Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Does any one recall the rather doleful hymn " Lord thou hast brought us to our Journey's end" always sung at the Leaving Service?
On the first Chapel service of term the hymn "Lead us heavenly father lead us" was sung.

I still have incidentally a copy of the Christ's Hospital Psalter published at Easter 1931. The co-authors were Dr. C.S. Lang, H.L.O.Flecker and E.D.D. who may have been the School Chaplain at the time

Lord, thou hast brought us to our journey's end:
Once more to thee our evening prayers ascend;
Once more we stand to praise thee for the past;
Grant prayer and praise be honest at the last.

For all the joys which thou hast deigned to share,
For all the pains which thou hast helped to bear.
For all our friends, in life and death the same,
We thank thee, Lord, and praise thy glorious name.

If from thy paths, by chastening undismayed,
If, for thy gifts ungrateful, we have strayed,
If in thy house our prayers were faint and few,
Forgive, O Lord, and build our hearts anew.

If we have learnt to feel our neighbour's need,
To fight for truth in thought and word and deed,
If these be lessons which the years have taught,
Then stablish, Lord, what thou in us hast wrought.

So be our rest thy palaces most fair,
Not built with hands, whose stones thy praise declare:
Where war is not, and all thy sons are free,
Where thou art known, and all is known in thee.


C.A.Alington

Strangely, this is a funeral hymn, though the good old internet says it is OFTEN used in schools at the LAST service of term !

There is a YouTube version, if anyone wants reminding.

Certainly MUCH too doleful for my funeral service, though I don't envisage that for many years yet !

still sung at Leavers service..... cue tears...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kws0Gh683I

and let it play to about 9 minutes

I seem to remember there was also a special setting to the 23rd Psalm which was used for the Leaving Service.

Meanwhile, as you have your hymnbooks out, has anyone the CH Supplement to the English Hymnal? There was a Remembrance Day hymn which I recall from 1946 when I was in the Prep and we attended the service in the gallery. A part went:

.. For all the lives made dark, the hearts grown sore,
For all the homes where men come back no more,
Thy mercy and thy healing we implore. ..

It was set in triplets like these - has anyone the complete lyric? Unusually since it seems to pick up on any piece of verse, Google doesn't know this one.

postwarblue wrote:I seem to remember there was also a special setting to the 23rd Psalm which was used for the Leaving Service.

Meanwhile, as you have your hymnbooks out, has anyone the CH Supplement to the English Hymnal? There was a Remembrance Day hymn which I recall from 1946 when I was in the Prep and we attended the service in the gallery. A part went:

.. For all the lives made dark, the hearts grown sore,
For all the homes where men come back no more,
Thy mercy and thy healing we implore. ..

It was set in triplets like these - has anyone the complete lyric? Unusually since it seems to pick up on any piece of verse, Google doesn't know this one.

Yes. The supplement was published in December 1933.
Your hymn is no 63,

"O God all- loving, God of Justice dread,
Whose wrath about the anguish'd world is spread,
Who seest by every land and sea our dead,"

There are 10 verses. I will get my secretary to post them in due course.
It was written by Dr Cyril Norwood, Master of Marlborough. Tune - Metrical Litany by Noel Ponsoby

"On the first Chapel service of term the hymn "Lead us heavenly father lead us" was sung."

Indeed it was, usually very badly. And when I hear it now, I still get a shudder, as I do when I hear the psalm which was sung on the same occasion, Psalm 121, "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help."

Am I wrong in thinking that, conversely, we sang a hymn at the start of every term which began with 'Lord receive us with thy blessing................'?

I think that it was "Lord behold us with thy blessing" at the start of term and "Lord dismiss us ..............." at the end.

'Lord receive (or behold?) us with thy blessing, once again assembled here......' at the start of each term. Interesting if it was the same at Horsham as at Hertford. Wonder if it is still used.................

That slur-ry plainsong tune to "Lord Thou Hast Brought Us To Our Journey's End" is called "Christe Redemptor Omnium," and is said to be from the Sarum Antiphoner.

It is given in full in "The Public School Hymnbook With Tunes," which the CH Choir used to use, and which can still be found in some old bookshops (how I got mine).

I used especially to like the slurs on "nôt built... wîth hands..." which sounded magnificent in whole-school-unison, as was : )

Dr Peter Lansley
Prep A, Lamb B 57-66

There was a note in the hymn-book that if this hymn were sung to the alternative tune, 'the slurs should be ignored'.
I liked the ambiguity of this phrase, like 'turning the other cheek'.

postwarblue wrote:I seem to remember there was also a special setting to the 23rd Psalm which was used for the Leaving Service.

To my disgrace I had to check which is Psalm 23 and found the King James version (which I did very clearly remember).

That made me think of a visit I made about 25 years ago to HM The Queen Mother's chapel at the White House where we were told that she did not use the King James versions but one written some years later. I wonder if HM follows her mother in private.

As far as I know, the Psalms (incl. 23) in the psalter follow the translation in the Book of Common Prayer, which is different from the one in the King James Version.

KJV:

[1] The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
[2] He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
[3] He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
[4] Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
[5] Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
[6] Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

BCP:
1. THE Lord is my shepherd : therefore can I lack nothing.
2. He shall feed me in a green pasture : and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort.
3. He shall convert my soul : and bring me forth in the paths of righteousness, for his Name's sake.
4. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil : for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff comfort me.
5. Thou shalt prepare a table before me against them that trouble me : thou hast anointed my head with oil, and my cup shall be full.
6. But thy loving-kindness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life : and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

I certainly only remember the KJV being used

As far as I'm aware, I don't recall ever hearing the updated one used. Then again, my visits to churches recently have only been for marriages, christenings and departures from this mortal coil.