Hymn, The Gates Ajar

Subject: Hymn, The Gates Ajar
From: wysiwyg
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 12:16 PM

I had a request on this one via PM, and thought I'd open it up to all the other hymn-nuts around here.

The original request:

I found a VERY old piece of paper (1837?) with a page from a store ledger on the back. On the front, handwritten, are the words to a hymn, The Gates Ajar.

So we need a tune. (And of course we need the words posted.)

Apparently it's a commonly-used metaphor.

What I have found so far:

CYBERHYMNAL WITH TUNE

CCEL WITH SHEET MUSIC

OBIT

MORE

STUFF

KIPLING POEM REFERENCE

STILL MORE

STILL WITH ME?

MORE POETRY

WHEW!

~Susan

Subject: RE: Hymn, The Gates Ajar
From: masato sakurai
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 02:08 PM

According to Wilbur F. Crafts' Song Victories of "the Bliss and Sankey Hymns" (Boston, D. Lothrop & co.; Dover, N.H., G. T. Day & co. [1877], pp. 43-44), Lydia O. Baxter's THE GATE AJAR FOR ME (Susan's first link; "There is a gate that stands ajar") was also named "The Gates Ajar."

~Masato

Subject: RE: Hymn, The Gates Ajar
From: masato sakurai
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 02:31 PM

From American Memory:

How the gates came ajar [song sheet] (By H. L. Bostwick. J. H. Johnson, Song Publisher &c., No. 7 North 10th. Street, Philadelphia, [n. d.])

No tune given or indicated, but it has a chorus as:

CHO.--O, angel, sweet angel, I pray you,
Let the beautiful gates ajar,
Only a little, I pray you,
Let the beautiful gates ajar.

Other hymns and songs with that phrase at American Memory are:

Gone within the gates ajar / by L. O. Emerson

Golden gates ajar! / by J. L. Feeney

The Glorious gates ajar! / by S. B. Whitely

Passed within the gates ajar / by Charles H. Gabriel

The Pearly Gates ajar / by W. O. Perkins

He holds the pearly gates ajar / by J. Calvin Bushey

Subject: RE: Hymn, The Gates Ajar
From: masato sakurai
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 02:40 PM

"How the Gates Came Ajar" and others are at Levy:

Title: How the Gates Came Ajar. Song and Chorus.
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: Composed by Eastburn.
Publication: Cleveland: S. Brainard's Sons, 1869.

Title: The Gates Ajar. Song With Chorus.
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: Poetry by Geo. Cooper. Music by J.R. Thomas.
J. R. Thomas Publication: New York: C.H. Ditson & Co., 711 Broadway, 1870.

Title: Gates Ajar. Descriptive Ballad.
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: Composed by G. Estabrook.
Publication: St. Louis: Balmer & Weber, 206 N. 5th St., 1869.

Subject: RE: Hymn, The Gates Ajar
From: wysiwyg
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 03:30 PM

Yummy!

~S~

Subject: RE: Hymn, The Gates Ajar
From: Burke
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 06:29 PM

Sort of confusing!

Cyberhymnal says the death of young Maggie Lindsay included & inspired "The Gate ajar for me." Implying that there's an older text with a similar title. Masato's link just says young Maggie was quoting the Baxter words at her death.

Does that hand written bit have enough for identifying it? Do the words match the Cyberhymnal words, or some of the others?

Subject: RE: Hymn, The Gates Ajar
From: masato sakurai
Date: 23 Mar 04 - 08:10 AM

It is in The Christian Sunday School Hymnal; A Compilation of Choice Hymns and Tunes for Sunday Schools (St. Louis: Christian Publishing Company, 1883, p. 48; with music):

No. 46. THE GATE AJAR FOR ME (Mrs. LYDIA BAXTER / PHILIP PHILLIPS)

Cyber Hymnal, however, says it was composed by Silas J. Vail.

Subject: Lyr Add: GATES AJAR (C.A. Miles)
From: masato sakurai
Date: 15 May 04 - 10:24 AM

There's another "Gates Ajar" hymn in New Songs of Praise and Power: 1-2-3 Combined, edited by J. Lincoln Hall, C. Austion Miles, Dr. Adam Geibel, and B.D. Ackley (Hall-Mack Company, 1922, no. 12):

GATES AJAR
(C.A.M. / C. Austin Miles)

1. Faith reveals in untold beauty
    What no mortal eye can see;
    'Tis a vision fair and glorious,
    Of the gates ajar for me.

    Refrain:
    Gates ajar, gates ajar, of that city I see,
    As I sail upon the billows of Time's resistless sea;
    "Yes, I think I see that city, and the lighthouse on the shore,"
    And I hear the angels singing thro' the gates ajar.

2. Lord, I know I am not worthy
    Of myself, to be Thine own,
    But I know Thou wilt not fail me,
    When I kneel before Thy throne.

3. Fearless then I wait the boatman,
    Who shall bear me o'er the sea,
    To that fair and blessed harbor,
    With its gates ajar for me.

Subject: RE: Hymn, The Gates Ajar
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 May 04 - 11:00 AM

Only the first posted by Masato (Bostwick, with music by Eastburn, pub. Johnson) lacks a date, and could be as early as the "1837?" A James Eastburn was writing hymns in the first quarter of the 19th c.

Just a suguesstion.

Subject: RE: Hymn, The Gates Ajar
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 May 04 - 11:30 AM

The 'Eastburn" of "How the Gates Came Ajar" is Joseph Eastburn Winner, according to pdmusic. He was born in 1837; doubtful that he wrote the music in his first year. The '1837' date is doubtful.

As sung by Henry Burr, it is on 'Virtual Gramophone.'