Sunday's Hymn: Reader's Choice

This week’s hymn is chosen by Carla of Reflections of the Times. Abide with Me is written by the Scottish minister Henry Lyte. The most commonly told story of this hymn is that Henry Lyte wrote it when he was dying of tuberculosis, but at the Center for Church Music, the suggestion is that it is more likely that

he wrote this hymn in 1820, after visiting a dying friend, who, on his death bed, kept murmuring the passage from Luke 24:29, where the disciples who were traveling to Emmaus asked Jesus to “abide with us, for it is evening and day is almost spent.”

If so, he would have been in his twenties when he wrote it.

Abide with Me

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim; its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

I need Thy presence every passing hour.
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

Listen: Voice, piano, or organ. 

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

• Arise, My Soul, Arise at The Happy Wonderer
• Art Thou Weary at Above the Clouds
• The Awakened Sinner, from The Valley of Vision  at The Thirsty Theologian
  
• From Greenland’s Icy Mountains at John Dekker’s Journal
• Master, Speak! Thy Servant Heareth at Seasonings of the Heart
• A Mighty Fortress is Our God at joythruChrist
• The Collect for The First Sunday after Trinity at Magic Statistics
• It is Well with My Soul at Thoughts from the Teahouse
• There is A Higher Throne at Hiraeth
• In Christ Alone at Jam and Books
  

Have you posted a hymn this Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar and I’ll add your post to the list. If you’d like to see your favorite hymn featured as a Reader’s Choice hymn, go here and leave a comment. Just tell me your favorite hymn and a little bit about why you like it and I’ll feature your hymn when your turn comes.

Are the elect only effectually called?

All the elect, and they only, are effectually called;[1] although others may be, and often are, outwardly called by the ministry of the word,[2] and have some common operations of the Spirit;[3] who, for their wilful neglect and contempt of the grace offered to them, being justly left in their unbelief, do never truly come to Jesus Christ.[4]

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Seven Statements about the Son: Exact Imprint of God’s Nature

Hebrews 1:2b-3 contains seven statements about Christ, the Son of God. This post examines the fourth of those seven statements: [The Son] is … the exact imprint of his nature. As I did in the first post in this series, I’ll start with the ending phrase and then move forward to the first phrase.

• His Nature
  The his, of course, refers to God the Father. It’s God’s nature our text is referring to.
  
  The word nature means substance, essence or being. It’s the essential nature of something. God’s nature, then,  is what God really is, and this statement tells us that  Christ is the “exact imprint ” of what God really is.

• The Exact Imprint
  The word translated exact imprint is the word used for an impression made on metal by a die or by a stamp on hot wax. The word was also used more generally for anything that was a copy of an original, or for something that is just like the thing it comes from.
  
  The point of saying that Christ is the exact imprint of God’s nature is to tell us that the Son shows us exactly what God is. Christ is exactly like God, not just like him in a few ways, but of exactly the same essence or being. Christ is essentially identical to God. Paul says something very similar in Colossians 1:15 when he says that Christ is “is the image of the invisible God.”
   
  It’d be possible, I suppose, for the word “imprint” to lead us in the wrong direction were it not for the rest of the phrase. An imprint is often something less than the original, like the imprint of a stamp is less than the whole stamp; but in this case, we know that Christ is the imprint of what God really is—the whole of God’s essence or being— so he can’t be anything less than what God is.
  
   
  However, while an exact imprint is just like the original, it is also distinct from it, and this may well be another of the truths that our author is expressing by the word “exact imprint.” Christ is exactly like the Father; he shows us the Father perfectly; he is of the same nature or being as the Father; yet he is distinct from the Father..

Can you see how closely related this statement is to the previous one, which said that Christ is the radiance of God’s glory? That Christ is the radiance of God’s glory means that he show us all of what God is. So, also, with this statement. Christ is the exact imprint of God’s nature, which means that he shows us exactly what God is. These are, I think, parallel statements. I bet you’re not surprised that the church fathers used this statement latest in their arguments against the Arians, too.

 

What does the statement that Christ is the exact imprint of God’s nature mean for us?

• It is another affirmation of Christ’s deity: that he is equal with God, and of the same nature as God. It is also an affirmation of Christ’s distinction from the Father.
• It teaches us that we can know the invisible God only through Christ, since Christ is God’s perfect representation, and he came to earth to show us God
• It should cause us to worship Christ as God..

Can you think of other things to add to the list of what this statement means for us?  Is there anything else you’d like to add or discuss?