Hymn stanzas removed. I wonder why?

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blhowes

Puritan Board Professor
This Sunday, one of the hymns we sang was "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing". I looked online and learned there were originally 2 more stanzas that I'd never heard before. Just curious if anybody knew why they removed them? What other stanzas were removed from which other hymn(s)?

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.


Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.
 
Funny, we sang his hymn this Sunday, as well. We only sang the first and last stanzas shown above, though.
 
i'm guessing stanza 2 (which is my favorite of the 6 in that hymn) is removed because of the difficulty of understanding "my ebenezer" - sad to say.

The last, I'm not sure.

Typically, older hymns seem to have had 6 stanzas at a minimum - many I can think of have 8, 9 or a dozen. We're in a "quick culture" and don't want to spend more time singing than we absolutely must - so in many modern hymnals, things have been cut way down to save time and space.
 
i'm guessing stanza 2 (which is my favorite of the 6 in that hymn) is removed because of the difficulty of understanding "my ebenezer" - sad to say.

The last, I'm not sure.

Typically, older hymns seem to have had 6 stanzas at a minimum - many I can think of have 8, 9 or a dozen. We're in a "quick culture" and don't want to spend more time singing than we absolutely must - so in many modern hymnals, things have been cut way down to save time and space.
Interesting. You'd think people would want the extra stanzas, wouldn't that mean the preacher'd have to shorten his sermon so we could still be out by 12? (jk, of course).
 
The version we sing combines lines from the 2nd and 3rd verses like this:

"Here I raise my Ebenzer
Hither by Thy help I'm come
And I hope by the good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God
He to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood.

Hmmm, I like those extra verses, as well, and I've never seen them in all the years I've worked with hymns. Thanks for posting them.
 
Also, some hymnbooks list verses for old hymns which were not all in the original; a hymn of 6 stanzas might have another 2 or 3 added later by other authors, and a hymn book will show the originals, or all, or whichever 6 take their fancy.
 
The version we sing combines lines from the 2nd and 3rd verses like this:

"Here I raise my Ebenzer
Hither by Thy help I'm come
And I hope by the good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God
He to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood.
I didn't notice at first, but this is one of the stanzas I'm more familiar with. Never knew it was a combination of 2.
 
We usually sing all stanzas - I have to agree the two stanzas you highlighted were probably left out for brevity's sake.

This is a great hymn - one of my top 3 favorites. And it has the greatest line in any hymn: "Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above."
 
Funny, we sang his hymn this Sunday, as well. We only sang the first and last stanzas shown above, though.
Do you recall which hymnal you use? I've never seen that last stanza before.

Our hymns are printed in the bulletin and we do not use hymnals. I have seen a Trinity Hymnal or two lying around occasionally, but I don't know if that last verse is included in the Trinity.
 
Funny, we sang his hymn this Sunday, as well. We only sang the first and last stanzas shown above, though.
Do you recall which hymnal you use? I've never seen that last stanza before.

Our hymns are printed in the bulletin and we do not use hymnals. I have seen a Trinity Hymnal or two lying around occasionally, but I don't know if that last verse is included in the Trinity.


The last verse, as posted, is NOT in the Trinity Hymnal. I have seen these words before, but can't remember which hymnal it was. Are you sure they were part of the hymn originally. For some reason I'm thinking this verse was a later addittion.
 
ORIGINAL LYRICS to:

"Amazing Grace"

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That sav’d a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.


’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears reliev’d;
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believ’d!


Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
’Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.


The Lord has promis’d good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.


Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease;
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.


The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who call’d me here below,
Will be forever mine.
 
The last verse, as posted, is NOT in the Trinity Hymnal. I have seen these words before, but can't remember which hymnal it was. Are you sure they were part of the hymn originally. For some reason I'm thinking this verse was a later addittion.
Found the stanzas here, where it says they were found in a collection of hymns dated 1759.
 
ORIGINAL LYRICS to:

"Amazing Grace"
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who call’d me here below,
Will be forever mine.
So this was in the original, and the one beginning, "When we've been there 10,000 years..." was added some time later?
 
The last verse, as posted, is NOT in the Trinity Hymnal. I have seen these words before, but can't remember which hymnal it was. Are you sure they were part of the hymn originally. For some reason I'm thinking this verse was a later addittion.
Found the stanzas here, where it says they were found in a collection of hymns dated 1759.

Thank you. I learn something new every day @ The Puritan Board. :book2::graduate:
 
ORIGINAL LYRICS to:

"Amazing Grace"

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That sav’d a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.


’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears reliev’d;
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believ’d!


Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
’Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.


The Lord has promis’d good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.


Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease;
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.


The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who call’d me here below,
Will be forever mine.

We have recently started singing these words in church rather than the "When We've Been There" version, and our congregation loves it.
 
ORIGINAL LYRICS to:

"Amazing Grace"

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That sav’d a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.


’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears reliev’d;
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believ’d!


Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
’Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.


The Lord has promis’d good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.


Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease;
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.


The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who call’d me here below,
Will be forever mine.

We have recently started singing these words in church rather than the "When We've Been There" version, and our congregation loves it.

Yes, "Amazing Grace" has been tinkered with down through the centuries. Some of the original stanzas, as they appear in Newton's "Olney Hymns," have been dropped or arranged in a different order since his time. Also, as you pointed out, at least one stanza is not original with Newton. It's also important to remember that Newton wrote the words, not the music, which came along several decades later, I believe. It would be interesting to know what tune Newton himself sang his words to.
 
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