O Zion, Haste

Mary Ann Thomson, 1868

A woman was keeping watch by the bed of her son, who was ill, suffering from typhoid fever. By this time, she must have known what it was to lose a child. She was 33 or 34 years old, and she would have 13 children, 5 of whom died in childbirth. The boy said to her that if it was God’s will to let him live, he would become a missionary, and his mother knew then that one way or another she would lose him, either on that night or some years later. With these thoughts in mind, Mary Ann Thomson composed what’s been called the greatest English missionary hymn in the 19th century, “O Zion, Haste.” Actually, she said that she composed the verses then, and wrote them down, but she couldn’t find a fit refrain for the melody she had in mind. A few years later, she happened upon the pages again, and she finished the composition. I’ve not been able to determine whether the boy lived. They lived in Philadelphia, where, eventually, Mr. Thomson would be the librarian at the Philadelphia Free Library, which opened in 1893; they worshiped at what was first an Episcopal mission church, the Church of Our Merciful Savior, and then was refounded as the Church of the Annunciation. Mr. Thomson served as a deacon there, and as for Mrs. Thomson, she wrote about 40 hymns and lived well into the 20th century, passing away in 1923 at the age of 89.

Yesterday, for our Word of the Week, spell, I mentioned that our word gospel comes from Anglo-Saxon godspel, meaning good news or good tidings, a perfect English rendering of the Latin evangelium, from Greek euangelion. Literally, to evangelize means, then, to bring good news. It reminds me of a quaint Middle English carol — here’s the first verse and the refrain:

Gabriel of high degree,
He came down from the Trinity,
To Nazareth in Galilee.
Nova, nova! “Ave” fit ex “Eva”!

The word nova there means news, tidings — and really, new things, a perfectly new thing in the world. That new thing is that from the name EVA — Eve — we get, turning it backwards, the AVE, “Hail!” which the angel bestowed on Mary, whom Christians therefore call the “second Eve.”

I suppose that missionary hymns aren’t much in favor now, but the fact that the good news is to go forth into all the world runs all through the New Testament, from the coming of the wise men from the east (in the second chapter of Matthew), to the commission Jesus gives to his followers at the mount of the Ascension in Bethany, to “make disciples of all nations,” to Peter’s baptizing of the Roman centurion Cornelius and his household, to the missionary work of the apostles, including Saint Paul throughout the eastern Mediterranean world, to the vision of Saint John in Revelation, a vision that includes all the earth. The missionaries brought learning to nations that had no writing and reading, such as the England of the Angles and Saxons. They brought more peaceful ways to nations that settled their differences with blood feuds. They brought agriculture of a high order to people who lived from hand to mouth, in deserts or in forests or in jungles. They protected weak tribes in southern California from their stronger enemies (and made them, before the Mexican War ruined it all, the richest people west of the Mississippi). They brought medicine to the untouchables in India. They brought good news everywhere, to the lettered and the unlettered. Death is not the end. We are not to cower in fear of demons or of malignant natural powers. The rich and the poor will be judged alike. God is a God of love, infinite love, and of justice, so that all the wrongs in this sorry life of ours will be made right. The power that rules the world came among us in the flesh, in the child in Bethlehem.

Mrs. Thomson had in mind, when she wrote her hymn, the melody PILGRIMS, for “Hark, hark, my soul, angelic songs are swelling.” But we don’t sing it to that melody, and in fact, Mrs. Thomson herself said that she didn’t believe “O Zion, Haste” was ever sung to it. Most of the melodies in the hymnals won’t do, because the meter, not counting the refrain, is the unusual 11-10-11-10; only 9 hymns out of the 600 in the great Hymnal 1940 use that meter. But a James Walch, an organist, composer, and musical instrument maker in Lancashire and Wales, composed a tune in that meter, not aware of Mrs. Thomson’s text, and somehow, somebody put the two together, and the fit was so perfect, the melody is now known as TIDINGS, after the key word in the refrain. Mrs. Thomson was delighted with it, saying that she thought it best for a hymn to have a tune of its own. I think she’s right, and in any case, I can’t imagine singing these verses to any other melody. What do you think?

Listen to this masterful organ rendition, with congregational singing at Saint Mark’s Church, Philadelphia.

O Zion, haste, thy mission high fulfilling,
To tell to all the world that God is Light;
That He who made all nations is not willing
One soul should perish, lost in shades of night.
Refrain.  Publish glad tidings,
Tidings of peace,
Tidings of Jesus,
Redemption and release.

Behold how many thousands still are lying,
Bound in the darksome prisonhouse of sin,
With none to tell them of the Savior's dying,
Or of the life He died for them to win.
Refrain.

Proclaim to every people, tongue, and nation
That God in Whom they live and move is love;
Tell how He stooped to save His lost creation,
And died on earth that man might live above.
Refrain.

Give of thy sons to bear the message glorious;
Give of thy wealth to speed them on their way;
Pour out thy soul for them in prayer victorious;
And all thou spendest Jesus will repay.
Refrain.

Word & Song by Anthony Esolen is an online magazine devoted to reclaiming the good, the beautiful, and the true. We publish six essays each week, on words, classic hymn, poems, films, and popular songs, as well a weekly podcast, alternately Poetry Aloud or Anthony Esolen Speaks. Please help us continue our mission to share good things every day by joining us as a free or paid subscriber.

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