Mormon Artists Group

Hello. After the announcement of our most recent publication, I Visit the Spirit World with My Mother, I’ve been treated to miraculous tales of the other world. Friends and subscribers have been sending me some of their own family stories as well as episodes from church history that I’d never heard before.

When I was a child, amazing stories like this were part of our common conversation. I remember my parents telling me about appearances and interventions of the three Nephites, extraordinary encounters with the spirit world surrounding temple activities, healings, angelic warnings of danger, protection, and many inexplicable occurrences in dreams and visions. We talked about these things at the dinner table and as we worked on our farm. My friends added their stories too, about mysterious things, exciting and wondrous things. All of these were fed into the hopper of my little brain.

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In front of me are two hymnbooks of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One is the 1927 edition. It is 8″ x 5.5″. Its dark green bookcloth cover is embossed with the words Latter-day Saint Hymns and decorative scroll work of a harp and floral pattern. The front cover features a severe geometric border at its edges; the back cover has a small, round embossing of a harp at its center. It was published by the Deseret Book Company, copyrighted by Heber J. Grant, and printed by the Press of Zion’s Printing and Publishing Company. It is the hymnbook my parents grew up with.

The other hymnal will be familiar to anyone reading this newsletter. The 1985 book which includes 341 hymns, ending with God Save the King, sells for $16.95 for the coil-bound version I use at home. It has a blue-green cover with the word Hymns printed boldly in gold over an embossed relief of the Tabernacle organ pipes.

But enough of comparisons.

What will the hymnal of 2043 be like?

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