Music for Ukraine - Day 22

In a way, a song titled “Substance” might seem removed from helping us think constructively about the war in Ukraine. But we know that the answer to that situation, as to every suggestion of inharmony, is our “everlasting rock… which naught beholds of discord, pain or strife.” Also, I think it’s especially appropriate to note that we are all in the “glorious sonship of the free.”

We recognize the name John Randall Dunn because he was a Christian Science practitioner, teacher, lecturer and editor of our periodicals. Two of his poems are in our Hymnal as numbers 310, 374 and 375, and his contributions to our periodicals ranged from 1908 through the late 1940s. This particular poem was in the June 1, 1910 issue of the Sentinel.

Dick Frantzreb

http://www.vocal-works.com/sounds/Solo_bank/190711CG.mp3
(Left-click to play or right-click to download)

Substance
Words by John Randall Dunn; music by William John Hall

Thou everlasting rock, unchanging, firm
That standest midst the storm and tide of years,
Unmoved by shifting sands, of theories,
Unaltered by men’s concepts, or man’s fears.

O Thou eternal substance,
Thou who art the same today, forever, endless life,
Grant us to know that mind immutable,
Which naught beholds of discord, pain, or strife.

Grant us, O Lord, to know the real, the true,
To seek that glorious sonship of the free,
Where closed to dreams, of changing joy and woe,
Our wakened eyes behold the light and Thee.

Copyright 1916 by The Arthur P. Schmidt Co.

Accompaniment by Tom Barr

I can send copies of this music in high or low as a PDF by e-mail.