Lord, you were rich beyond all splendour

Some of the church’s most fluent songs have been born in scenes of much struggle and hardship; perhaps this is no surprise in view of the ‘stable floor’ events celebrated here. This is true of much of the verse of Frank Houghton, written during his often dangerous and laborious travels through rural and mountainous areas of W China, serving with what was then the China Inland Mission and later became the Overseas Missionary Fellowship or OMF International. This is the best known of the small handful of his poems which have been set as hymns; finalised in Szechwan in 1934, its key ideas having been expressed in his leading article in China’s Millions for Dec 1933. Its first hymnal appearance was in Christian Praise (1957), through which it became known first to generations of students. The text clearly springs from 2 Corinthians 8:9, and its original form was Thou who wast rich; a revision was made with due permission (from Bishop Houghton’s widow) and some hesitation (by the editors) for HTC. The main changes replace ‘Thou’ with ‘Lord’ in line 1, and have the first main verb in line 2 rather than line 1; 3.4 is then altered from ‘make us what thou wouldst have us be’ (cf Hebrews 13:21, NEB) to the present text, rhyming with a final ‘you’. The revision proved less of a problem than was feared, although Praise! reverts to the original phrasing in 1.3, where the Jubilate version rashly omitted the manger.

The French tune has become an immediate partner to the words, though unsettled as to its name. The arrangement here is the anonymous one in Hymns of Faith (1964) rather than C H Kitson’s, as stated in the 1st Full Music edn; the melody is known variously as FRAGRANCE or BERGERS. The former name sounds more appropriate to English ears than the line which suggested it, ‘Quelle est cette odeur agréable’. John Gay used the tune in The Beggar’s Opera in 1728, which established the melody in Britain without dictating the setting in which it may be effectively sung. Prior to the arrival of this hymn, it was known as a hymn tune from 1928 for Steuart Wilson’s Praise we the Lord who made all beauty.

b Stafford, Staffs 1894, d Pembury, nr Tunbridge Wells, Kent 1972. He was writing both sacred and comic verse by the age of 13; at 17, with his brother Alfred (‘Tim’), he had a dramatic escape from drowning in the sea at Boscombe, both boys being dragged ashore unconscious; cf the entry for W W How. Univ of London (BA 1913); London Coll of Divinity from 1914; ordained (CofE) 1917. He was a curate in Everton, Liverpool (1917–19), and at All Saints’ Preston (1919–20), where he eagerly devoured the biography of Hudson Taylor. In 1920 he sailed for China to serve with the CIM. He worked successively at Liangshan, Suiting and Paoning in W China before becoming the mission’s Education Sec, 1928–36. From 1937 to 1940 he was Bishop of E Szechwan, then General Director of CIM until 1951, when the communist regime began to expel all non-Chinese Christian workers. Weakened by the many burdens he had carried in times of invasion, civil war, persecution and martyrdom, he reluctantly stepped down and returned to England to be Vicar of New Milverton, nr Leamington Spa, Warwicks (1953–60) and of St Peter’s Drayton, nr Banbury, Oxon (1960–63). His latter years were spent at Cornford House, the OMF retirement home at Pembury.

Houghton also wrote several books about China, a biography of Amy Carmichael (qv) in 1953, and The Fire Burns On (1956). He first jotted down many of his verses, in note form for poems, as he travelled by difficult or dangerous tracks through the hills of W China; but their rhymes, rhythms, syntax and biblical content are meticulously crafted. He often quoted James Denney, ‘No-one can give the impression [at the same time] that he is clever and that Christ is mighty to save’. Some texts have remained as verse to be read, while several have been used or adapted as hymns; he also composed tunes for some of his single-stz verses or ‘choruses’. Christian Praise (1957) includes 4 of his texts and Hymns of Faith (1964) 3; the 1965 Anglican Hymn Book, on whose committee he served, has 5, while GH (1975) has 8. Many of his hymns have a missionary theme; not surprisingly, like James Seddon’s (qv) they are found very largely in evangelical books. Together with other poems, they were collected in Faith Triumphant (OMF, 1973); 100 items in all. Nos.366, 618.