The things I miss...

I was thinking about the things I miss, about how I miss the Word of God.  And I was thinking about music and the songs I mentioned yesterday.  Then, it struck me how very much I miss the Doxology, miss hearing it and singing it.  This is a good example of the Doxology I mean:

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

That was how the services ended.  The last thing on our lips before we left.  At least it was for many years.  Then, lure of feelings and experiences that had crept into the sermons and texts other than the Bible being taught displaced the Doxology for Sweet Sweet Spirit.  This is close to the way that it was oft played in church, if still not quite "upbeat" enough:

There's a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place,
And I know that it's the Spirit of the Lord;
There are sweet expressions on each face,
And I know they feel the presence of the Lord.

Chorus
Sweet Holy Spirit, Sweet heavenly Dove,
Stay right here with us, filling us with Your love.
And for these blessings we lift our hearts in praise;
Without a doubt we'll know that we have been revived,
When we shall leave this place.

Such a shift from giving praise to God to talking about the experience of man.  VOMITUS.  

I found it interesting, in Googling, to learn that there were actually two more verses I never knew about:

There are blessings you cannot receive
Till you know Him in His fullness and believe;
You're the one to profit when you say,
"I am going to walk with Jesus all the way."

If you say He saved you from your sin,
Now you're weak, you're bound and cannot enter in,
You can make it right if you will yield,
You'll enjoy the Holy Spirit that we feel.


The third verse makes no sense.  I mean, the second line seems to say that if you confess Christ saved you, you are still barred from "heaven."  Then, salvation is presented as yielding and feeling.  VOMITUS.  No wonder only the first verse and chorus were sung!

I really, really, really dislike that that song is still in my mind when so much else is forgotten.  SIGH.

Every once in a while, something older ... deeper ... comes to mind and to lips.  I sing it, wondering where I learned it.   I thought that my YouTube searching skills poor, for I could not find a version of it that fits with what is in my head.  I mean, I found that it is a spoken Catholic prayer and a Mormon hymn.  This from a Methodist hymnal is sort of like it, but not.   Then, I realized that I was searching the wrong words; I should have been searching "Gloria Patri."  This is what I know:

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen. Amen.

I very much miss hearing the Doxology and the Gloria Patri.   However, I also miss the Nunc Dimittis, from the Lutheran Service Book, Divine Setting Three:

Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant 
depart in peace 
according to Thy Word,
For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, 
which Thou has prepared before 
the face of all people,
a light to lighten the Gentiles 
and the glory of Thy people Israel.
Glory be to the Father 
and to the Son 
and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, 
is now and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.

Hey, look!  It ends with the Gloria Patri.  Maybe that's why I liked it so much from the very first time I heard it ... a blending of what I knew of Christianity before and that which I learned from the Christian Book of Concord.