Sweet Peace – Peter P. Bilhorn

Sometimes, a song is born through various episodes over an extended period, and such is the case of Peter Philip Bilhorn’s “Sweet Peace (The Gift of God’s Love)” in 1887. The two incidents that bookended Peter’s hymn began with one that we would readily say was sweetly suggested to Peter, but the second one that transpired months later was at the opposite end of the spectrum, something so horrible that it would cause nightmares. Evidently, the second one was what Peter really needed to prompt his hymn’s conclusion, a work that was inspired by his thoughts of Christ shedding blood (and shown in the painting Penitent, also known as Christ Bearing the Cross, by Niccolo Frangipane, in 1574). Does the nightmarish reality of what Jesus experienced really hit us the way He intended, and does that spur us devotionally forward? My response to Him is submission and sacrifice, but mine – unlike His – is on the other side of the crucifixion event. I need not die and endure the horrible as He did, and as my sin would otherwise cost me. He did it for me, and that great divine heart of His transports me into His own sacrifice and then onto a joyous, eternal plane – an upending of death into life.

 

Peter began this musical journey in New Jersey and then completed it in Illinois. He took part in a camp singing event that ended one evening with a friend suggesting that he write a song to suit her voice better; she casually remarked that ‘any sweet piece’ would do, a phrase that Peter copied down, intending to indeed meet her request by respelling piece into peace. Only the music and the new hymn’s title emerged following that episode, however. Months later, as Peter accompanied Dwight Moody and others on a train ride in Illinois, the train tragically hit and killed an old woman, whose blood covered a ditch alongside the tracks. As Peter and one of his companions (Daniel Whittle) considered what they’d just witnessed, thoughts of Jesus’ last hours crossed their minds, and how His death gave us ‘sweet peace’, an atonement that no human could acquire on his own. With these thoughts in mind, Peter wrote the words to this hymn on the concluding phase of the train trip. Peter’s thoughts in his hymn’s verse two are of Christ’s ‘death’, with ‘cross’ juxtaposed to ‘peace’. It’s not just peace, but sweet peace, a two-word expression that comes from deep within the soul that has first viewed the bloodied Messiah and realized His sacrifice’s import. Not even the horror of such a scene – crucifixion is often called one of the most gruesome methods of execution ever inflicted on humanity -- can blot out the thrill and the rapture of what He did three days later. Mangled bodies can be regenerated, even if flogged and nailed to a piece of wood, or hit by a train. 

 

Perhaps those two otherwise unrelated incidents that Peter beheld in New Jersey and in Illinois were not so inconsistent after all, but rather necessary to remind Peter of what Jesus did at Calvary and then later at the tomb of Arimathea. We don’t know what might have been said at the funeral of the woman hit by the train near Wheaton, Illinois in 1887, but perhaps it could have helped grief-stricken family to compare her death to the Lord’s, and then to be reminded that He rose in glory. One’s exit from life doesn’t have the last word. He does. Indeed, Jesus gave Himself up (Matthew 27:50/John 19:30), showing that He was in control of that episode. Sickness and pain and even death won’t trample my hope. His path to Golgotha had to be awful, so that His rising could demonstrate Divinity’s superiority over even the vilest penalty that could be imagined. Death cannot ever hold you and me, because our God has muted its evil voice. What more needs to be said? 

 

See more information on the song story in these sources: The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006; Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990; and 101 More Hymn Stories, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1985.

 

See here for brief information about song’s story background: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/s/w/e/e/t/p/sweetpgg.htm

 

See information on the author here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/b/i/l/h/bilhorn_pp.htm

 

See information on the picture here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Niccol%C3%B2_Frangipane_Penitent.jpg …The author died in 1600, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1931. …found inside this document -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifixion_of_Jesus

 

From Every Stormy Wind -- Hugh Stowell

Sometime around the third decade of the 19^th Century (in the 1820s), the author of some song lyrics, about something we don’t often hear mentioned, wrote with an utter confidence and joy, because “From Every Stormy Wind” he felt his rescue and eternal home were secure. Hugh Stowell was an English cleric in the Anglican Church, so it was not a surprise that he was steeped in theology and could thus write and speak boldly about safety in Christ. And what had he seen or heard that would enable him to do that? It was a “Peace at the Mercy Seat” (his hymn’s original title) that was Hugh’s foundation. He’d connected what God had said to Moses in the desert during the exodus from Egypt, and what a writer said centuries later about that same special place called the mercy seat (see a picture of it here, as it is depicted in the 1890 Holman Bible). We might not hear this term – atonement -- very often either, but Hugh certainly had. Saved, forgiven, rescued, graced…those might be more familiar to us, but put yourself in Moses’ sandals for a few moments. What was it like for him to meet the Holy God, and to know he couldn’t be clean enough for Him, except for His provision of mercy. Only God could take the steps necessary to ‘repair or make amends for a wrong action in restoring a relationship’. That last phrase is how your PC might define atonement for you.

 

Hugh must have been familiar with these two scriptures, and many more. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. (Hebrews 9:5) and also, the following: “You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel. (Exodus 25:17-22) God planned to speak to the people from the mercy seat. Only He can occupy that space. Hugh didn’t have to ponder other earthly circumstances with dread from that point forward, as he expressed in his six lyrical verses. Nothing overwhelms His mercy when I accept what He’s done. Moses got it too, and so the people constructed the ark and the mercy seat as instructed. He could not see God’s face – he could not have survived such a vision – but he could do what God told him in order to meet His mercy. And, so can I.

 

‘Stormy wind’, and ‘woes’ (v.1) – those are about as much as Hugh had to say about mortal challenges, for there were so many other words to use in praise of the mercy seat in his poetry. Oh, we might feel ‘tempt­ed’, ‘de­so­late’, ‘dis­mayed’, or ‘de­feat(ed)’ (v. 4), but High did not dwell on those for long. Instead, he sensed ‘calm’, ‘sure(ty)’ (v.1); the ‘oil of gladness’, and ‘sweet(ness)’ (v.2); ‘blend(ing) of spirits’, ‘fellowship’, and ‘friend(ship)’ (v.3); being able to ‘soar like an eagle’, and a ‘greet(ing) from ‘Heaven’  -- what an amazing thought! (v.5). It was enough to make Hugh undismayed, even if his hands no longer worked as well, or if he could no longer speak, or even if his own heart stopped working (v.6). If the mercy seat remained a place where God still would want to meet him, that was enough. Moses may have sensed God’s anger on occasion – and so did the people. But, was it not worse when He stopped providing mercy for a time, as He did on multiple occasions during the time of the judges, when the people needed to be chastened (see Judges 2:11-15 as one example)? Even then, He responded in pity to bail them out when they groaned in pain (Judges 2:18). He’s still willing to reach down for me today, and you too. He’s got Jesus in the mercy seat, so go meet Him there.

 

 

See more information on the song story in these sources: The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006; Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990; and 101 Hymn Stories, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1982.

 

See here for the hymn’s original six verses: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/f/r/o/m/e/fromevsw.htm

 

See information on the image here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Holman_The_Mercy_Seat.jpg …This media file is in the public domain in the United States. This applies to U.S. works where the copyright has expired, often because its first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1931, and if not then due to lack of notice or renewal. See this page for further explanation….found inside this document -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercy_seat

 

Let the Whole Creation Cry -- Stopford A. Brooke

 

This Irishman knew and wrote verse. That would be a quick summary of Stopford Augustus Brooke’s life, and this was a trait that he would share in a handful of hymns in the 19^th Century, including “Let the Whole Creation Cry”. Stopford knew not only how to write poetry, but also what good poetry by others should be appreciated, as he must have done when he drew upon an anonymous psalmist’s call for all creation to applaud its Maker. Surely creation was crying out God’s praises especially in the Garden of Eden (see it depicted here in this artwork The Garden of Eden by Thomas Cole in 1828), one of the many pieces of evidence of His creative nature that should make us pause. The psalmist began his praise not with mankind in mind, but with a reminder that everything surrounding humanity speaks loudly of Him. Stopford’s first lines and his title words echo that. We should too.  

 

Suppose there had been no occupants of Eden, no first man to herald His image among the creation. Maybe that was what moved Stopford initially. Though he doesn’t really say what motivated his poetry in 1881, this veteran of verse – he’d already won honors for his writing and published several literary works – evidently did not think of himself so highly that he ignored the contributions of others. He was one of God’s image-bearers, but the other parts of God’s creation spoke to him first, as it did to the psalmist to whom Stopford looked for a model of praise. Psalm 148’s author is unknown, but that did not inhibit Stopford’s enthusiasm for what this anonymous poet had to say. The psalmist’s first 10 verses of Psalm 148 see all of His creative genius in everything besides humanity, an attitude that was not lost on Stopford when he began his own version of this outlook with his hymn’s title, and then calling out for all ‘heaven’ and ‘earth’ (v.1) to utter their exaltation. Verse 2 continues with ‘all ye hosts above’, and the ‘sun and moon’, ‘night and stars’ joining in this celebration of Him. Stopford took some other cues from the psalmist, including the ‘warriors’ (v.3) that could have been an echo of the ‘armies of heaven’ (Psalm 148, v.2) who joined in the acclaim of Him. ‘Kings of knowledge and…law’ (v.4) sounds like the psalmist beckoning the ‘kings…rulers and judges’ (Psalm 148, v. 11) to join their voices to the rest of creation already engaged in His magnification. ‘Men and women…children’s happy hearts’ are not left out in Stopford’s lyrical energy, probably because the psalmist also mentions them (v.12 of Psalm 148). Stopford does add one group, perhaps to coax himself and others like him, that ‘those to whom the arts belong’ (v.3) are also here to offer Him tribute. So, if you want to be creative in whatever you do – and who of us doesn’t want that? – it behooves you to stay connected to the Creator.

 

It doesn’t matter who you are or where you live, or even whether you’re a living being, Stopford repeated from Psalm 148’s words. You can offer Him what He deserves. Stopford must have at one time or another read how Jesus responded to critics when they remonstrated Him for the praise He was hearing upon entering Jerusalem (Luke 19:40). If you think the stones exclaim well enough for all of us, how do you feel about others of your common humanity lifting voices to Him? Can someone else do this enough for you? Did those Pharisees think He was just wasn’t worthy, or did jealousy cloud their vision? Surely, they had seen enough to know He was quite different from anyone else they had ever seen before. That is rather like what the psalmist and Stopford also acknowledged. Who else could create all of this – this planet where we live, the stars and heavenly bodies we see in the universe, all of us humans in all the wondrous physicality that is a marvel to scientists – and not be the One whom we should praise for who He is, and what He’s still planning to do? If you’re not ready to say a praise, are you really looking?   

 

Read about the author here: Stopford Augustus Brooke  and here: Stopford Brooke (chaplain) - Wikipedia

 

See the original six verses here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/l/e/t/t/letthewc.htm

 

See here for information on the image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Cole_-_The_Garden_of_Eden_(1828).jpg …The author died in 1848, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1931. …found inside this document -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_of_Eden