Yesterday I completed my hymnbook "In This Fair Morning", with about 40 hymns, songs and poems. This is a self-published project, housed in a three-ring binder. The cost of the materials for each copy is nearly $7, but I'm shipping it at no charge to those who request it. The next step: recording about 10 of these songs (with a little help from my friends), and making them available to you.
Here's the Preface to the hymnbook:
"Thanks for your interest in new hymns and songs for Christian worship. This is my second collection of such hymns and songs. Most of this material has been posted on the “New Hymns” blog (www.wattswesley.blogspot.com).
My aim is to provide music that is usable and useful to Christians and churches everywhere. Please contact me (caedmullen@gmail.com) if I can assist you with alternate versions of this material. You may need a song in a higher or lower key, and this can easily be provided.
These songs (and several hundred others) have been written and used in four local churches over the past 25 years. Posting them on the “New Hymns” blog has provided a great opportunity to edit and refine older songs, to “blow off the dust” in hopes that one or two of them might find wider circulation.
Isaac Watts (1674-1748) was one of the greatest of English hymn writers. He wrote 750 hymns, and (after 260 years) less than 10 of them are in wide-spread use. Joy to the World has found its way into the pantheon of well-known Christmas carols.
Charles Wesley (1707-1788) was one of the most prodigious of hymn writers. Incredibly, he wrote about 8000 hymns, yet only a handful are commonly sung today. His hymns Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and Christ the Lord is Risen Today are sung by Christians in many languages around the world.
I am a mere tinkerer with words compared to these masters, yet I aspire to join hundreds of others who have followed in their pathway. If hymn writers hope that one or two of their songs might find some enduring use, it makes sense to write many songs, and to disseminate them as widely as possible. The internet makes it possible to broadcast material around the world. But I must still find the motivation (almost every day) to take up the pen and write.
So I rise early most mornings, and write while my mind and body are fresh and strong. This is a joy for me, and a discipline. Right now I’m making my way through the Psalms, and God is doing His work in me as I wrestle with His Word, phrase by phrase. It’s a powerful devotional exercise!
Again, let me know how I may assist you. Please don’t hesitate to request a new hymn or song for a specific occasion or use. I want to be available to the Lord and to His “faithful, common saints, That motley blood-bought band.”
Rich blessings in Jesus Christ,
Gary Hicks
Frederick, Maryland, USA
November 24, 2010"
