He Said Many Hard Things

I have been, off and on this year, trying my hand at hymnody.  I recognize that I'm no Charles Wesley or Fanny Crosby, but I have enjoyed the challenge of trying to fit new words to old (and sometimes forgotten) hymn tunes.

This week I combined the strange words of Jesus recorded in Luke 12: 49 -56 with the hymn tune "Lewis-Town" by William Billings (1746 - 1800).  This is not a hymn tune that is used in The Salvation Army's songbook (at least not in its current version.  There is, apparently, a newly revised version to be coming out in the near future...)  I found it in the Lutheran Book of Worship #426 (O Son of God, in Galilee)

He Said Many Hard Things

And to the crowd that gathered there
he said many hard things:
I came to bring fire to the world
and would that it now burned.

And to the crowd that gathered there
he said many hard things:
think I have come to bring you peace?
No, I came to divide.

And to the crowd that gathered there
he said many hard things:
you read the signs set in the sky,
why can’t you read the times?

An organ version of the hymn can be heard here.
A sample .pdf of the sheet music is available here.