O the deep, deep love of Jesus

with
EBENEZER (TÔN-Y-BOTEL)
[Bob Kauflin]

I. Text: Origins

This hymn by Samuel Trevor Francis (1834–1925) was first published in Whence-Whither and Other Poems (London: Morgan & Scott, 1898 | Fig. 1), in eight stanzas of eight lines, without music. In his preface, he included this explanation:

Many of these poems have appeared in various religious and semi-religious papers and magazines. The author has collected them together and with others which have never before seen the light, launches them forth on their message. If he has touched upon the sorrows and the dark side of human life, he has endeavoured to show how light, hope, and joy may be found. He trusts that those poems that are hymn-like will not be altered to suit the whims or theology of hymn-book compilers. This book is not written in the interests of any sect, denomination, or party, but for all who “love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth.”

Unfortunately, he did not indicate whether “O the deep, deep love of Jesus” had been previously printed elsewhere, or whether it was one of those “which have never before seen the light.” No previous printing of the hymn is known.

Hymnological sources often credit the hymn’s expanded audience and its reduced form to its appearance in The Song Companion to the Scriptures (1911), where it had been reduced to three stanzas, but the same reduction had appeared nine years earlier in the New and Enlarged Edition of Hymns of Consecration and Faith (London: Marshall Brothers, 1902 | Fig. 2), edited by Isabella (Mrs. Evan) Hopkins, where it was set to a tune called EVENING BLESSING by H.J.E. Holmes.

The complete hymn text also appeared in Francis’ posthumous collection, O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus and Other Sacred Poems (1926). An altered version of the text, for the purpose of updating the language, appeared in Hymns for Today’s Church (1982). This was repeated in some other collections, including the Irish Church Hymnal (2000).

II. Text: Analysis. The deep love described in the first line of every stanza is reflected well in Ephesians 3:17–19:

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (NIV).

The hymn is rich in oceanic language, a suitable image for the concepts of depth and size, but the metaphor also describes movement, direction: “rolling . . . underneath me, all around me, is the current of thy love.” In the second stanza, the author sees the manifestation of this love in the sacrificial death of Christ. The proper response to this love is to “spread his praise from shore to shore.” The author is also amazed how such love could be offered to one who is “polluted, sinful, wretched.” This idea is echoed in Romans 5:8, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (ESV). The last four stanzas point upward to heavenly realms, where worshipers will be “standing by His side.” The “great inheritance” in stanza six is described in Ephesians 1. The final stanza refers to the Bridegroom and his “spotless bride,” another concept found in Ephesians (5:25–27).

III. Tune: EBENEZER

This hymn is most commonly set to EBENEZER by Thomas John (T.J.) Williams (1869–1944), first published in the periodical Yr Athraw (‘The Teacher’), vol. 71 (Llangollen: 1897), printed in Tonic Sol-Fa notation, which was common at the time (similar to how shape-note books had been common in the U.S.). EBENEZER was named after Ebenezer Chapel in Rhos, Pontardawe, Wales, a church Williams had attended as a boy. The original structure still stands behind a newer chapel built in 1904.

The tune’s first appearance in a hymnal was in The Baptist Book of Praise (Wales: Baptist Book of Praise Committee, 1900 | Fig. 4), uncredited, where it was set to the hymn “With my pilgrim staff I wander” by William Edwards. Here the tune was renamed ASSURANCE to avoid duplicating the name EBENEZER assigned to another tune (No. 131).

The tune was also commonly printed in program booklets for music festivals, including a festival at Noddfa Chapel, Treorchy, on 4 June 1900. It was presented at a large festival held at the National Eisteddfod Pavilion, Merthyr, on 19 August 1901, conducted by Dan Davies, with 17,000 people in attendance.

The tune became very popular and spread quickly, often without people knowing who composed it. In jest, a myth emerged that it had been found washed up in a bottle, thus it was sometimes called TÔN-Y-BOTEL (“tune in a bottle”). The tune came to the attention of music printer W. Gwenlyn Evans of Caernarvon, Wales, who later offered this account:

I first heard it in Manchester, in October. There were hundreds of Welshmen there, and they struck up the quaint tune, with which I was very much struck at the time. Then I came home and heard people humming the tune, little boys in the street whistling it, and I thought it would take, so I made a search for the author. After some delay I discovered that the tune had been composed as part of an anthem by Mr. T.J. Williams, Rhos, Pontardawe, in the Swansea Valley. The anthem was known as “Goleu yn y Glyn” (“Light in the valley”). I secured and copyrighted it.[1]

In reality, the situation was less innocent. In 1944, Williams’ wife Margaret explained in an interview:

A friend—a well-known musician by the way—was conducting a musical festival in North Wales and he wrote to tell my husband that EBENEZER was being sung all over the place, adding that Mr. W. Gwenlyn Evans, printer, Caernarvon, had published it. Mr. Evans had done this without my husband’s consent under the title TÔN-Y-BOTEL. My husband immediately communicated with him and on October 12, 1901, he received a letter in Welsh from Mr. Gwenlyn Evans:

“Dear sir—Today I understand that you are the composer of the enclosed tune and I am hastening to ask your forgiveness for printing it without your permission. Until today I did not know who the composer was. Indeed, it is said by everyone that it was found in a bottle at the seashore at Dinas Dinlle near this town (Caernarvon). I was asked to publish it for the Caernarvon Young People’s Christian Society and I promised to do so at ha penny per copy. The tune is known as TÔN-Y-BOTEL in the town through the above incident. I would be glad if you will give me permission to print it, with your name attached.”[2]

The two reached an agreement in which they would split royalties for tune, including for its performance on Gramophone records, in exchange for Evans’ right to manage the copyright and print the tune. Evans then printed Williams’ anthem, “Goleu yn y Glyn” (“Light in the valley,” Caernarfon: W. Gwenlyn Evans, ca. 1902 | Fig. 5), written in memory of his deceased stepfather, John James. In the anthem, the EBENEZER melody begins on page 3.

Fig. 5. T.J. Williams & D. Jenkins, “Goleu yn y Glyn” (Caernarfon: W. Gwenlyn Evans, ca. 1902). Images courtesy of the British Library.

The connection between EBENEZER and the hymn by Francis, “O the deep, deep love of Jesus,” was made in The Song Companion to the Scriptures (London: Morgan and Scott, 1911 | Fig. 6), using the same three-stanza textual reduction as in Hymns of Consecration and Faith (see Fig. 2 above).

Some hymnals use a harmonization of EBENEZER prepared by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) for The English Hymnal (1906), No. 108. Hymnologist Erik Routley praised the tune in his assessment for the Companion to Congregational Praise (1953), p. 208:

This is one of the noblest and most striking examples of modern Welsh hymnody. It is written on a very restricted compass and in a very economical musical form, but it has an effect of accumulating grandeur that is almost hypnotic when sung by a large gathering. This is largely due to the fact that the whole tune grows out of the phrase in the first bar, which itself employs a rhythm that is virtually twelve crotchets [quarters] to the bar. The majestic stride of the tune thus produced may be compared, we think, not improperly with the same effect of 12/8 rhythm achieved by Bach in the Sanctus of the Mass in B minor; that is triumphant, whereas this is sombre, but the source of the effect is the same.

EBENEZER is also frequently printed with the hymn “Once to every man and nation” by James Russell Lowell (1819–1891).

IV. Tune 2: Kauflin

One modern, alternative tune with some success is the one by Bob Kauflin, written in 2008 and recorded on the album Together for the Gospel Live (2008), with other versions appearing on the Sovereign Grace Music albums Next 2009 (recorded live in Baltimore, Maryland), and Come Ye Weary Saints (2010). The score was published on the Sovereign Grace Music website. Kauflin offered this account of the composition:

I had sung this song in various contexts and wondered about the fittingness of the music for the lyrics. The commonly used tune emphasized the depth and sobriety of the love of Jesus, the not so much the joy and sweetness. It also didn’t spend much time on the way we most clearly know the love of Jesus, which is through his substitutionary death. So one day in my devotions I wrote a new melody and added more specific references to the atonement.[3]

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
with special thanks to Nigel Williams
30 May 2019
rev. 8 March 2020

Footnotes:

1. James T. Lightwood, “Ebenezer,” The Music of the Methodist Hymn-Book (London: The Epworth Press, 1935), p. 359.

2. “Story of Ton y Botel: Interview with composer’s widow,” Llanelly & County Guardian (1 June 1944).

3. Correspondence from Bob Kauflin, 20 May 2019.

Related Resources:

James T. Lightwood, “Ebenezer,” The Music of the Methodist Hymn-Book (London: The Epworth Press, 1935), pp. 358–360.

“Story of Ton y Botel: Interview with composer’s widow,” Llanelly & County Guardian (1 June 1944): PDF

Erik Routley, “Ebenezer (Ton-y-Botel),” Companion to Congregational Praise (London: Independent Press, 1953), p. 208.

Alan Luff, Welsh Hymns and Their Tunes (Carol Stream, IL: Hope Publishing, 1990), pp. 221–222.

Alan Luff, “EBENEZER,” HSGBI Bulletin, vol. 12, no. 12 (October 1990), p. 229.

Harry Eskew, “O the deep, deep love of Jesus,” Handbook to the Baptist Hymnal (Nashville: Convention Press, 1992), pp. 210–211.

Huw Llewelyn Williams, “EBENEZER,” Taro tant: detholiad o ysgrifau ac erthyglau (Denbigh: Gwasg Gee, 1994), pp. 105–109.

Alan Luff, “EBENEZER,” The Hymnal 1982 Companion, vol. 3A (NY: Church Hymnal Corp., 1994), pp. 707–713.

Edward Darling & Donald Davison, “O the deep, deep love of Jesus,” Companion to Church Hymnal (Dublin, Columba Press, 2005), pp. 178–179.

Christopher M. Idle, “O the deep, deep love of Jesus,” Exploring Praise! vol. 1 (Darlington: Praise Trust, 2006), pp. 238–239.

Joseph Herl, “EBENEZER,” Lutheran Service Book Companion, vol. 1 (St. Louis: Concordia, 2019), pp. 640–641.

“Oh the deep, deep love,” Sovereign Grace Music:
https://sovereigngracemusic.org/music/songs/oh-the-deep-deep-love/

“O the deep, deep love of Jesus,” Indelible Grace Hymn Book:
http://hymnbook.igracemusic.com/hymns/o-the-deep-deep-love-of-jesus

“O the deep, deep love of Jesus,” Hymnary.org:
https://hymnary.org/text/o_the_deep_deep_love_of_jesus