Shall crime bring crime forever,
Strength aiding still the strong?
Is it thy will, O Father,
That man shall toil for wrong?
No! say Thy mountains: No! Thy skies;
Man's clouded sun shall brightly rise.
And songs be heard instead of sighs:
God save the people!
(From: Methodist Hymn Book, 909, verse 2)
Some of us discovered this hymn in 1982, when I lived above Grimesthorpe Methodist Centre in Sheffield. Elliott was known as the corn law rhymer and his statue is in Weston Park in Sheffield. The house where he lived is marked with a blue plaque in Upperthorpe, Sheffield. The members of the Grimesthorpe Methodist Centre, who were in their late eighties, told us they were not allowed to sing this when they were young because it's telling God off! More likely it was frowned upon because it was written in the nineteenth century soon after the National Anthem. When wilt thou save the people? enjoyed a renaissance in the musical Godspell in 1970. It is usually sung to Commonwealth.
I still believe this hymn should be sung more often. It is a miracle it found its way into the hymn book in the first place and it is significant it is not in the current one. The lyrics might be seen as sexist but I hope this can be excused this one time. We should ask ourselves why Christians are so reluctant to sing revolutionary songs these days. We seem to have given up on anything other than anodyne worship songs about nothing real.
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