Comments on: The Loveliest Missionary Tract Ever Published

By: DIY Mormon Art | Times & Seasons, An Onymous Mormon Blog

DIY Mormon Art | Times & Seasons, An Onymous Mormon Blog — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:23:38 +0000

[...] One: Be nice to Ardis so that she’ll send you high-resolution files of art that you have fallen in love [...]

By: FHE Lesson #2 | Times & Seasons, An Onymous Mormon Blog

FHE Lesson #2 | Times & Seasons, An Onymous Mormon Blog — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 21:37:06 +0000

[...] The fourth stanza refers to postmortal life. A wonderful addition to this activity would be to use these illustrations. (I am not sure about potential copyright issues re printing those out. I’d [...]

By: The Loveliest Missionary Tract Ever Published « Another Tristan Baier Weblog

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 03:00:09 +0000

[...] Missionary Tract Ever Published 2009 February 28 by Tristan Baier Originally published on The Keepapitchinin, [...]

By: S.Faux

S.Faux — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 01:00:31 +0000

This pamphlet illustrates high points of our religion that we often undersell elsewhere. I suppose that is by design, but I am unclear as to why.

By: Michelle Glauser

Michelle Glauser — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 15:10:36 +0000

That is lovely! I wish I had one just so I could show it to people. Luckily, I can link to this post.

By: Carl Youngblood

Carl Youngblood — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 01:55:46 +0000

Clarification, in case it wasn’t obvious: my relation to Hafen is on my mother’s side.

By: Carl Youngblood

Carl Youngblood — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 01:54:52 +0000

John Hafen was my great great grandfather. My lineage comes from his son, John Leo Hafen, who apostatized from the church. My mother was a convert. It’s interesting to have pioneer ancestry but also have convert parents. We have a reprint of this tract that I enjoy looking at occasionally. I really love Hafen’s artwork.

By: Researcher

Researcher — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 02:33:01 +0000

Thanks also to Jacob J for the link to the BYU Studies article. I printed it off and just spent a nice half hour sight reading through the various arrangements. Some notes on a few of the tunes:

Gentle Annie: lovely tune, beautiful song, but could be hard for congregations to sing if they were not thoroughly familiar with that type of music.

Tullidge: (first setting by a Mormon) forgettable.

Haydn (Deutschland, Deutschland; sung at Brigham Young’s funeral): nice tune, but a weird setting for this song.

Careless: also nice, not my favorite, perhaps heavily influenced by Brahms.

Durham’s Nephite Lamentation (he said he dreamed the melody as played by a Nephite soldier after a battle): sounds awfully Scotch-Irish. Perhaps the native Americans weren’t Welsh after all! Otherwise a beautiful tune.

Our current tune, from the McGranahan song “My Redeemer.” I love the song My Redeemer! It’s lovely! I think if I had to choose one tune for Oh My Father, this might be it! (Glad it’s the one we have!)

I like the Merrill arrangement as shown above. The repeated b natural jars the ear at first, but it quickly becomes addictive.

I could keep going about the other versions, but that is a long enough comment! But what a fun historical recreation! Thanks, Ardis and all the commenters!

By: Hunter

Hunter — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:04:33 +0000

Thanks, Jacob J, for the recording of the text set to the tune of Gentle Annie. It’s gorgeous. (Wondering if our Bishop would allow it…)

Also, Ardis, count me as one more who wouldn’t have seen these beautiful images absent your post. Thanks!

By: Jon W.

Jon W. — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:38:32 +0000

To speak strictly of the tract, it kind of reminds me of a greeting card (in a good way). From looking at the time taken on it you can see why it was so expensive.

Yet at the same time, who would now use that poem to teach a missionary lesson? I know a few missionaries on my mission who cringed when that one or if I could hie to Kolob were played.