Springfield United Methodist Church

7047 Old Keene Mill Road

Springfield, VA 22150

Telephone: 703-451-2375

Fax: 703-451-1412

The Music Box

The words for “Jesus, Priceless Treasure” (UMH #532) are from Johann Franck (1618-1677). Johann was very active in the political life of his birthplace, Guben, Germany. The hymn’s words first appeared in print in 1647. Composed around 1653, the tune ~ Jesu, Meine Freude (“Jesus, my joy”) ~ is from Johann Crüger (1598-1662).

The words and music for the contemporary hymn, “Come Now is the Time to Worship” are from Brian Doerksen (pronounced ‘Dirksen’; born 1965). The hymn was written in 1997 while he was living in London, training worship leaders and songwriters. “Come, now is the time to worship; Come now is the time to give your heart; Come just as you are to worship; Come just as you are before your God; Come.”

William Dunn Longstaff (1822-1894) drafted the words to “Take Time to be Holy” (UMH #395) in 1882. As a close friend of Salvation Army founder William Booth, many of Longstaff’s hymns first appeared in the Salvation Army’s War Cry publication during the 1880s. “Holiness,” the hymn’s tune, was composed around 1890 by George Stebbins (1846-1945). In addition to serving as music director of Baptist churches in Chicago and Boston, Stebbins also worked as an evangelist in India, Egypt, Italy, Palestine, France, and England. It was during this time that “Holiness” was composed.

The words to “Sweet Hour of Prayer” (UMH #496) first appeared in The New York Observer on September 13, 1845. The poem is by Englishman William Walford (1772-1850), a blind Congregational minister. “How will this do?,” William asked as he dictated “Sweet Hour of Prayer” to a friend who eventually submitted the poem to The Observer. The hymn’s tune is from William Bradbury (1816-1868), composer of many familiar hymn tunes, including the melody for the hymn which was for many of us the first hymn known by heart, “Jesus Loves Me.”

The author of “Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross” (UMH #301) is Fanny Crosby (1820-1915), among our most productive hymn writers with over 8,000 hymns to her credit. She was published under 100 pseudonyms, including “James Apple” and “Maude Marion.” At six weeks old, Fanny was blinded by the work of an incompetent doctor. Of her lifelong blindness, she once wrote, “I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me.” The hymn tune is another composition of the prolific tune-writer, William Bradbury.