Hobgoblins, foul fiends and lions

When we were at school, infants, junior and secondary, every morning we would have an assembly; we would have a few rousing hymns, some fairly general prayers, a bit of a talk and then notices and ‘anything else the headmaster/headmistress wished to impart. It was always a Christian act of worship, no reference to anything from any other religions, and those pupils (not students in those days) who had a different religion or who were Catholics, were excused until the notices when they would file in at the back.

We had the same hymn book in both schools, and in fact I have my secondary school one still. We knew most of the hymns just about off by heart, and although I’m not a Christian, I often think of the words and the images, the poetry of the language. There were all the classic hymns, the Wesleys and  John Bunyan, including this:

He who would valiant be ’gainst all disaster,
Let him in constancy follow the Master.
There’s no discouragement shall make him once relent
His first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.

Who so beset him round with dismal stories
Do but themselves confound—his strength the more is.
No foes shall stay his might; though he with giants fight,
He will make good his right to be a pilgrim.

Since, Lord, Thou dost defend us with Thy Spirit,
We know we at the end, shall life inherit.
Then fancies flee away! I’ll fear not what men say,
I’ll labour night and day to be a pilgrim.

I can sing it all the way through, off by heart… so imagine my surprise when I went to a funeral today and this much-loved hymn had different words!!

Who would true valour see, let him come hither;
One here will constant be, come wind, come weather
There’s no discouragement shall make him once relent
His first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.

Whoso beset him round with dismal stories
Do but themselves confound; his strength the more is.
No lion can him fright, he’ll with a giant fight,
He will have a right to be a pilgrim.

Hobgoblin nor foul fiend can daunt his spirit,
He knows he at the end shall life inherit.
Then fancies fly away, he’ll fear not what men say,
He’ll labour night and day to be a pilgrim.

I was mystified; I know sometimes hymns are updated for various reasons – because it’s thought modern people won’t understand them, t make them more relevant, to fall in line with modern thinking… But in this case none of these reasons seemed likely.

When i got home I looked the new version up, and to my surprise, this was the original Bunyan version – what I had been singing since I was a little child were the modified words of Percy Dearmer (1867-1936) written in 1906!

Apparently ‘To Be A Pilgrim’ is probably the only hymn John Bunyan actually wrote, and it was in Part II of ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’, which Bunyan wrote in 1684. So why was the words changed – well, the hymn hadn’t been very popular, and the lines which I thought had been modernised about hobgoblins and fiends, were Bunyan’s originals, which many vicars didn’t like! It’s only more recently that these old original words are being used, as in the funeral I attended today!

http://https://youtu.be/cOPW-9mSw8Y