“Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” is an ancient song and an interesting example of singing texts with a different understanding than the text’s author intended. Because the hymn is not as comon as some, I here reproduce the text from its original English publication, Lyra Eucharistica:1Lyra Eucharistica: Hymns and Verses on the Holy Communion. Ancient and Modern; with Other Poems, ed. Orby Shipley, 2d ed. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1869). The capitalization follows the … Continue reading
Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly-minded, for with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth, our full homage to demand.King of kings, yet born of Mary, as of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture—in the Body and the Blood—
He will give to all the faithful his own Self for heavenly Food.Rank on rank the host of heaven spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth from the realms of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish as the darkness clears away.At his feet the six-winged Seraph; Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the Presence, as with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Lord most high.
A typical hymnal, in noting the source of the text, will point to the 4th-century “Liturgy of St. James,” originally composed in Greek. The liturgy is still used today, and “Let All Mortal Flesh” is drawn from what is known as a Cherubic Hymn contained therein:
Let all mortal flesh be silent, and stand with fear and trembling, and meditate nothing earthly within itself. For the King of kings and Lord of lords, Christ our God, comes forward to be sacrificed, and to be given for food to the faithful. And the bands of angels go before Him with every power and dominion, the many-eyed cherubim, and the six-winged seraphim, covering their faces, and crying aloud the hymn, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.2Too see this in context, look under the second major section of the liturgy.
In the context of the Liturgy of St. James, the Cherubic Hymn clearly has reference to the presence of Christ in the Eucharist3Bradshaw notes that “Let All Mortal Flesh” reflects well a shift in eucharistic practice toward the end of the fourth century, a shift which involved “an attitude of great awe and fear directed … Continue reading This is indicated by the language of Christ coming “forward to be sacrificed, and to be given for food to the faithful” in connection with the placement of the Cherubic Hymn in the liturgy: it occurs directly before the priest “brings in the holy gifts,” that is, the bread and wine.4Note Albert Edward Bailey, The Gospel in Hymns: Backgrounds and Interpretations (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1950), 287-88. Indeed, outside Protestant circles, “Let All Mortal Flesh” is well-nigh invariably connected with the Eucharist.5Its original publication was in a Roman Catholic book of “hymns and verses on the holy communion,” and it is categorized under “Holy Communion” in the popular Anglican English Hymnal of … Continue reading
The clearest eucharistic connection in “Let All Mortal Flesh” is, of course, found in the second stanza:
King of kings, yet born of Mary, as of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture—in the Body and the Blood—
He will give to all the faithful his own Self for heavenly Food.
Rather than appropriating the historical connection this text has with the eucharist, however—Christ’s “incarnation” in the bread and wine—Protestants tend to keep the focus on the incarnation of Christ in his first advent. So, while an advocate of Christ’s real presence in the communion elements might understand the stanza thus:
“as of old on earth he stood . . . in human vesture—in the [physical, first-advent] body and the blood—[so, through a similar “incarnation,”] he will give to all the faithful his own self for heavenly food [i.e., through the eucharistic “body and blood”].”
Protestants who deny the real presence of Christ in the elements can sing the stanza with something like this understanding:
“as of old on earth he stood . . . in human vesture [i.e., as an actual historical figure come to procure salvation for the faithful]—in the body [broken for our salvation] and the blood [poured out for our salvation]—[so, in the present day] he will give to all the faithful his own self for heavenly food [in the sense in which Protestants understand John 6:52-58].
The imagery of Christ descending to earth is quite striking: the advance troops of angels lead the way, rank upon rank of them, and Christ the divine Light6Perhaps “Light of light” is meant in the same sense as is found in “O Come, All Ye Faithful”: “True God of true God, Light from Light Eternal.” comes to dispel the forces of darkness which have held sway over the world.
References
| 1 | Lyra Eucharistica: Hymns and Verses on the Holy Communion. Ancient and Modern; with Other Poems, ed. Orby Shipley, 2d ed. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1869). The capitalization follows the 1906 English Hymnal in which the text was popularized. |
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| 2 | Too see this in context, look under the second major section of the liturgy. |
| 3 | Bradshaw notes that “Let All Mortal Flesh” reflects well a shift in eucharistic practice toward the end of the fourth century, a shift which involved “an attitude of great awe and fear directed toward the eucharistic elements” and which was a response to the post-Constantine influx of nominal Christians into the church. Paul F. Bradshaw, Early Christian Worship: A Basic Introduction to Ideas and Practice (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1996), 64-66. |
| 4 | Note Albert Edward Bailey, The Gospel in Hymns: Backgrounds and Interpretations (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1950), 287-88. |
| 5 | Its original publication was in a Roman Catholic book of “hymns and verses on the holy communion,” and it is categorized under “Holy Communion” in the popular Anglican English Hymnal of 1906. |
| 6 | Perhaps “Light of light” is meant in the same sense as is found in “O Come, All Ye Faithful”: “True God of true God, Light from Light Eternal.” |
