Welcome!  Hymns have been and continue to be a real source of inspiration to me.  My desire in this blog is to share special hymns with my readers hoping that the words will minister to them, especially in times of great personal need.  If one of these hymns ministers to you, please take time to leave a comment so that I know that my blog is helping others as much as it helps me. Sometimes I will also provide a link where you can go to hear the hymn played.  So, please join me here each week and sing along as we praise God together.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

WONDERFUL NAME HE BEARS

I've mentioned here before how much I love the beautiful music that is played overnight on Fridays and Saturdays by our local Christian radio station. Often I wake early in the morning and meditate on the words of this special music. But there is one problem. Early Saturday morning the music is interrupted by a 30 minute program that I really don't care for. Much of it is very dull preaching, often by a monotone speaker who is obviously reading his message. But before the speaker they often have a quartet sing an old hymn, usually one that I haven't heard in many years. Sometimes it is one that I used to sing, years ago, with The Gospel Four quartet. Yesterday that happened and they sang my choice for this week. I found myself singing along even though I haven't heard the words for years. I decided to get up and I went to my computer to find the words before I forgot them. After much searching, I was successful in finding the words. But I couldn't find anything about the background of the hymn, except for some information about the writer, Alfred H. Ackley, 1887-1960. He was born in Pennsylvania and showed great promise as a child. His musician-father personally tutored him before sending him to New York City to study music. From there, it was on to the Royal Academy of Music in London. Alfred then returned to the States to attend Westminster Seminary in Maryland, and he was ordained into the Presbyterian ministry in 1914. After pastoring a church in his home state of Pennsylvania, Alfred was called to a congregation in California where he wrote his most famous hymn, "He Lives". But all I could find about this particular hymn is that it was copyrighted in 1938 by The Rodehaver Company. And I also can't even find any sources where you can go to listen to it. (Come and see me and I'll try to sing it for you.) But, hopefully, the words will still minister to you. It shares important things about the life of Christ, and then, like most old hymns, it ends with a stirring verse about the future. And that is my favorite verse of this hymn.

Wonderful birth, to a manger he came,
Made in the likeness of man, to proclaim
God's boundless love for a world sick with sin,
Pleading for sinners to let him come in.
Wonderful name he bears,
Wonderful crown he wears,
Wonderful blessings his triumphs afford;
Wonderful Calvary,
Wonderful grace for me,
Wonderful love of my wonderful Lord.

Wonderful life, full of service so free,
Friend to the poor and the needy was he;
Unfailing goodness on all he bestowed,
Undying faith in the vilest he showed.
Wonderful name he bears,
Wonderful crown he wears,
Wonderful blessings his triumphs afford;
Wonderful Calvary,
Wonderful grace for me,
Wonderful love of my wonderful Lord.

Wonderful death, for it meant not defeat,
Calvary made his great mission complete,
Wrought our redemption, and when he arose,
Banished for ever the last of our foes.
Wonderful name he bears,
Wonderful crown he wears,
Wonderful blessings his triumphs afford;
Wonderful Calvary,
Wonderful grace for me,
Wonderful love of my wonderful Lord.

Wonderful hope, he is coming again,
Coming as king o'er the nations to reign;
Glorious promise, his word cannot fail,
His righteous kingdom at last must prevail!
Wonderful name he bears,
Wonderful crown he wears,
Wonderful blessings his triumphs afford;
Wonderful Calvary,
Wonderful grace for me,
Wonderful love of my wonderful Lord.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi. I have been singing this particular hymn since I was a little girl. My aunt actually paid me to sing it at a Easter program because I was so scared to sing in front of people. Today I am almost 50 and my 11 year old neice wants to learn the words so that she can sing it in her church. You are so right, the words are very very touching. I know your blog is old, but I found it today and it was right on time.

John c Cochrane said...

I remember singing this hymn in sunday school way back in the late fifties and early sixties and have never forgotten it. The sunday school was in the town of Sawtell NSW Australia run by the late Mr Tom E Towel. A wonderful hymn of praise to our wonderful Lord.

paintman said...

Remember singing this in the church I attended after first being saved. A link to a recording (not from that church) is below:
http://media.sermonindex.net/7/SID7567.mp3

Mil said...

12-11-11 Thank you, great article! A similar thing happened to me--college quartet-- memorized the song. It was always meaningful to me. Was a minsiter of music for
18 years. Never forgot the song; seems to have the entire gospel message. Today I decided to write a blog and later found yours. Here's mine, 36 of them, with Old Ruggesd Cross, CWM RHONDDA, and maybe others...Like you,"come see me and I'll sing it for you." My post:
www.milmoore.blogspot.com
Keep singing friend.
Mil

Joyce said...

this hymn popped into my head today and found your blog - thanks

Unknown said...

My hubby just gave me this song now to learn for Solo rendition in church next Sunday,he only sang it from memory and am in love with it already!.....come on Sunday come quickly....thanks PAINTMAN i ve been listening to it for the past hour!

M1-107 said...

My wife and I have been singing this "wonderful" hymn for over 40 years. It is full of doctrine, which is why no one sings it anymore to the Loadicean age church in which we are now living. Everyone wants to be entertained by CCM, and want their best life NOW. For the true Christian however, the best is yet to come! :-)

George Weitemeyer said...

Hi Barry,
Wonderful name he buries his song that's been on my mind for a few days now. Are you transcribe what I could remember the chorus is there someway I can send you a copy of that?

George Weitemeyer said...

Sorry about the mistakes in my typing there. I was using talk to type and it fouled everything up for me. Hopefully you can decipher that message and figure out what I wanted to say. Next time I'll try and proofread it ahead of time.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, George, but I am not able to decipher your message so I don't understand what you are asking.

George Weitemeyer said...

Okay, I see one of the things that went wrong... Typing on my iPad, the font was so small, I couldn't see it and ASSUMED that it said what I wanted to say.
Sorry.
I did a transcription - I think that's what you call it - of the chorus. I've been singing the chorus for several days and I'm pretty sure that I have it correct... My problem is that I don't recall the melody line for the verses.
A-N-D...
I posted the chorus on my Facebook page.
After I finish this post, I'm planning on changing the chorus posting to let anyone see it. Give me a couple hours, and look up George Weitemeyer on Facebook, and do a search for the song title.
Then please let me know if I did it correctly.

Anonymous said...

Looks good, except I think the second line ends with a G and not the E that you have. Otherwise it is how I remember it.

George Weitemeyer said...

Hello "Anonymous",
I'm so accustomed to seeing responses posted on Facebook, that it took until this morning to look back here. Thanks for the input on the chorus.

I just posted a guess as to what the verse melody sounds like (over on Facebook).

When you get a chance, please check it out, too.

I was raised with a hymnal called "Choice Hymns of the Faith" but unfortunately I didn't keep my boxes of old music. Somewhere along the list of my many moves, I lost or gave away too much music.

Elaine said...

Heard this for the first time at our evening service on Sunday last.
So blessed, Wonderful Calvary, Wonderful Grace for me,
Wonderful Love of my Wonderful Lord.

Anonymous said...

Could you afford a Youtube link regarding this nice song? Thank you.

davisokoth said...

Just found this blog. Been looking for these wonderful words for so long...

Kathryn said...

As I was having my ‘time with God’ this morning, the phrase - wonderful name He bears and a bit of the tune popped into my mind. I think we used to sing this song 40 odd years ago. I had to look it up! What an amazing hymn, such truth and power. I recall the chorus tune but not the verses, will have to listen. Wonderful name He bears, wonderful crown He wears, wonderful love of our Wonderful Lord! Amen and Amen!
Thanks for posting the history - these songs all all recorded for us to sing into eternity!
Blessing
Kathryn

Unknown said...

The words to this song, and many other wonderful hymns can be found in the Redemption Hymnal hymn book. Still in print.
You can get it on Amazon.
You can also buy the Redemption Hymnal music book.
I've had my mother's original books for many years. Spirit filled songs that never grow 'old'.