah to the Lamb

Lyrics by Isaac Watts *

Chorus by Alfred B. Smith **

Come, let us join our cheerful songs

with angels round the throne;

ten thousand thousand are their tongues,

but all their joys are one.

[Chorus]

Hallelujah to the Lamb,

who died on Mount Calvary!

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah! Amen.

‘Worthy the Lamb that died,’ they cry,

‘to be exalted thus’;

‘Worthy the Lamb,’ our lips reply,

‘for he was slain for us.’ [Chorus]

Jesus is worthy to receive

honour and power divine;

and blessings, more than we can give,

be, Lord, for ever thine. [Chorus]

Let all that dwell above the sky,

and air, and earth, and seas,

conspire to lift thy glories high,

and speak thine endless praise. [Chorus]

The whole creation joins in one

to bless the sacred name

of him that sits upon the throne,

and to adore the Lamb. [Chorus]

* Isaac Watts (1674-1748)

In 1702, Watts  became pastor of the Independent Church, Berry St., London.. In 1712, he accepted an invitation to visit Sir Thomas Abney, at his residence of Abney Park, and at Sir Thomas’ pressing request, made it his home for the remainder of his life. He did not retire from ministerial duties, but preached as often as his delicate health would permit.

The number of Watts’ publications is very large. His collected works, first published in 1720, embrace sermons, treatises, poems and hymns. His “Hymns” appeared in July, 1707. The first hymn he is said to have composed for religious worship, is “Behold the Glories of the Lamb,” written at the age of twenty. It is as a writer of psalms and hymns that he is everywhere known. Some of his hymns were written to be sung after his sermons, giving expression to the meaning of the text upon which he had preached. His published hymns number more than eight hundred.

Watts died November 25, 1748. A monumental statue (left) was erected in Southampton, his native place, and there is also a monument (above)to his memory in the South Choir of Westminster Abbey. “Happy,” said one of his contemporaries, “will be that reader whose mind is disposed, by his verses or his prose, to imitate him in all but his non-conformity, to copy his benevolence to men, and his reverence to God.”

** Alfred B. Smith (1916-2001)

[Biography compiled from the Living Hymns web site]

The fascinating life of Dr. Al Smith, “Mr. Singspiration,” began on November 8, 1916 in a small Holland Dutch community in northern New Jersey where the news of the day reported that “Mr. and Mrs. Barney Smith” had become the proud parents of a baby boy who they named Alfred Barney Smith. Alfred’s early years were filled with loving care from a father and mother who loved the Lord.

When Alfred was eight and a half years of age his mother decided that it was time to start her son on the violin. Under the tutelage of excellent instructors, young Alfred made great progress, soon he was performing in concerts in various parts of the east including solos with various symphony orchestras.

At fourteen he was invited to a tent meeting in Hawthorne, New Jersey, where he accepted Christ as Savior. He was thrilled upon hearing the one hundred and fifty people in the tent singing “Saved, Saved, Saved” and “One Day.” That day he fell in love with Gospel music It was a love that never left him. In 1930, he began playing on radio broadcasts. The station was WKBO, located in Jersey City, New Jersey. The program was called “the Old Fashioned Gospel Hour.”

In 1937, Alfred B. Smith graduated from Moody Bible Institute and immediately began as Minister of Music at The Church of the Open Door in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1938 the church loaned him to The Philadelphia School of the Bible – now The Philadelphia College of the Bible.  It was during that year that Smith wrote “For God So Loved the World” after visiting the ninety-four year-old hymn writer  George C. Stebbins. He was beginning an adventure in inspiration that kept him occupied for over sixty years.

In 1939 he was offered a scholarship to Wheaton College (which he gratefully accepted). His next three and half years were busy ones. In 1940 Billy Graham was a student at Wheaton. Smith and Graham decided that they would work together as an evangelistic team. Graham did the preaching and Smith coordinated the music. As a result of their ministry, the company Singspiration was born in 1941. God worked in a mighty way…in Singspiration’s  first two months of sales the entire printing of five thousand books was sold! In 1942 Al Smith married Catherine Barron. The same year he produced “Singspiration Two,” and choose Zondervan of Grand Rapids, Michigan to be his distributor.

In 1953, Montrose, New Jersey became the new headquarters for Singspiration and a new Christian radio station, WPEL. In 1957, John W. Peterson, Norman Johnson and Harold DeCou join the Singspiration staff. New publications including cantatas begin to cover not only America but Canada, England and other parts of the English speaking world.

In 1963, Singspiration moved to Grand Rapids and became part of Zondervan. Free from the pressure of managing Singspiration he devoted most of his time to ministering in church meetings. He also kept quite busy with the writing “Hymn Histories” and the hymnal “Living Hymns.” “Living Hymns” was first published in 1972 and “Hymn Histories” in 1982.

In 1985, Al and his family moved to Greenville, South Carolina, where his children attended Bob Jones Academy. Here for the last fifteen years of his life he was able to continue his publishing. Though he battled cancer in his later years, Dr. Smith was always going the extra mile to share the love of God with others whether in his home church, Greenville Christian Fellowship, or in countless other churches across the nation.

Shortly before Al Smith passed away he shared his vision for the ministry to continue after his death. His sons, David and Jonathan, caught that vision and started Al Smith Ministries to keep the music of Alfred B. Smith available. God has allowed them to continue to offer the resources their father spent his life making. In 2009 Al Smith Ministries partnered with Striving Together Publications to be our exclusive distributor for “Living Hymns”. A new edition was completed that kept the original hymnal the same, updating the type setting and adding over sixty more songs to the book.

[Note: I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Smith and hearing him speak (he had a strong, clear “radio voice”) when he visited Fellowship Bible Church in North Andover in the late 1970s. He and Pastor Joseph Stringer were of the same era and joked like old friends. The church was filled for a Sunday evening service and Dr. Smith led us in a “Singspiration” of his songs. It was a memorable evening of worshipful music. Salem Bible Church, and other churches formed in those years, call our all-singing services Singspirations!  Of course, our church hymnal is the latest edition of “Living Hymns”! MFV]

“Oh, sing to the Lord a new song!

Sing to the Lord, all the earth.

   Sing to the Lord, bless His name;

Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.

   Declare His glory among the nations,

His wonders among all peoples.”

Psalm 96:1-3

A Rebellious Youth Revolutionizes Congregational Singing *

Line by line the clerk read a Psalm. Line by line the congregation sang after him. That is, everybody sang except young Isaac Watts.

After church services that Sunday in 1692, when his Puritan father called him to the carpet for not singing, Isaac said bluntly that there was no music in the Psalms. He said further that the Psalms did not rhyme and that there was no sense in having to sing them line by line.

When outraged Deacon Watts’ blood pressure subsided, he suggested that if his young upstart son were smarter than King David he might try his hand at writing something better. The result of that challenge was a revolution in church singing that has resounded for more than three centuries.

Staid old Deacon Enoch Watts must have spoken without thinking when he hurled his sarcastic remark at his teen-age son. For at his boarding school in Southampton, the deacon himself had taught Isaac five languages before the boy was fourteen years old. That is, the deacon taught when he wasn’t in jail for his acts against the Established Church.

For twelve years Mrs. Enoch Watts had tutored her oldest son in the writing of verse. At seven he had won a copper medal for writing rhymes. He waxed so poetical that when the elder Watts threatened to flail him for rhyming even his everyday conversation, the boy cried out, “O father do some pity take, and I will no more verses make.”

Accepting his father’s challenge, eighteen-year-old Isaac Watts set about “Christianizing” and “modernizing” the Psalms. The following Sunday the clerk read Isaac Watts’ hymn and the congregation was so pleased that for two years Watts had to bring one of his “modernized” Psalms every Sunday!

Eighteen-year-old Isaac had successfully broken an ancient tradition. From his prolific pen would come “Joy to the World! The Lord is Come,” “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” “Am I Soldier of the Cross” and many other notable hymns.

With his bold departure from Psalm singing, Isaac Watts gave to Christianity a popular and inspiring medium of worship and paved the way for Charles Wesley, John Newton, William Cowper, and hundreds to follow.

Here is a hymn, written by Isaac Watts in 1719, that was one of three selections sung by President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill during devotional services aboard the man-of-war H.M.S. Prince of Wales in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland in 1941. Four months later, the United States entered WWII.

O God our help in ages past,

   Our hope for years to come,

Our shelter from the stormy blat,

   And our eternal home.

* A Hymn is Born, by Clint Bonner (Broadman Press, 1959)

“In contentment we come to give God the worship due to Him.”

Jeremiah Burroughs (1599-1646)

“I say it is a special part of divine worship that the creature owes to the infinite Creator, in that I tender the respect that is due from me to the Creator.

“You worship God more by contentment than when you come to hear a sermon or spend half an hour, or an hour, in prayer. These are the acts of God’s worship, but they are only external acts of worship: to hear and pray. This is the soul’s worship: to subject itself thus to God. You who often will worship God by hearing and praying, yet afterwards will be froward [contrary, perverse] and discontented—know that God does not regard such worship; He will have the soul’s worship, in this subjecting itself unto God.

“Oh! That I could do what pleases God! When we come to suffer any cross: Oh! That what God does might please me! I labour to do what pleases God, and I also labour that whatever God does shall please me: here is a Christian indeed, who shall endeavour both of these. It is but one side of a Christian to endeavour to do what pleases God; you must as well endeavor to be pleased with whatever God does, and so you will come to worship as a complete Christian when you can do both. And that is the excellence of contentment.”