One of the pleasant memories many of us share of New Year’s Eve is a watchnight service at church. We would gather for a covered dish dinner in the fellowship hall after the sun had set. Then after dinner we would have entertainment, perhaps sitting in groups at card tables playing games, or laughing at talent night skits from individuals or families, or an old-fashioned hymn sing, and even sharing testimonies of God’s goodness. Then at 11:00 we would move into the sanctuary, still filled with Christmas decorations from the week before. The pastor would lead us in a reflective, devotional service, with a sermon appropriate to the occasion.
Afterward, the lights would be slightly lowered as we celebrated the Lord’s Supper, giving thanks for God’s mercies in the passing year and trusting Him for the same in the year ahead. And at midnight, we would not be raising champagne glasses and singing “Auld Lang Syne,” but rather coming forward to the chancel steps to kneel in prayer as we sang a quiet hymn like “Another Year Is Dawning,” then spending a few moments in silent prayer before leaving calmly, greeting one another with a holy kiss on the way out (or maybe just a holy hug!) before driving home.
Sadly, because of so many drunk drivers on the road at that time of night on New Year’s Eve these days, we dare not do that any more. But perhaps your church family has been able to gather for something similar, just ending at an earlier, but much safer hour! Hopefully it would have included a time for worship together in song, prayer, scripture, and sermon (or devotional). Among the many hymns that would be fitting for such a gathering, one fine choice would be “A Few More Years Shall Roll,” written in 1844 by the great Scottish preacher and hymn writer, Horatius Bonar (1808-1889).
Bonar’s family had representatives among the clergy of the Church of Scotland during two centuries and more. His father, James Bonar, second Solicitor of Excise in Edinburgh, was a man of intellectual power, varied learning, and deep piety. Horatius Bonar was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on December 19th, 1808, and was educated at the High School and the University of Edinburgh. After completing his studies, he was licensed to preach, and became assistant to the Rev. John Lewis, minister of St. James’s, Leith. He was ordained minister of the North Parish, Kelso, on the 30th of November, 1837, but subsequently left the Established Church at the “Disruption,” in May, 1848, remaining in Kelso as a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. The University of Aberdeen conferred on him the Doctor of Divinity degree in 1853. In 1866 he was transferred to the Chalmers Memorial Church, the Grange, Edinburgh; and in 1883 he was chosen Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland.
John Julian (the famous hymnologist who compiled the 1907 “Dictionary of Hymnology”) has written that …
Dr. Bonar’s poems, which included many beautiful lyrics, several psalm versions, and translations from the Greek and Latin, a large number of hymns, and one long meditative poem, are quite numerous. His scholarship is thorough and extensive, and his poems display the grace of style and wealth of allusion which are the fruit of ripe culture. They reveal extreme susceptibility to the emotional power which the phases of natural and of spiritual life exercise; the phases of natural life being recognized chiefly as conveying and fashioning spiritual life, used chiefly for depicting spiritual life, and handled for this purpose with greater delicacy of touch than in the “Olney Hymns” of John Newton and William Cowper, and with less conscious purpose than in the “Christian Year.”
As a result of this susceptibility, and from habitual contemplation of the Second Advent (which was a major focus of Bonar’s thought and ministry) as the era of this world’s true bliss, his hymns and poems are distinguished by a tone of pensive reflection, which some might call pessimism. But they are more than the record of emotion. Another element is supplied by his intellectual and personal grasp of Divine truth, including these truths particularly: the gift of a Substitute, our Blessed Savior; Divine grace, righteous, yet free and universal in offer; the duty of immediate reliance upon the privilege of immediate assurance through that grace; communion with God, especially in the Lord’s Supper, respecting which he insists on the privilege of cherishing the highest conceptions which Scripture warrants; and finally, the Second Advent of our Lord. By his vigorous celebration of these and other truths as the source and strength of spiritual life, his hymns are protected from the blight of unhealthy, sentimental introspection.
That is too often found in nineteenth century gospel songs and 20th century contemporary choruses.
As John Julian continues …
To sum up, Bonar’s hymns satisfy the fastidious by their instinctive good taste; they mirror the life of Christ in the soul, partially, perhaps, but with vivid accuracy; they win the heart by their tone of tender sympathy; they sing the truth of God in ringing notes; and although, when taken as a whole, they are not perfect; although, in reading them, we meet with feeble stanzas, halting rhythm, defective rhyme, meaningless Iteration; yet a singularly large number have been stamped with approval, both in literary circles and by the Church.
In Great Britain and America nearly 100 of Bonar’s hymns are in common use. They are found in almost all modern hymnals. The most widely known are, “A Few More Years Shall Roll,” “Come, Lord, and Tarry Not,” “Here, O My Lord, I See Thee Face to Face,” “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say,” “The Church Has Waited Long,” and “Thy Way, Not Mine, O Lord.”
With the hymn “A Few More Years Shall Roll,” the dominant focus is that of looking forward to that great day in the (hopefully near!) future when Jesus shall return. Our world during the year just past, as in each end of the year, has been filled with cultural, international, and personal struggles, wars, losses, and untold sadnesses. Is there any hope for something better in the future? In many instances, not in this life. But there is another life to come. In that life, all these heartaches will fade from memory, to be replaced by the unimaginable joy of being forever with the Lord in the victory He will have brought to full consummation.
Bonar’s hymn progresses from stanza to stanza, longing for that day, but realizing that there may still be “a few more years … suns … storms … struggles” till “He shall come again.”
Stanza 1 speaks of the years still to come, including the time when our mortal earthly lives will come to an end, and our bodies will be laid to rest with those who will have gone before us. Bonar speaks in poetic language of resting “asleep within the tomb.” He certainly did not embrace the faulty theology of “soul sleep,” thinking that we will be unconscious from death till Christ’s return, but only that (as the Bible sometimes describes it) that it appears so, as our bodies, but not our souls, sleep in the tomb. We know the truth from Jesus’ promise on the cross to the man hanging beside Him, that he would be with Jesus in paradise that very day.
A few more years shall roll, a few more seasons come,
and we shall be with those that rest asleep within the tomb.
The Refrain then repeatedly calls out to the Lord, that He might “prepare my soul for that blest day,” by washing us afresh each day in His precious cleansing blood, taking all our sins away.
Then, O my Lord, prepare my soul for that blest day;
O wash me in Your precious blood, and take my sins away.
Stanza 2 speaks of the suns that are still to set, bringing dark day after dark day to an end. How dark must be those “hills of time” to those who live in the midst of war, or who experience the increasing pain of terminal illness, or endure the hunger of another day with no food, or who pray for a time when peace can be restored between family and friends bruised by broken relationships. But the day is growing closer when there will be no more darkness, and we will live forever in “a far serener clime.”
A few more suns shall set o’er these dark hills of time,
and we shall be where suns are not, a far serener clime. [Refrain]
Stanza 3 speaks of the storms that are still to come, shattering our peace and security, tempting us to fear and despair. Bonar would, of course, have first thought of the literal storms that crashed against the shores of his native Scotland. But the worst storms are not those of wind and rain and surging waves, but of economic tempests, or the ravages of war, of the pain of disease, of the pressures of personal disaster, and of political rancor. This present life has many pleasures, but also many tragedies. But they will soon end.
A few more storms shall beat on this wild, rocky shore,
and we shall be where tempests cease, and surges swell no more. [Refrain]
Stanza 4 speaks of the many difficulties “struggled here,” of the sad “partings” of loved ones passing away, of the complexities of “toils” and “tears” that bring such sadness. But once again we can sing of a future when there will be no more weeping. In fact, Revelation 21:4 tells us that they day is coming when Jesus Himself will wipe away every tear!
A few more struggles here, a few more partings o’er,
a few more toils, a few more tears, and we shall weep no more. [Refrain]
Stanza 5 speaks with brighter colors than the dark tones of the earlier stanzas. Now we sing more specifically, end even exuberantly, that in “but a little while,” “He shall come again.” The Savior who died for us promises that we will live with Him, and reign with Him!
‘Tis but a little while and He shall come again,
who died that we might live with Him, who lives that we might reign. [Refrain]
We usually sing Bonar’s hymn to the tune, LEOMINSTER, written in 1862 by George William Martin (1825-1881) and arranged in 1874 by Arthur S. Sullivan (1842-1900). Martin was born in London, and became a chorister at St. Paul’s Cathedral under William Hawes, and also at Westminster Abbey at the coronation of Queen Victoria. He became a professor of music at the Normal College for Army Schoolmasters, and was from 1845-1853 resident music-master at St. John’s Training College, Battersea, where he was the first organist of Christ Church, Battersea in 1849. In 1860 he established the National Choral Society which he maintained for some years at Exeter Hall, having an admirable series of oratorio performances. He edited and published cheap editions of these and other works not readily available to the public. He organized a 1000-voice choir at the 300th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth. He had an aptitude for training children and conducted the National Schools Choral Festival at the Crystal Palace in 1859. As a composer his genius was in directing madrigal and part song, and in 1845 his prize glee “Is she not beautiful?” was published. Due to intemperance, he sank from a position that gave him notoriety in the elements of musical force in the metropolis. He composed tunes, canticles, and motets. He died destitute in a hospital at Wandsworth, London.
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan was regarded as Britain’s foremost composer at the time of his death at the young ago of only 58. He is best known for 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including “H.M.S. Pinafore,” “The Pirates of Penzance,” and “The Mikado.” His works include 24 operas, 11 major orchestral works, 10 choral works and oratorios, 2 ballets, incidental music to several plays, and numerous church compositions, as well as works for piano and chamber music. Almost everyone is familiar with a few of his hymns and songs, including the music for “Onward, Christian Soldiers” and “The Lost Chord.”
The son of a military bandmaster, Sullivan composed his first anthem at the age of eight and was later a soloist in the boys’ choir of the Chapel Royal. In 1856, at 14, he was awarded the first Mendelssohn Scholarship by the Royal Academy of Music, which allowed him to study at the academy and then at the Leipzig Conservatoire in Germany. To supplement the income from his concert works he wrote hymns, parlor ballads, and other light pieces, and worked as a church organist and music teacher. Sullivan’s only grand opera, “Ivanhoe,” though initially successful in 1891, has rarely been revived. In his last decade Sullivan continued to compose comic operas with various librettists and wrote other major and minor works. His comic opera style served as a model for generations of musical theatre composers that followed.
Here is a recording of the music and the text (visual only) of “A Few More Years Shall Roll.”