Images of Sin and Salvation

Introduction

Sacred Throne is a hymn in The Sacred Harp, 1991 edition that appears on page 569b. Since electronic records have been kept since 1995, Sacred Throne has consistently been one of the most popular songs led at Sacred Harp singings and conventions; it's consistently a "top-40" choice, and 29th (of 557) overall. It was added to the Denson Revision of The Sacred Harp in 1966. The original tune was arranged by Hugh Wilson, in 1825 from a traditional Scottish song. The tune is called Avon in the Cooper Book and often called Martyrdom; the words most commonly sung to this tune are perhaps Isaac Watts's Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed? According to Makers of the Sacred Harp, the alto and treble parts in the 1991 edition are by Hugh McGraw. Interestingly, Elmer Kitchens arranged this tune for his Songs of Zion. Kitchens was on the music committee for the 1966 edition.

But it is with the text we will be more concerned today. The poetry is attributed to John Kent, originally appearing in his Original Gospel Hymns in 1803. Kent was strongly influenced by the teachings of John Calvin and his successors. His hymns have been most popular by similarly minded people in the United States, particularly Primitive Baptists. There are 51 of his poems in the current edition of Gadby’s Selection, used largely by some Calvinist Baptist groups, but his poetry isn’t used much in the hymn books of other Christian strains. Kent worked full-time as a shipbuilder in the dockyards of Devonport, in the South West of England, near Plymouth. We’ll notice a lot of water imagery in the text. In the introduction to the ninth edition, a man named Thomas Hardy (not the famous author) wrote: "The work bears marks of a gifted, but unlettered mind," which is not the strongest praise one could give for someone's poetry. And the text we have is confusing for a number of reasons, which I will get into.

Raising the questions

The images and references in the text may be somewhat obscure to a 21st century singer. It might raise a number of questions. Among the questions that might be raised are:

• Why is there a river of blood?

• Why does it come from under a throne?

• "Waft" seems like the wrong word.

• Why does salvation come to man and man's traitors and foes? Who are they?

• "Make away" seems ungrammatical; what is going on?

• Who is Mary? What were her stains?

• Who is Manasseh? What were his stains?

We'll get to these, but I think it's important to understand the poem in its general Christian context.

The Christian story

The Sacred Harp is a Christian book, but its songs are sung by all kinds of people, and I don't want to assume that you are a Christian, or know the outline of the Christian story. However, to understand this song better, it would be a good idea to rehearse that story in a shortened form, especially as it would be understood by the kinds of Christians from whom this poetry and much of the poetry in The Sacred Harp is written.

We could take years to discuss the Christian story behind Sacred Throne, and, to be honest, I’ve tried several times to condense the story for this class. This is my latest attempt.

We start out with a most basic fact about how things are: there is one God, who created all things good. We look around at the world, and we see the wonder of God’s handicraft—however it all came to be, we live in a universe of wonders. God did this out of love and out of God’s essential goodness. God also created humanity in God’s own image, that is, as creatures who themselves are creators, who themselves are capable of intelligent action, who themselves are capable to good acts.

Sadly, our first parents, rather than choosing good, chose to turn away from God. Since God is good and what is good comes out God’s being, the natural consequences of turning away from God was that things turned out badly for our first parents and for us. We are subject to death, decay, and harm from ourselves and one another. As much as the world is full of wonderful things, we also see the devastation wrought by human beings, on each other, on the created world and on ourselves.

But even before humanity turned away from God, God planned to amend things. God had already decided to become a human being to save us from our sins, that is, our turning away from God. He came as Jesus, who was like us in every way, except without sin. Jesus came, in the words of an old theologian, to recreate the universe. Jesus came to show us how to live, but also to take on the natural consequences that were our due: He suffered a cruel and bloody death on our behalf, but also returned to life.

His death and resurrection was witnessed by his followers. For our song, it’s significant that the first person to see him after he returned to life was a woman named Mary Magdalene. For our song, it’s significant that his death was a bloody one, for, as the Hebrew Scriptures say, “life is in the blood.” Jesus’s death and resurrection was good news for us, because Jesus has taken on the consequences of sin on our behalf, and offers us new life. His early followers shared this news across geographic and ethnic boundaries, and eventually, the good news has come down to us, two thousand years or so later, throughout the world, and to every kind of people.

That’s the background story to Sacred Throne, or one version of it anyway. Let's turn back to the text and see how its words and images play out.

The text

But we have a problem! The text we use is somewhat garbled; at points, it doesn't even really seem to make sense. This is not uncommon for a hymn text, but it some ways, this text seems especially garbled. Also, without casting shade on the persons who compiled this text, the truth is that The Sacred Harp's text is more garbled than most. You see, this hymn text has not actually appeared that many times in hymn books over the years, so there has been less opportunity for random changes to occur. The good news is that we can use John Kent's original text to amend what we sing. When we do so, I think we'll see we have fewer questions than when we started.

The following is Kent's original text, using current copyediting practice. I'm also including his second verse. This is the punctuation that is proposed for the new revision of The Sacred Harp due to come out next year (so, subject to change, and the second verse here is still under consideration).

Beneath the sacred throne of God
I saw a river rise;
The streams were peace and pard’ning blood
Descending from the skies.

Angelic minds cannot explore
This deep, unfathomed sea;
'Tis void of bottom, brim, or shore
And lost in Deity.

I stood amazed and wondered when
Or why this ocean rose
That wafts salvation down to men,
His traitors and His foes.

That sacred flood from Jesus’ veins
Was free to take away
A Mary’s or Manasseh’s stains
Or sins more vile than they.

In verse 1, editions of Kent's poem as printed in his Original Gospel Hymns have either "were" or "where" in the second line. Most printings of the poem have "were," and so I use it here.

Answering the questions

With a better text in front of us, and the Christian story behind us, we can answer a lot of our questions. But we'll need to reach for our Bibles and our dictionaries to answer others. Here is my attempt to answer the questions raised.

Why is there a river of blood?

The image of a river in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures is a rich one. In the creation story, found in Genesis 2, a river waters the primordial garden of Eden, giving it (and our first parents) life. The Israelites often lived in semi-arid conditions, so water and rivers were important. In the last chapter of the the Christian scriptures, a "a pure river of water of life" is described as the garden of Eden is restored on earth. So rivers are images of abundance and life.

Blood is such an interesting image to use. On the one hand, it carries life throughout our bodies. The Hebrew scriptures say, "the life is in the blood," so, like a river, it is an image of abundance and life. But we usually experience blood when something is dying. According to the rituals described in the Hebrew scriptures, the life of animals was offered up to God to cover or restore the death we experience as a result of our sin. In the Christian scriptures, Jesus is described as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." God offers his own self up as a life-giving sacrifice, removing our sin, and restoring us to the life we lost as a result of our sin.

So, the image of the river of blood, is really an image of the superabundant love of God for us, restoring us to life from death.

Why does the river come from under a throne?

In Kent's image, the river originates from under God's throne. This means primarily that it is God's initiative, God's choice to provide a loving and abundant sacrifice for us. We don't make ourselves good enough for God. God does. God does this out of an abundance of love for the creation; God knew all along that humanity would choose death rather than life, and so God made provision from before the foundations of time.

“Waft” seems like the wrong word.

In modern English, "waft" is primarily used of things are carried in the air. (For example, "The scent of fresh bread wafted down the street."). In Kent's time, waft was also often used for things carried by water. An example from the Oxford English dictionary from 1769: "Great bodies of the Asiatic troops were continually wafted over to the European side of the Hellespont." So, in Kent's poem, salvation is wafted, or floated, down to humanity on the river that originates from the throne of God.

Why does salvation come to man and man's traitors and foes? Who are they?

"Traitors and foes" refers to humanity, not humanity's traitors and foes. We have acted as traitors and foes to God. Despite this, God still sends his salvation. Kent stands in amazement that God would do such a thing.

"Make away" seems ungrammatical; what is going on?

We have seen that Kent's original is take away. The "sacred flood" of salvation takes away the sin of even the greatest sinner.

Who is Mary? What were her stains?

This is most likely a reference to Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus's closest disciples, and the first witness to his resurrection. Once, Jesus was visiting the home of a religious leader named Simon to eat. In the middle of the meal, a woman came in with an alabaster jar of perfume, and washed the feet of Jesus with her own tears, and rubbing them with perfume. Simon was offended, because this woman was well-known as a prostitute. But Jesus commends her, forgives her sins. Although many dispute this was actually Mary Magdalene, Kent most likely is thinking of this story of a woman who turns from a life of prostitution to a key follower of Jesus.

Who is Manasseh? What were his stains?

Manasseh was a king of Judah. He was the only son of Hezekiah. The Hebrew scriptures tend to describe the kings of Israel and Judah as either bad or good. Hezekiah was a good king, who restored worship of God in Judah and stopped the worship of other gods. Manasseh revoked his father's decrees, restoring polytheistic practices, which included burning his own son as an offering. So, this made him a bad king. This happened during the terrible time that Israel and Judah were being conquered and exiled by the Assyrians. According to the Hebrew scriptures, Manasseh was himself brought as a prisoner to Assyria, but eventually restored to his throne. Significantly for our poetry, this experience of imprisonment led Manasseh to repent and return to God. His stains were to allow worship of other gods, which made him a "traitor and foe" of the God of Israel. But God accepted his change of heart.

Reviewing the song

Let's end with a review, a kind of meditation, of what the message Kent is trying to convey. Kent is describing a mystical vision. First he sees God's very throne in heaven. He sees a stream, a river that flows from beneath the throne, and flows down from heaven to where he is. The river is not a river of water, but a river of salvation, peace, and pardon, a life-giving river. The river flows into an ocean of unfathomable depth and width. How this can be the case is beyond even the understanding of angels.

Kenth is left amazed and pondering the greatness of God who saves humanity, the very humanity that so often opposes God and betrays God's cause. In what vast depths of time did God decide to save us? How can God love us so much to save us?

What is this song about? What is the river? It is the life-giving death of Jesus, symbolized by the blood he shed when he died for our sake. Jesus's death can bring life to even great sinners, like Mary or Manasseh. Whether, in some sense, we are better than them or worse than them, Jesus's death is greater than our greatest sin, and his death takes away our sin. I have been told that this text is often used when Primitive Baptists are calling people to undergo baptism, a very appropriate connection.

Kent ends noting that nothing in this story is due to us; it is a free gift to us as dead sinners. It is Jesus Christ alone who is worthy of praise.

I find these images deeply satisfying.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Robert Vaughn, Thomas Malone, Chris Brown, Tarik Wareh, Zena Tucker, and Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg for useful information, especially Robert Vaughn who tracked down many versions of Kent's text.

Appendix

The 1966 edition of The Sacred Harp had interesting strikeovers that made it unclear whether salvation was being wafted down to “me,” “man,” or “men.” I think this why “man” got used in the 1991 edition.