{"id":18984,"date":"2012-02-13T12:00:09","date_gmt":"2012-02-13T17:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=18984"},"modified":"2012-02-13T00:40:15","modified_gmt":"2012-02-13T05:40:15","slug":"literary-bmgd-8-twas-on-that-dark-that-solemn-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2012\/02\/literary-bmgd-8-twas-on-that-dark-that-solemn-night\/","title":{"rendered":"Literary BMGD #8: Twas on that dark, that solemn night"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Manchester Hymnal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Active Mormons hear poetry about the atonement each Sunday in the sacrament hymn, so finding a poem to go with Jacob’s discourse on the atonement in 2 Nephi 9 isn’t too much of a burden. The hard part is finding something that isn’t already well known and is unique to Mormonism, which I’ve generally tried to do in this series.<\/p>\n

There are 28 sacrament hymns in the current hymnal, most of which are probably familiar. However, there have been a number of other sacrament hymns that are no longer in our current hymnal. Most of those are not by Mormons. And, while I have not been able to identify the author of this hymn, I have so far only found it in Mormon hymnals, starting with the Manchester Hymnal put together by Brigham Young, John Taylor and Parley P. Pratt in 1840.<\/p>\n

As far as I can tell, it was eliminated from LDS Hymnals in the early 20th century, but I don’t know why. It feels to me a little more graphic than other sacrament hymns, but I haven’t read it in comparison to them, so I can’t exactly say. In addition, some of the imagery seems more protestant than we have in other hymns — the image of meeting at the table, and calling the sacrament the “marriage-supper of the Lamb” are unusual in LDS symbolism, in my experience.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1. ‘Twas on that dark, that solemn night,
\nWhen powers of death and hell arose,
\nAgainst the Son, e’en God’s delight,
\nAnd friends betrayed him to his foes:<\/p>\n

2. Before the mournful scene began,
\nHe took the bread, and blessed, and brake;
\nWhat love through all his actions ran!
\nWhat wondrous words of grace he spake!<\/p>\n

3. “This is my body broke for sin,
\nReceive and eat the living food:”
\nThen took the cup, and blessed the wine,
\n“Tis the new cov’nant of my blood.”<\/p>\n

4. For us his flesh with nails was torn,
\nHe bore the scourge, he felt the thorn;
\nAnd justice poured upon his head,
\nIts heavy vengeance in our stead.<\/p>\n

5. For us his precious blood was spilt,
\nTo purchase pardon for our guilt:
\nWhen for our sins, he suffering dies,
\nAnd gave his life a sacrifice.<\/p>\n

6. “Do this” he cried, “till time shall end,
\nIn memory of your dying friend;
\nMeet at my table, and record
\nThe love of your departed Lord.”<\/p>\n

7. Jesus, thy feast we celebrate,
\nWe show thy death, we sing thy name,
\nTill thou return, and we shall eat
\nThe marriage-supper of the Lamb.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, there are also at least 28 other sacrament hymns that include imagery that speaks of the atonement. I’m sure there are also many more recent poems (undoubtedly some that aren’t hymns at all) that use this imagery.<\/p>\n

Still, I would have thought there would be more than I found — it almost makes me wonder if the subject of the atonement is so intimidating that artists shy away from it. If true, I have to admit that I understand that feeling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Active Mormons hear poetry about the atonement each Sunday in the sacrament hymn, so finding a poem to go with Jacob’s discourse on the atonement in 2 Nephi 9 isn’t too much of a burden. The hard part is finding something that isn’t already well known and is unique to Mormonism, which I’ve generally tried to do in this series. There are 28 sacrament hymns in the current hymnal, most of which are probably familiar. However, there have been a number of other sacrament hymns that are no longer in our current hymnal. Most of those are not by Mormons. And, while I have not been able to identify the author of this hymn, I have so far only found it in Mormon hymnals, starting with the Manchester Hymnal put together by Brigham Young, John Taylor and Parley P. Pratt in 1840.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":18985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-and-poetry","category-sunday-school-lesson-book-of-mormon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/ManchesterHymnal.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18984"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27978,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18984\/revisions\/27978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}