Lyrics: John Newton
Music: AUSTRIA arranged by Franz Joseph Haydn or ABBOT’S LEIGH by Cyril Taylor.

Girl Detective: “I did like Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken, till I learned it was set to the tune of Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles.”

I say: never let a tune with bad associations ruin a good hymn. One can almost always find an alternate tune. I can manage to sing Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken without ever visualizing a Nazi uniform, but if you can’t try this tune from the day before yesterday’s hymn, or use the more modern tune written by Cyril Taylor especially for these words called ABBOT’S LEIGH.

Glorious things of thee are spoken,
Zion, city of our God!
He, whose Word cannot be broken,
Formed thee for His own abode.
On the Rock of Ages founded,
What can shake thy sure repose?
With salvation’s walls surrounded,
Thou may’st smile at all thy foes.

See! the streams of living waters,
Springing from eternal love;
Well supply thy sons and daughters,
And all fear of want remove:
Who can faint while such a river
Ever flows their thirst t’assuage?
Grace, which like the Lord, the Giver,
Never fails from age to age.

Round each habitation hovering,
See the cloud and fire appear!
For a glory and a cov’ring
Showing that the Lord is near.
Thus deriving from our banner
Light by night and shade by day;
Safe they feed upon the manna
Which He gives them when they pray.

Blest inhabitants of Zion,
Washed in the Redeemer’s blood!
Jesus, whom their souls rely on,
Makes them kings and priests to God.
’Tis His love His people raises,
Over self to reign as kings,
And as priests, His solemn praises
Each for a thank offering brings.

Savior, if of Zion’s city,
I through grace a member am,
Let the world deride or pity,
I will glory in Thy Name.
Fading is the worldling’s pleasure,
All his boasted pomp and show;
Solid joys and lasting treasure
None but Zion’s children know.

Although this is hymn writer John Newton’s first appearance on this list, it will surely not be his last. He is most famous in the United States for another hymn which will appear in due time. In the meantime, Mr. Newton, former slave and then slave trader, was a prolific versifier. Along with poet and friend WIlliam Cowper, Newton published a collection of hymn lyrics called The Olney Hymns, named after the village where Newton was a minister for many years. Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken was one of the hymns in the collection that was written by Mr. Newton. Newton, and his friend Cowper, wrote these hymns for a weekly prayer and worship service with usually one new hymn written each week.

Newton on hymns for public worship: “They should be Hymns, not Odes, if designed for public worship, and for the use of plain people. Perspicuity, simplicity and ease, should be chiefly attended to; and the imagery and coloring of poetry, if admitted at all, should be indulged very sparingly and with great judgement.”

Sources:
Victorian Web: The Olney Hymns by John Newton.
Amazing Grace: The Story of John Newton by Al Rogers.
Hymntime: Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken.