[Biblemat] hymn study, "Take My Life, and Let It Be"

[Wayne S Walker]

Wayne Walker here with another weekly hymn study.  

"TAKE MY LIFE, AND LET IT BE"
"...Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God..."
(Rom. 12.1)

     INTRO.:  A song that asks God to help us in presenting ourselves as
living sacrifices to Him is "Take My Life, and Let It Be" (#'s 98 and 128
in Hymns for Worship Revised, and #100 in Sacred Selections for the
Church).  The text was written by Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879). 
In 1874 she was visiting the house of a friend in Worcestershire,
England, for five days.  Before she left, a group of ten people gathered
for a going-away party.  During the evening the poetess took the
opportunity to study each individual.  She observed that the happiest
were those who were using their talents wisely.  On the other hand, the
most unhappy were those who were not using their abilities to their
fullest.  After the guests had gone, the 38 year old Frances retired to
her room with the renewed conviction that she must give her all to Jesus.
 Beginning to write, she produced a resultant hymn which was first
published later that year in the appendix to Charles B. Shepp's Songs of
Grace and Glory.  In some of our books, the words are set to a tune
(Mozart or Zealotes) that is taken from an 1821 work attributed to the
Austrian classical composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791).

     In other books, that tune is sometimes used with a hymn, "Songs of
Praise," written by James Montgomery (1771-1854).  Miss Havergal's poem
has been set to many other tunes as well--one (Herndon) composed in 1827
by Henri Abraham Cesar Malan (1787-1864) in our books most associated
with "Lord, We Come Before Thee Now" by William Hammond; another (St.
Bees) composed in 1862 by John Bacchus Dykes (1823-1876); and still
another (Messiah) composed by French opera composer Louis Joseph
Ferdinand Herold and arranged in 1839 by George Kingsley (1811-1884). 
Most of our books use a tune (Yarborough or Bradbury) which is often
attributed to William Batchelder Bradbury (1816-1868).  However, it
cannot be found in any of his collections.  It was arranged in its
present form by Rigdon McCoy McIntosh, who was born in Maury County, TN,
on Apr. 3, 1836, the son of Hector and Mamie Biggs McIntosh, and educated
at Jackson College in Columbia, TN.  Receiving his musical training under
L. C. and Asa Brooks Everett, he was associated with them for several
years and taught in their singing schools throughout the South while
composing songs and editing books.

     McIntosh married Sallie McClasson of Farmville, VA, and through her
influence became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.  In
the 1860's, he became music editor for that organization's publishing
house in Nashville, TN, and maintained this relationship for around
thirty years.  In 1875 he became head of the music department at
Vanderbilt University in Nashville, but two years later accepted a
similar position at Emory College in Oxford, GA, near Atlanta, where he
made his home for the rest of his life.  In 1895 he resigned his teaching
position to establish the R. M. McIntosh Publishing Company.  During his
life he published some seventeen hymnbooks, including Christian Hymns in
1879, the first hymnbook of the Gospel Advocate Company of Nashville, TN.
 This particular tune first appeared in his 1879 New Life or Songs and
Tunes for Sunday School, Prayer Meeting, and Revival Occasions, which he
edited with W. G. E. Cunnyngham.  McIntosh died in Atlanta, GA, on July
2, 1899.

     Among hymnbooks published by members of the Lord's church during the
twentieth century for use in churches of Christ, the song appeared in the
1921 Great Songs of the Church (No. 1, originally with a tune by M.
Lindsey but replaced by the Mozart tune in the 1925 edition) and the 1937
Great Songs No. 2 (also with the Mozart tune) both edited by E. L.
Jorgenson; the 1935 Christian Hymns (No. 1), the 1948 Christian Hymns No.
2, and the 1966 Christian Hymns No. 3 all edited by L. O. Sanderson; the
1963 Abiding Hymns edited by Robert C. Welch (all with the
Bradbury-McIntosh tune); and the 1963 Christian Hymnal (with both the
Bradbury-McIntosh and Mozart tunes) edited by J. Nelson Slater.  Today it
may be found in the 1971 Songs of the Church, the 1990 Songs of the
Church 21st C., and the 1994 Songs of Faith and Praise (all with both the
Bradbury-McIntosh and Mozart tunes) all edited by Alton H. Howard; the
1978/1983 Church Gospel Songs and Hymns (with the Bradbury-McIntosh tune)
edited by V. E. Howard; the 1986 Great Songs Revised (with the
Herold-Kingsley tune) edited by Forrest M. McCann; and the 1992 Praise
for the Lord (with both the Bradbury-McIntosh and Mozart tunes); as well
as Hymns for Worship, Sacred Selections, and the 2007 Sacred Songs of the
Church edited by William D. Jeffcoat (both of the latter with the
Bradbury-McIntosh tune).  You may notice that some rearranging of the
stanzas has been done in various books.

     This hymn has had a great career of usefulness in encouraging people
to consecrate their all to the Lord.

I. According to stanza 1, we should give our entire lives to Jesus,
including all our moments and days
"Take my life, and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days; Let them flow in ceaseless praise."
 A. Whatever we do with our lives, it should be done to the glory of God:
1 Cor. 10.31
 B. Since God has given us our moments and our days, we need to number
them and give them back to Him: Ps. 90.12
 C. Everything we do should be done with a view to giving God the praise:
Heb. 13.15

II. According to stanza 2, we should give to Jesus both our hands and
feet
"Take my hands and let them move At the impulse of Thy love;
Take my feet, and let them be Swift and beautiful for Thee."
 A. We should always strive to have holy hands: 1 Tim. 2.8
 B. In all that we do, our hands should be guided by the impulse of God's
love: 1 Jn. 5.3
 C. Also, our feet should be swift and beautiful in serving the Lord:
Rom. 10.15

III. According to stanza 3, we should give to Jesus both our voice and
our lips
"Take my voice, and let me sing Always, only for my King;
Take my lips, and let them be Filled with messages from Thee."
 A. God is the one who made our mouths and voices with which we can
speak: Exo. 4.11
 B. We should use our voices to sing praises to the Lord: Col. 3.16
 C. We should also use our lips to teach others also: 1 Tim. 2.2

IV. According to stanza 4, we should give to Jesus both our wealth and
our intellect
"Take my silver and my gold; Not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect, and use Every power as Thou shalt choose."
 A. By making sure that God has first claim on our monetary possessions,
we show that He is in fact Lord of all our resources; 1 Chron. 29.3-5
 B. Withholding such things from God is equivalent to robbing Him: Mal.
3.8
 C. This will help to show that not only the words of our mouths but the
meditations of our hearts' intellect are devoted to the Lord's service:
Ps. 19.17

V. According to stanza 5 we should give to Jesus our will, including our
whole heart
"Take my will, and make it Thine; It shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart--it is Thine own; It shall be Thy royal throne."
 A. We must submit our will completely to Christ, as He did to the
Father: Matt. 26.39
 B. With this attitude, we can then love Him with all our heart, soul,
and mind: Matt. 22.37
 C. In this way, our heart becomes His royal throne as He dwells in our
hearts by faith: Eph. 3.17

VI. According to stanza 6 we should give to Jesus ourselves out of love
for what He did for us
"Take my love, my Lord; I pour At thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be Ever, only, all for Thee."
 A. It is only right that we give our love to Jesus because of what He
did for us: 1 Jn. 4.19
 B. We ought to pour at His feet our treasure store by laying up treasure
in heaven: Matt. 6.19-21
 C. Because Jesus bought us with a price, we should give ourselves
entirely to glorifying Him: 1 Cor. 6.19-20

     CONCL.:  In many of our books which use the Bradbury-McIntosh tune
there is an anonymous D. C. chorus (da capo, i. e., one which goes back
to the beginning of the melody):
"Lord, I give my life to Thee, Thine forever more to be;
Lord, I give my life to Thee, Thine forevermore to be."
We can best consecrate ourselves to the Lord's service by telling Christ,
"Take My Life, and Let It Be."

      Brotherly,
Wayne S. Walker
9024 Amona Dr.
Affton, MO  63123
home phone: (314) 638-4710
e-mail: wswalker310 at juno.com
website: www.defenderoftruth.com

     Notes: Other hymn studies are available at the Defender of Truth
website.  Also, some of my previous hymn studies are now included in book
that I have written entitled Songs of Zion.  It can be ordered from the
publisher by calling 1-800-423-2484 or going to www.faith-facts.com.  And
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Studies blog at http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/hymnstudies/ .

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