A hymn, a story, and a challenge, part II
I believe we've received the votes and guesses we're going to, so here is the reveal and the results, with a little commentary for free. I got votes from 13 individuals, plus the three of us who participated in the writing each voted for our favorites among those written by the other two.
We'll start with the voting totals:
Stanza Votes
1 5
2 8
3 4
4 6
5 4
6 6
7 6
8 10
9 4
10 4
11 5
12 4
13 1
14 7
15 2
16 3
17 0
18 6
85 votes overall
The overall winning stanzas, thus, are #8 (10 votes), #2 (8 votes), #14 (7 votes), and #4/#6/#7/#18 (tied in 4th with 6 votes each). That's a total of 49 votes (58%) between those seven, compared to only 36 votes spread out over the other eleven. That makes for fairly strong winners.
Next, we'll break it down by author: The following six verses were written by the participant we're calling "Y": 2, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17 - a total of 21 votes. These verses were:
2. Crown Him the Lord of War,
Who trains His children’s hands,
To wield in prayer His Holy Pow’r,
And set immortal bands.
The army of His claimed,
Eyes closed on bended knee.
Marches forward in His Name,
To certain victory!
10. Crown Him the Lord of Rest,
Our calm amidst the storm,
The Living Fire inside the breast,
To keep the saint’s heart warm.
The world’s tempest rage,
Cannot prevail our Shield,
A Refuge firm for every Age,
To which all furies yield.
12. Crown Him the Righteous Judge!
His justice swift and true.
From those whose hearts grace could not budge,
A recompense is due.
The Cross our hope alone,
We join to Him Who died,
For our sin did our Lord atone,
We rise His justified.
15. Crown Him the Lord of heaven,
His hands built Creation,
And sustain ‘til the Day is given,
When matter is undone,
Creation sings and yearns,
Deeper than words construe,
Hast’ning the Day that He returns,
And all things are made new.
16. Crown Him the Lord of Truth,
Who knows all that could be,
Omniscient of both all that is,
And all potentially.
His words transcend all time,
Forever resolute,
Sacred, clear, pure, and sublime,
Not subject to refute.
17. Crown Him the Holy King,
Let Israel exult,
Bearing high holy praise to sing,
And two-edged swords to cull.
His vengeance on nations,
The judgment writ made right,
An honor for the godly ones,
Those holy in His sight.
As you can probably tell, Spiritual Warfare is a constant and running theme throughout this particular set of verses. "Lord of War" came in second place, I think for good reason.
The next six were written by "P": 1, 5, 6, 9, 13, 18 - a total of 26 votes. I'm presenting them in the order in which "P" submitted them, for what should be apparent reasons.
5. Crown Him the Lord of Beasts,
that Lion once foretold
to spring from Judah’s loins, the least
and greatest to enfold:
Leviathan He made
to sport upon the sea;
the sparrow He His Father’s aid
doth give, and cares for me.
9. Crown Him the Lord of Men:
their tribes and peoples all,
who friend or foe shall see Him then
and at His feet shall fall,
when comes He to redress
to all men what is due,
to sit in glorious righteousness
and judge with justice true!
13. Crown Him the Lord of Floods
whose limits He did write,
and quiets them that tenderest buds
may grow to glory bright,
and by the mightiest storms
drives men to mind His will;
He cleanses who humbly reforms;
who thirsts, will more than fill.
18. Crown Him the Lord of Fire
and Winds, His servants fleet:
they to and fro in gust and gyre
His orders all complete:
to warm the faithful heart,
to stir upon the way,
to prove the hopeful builder’s art
against the coming Day.
6. Crown Him the Lord of Earth
established from of old,
whose massive rocks and rolling girth
His Word does yet uphold!
He sends the sun and rain,
He man and beast doth feed,
the elements doth wisely train
to serve them in their need.
1. Crown Him the Lord of Heaven!
All men your hearts employ!
His sight the faith of the forgiven,
His nearness all their joy!
A Sabbath rest remains
for those who will endure
to hymn the King in holy strains
of praise forevermore!
These six obviously come in pairs - beasts and men, water and fire, earth and heaven. "P" also managed to stuff the four classical elements in three stanzas. I was a little disappointed that his "Lord of Fire" stanza didn't get more love than it did - it was one of my favorites. I'm still writing additional stanzas just for fun, and I find myself reluctant to treat the subject of the Lord of Angels, as I think he pretty much nailed it. Still, it made it into the top tier, along with "Lord of Earth".
The final six are mine, "S" - 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, 14 - a total of 38 votes
14. Crown Him the Lord of Joy, who rules our Sabbath rest. All blessings toil in His employ whose saints, unceasing blest, lay down their striving vain, take up the yoke of praise, ere they by alms of grace attain delight of endless days.
4. Crown Him the Living Word by whom all worlds are wrought; dividing as a naked sword, divining heart and thought. That great Amen shall shake, shall split the lab'ring Earth, bend every knee for His Name's sake to rule by sovereign worth.
8. Crown Him the corner-stone whose covenant endures. Whose oath relies on Him alone, and promise reassures those sons of faith, preserved 'til proved of more than gold; Salvation, full and undeserved, His vow from ages old.
3. Crown Him the Bridegroom, fair, whose promised virgin bride once purchased, gently now prepared, will evermore abide to grace her Husband's head with all her charms, endowed by Him who for her virtue bled with sacred mantle bowed.
11. Crown Him the Lord of heav'n, which throne befits His rule; whence all dominion e'er is giv'n below, on Earth His stool. Bless Him, ye priestly race! His all-authority ordains the mystery of grace that crowns His majesty.
"Corner-stone" was the overall favorite, with ten votes. That kind of amuses me, since it wasn't one of my original submissions. I had six in, then at the last minute I scrapped one out and replaced it with "Corner-stone", and that seems to have been the right thing to do. I'm a little disappointed that "Lord of Wrath" didn't fare better - it's easily my favorite of my own submissions - but I can understand why it wouldn't necessarily be the most popular. I tried to focus on the twin themes of Christ's dominion and eternity. Of mine, 4, 7, 8, and 14 made it into the top seven.
Three people took a stab at assigning the verses to their authors, all people who know the three authors personally. One got 6 correct (33%), another got 7 (39%) and the third got 8 (44%). She will be getting a prize, and I'm going to make "Y" pay for it since he got his submissions in late.
Thanks to those who participated. We had fun doing this. As I said, I'm still writing stanzas (3 done, 3 more partial) and I'll post them at some point. As I said in the former post, feel free to participate with votes, guesses, commentary/critique/conversation, or even with your own stanzas.
AMDG
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