HYMN FOR PENTECOST 15 We Give thee but thine Own
- Gracia Grindal
- Sep 15
- 3 min read
Text: William W. Howe Tune: Lowell Mason, ed.
1 We give thee but thine own,
whate'er the gift may be;
all that we have is thine alone,
a trust, O Lord, from thee.
2 May we thy bounties thus
as stewards true receive,
and gladly, as thou blessest us,
to thee our first fruits give.
3 To comfort and to bless,
to find a balm for woe,
to tend the lone and fatherless
is angels' work below.
4 The captive to release,
to God the lost to bring,
to teach the way of life and peace—
it is a Christlike thing.
5 And we believe thy Word,
though dim our faith may be;
whate'er for thine we do, O Lord,
we do it unto thee.
REFLECTION
In the lesson for this Sunday Jesus commends to us a dishonest man for his understanding of the way things work. What? The lesson, however, is not to be dishonest, but to observe how shrewd the man is about life. By dishonest ways, he creates friends who will help in the future. His virtue, in Jesus’ eyes, is he knows the truth about this world and operates by that truth.
Jesus is telling us how the kingdom of heaven works and how to flourish in it. We are to invest our lives in his kingdom, not this one. The dishonest manager shows us how it works: you see where the advantage is and you then act to make it yours. His idol is money and his well-being; he worships and serves it shrewdly. He has saved himself for this life, but not the next.
So that means for us that we should lay up our treasures where they will grow for our eternal reward, not for our worldly one since it cannot go with us into eternity. We perish before our stuff does; and then it belongs to someone else. We are mere stewards of our worldly wealth, as the hymn makes clear, but our eternal wealth is ours because it is given to us by someone whose riches are fabulous and forever.
This one of the great themes of our faith—it is called the divine exchange: when we give all that we have to Christ—and that is a sin filled mess of failures and evil—and he gives all he has to us, which is redemption, life, eternal life. Quite a bargain! The goods we have are already his. But when we give our sinful heart to him, he takes it all and exchanges it for his life. “All that we have is thine alone/A trust O Lord from thee.” Praise God!
HYMN INFO
William W. How, like many of the great English hymn writers of the 19th century, was a supporter of the Oxford Society which urged a return to the Catholic heritage of the Church of England. He gained a reputation for his ministry in the crowded neighborhoods of London. He became bishop of Wakefield where he continued his scholarship and working for the improvement of the life of factory workers in west Yorkshire. During his lifetime he wrote several theological works attempting to understand the biblical account of creation in light of Darwin’s theory of evolution. He jointly edited Psalms and Hymns (1854) and Church Hymns (1871). During his time as rector in Whittington, he wrote about sixty hymns, many for children. In 1886 he published his Poems and Hymns. His poetry was not very successful, but this hymn became a must for most Protestant churches in the English speaking world, especially after the offering .
The tune is attributed to Robert Schumann and edited by Lowell Mason and Webb for their book Cantica Lauda in 1850. It was a common ploy by Mason, to use old melodies in popular music from the past and make the suitable for congregational singing. This, with its sturdy simple steps, makes it the equal of many English tunes.
LINKS
From the Christian Reformed Church hymnal
Andrew Remillard
Organ accompaniment to the tune Energy
Second Church
My hymn on the Gospel lesson
A good Christmas present for someone who likes American Lutheran History and memoirs.
Link to What a Fellowship
Amazon
Fortress Press