A member of my community initiated a very thoughtful conversation with me starting with the ideas presented around a hymn we are singing: Dear Lord and Father of Mankind. He highlighted that the verses we sing are only a small part of a larger poem, The Brewing of Soma by American Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier (image).
Soma was a sacred ritual drink in Vedic religion, going back to Proto-Indo-Iranian times (ca. 2000 BC), possibly with hallucinogenic properties. The poem is about attempting to experience divinity. It critiques the identification of intoxicating-like experience with God, the emotional techniques of revival evangelism Whittier saw, and the trending of Quaker meetings in that direction. This discussion connects well with my contention that we need to rediscover the apophatic.
The Brewing of Soma
“These libations mixed with milk have been prepared for Indra:
offer Soma to the drinker of Soma.”
–Vashista, translated by MAX MULLER.The fagots blazed, the caldron’s smoke
Up through the green wood curled;
“Bring honey from the hollow oak,
Bring milky sap,” the brewers spoke,
In the childhood of the world.And brewed they well or brewed they ill,
The priests thrust in their rods,
First tasted, and then drank their fill,
And shouted, with one voice and will,
“Behold the drink of gods!”They drank, and to! in heart and brain
A new, glad life began;
The gray of hair grew young again,
The sick man laughed away his pain,
The cripple leaped and ran.“Drink, mortals, what the gods have sent,
Forget your long annoy.”
So sang the priests. From tent to tent
The Soma’s sacred madness went,
A storm of drunken joy.Then knew each rapt inebriate
A winged and glorious birth,
Soared upward, with strange joy elate,
Beat, with dazed head, Varuna’s gate,
And, sobered, sank to earth.The land with Soma’s praises rang;
On Gihon’s banks of shade
Its hymns the dusky maidens sang;
In joy of life or mortal pang
All men to Soma prayed.The morning twilight of the race
Sends down these matin psalms;
And still with wondering eyes we trace
The simple prayers to Soma’s grace,
That Vedic verse embalms.As in that child-world’s early year,
Each after age has striven
By music, incense, vigils drear,
And trance, to bring the skies more near,
Or lift men up to heaven!Some fever of the blood and brain,
Some self-exalting spell,
The scourger’s keen delight of pain,
The Dervish dance, the Orphic strain,
The wild-haired Bacchant’s yell,–The desert’s hair-grown hermit sunk
The saner brute below;
The naked Santon, hashish-drunk,
The cloister madness of the monk,
The fakir’s torture-show!And yet the past comes round again,
And new doth old fulfil;
In sensual transports wild as vain
We brew in many a Christian fane
The heathen Soma still!
Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways!
Reclothe us in our rightful mind,
In purer lives Thy service find,
In deeper reverence, praise.In simple trust like theirs who heard
Beside the Syrian sea
The gracious calling of the Lord,
Let us, like them, without a word,
Rise up and follow Thee.O Sabbath rest by Galilee!
O calm of hills above,
Where Jesus knelt to share with Thee
The silence of eternity
Interpreted by love!With that deep hush subduing all
Our words and works that drown
The tender whisper of Thy call,
As noiseless let Thy blessing fall
As fell Thy manna down.Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.Breathe through the heats of our desire
Thy coolness and Thy balm;
Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm!
poem source (“hearts” is incorrect – it is “heats” as per my corrected text above)
image source
It is often interesting to see the source of some of our hymns. Thank you for that Bosco.
Apparently the hymn also spent many years as the #1 favourite in English churches.
Songs Of Fellowship (volume 1) has the third last verse (not highlighted) as part of the hymn. Other books also may have it.
Dave
Thanks for sharing this Bosco. I have always been fond of it and we sang the ‘hymn’ part at my wedding, somewhat prophetically as it turned out!
Whittier was an ardent abolitionist too.
Soma is a good way to describe many church experiences, free coffee and doughnuts and childcare, music concerts, darkened rooms with flashing lights, big screen tvs etc may have replaced incense and candles and stained glass and chanting, but it still feels like trying too hard to make people en masse experience something to me.
I did once go to a Christian rock concert alone and find a seat in an empty part of the auditorium and just let the music wash over me and find me a place of ‘still small voice of calm’, but the constant exhortations to get on my feet and clap and praise the Lord and the daft pseudo-science big screen presentation in the middle about crucifix shapes in mitochondrial dna ‘proving’ God exists spoiled it.
I guess I don’t really need showmanship to wow me- there’s plenty of beauty all around, simple and sincere and timeless. And there’s an irony in that because I’ve used my music skills to help pull off lots of church ‘productions’…
We have Quakers here http://www.friendshouston.org/ I think I’ll check them out. My Chinese friend recommended them ages ago but I have never been yet, too busy getting distracted by shiny busy things : )
‘We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon…for this, for everything, we are out of tune; it moves us not.’ Wordsworth, about whom Whittier wrote:
‘How welcome to our ears, long pained
By strife of sect and party noise,
The brook-like murmur of his song
Of nature’s simple joys!’
Thanks, as always, Tracy. We are all enriched by your reflection here. Blessings.
Well, who’d’a thought it? I’m astounded, Bosco, at your gift for unearthing the strange and the paradoxical. The world would be the poorer for not having known and publicised this particular bit of poetry. I still sing it from time to time!
Hmm. This hymn would be a lot less popular with us Anglicans if we included the bit about incense, music and vigils drear. Must be all the libations we keep having.
What a delightful frame for this lovely hymn. I circulated this post to friend and foe alike – it’s a great read.
Thanks for the encouragement, Bob. Blessings.
Wow! What an amazing story. I am currently working on a Hymn Fest for the church where I serve as organist. We are basically creating a history of hymnody, using the normal worship format, so everything will be sung. As the ‘confession’, I have selected Dear Lord and Father of Mankind. I had no idea it was part of a larger work. I also do workshops on using hymns as meditations, so this will certainly be included in my presentations. I’ve always loved this hymn. We use the hymn tune “Rest”, although I actually prefer “Reston”. Thanks for the information.