Get Rid of the Overhead, Once and for All

Sunday at church we sang a song I don't ever remember singing.  I grew up in holiness churches and we sang from the hymnal Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and every night at revivals and camp meetings.  I knew the melody to a good number of songs in those hymnals, and had a good number of them memorized.  We just about always, always sang all four verses (or five, six), or however many verses were printed in the book.  The music was right there in front of us, printed right on the staff with both the treble and bass clefs.

Though I recognized the song from Sunday as a song that was probably in a hymnal somewhere based on its construction and melody, I could only guess because we weren't singing from a song book. No, we were all looking at the ubiquitous overhead.  Yes, our church building is over a hundred years old, but we project all of our songs onto a screen that can be retracted to reveal a baptismal font. I assume the screen and projector is an aftermarket add on.  There are hymnals in our pews, but we never use them. Everyone under twenty-five thinks they're props.

Who decided that the overhead was a good idea? I'm quite certain that the only reason the first church to use one installed it is because they hadn't saved up enough to buy a bunch of hymnals. So they got some songs printed on some slides and presented the hymns as a slide show. Some song leader from another church was visiting that day, thought it was a great idea, and the rest is history.

So why couldn't I place the song we sang? I said earlier, I grew up in holiness, read Wesleyan/Pilgrim Holiness, churches, and half of the parishioners would have fainted if we had sung Once for All.  We believed back then that, like the hymnal, salvation couldn't last forever.

And here, for your reading enjoyment, Once for All...words and music by Philip P. Bliss.

Free from the law, O happy condition,
Jesus has bled and there is remission,
Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall,
Grace hath redeemed us once for all.

Refrain

Once for all, O sinner, receive it,
Once for all, O brother, believe it;
Cling to the cross, the burden will fall,
Christ hath redeemed us once for all.

Refrain

Now we are free, there’s no condemnation,
Jesus provides a perfect salvation.
“Come unto Me,” O hear His sweet call,
Come, and He saves us once for all.

Refrain

“Children of God,” O glorious calling,
Surely His grace will keep us from falling;
Passing from death to life at His call;
Blessèd salvation once for all.

Refrain

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