No other hymn in the Christian repertoire originates from a poem about taking drugs. “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind” was derived from a longer poem by Henry Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892), a Quaker active in the abolitionist cause. Henry’s poem with the curious title, “The Brewing of Soma,” first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in 1872. Soma was a sacred drink employed in the Vedic religion in India, a forerunner to Hinduism. Vedic priests would extract liquid from forest plants to create an intoxicating drink. It likely had hallucinogenic properties, with the addition of cannabis and opium poppies. The drink was used to whip up religious enthusiasm, resulting in expressions of frenzied worship. Henry spoke critically of their “drunken joy” and “sacred madness.” No doubt he also had the excessive exuberance of revivalist camp meetings on the frontier in his sights. The last seven stanzas of his poem shift to “deeper reverence” and “simple trust,” qualities highly valued in the Quaker tradition. The hymn begins with confession, “forgive our foolish ways” and then asks God to “reclothe us in our rightful minds.” Everything in the hymn centers on God’s serenity–“Sabbath rest,” “calm of hills above,” “silence of eternity,” “dews of quietness” and “voice of calm.”
Henry was no mere quietist. He was tireless in the anti-slavery cause for twenty years. The office of the abolitionist paper of which he was editor was once torched by a pro-slavery mob. Henry shows his biblical hand at the close of the hymn, “Speak through the earthquake, wind and fire, O still, small voice of calm,” a reference to God’s understated appearance to Elijah (1 Kings 19.12). God doesn’t typically shout, God whispers. It causes me to wonder about the hype and loud boasts that accompany some of our Christian gatherings.
Henry’s hymn leads us to pray: