by badboy 10 Replies latest jw friends
THE HYMN` STAND UP ,STAND UP FOR JESUS'
While looking through a searchable database of ZWT 1877-1916,the link to which I found on a WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE CALLED` WATCHTOWER MAGAZINE'.
In one 1915/1916 article in ZWT,it metions this hymn,it is infered that Bible students invented this hymn.
Is this so?
Oh, I'm pretty sure the piracy goes the other way. My ear tells me that the WTBTS borrowed from Sousa,Disney, and Gilbert and Sullivan.
The stand up Jesus song I remember is the following, with a small modification for Sunday School, The great interest children had in this number is that we got to jump up and down.
67. STAND UP AND SHOUT IT
Stand up and shout it
if you love my Jesus,Stand up and shout itSit down and whisper if you love my Lord,
I want to know, oh, I want to know,
Do you love my Lord?
Seriously, the original lyrics and origins for "Stand up, Stand up for Jesus" http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/s/t/standufj.htm
I cannot imagine that being played in a Kingdom Hall! It's not a very Watchtowery song is it?
What a fascinating google search you sent me on! Here's the only reference I found on that database, ZWT - 1916 VOL. XXXVII AUGUST 15 NO. 16, A.D. 1916--A.M. 6044:
OBJECTORS SING, "STAND UP, STAND UP FOR JESUS!" DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL:--
We read with special delight this morning in June 1 WATCH TOWER your recapitulation of those wonderful events in the years when the Lord graciously provided "line upon line" of the basis of what we now know as the Truth . It does our hearts good to ponder over these things and examine our foundations again and find they are rock-bed ones and immovable. As we read the details we take fresh encouragement in the hope that the Lord is yet going to show further developments through the same channel. We trust so.
A new phase of experience has been entered into in this country--an experience specially trying to the younger members of the "Body," many of whom are undergoing terms of imprisonment with more or less of hard labor. Many a mother's heart is wrung with the severity with which her loved lads are treated; yet we hear from these same lads glowing accounts of the goodness and faithfulness of our Father and barely a hint of complaint, although we know they are sorely tried. One contingent (a day or two since,
::R5946 : page 255::
numbering about forty) were marched away from the camp where they had been detained pending court-martial, to prison. There were only four or five of our brethren among these, the remainder being moral objectors, and our brethren describe them as a splendid lot of fellows. Educated and professional men along with honest, hard toilers were thus thrown together, and on one point wholly sympathetic and determined. As they passed through the Camp they unitedly sang, "Stand up, stand up for Jesus!" It was almost dramatic,
"And e'en the ranks of Tuscany
Could scarce forbear to cheer."
In fact, some of the regular soldiers did cheer them and numbers, we are told, confessed admiration. Many STUDIES have been gotten out, too, among warders, jailers, constables, officers and men, as a result of contact with these few "voices in the wilderness." To see the courage and fealty exhibited by these young brethren causes us a deal of heart-searching and magnifies intensely our own failures and constant slips. While they have opportunities for service thrust on them, we seem to have a barren existence and a diminished activity. We are praying that the Lord may show His hand and thus lead us more fully than ever into the light. We are ever with you in Spirit.
Yours in the dear Lord, F. GUARD, SR.-- London.
It would seem far more likely that the Bible Students of those days had no qualms using Christendom's hymns if the moment suited. [Edited to add] OK, I read that article again, and if I am reading right, the entire contingent of conscientious objectors , five of the forty being Bible Students, sang together.
I have just realized that the hynm comes from a YMCA person.
Never the less, it is interesting to note that they menioned church hymns in their magazines.
I think it points out that the relationship between the Bible Students and contemporary religious movements were friendlier than current Witnesses could imagine. I mean, it was a fruitful time. From Wikipedia:
The Second Great Awakening in the 19th Century in the United States, propagated by Charles Finney, Lyman Beecher, Francis Asbury, and others, which also emphasized the need for personal conversion and is characterized by the rise of evangelistic revival meetings.
...
The Methodists and Baptists made enormous gains; to a lesser extent the Presbyterians gained members. Among the new denominations that were formed, and which in the 21st century still proclaim their roots in the Second Great Awakening are the Churches of Christ, their sectarian offshoot the International Churches of Christ, the Independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Latter Day Saint movement, and the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
American Bible Society - 1816 http://chi.gospelcom.net/DAILYF/2001/05/daily-05-11-2001.shtml
Mormons - 1820 http://www.religioustolerance.org/lds_hist.htm
Temperance Societies - 1826 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperance_movement
Holiness Movement - 1836 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holiness_movement
Seventh Day Adventists - 1844 http://www.adventist.org/world_church/facts_and_figures/history/index.html.en
Salvation Army - 1865 http://www.salvationarmy-georgia.org/history.htm
Azusa street - 1907 http://www.spirithome.com/histpen1.html
badboy said: Never the less, it is interesting to note that they menioned church hymns in their magazines.
When I first started reading the older Watchtowers, I found it strange that they also glommed poems from Christendom to illustrate a point or just fill out the page. Not necessarily wrong... but very strange to my latter 20th century inculcation.
The ones that praised Lord Jesus/ the Messiah would probably cause a scandal today. They'd be considered part of Babylon the Great or "of Satan" — one more reason the Bible Students/ WT could not have been chosen in 1918.
jgnat: Looks like they had plenty of healthy competition! No wonder they had to differentiate themselves with weird doctrines. Probably the major difference is that the other movements didn't fall to a hostile takeover over by a corrupt lawyer.
~Sue
In the old songbook there was a song with exactly the same melody as a christmas carol. Before the LP and cassettes with the KMs came, there cong. were accompanied by live music by some of the members that knew how to play an instrument. E.g. piano and violin. One old man, the violin player, totally refused to play this song, because _he_ would definitely not play any christmas carol :-)
In the newest songbook there is a song which beginning is exactly the same as that of a popular Norwegian childrens' song. At least the first ten (I think) notes of the first line, and the same on the second line are the same. Only the last four notes on each line are different.
I remember more than one time, almost the whole cong. singing the first line of this song, and continue in the melody of the childrens' song :-D
So funny, and almost the whole cong. laughed though the rest of the song, trying to concentrate on singing the right melody.
I don't have my songbook here at the moment, so I can't tell which Kingdom Melody it is. But the childrens' song, "I bakvendtland" by Alf Prøysen, you can listen to here: http://www.filesend.net/download.php?f=875b75eae368a68f6db9b99fc0a07a59
In english the name of the song is "in the back-to-front country" or something. Katia Cardinal has done a spanish version: "En reverslandia"
kifoy
