A pastor to Henri Abraham Cesar Malan, then unconverted but soon to be one of the great leaders of the Reveil, following a sermon from the latter:
"It appears to me, sir, that you have not yet learnt that, in order to convert others, you must first be converted yourself. Your sermon was not a Christian discourse, and I sincerely hope my people didn't understand it."
(The Reveil, French for "revival" or "awakening" was the little-known awakening among French protestants in Switzerland and France beginning around 1815. Malan was a Genevan. After his conversion he preached on justification alone from Calvin's old pulpit at St. Gervais to a mixed response of grumbles and even audible laughter. The state church quickly forbade Malan from preaching on "controversial" points such as the deity of Christ and justification by faith alone. Malan built his own chapel so he could preach as he pleased. Malan spoke across Europe. Another aspect of his little-known ministry was his tune-writing. His most often sung tune is "Hendon." If you know what we usually sing to that, I'll be quite surprised.)
info paraphrased from Faith of our Fathers: Scenes from Church History
Posted by apelles at August 16, 2003 06:58 PMHey Dave,
Did a little Google research for you. 8o) Search words: hendon malan. Best result: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/m/a/l/malan_hac.htm
The hymn that cyberhymnal.org connected with Hendon is "Ask Ye What Great Things I Know." There may be others that use it as well, but this is probably the main one.
There are links to the hymn tune and more info on the tune at cyberhymnal.org (warning: they play midi versions of the songs when you arive at tune pages). 8o)
Posted by: Benjamin at August 18, 2003 09:28 AM