Higher than the hills

Though firmly rooted in the 20th c, this represents an older generation of what were then called ‘choruses’. Norman Clayton’s song, with his own tune HIGHER THAN THE HILLS, was included in Bk 3 of CSSM Choruses (later Scripture Union Choruses) in 1939, and presumably written in the mid-to-late 1930s, although the copyright date is 1943. It is not the refrain of a longer composition, as are many items in Bk 1, but a short song complete in itself. No Scripture text is attached, but it is reminiscent of lines in Psalm 36 and other Psalms. More recently it has featured in other children’s and youth books and in CH, 2004 edn. This arrangement was made for Praise! by Linda Mawson.

b Brooklyn, NY, USA 1903, d 1992. A Baptist who learned the organ (from the age of a 12, a pump-organ) and played in churches for over 50 years. His first church was S Brooklyn Gospel Ch where he also played the trumpet; his first job was on a dairy farm, followed by several years in a New York city office. He then worked in his father’s construction business, and during the depression with a commercial bakery. In the early 1940s Jack Wyrtzen invited him to be organist for New York city’s ‘Word of Life’ rallies, and he remained on Wyrtzen’s staff team for some 15 further years as organist, vibraphonist, director of the inquiry room, and radio evangelist. Between 1945 and 1959 he published some 30 of his own songbooks, and when the company merged with the Rodeheaver business he joined them as writer/editor. As well as the song/chorus included here, another popular composition from 1943 which appears in several books including Hymns of Faith (1964), Youth Praise (1966), and the MP series, is Jesus my Lord will love me for ever (Now I belong to Jesus). Some of his shorter compositions feature in CSSM/ Scripture Union Choruses. No.423.