by Wayne S. Walker<\/p>\n
Unlike Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell, Robert Skene is probably not a readily recognized individual to many people. However, his name has been preserved in history as the composer of the tune for a song that has been quite popular among churches of Christ. Very little information is available about him, including the dates and places of his birth and death. However, it is believed that he was the grandson of Benjamin Skene, a long-time advocate of religious reform whose obituary was given ample space in the Millennial Harbinger of April 1859 (pp. 237-238). Benjamin had a son named Robert, who lived in Louisville, KY.<\/p>\n
The composer Robert Skene edited a hymnbook entitled The Concordia<\/em> in Louisville in 1861. Also he co-edited The Christian Psaltery<\/em> in 1867 with Augustus Damon Fillmore, the father of James H. and Fred A. Fillmore, all associated with churches of Christ and Christian churches of the mid to late 1800s. But he is best-known for a tune composed most likely around 1869 for the hymn “On Zion’s Glorious Summit Stood,” by John Kent, who was born at Bideford in Devonshire, England, in Dec. 1776. A shipwright by trade, Kent acquired only a limited education but became known for his hymns, which were strongly worded, very earnest, and simple. Several appear in Samuel Reese’s 1799 Collection<\/em>, but this one was first included in Kent’s 1803 Collection of Original Hymns<\/em>. In all probability, he was an English Baptist.<\/p>\n Kent died on Nov. 15, 1843, but in 1861, his Collection<\/em> was still being published in its 10th edition. It contained “The Author’s Experience” and a biography of Kent by his son. The English Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon made use of Kent’s hymns in his collections employed in his tabernacle in London. This melody was first published with Kent’s hymn in the 1872 New Harp of Zion<\/em>, edited by A. D. Fillmore and his son James, with an abbreviated form of the Sanctus, the origin of which is unknown. The hymn with the full Sanctus, which is sung after the third stanza, first appeared in Hermon: A New Collection of Sacred Music<\/em> published in 1873 in New York City, NY, by Rigdon McCoy McIntosh.<\/p>\n All we know for certain about Robert Skene is that he lived in the nineteenth century. However, the evidence indicates that his forefathers were associated with those who called for restoring the ancient order of things in religion. Thus, there is reason to believe that he may have been identified with non-denominational, New Testament churches in the mid-to-late 1800s, most likely in the area of Louisville, KY. And whether his name means anything to us or not, every time we sing “On Zion’s Glorious Summit Stood,” we take something that he left us and use it to praise the eternal God of heaven and His glorious Son, Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Wayne S. Walker Unlike Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell, Robert Skene is probably not a readily recognized individual to many people. However, his name has been preserved in history as the composer of the tune for a song that has been quite popular among churches of Christ. Very little information is available about…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[520,521],"class_list":["post-85374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-music","tag-songs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":86709,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/songs-of-the-saints-paul-h-epps\/","url_meta":{"origin":85374,"position":0},"title":"Songs of the Saints: Paul H. Epps","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 19, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker Paul H. Epps was born on Mar. 20, 1914, in Booneville, Arkansas. Living in Muskogee, Oklahoma, from 1923 to 1945, he attended West Texas University in Canyon, Texas. His interest in music goes back to his early life when he studied rudiments and harmony in summer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85608,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/songs-of-the-saints-tullius-c-okane\/","url_meta":{"origin":85374,"position":1},"title":"Songs of the Saints: Tullius C. O’Kane","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 14, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker A name which may be a little more familiar, or at least recognized, than Skene but still not as well-known as Campbell or Stone is Tullius Clinton O'Kane, who was born in Fairfield County, in the vicinity of Lancaster, Ohio, on March 10, 1830, and educated\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34759,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/review-of-songs-for-worship-and-praise\/","url_meta":{"origin":85374,"position":2},"title":"Review of Songs for Worship and Praise","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker The newest general hymnbook published for use among churches of Christ is\u00a0Songs for Worship and Praise, edited by Robert J. Taylor Jr., and published in 2010 by Taylor Publications of Montgomery, TX.\u00a0 Brother Taylor has been active in church music for many years.\u00a0 I believe that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/SongsForWorshipAndPraise-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":67424,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/ten-of-the-best-known-early-english-hymns\/","url_meta":{"origin":85374,"position":3},"title":"Ten of the Best-Known Early English Hymns","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker Our English word \"hymn\" comes from a Greek term (humnos) meaning \"a sacred song\" and is defined as \"a song of praise, adoration, thanksgiving, etc., especially one sung at a religious service.\" We often use the term generically to refer to any religious song, but hymnologists\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59338,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-review-of-the-hymnbooks\/","url_meta":{"origin":85374,"position":4},"title":"A Review of the Hymnbooks","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker Originally published in Torch, October 1988 Please understand that my review is of necessity going to be biased by my own view of what constitutes a good hymn selection. With that in mind, I shall begin by saying that I grew up using the old \"brown\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20632,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/review-of-sacred-songs-of-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":85374,"position":5},"title":"Review of Sacred Songs of the Church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker The first new hymnbook among churches of Christ for the 21st century (notwithstanding the late Alton H. Howard's\u00a0Songs of the Church 21st Century Edition\u00a0which actually came out in 1990) is now available.\u00a0It is\u00a0Sacred Songs of the Church, edited by William D. Jeffcoat, copyrighted in 2007 by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/SacredSongsOfTheChurch.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85374\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}