What does the Lord require

Written by Albert Bayly in Jan 1949, based on the book of Micah and included in his collection Rejoice, O people in 1951, this hymn preceded by a decade or so the so- called ‘hymn explosion’ which marked the latter part of the 20th c. Robin Leaver of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, USA, describes it as ‘a marvellous text which reflects the rediscovery of biblical doctrine made in the 1930s and 40s by many theologians. It also picks up the prophet’s message in a contemporary way, underlining the hypocrisy of a faith that does not work itself out in action. And when the text is joined with Erik Routley’s rugged but very appropriate tune SHARPTHORNE, it is one of the few, very best, classic hymns of the 20th century.’ David Dale says ‘the message is simple but full of force and urgency (conveyed by the short lines’ (Rejoice O People, 2004, pxx); [AB] ‘was aware that society needed the vision of Micah, and that in the midtwentieth century that vision was not being heeded’.

In the 1951 book this hymn took its place in a series of texts based on the prophetic books of Scripture from Isaiah to Malachi. Other featured hymns have also made their mark, but none of those on the prophets has made such an impact as this. It is rooted in Micah 6:6–8; the author’s approach to the Hebrew prophets, as here, was to view them ‘in the light of the climax and fulfilment of the Old Testament revelation in the coming of Christ.’ In 1967 the author slightly revised it to remove archaic pronouns and verb forms (‘What doth the Lord require’, etc), and the new version appeared as the 99th of 100 Hymns for Today in 1969. Since then it has been included in many hymnals worldwide, an odd exception being Rejoice and Sing, the 1991 URC book. In 1982 a words-only version of the original collection was printed as Rejoice Together. In Praise! the original stz 3 is omitted; this read, ‘Masters of wealth and trade;/ all you for whom men toil,/ think not to win God’s aid/ if lies your commerce soil …’ Another hymn drawing partly on Micah 6:8 is Martin Leckebusch’s 926.

Erik Routley’s tune is a revised form of TYES CROSS, which he provided for the words in 1950 when the author was assembling his texts for publication. Sir John Dykes Bower wrote to Dr Routley to point out a ‘borrowed’ phrase (from LOVE UNKNOWN, 403) in the tune; as a result the composer ‘worked on’ his tune and in effect produced a new one, ‘a sort of a paraphrase [of it] in the minor key’, published first in 100H. Both are named from hamlets in the composer’s native Sussex, on the edge of Ashdown Forest.

b Bexhill, E Sussex 1901, d Chichester, W Sussex 1984. He was received into membership of the local Congregational Church at 13; attended Hastings Grammar Sch but left early to train as a shipwright at Portsmouth’s Royal Dockyard Sch. When the family moved to nearby Waterlooville he attended the Baptist ch there with them. But he gained an external BA in 1924 with a view to the Congregational ministry, to which he was ordained at Whitley Bay nr Tynemouth in 1929 following a course at Mansfield Coll Oxford—about which he wrote several poems. By this time he had moved decisively to a Christian pacifist position following disillusion with the 1914–18 war. In 1938 he moved to Morpeth, Northumberland, joining the Red Cross and First Aid unit when war was declared in 1939. In 1946 he was called to a pastorate at Burnley, Lancs (where he wrote many hymns and a carol, ‘If Christ were born in Burnley’); after being rejected for overseas service, he then ministered in Swanland, Humberside; Eccleston, Lancs; and from 1962 in Thaxted, Essex, retiring to Chelmsford in 1972. Fascinated as a young man by astronomy, he became a pioneer in relating scientific advances such as space exploration to expressions of praise in hymns, and was one of the few hymn-writers beginning his work in ‘thou’ language who revised his texts to a more contemporary idiom; as such he has been called not only a forerunner and ‘pioneer…of the renaissance of English-language hymnwriting which began in 1960s Britain’ (Brian Wren) but also (at least in the UK) ‘the last of the old and the first of the new’. He sought the advice of Erik Routley, who as well as suggesting tunes was one of some 30 composers to provide new ones for his texts. Small home-made words-only booklets of ‘hymns and verse’ were issued in 1950 (Rejoice, O People), 1967 (Again I say Rejoice), 1971 (Rejoice Always), 1977 (Rejoice in God) and 1982 (Rejoice Together, which included hymns about all the OT writing prophets). 12 of his texts featured in a 95- hymn supplement prepared by Rodborough Tabernacle Congregational Ch nr Stroud, Glos. His life and work featured in the 2nd of Bernard Braley’s 3 studies Hymnwriters 2 (1989). A posthumous collection with introduction and notes by David Dale was published in 2004, reverting to the original title Rejoice, O People. This was named after his first text (‘A Hymn of the World-Wide Church’), written in 1945 for the 150th anniversary of the London Missionary Society and featured in major hymnals from 1951 (BBC Hymn Book and Congregational Praise) onwards. It is one of his 5 hymns in the Baptist supplement Praise for Today (1974), 3 of which were retained for the 1991 Baptist Praise and Worship. In 1981 he wrote (to the Anglican editor Geoffrey Whitehead) ‘I do not require any personal fee for the use of my hymns’. He loved walking and was committed to a simple life-style, disarmament and international, inter-church friendship; he was a keen supporter and an Hon Vice-President of the Hymn Society, whose conference at Chichester he had enjoyed in the days immediately preceding his sudden death. Nos.818, 934.