babamarusia tells about hymn STRAIGHT IS THE GATE Lina Sandell of Sweden

Straight Is the Gate
A Hymn by Lina Sandell
article by Mary Katherine May
of Quality Music and Books

Straight Is the Gate

Lina Sandell

(Karolina Wilhelmina Sandell-Berg) (1832-1903) is best known for the comforting hymn, Children of the Heavenly Father, written after she witnessed the death of her father by drowning. Another hymn, equally beautiful and so finely translated by Gracia Grindal, is Thy Holy Wings. If you are at least middle-aged, you will most likely remember the hymn, Day by day, and with each passing moment...," that is not used as frequently as in past years.

Recently I came across another hymn by Sandell while browing in my mother-in-law, Esther May's hymnal, that we acquired following her homecoming in Heaven. It is titled, Straight Is the Gate (Strait Is the Gate). The opening line is from the message conveyed in Matthew 7: 13-14.

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (NIV)

The bulk of the hymn is about Heaven itself, and the beauty of Heaven. I felt the hymn tunes by Nicolaus Hermann in The Lutheran Hymnary, 1935, and Thomas Hastings (Ortonville) in the 1925 Augustana Hymnal didn't suit the text as well as they could, but could hear another tune in my mind that I believed would work well. That tune is Dundee, which is often used with the hymn, My God How Wonderful Thou Art (Gläser)) and I To the Hills Will Lift My Eyes (Psalter 1912, Psalm 121). I have created a score for this hymn with the text adapted to today's English. The text from which I worked was translated by G. T. Rygh, 1908, using the tune Dundee from the Scottish Psalter, 1615.

Hymn Score Adobe PDF download: Straight Is the Gate

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There is one way to heav'n above
And narrow is the way;
Yet there is room in God's great love for you,
For you always.
For you, for you always.

In paradise there is still room
When from this earth we're free,
With our dear Lord we'll live above
Where heav'nly mansions be.
Where heav'nly mansions be.

Though thousand times ten thousands stand
White-robed in glory there,
There is a place at God's right hand
For you in heav'n so fair.
For you in heav'n so fair.

In Jesus heart there is still room,
In heav'n is room also,
The gospel message bids we come,
Praise God who loves us so.
Praise God who loves us so.

Now God be praised,
Who even me a glorious diadem
Will grant when I his glory see
In His Jerusalem.
In His Jerusalem.

Laced throughout this text is a message of worthiness attributed to sinners who on their own are unable to claim redemption. It is for those of us, knowing the saving work of the cross and resurrection by means of a powerful spiritual presence within, and knowing that our lives have changed forever, still may find no words available to explain how such an infusion took place for the awesomeness of God's omnipotence.

That there "is still room" is a promise that can confidently shared with others for the first-hand experience. And it a comfort-laden promise for we the believers, though never truly able to know another's soul relationship with God, may claim with hope for those we love and view as unredeemed. There is still room. Until the end of the last heartbeat of life there is still room.

In a similar vein is a stanza in the hymn, The Old Ship of Zion, that I have arranged as one of several Sacred Harp songs in a medley for two pianos, four hands.

In The Old Ship of Zion heaven is reached via boat that operates almost like a ferry, shuttling between earth and heaven with a full load going the heavenly way and empty upon return, with the command that those who get there first should remind God that there are more on the way. In Straight Is the Gate, the amazed sinner received a crown of gold upon reaching eternity.

In Straight Is the Gate, the sinner is reminded of the responsibility of following the straight and narrow, though once upon the narrow path there will most assuredly be a place and crown, while The Old Ship of Zion tells us that despite the hardships of life outside of our control the eternal promise is the sinner's for the taking. The first not as outspokenly Arminian in nature as the latter.

Chorus:
’Tis the old ship of Zion, hallelujah, hallelu
‘Tis the old ship of Zion, Hallelujah!

The winds may blow and the billows may foam,
Oh, glory hallelujah,
But she is able to land us all home.
Oh, glory hallelujah.

She landed all who have gone before,
Oh, glory hallelujah,
And yet she is able to land still more,
Oh, glory hallelujah.

If I arrive there, then, before you do,
Oh, glory hallelujah,
I’ll tell them that you are coming up, too,
Oh, glory hallelujah.

Both texts are positive and uplifting. Though often hymns of the past may have served the purpose of their time and place, there are good reasons for not all to survive to the present. At the same time there are hymns that for want of a good marriage with tune, or for need of a language usage update, can still be viable and good in the current era--and may be the perfect text to accompany a message, which together will fill believers and save the unsaved, leading to the golden crown in Heaven.