Charles Gabriel was a gospel song writer/composer. He is said to have written between 7 and 8 THOUSAND songs, many of which are in 21st century hymnals.
"I Stand All Amazed" became an "LDS" hymn in 1909 when it was included in Deseret Sunday School Songs, only 10 years after its first publication in a gospel-song collection. It has been arranged a little more simply in each of the three printings. In 1909 the tenors had the melody and women's voices sang the harmony. In the 1950 hymnal the setting was simplified by moving the melody to the sopranos, but the chorus retained the women's voices alone on the words "That He should care for me enough to die for me" while the men's voices sang "Wonderful! Wonderful!" in harmony with certain words in the chorus. The 1985 version simplified it further by omitting the men's response of "Wonderful! Wonderful!"
The arrangement our choir is singing is by Gordon Jessop, whose setting reflects some of the characteristics of the original 1909 setting. For most of the piece, the men have the melody while the women sing harmony. He has also brought back the echo of the word, "Wonderful" during the chorus, however, that part is sung by the women while the men continue on the melody. It is a very tender setting that beautifully evokes the deep gratitude I feel when I sing this hymn.
I am attaching a link to an address entitled, "I Stand All Amazed," by Jeffrey R. Holland, then president of the Brigham Young University. It is a wonderful message that will deepen the feelings conveyed by this hymn and will help make our worship through this hymn more meaningful and heartfelt. Take a few minutes to read it and I'll bet you won't ever sing this hymn as a "vain repetition" again.
Here are some excerpts from Elder Holland's address, but really, you ought to try to read the whole thing, because it's so good!
I am attaching a link to an address entitled, "I Stand All Amazed," by Jeffrey R. Holland, then president of the Brigham Young University. It is a wonderful message that will deepen the feelings conveyed by this hymn and will help make our worship through this hymn more meaningful and heartfelt. Take a few minutes to read it and I'll bet you won't ever sing this hymn as a "vain repetition" again.
Here are some excerpts from Elder Holland's address, but really, you ought to try to read the whole thing, because it's so good!
For me, there is no greater amazement and no more difficult personal challenge than when, after the anguish in Gethsemane, after being mocked, beaten, and scourged, Jesus staggers under his laod to the crest of Calvary and says, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34.)
If ever there is a moment when I indeed stand all amazed, it is here, for this is an amazement of a different kind. So much of the mystery of his power and ministry tear at my mind: the circumstances of his birth, the breadth and variety of his ministry and miracles, the self-summoned power of his resurrection—before all of these I stand amazed and say, “How did he do it?” But here with disciples who abandoned him in his hour of greatest need, here fainting under the weight of his cross and the sins of all mankind which were attached to it, here rent by piercing spikes in his palms and in his wrists and in his feet—here now the amazement tears not at my mind but at my heart, and I ask not “How did he do it?” but “Why did he do it?” It is here that I examine my life, not against the miraculousness of his, but against the mercifulness of it, and it is here I find how truly short I fall in emulation of the Master.
Every generation in every dispensation of the world has had its own multitudes crowding around that cross, laughing and jeering, breaking commandments and abusing covenants. It isn’t just a relative handful in the meridian of time who are guilty. It is most of the people, most of the places, most of the time, including all of us who should have known better.
Surely the reason Christ said “Father, forgive them” was because even in the weakened and terribly trying hour he faced, he knew that this was the message he had come through all eternity to deliver. All of the meaning and all of the majesty of all those dispensations—indeed the entire plan of salvation—would have been lost had he forgotten that not in spite of injustice and brutality and unkindness and disobedience but precisely because of them had he come to extend forgiveness to the family of man. Anyone can be pleasant and patient and forgiving on a good day. A Christian has to be pleasant and patient and forgiving on all days. It is the quintessential moment of his ministry, and as perfect in its example as it was difficult to endure.
I stand all amazed that even for a man like me, full of egotism and transgression and intolerance and impatience, there is a chance. But if I’ve heard the “good news” correctly there is a chance—for me and for you and for everyone who is willing to keep hoping and to keep trying and to allow others the same privilege.
I Stand All Amazed
I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me,
Confused at the grace that so fully He proffers me;
I tremble to know that for me He was crucified,
That for me, a sinner, He suffered, He bled and died.
I marvel that He would descend from His throne divine
To rescue a soul so rebellious and proud as mine;
That He should extend His great love unto such as I,
Sufficient to own, to redeem, and to justify.
I think of His side, pierced and bleeding to pay the debt,
Such mercy, such love and devotion can I forget?
No, no! I will praise and adore at the mercy seat,
And testify all my desires He doth fully meet.
O it is wonderful that He should care for me
Enough to die for me!
O it is wonderful, wonderful to me!
