Talk:John Mason (poet)

"To God the Father glory be" in Native American Christian hymnody

It would be well to incorporate the information that Mason's hymn text beginning "To God the Father glory be" is set to the tune OLD INDIAN HYMN in Thomas Commuck's Indian Melodies (1845), the first tunebook consisting of compositions by a Native American composer. Commuck's footnote to the hymn, corroborated at least in part by eighteenth-century reports, states that "The Narragansett Indians have a tradition, that the following tune was heard in the air by them, and other tribes bordering on the Atlantic coast, many years before the arrival of the whites in America; and that on their first visiting a church in Plymouth Colony, after the settlement of that place by the whites, the same tune was sung while performing divine service, and the Indians knew it as well as the whites. The tune therefore is preserved among them to this day, and is sung to the words here set." Indian Melodies (1845), p. 63 The words in question are

Glory to God the Father be,
Glory to God the Son,

Glory to God the Holy Ghost,
Glory to God alone.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hosanna, Hosanna,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hosanna, Hosanna.

My soul doth magnify the Lord,
My spirit doth rejoice
In God my Saviour, and my God:
I hear a joyful voice.
Hallelujah, etc.

I need not go abroad for joy,
I have a feast at home;
My sighs are turned into songs,
The Comforter is come.
Hallelujah, etc.

Down from above the blessed Dove,
Is come into my breast,
To witness God's eternal love,
This is my heavenly feast.

This makes me Abba, Father, cry,
With confidence of soul;
It makes me cry, My Lord, my God,
And that without control.

There is a stream that issues forth
From God's eternal throne,
And from the Lamb, a living stream,

Clear as a crystal stone.

Haruo (talk) 01:43, 22 September 2021 (UTC)