I collect old books. It’s almost an obsession, whenever I go into a Goodwill or Salvation Army store, I immediately zoom in on their bookshelves. I pass over the glossy mass-market paperbacks (most of which feature a Fabio type male with a swooning buxom lass), glance at the newer hardbacks, and ignore the bigger paper-backs. My radar is tuned to one thing, and one thing only when it comes to second hand books, OLD ones, preferably from the 1930s and before, some 1950s (Happy Hollisters being a set I am dreaming of owning in completion), but especially old classics (Sir Walter Scott, Mark Twain, etc.). However, I have one special little soft spot where age doesn’t really matter, quality of binding does: Hymnals. I especially like hymnals from old printings for use in Presbyterian and Episcopalian churches, the traditionally liturgical worship services those churches used to have made for their hymnals holding some of the best examples of modern classic hymns. I have quite the stack of old hymnals, one of my favorites being the American Lutheran Hymnal from 1930. It has quite the nice selection of Martin Luther penned hymns, as well as many of the classics.
Tonight, I got that beautiful old hymnal out and played through it’s pages. I came upon this hymn somewhere in my playing, #208 in the book:
O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
O light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.
O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.
O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.
Emphasis mine.
What a beautiful old hymn, eh?