by Wayne S. Walker<\/p>\n
In his book Hymns and History, Forrest M. McCann wrote, “Various individual Christians have published hymnals used more or less regionally in the United States and by segments of the Stone-Campbell Movement. Among these, without any effort to be definitive, are the following: S. H. and Flavil Hall, The Gospel Message in Song<\/em> (1910); Redemption’s Way in Song<\/em> (1911); and the Cross and Resurrection<\/em> (1920, 1927). The songs included were chiefly by the editors and their friends….F. L. Rowe, editor of the Christian Leader, published these hymnals.” One of the songs that the Halls published in many of their books was “Beautiful Home.” The text was written and the tune was composed by James Wesley McFadden, born on October 27, 1873, in Bethel Township, Monroe County, Ohio, to William Ray and Louisa May Day McFadden.<\/p>\n On July 16, 1893, McFadden married Mary Evalyn Morrison of Mt. Ephraim in Noble County, Ohio. The wedding occurred at Sycamore Valley in Monroe County, where the young couple lived, and he became an elementary school teacher. Their first eight children were born there. A lifelong member of the church of Christ, he preached some, taught Bible classes, and conducted funerals. In the early days of the century, the church was the center of family activities, especially during gospel meetings. The church usually had no full-time preacher, and his home always seemed to keep the preacher for the meetings. His grandson, James R. McFadden of Hilliard, Ohio, remembered seeing Flavil Hall at his grandparents’ home when Hall was conducting a meeting. Hall published McFadden’s song and helped him with a couple of spots.<\/p>\n Mrs. McFadden played the old-fashioned pump organ around which the musical family liked to sing. McFadden taught singing, both in the church and outside as well. One of their daughters, Addie Louisa Sharp Albaugh, who lived from 1908 to 1996, also composed a song, “The Realms of Somewhere,” published by the Halls. McFadden’s teaching career took him first to Tuscarawas County, in the Dover\/New Philadelphia area, and then to Wheeling Township near Old Washington in Guernsey County, both in Ohio. While living in Guernsey County, two more children were born to the McFaddens, and they continued to reside there until McFadden’s death on Feb. 18, 1933. His wife survived and lived until 1966.<\/p>\n My first acquaintance with McFadden’s song was the result of visiting during gospel meetings with the church assembling on Cemetery Rd. in Hilliard, OH, where his grandson, James R. McFadden, was a member and would occasionally lead it from copies that had been pasted in the back of their songbooks.\u00a0After asking for and receiving copies of the song, I obtained a copy of the 1927 revised and enlarged edition of The Cross and Resurrection in Song,<\/em> edited by Samuel H. and Flavil Hall, which contained the song. Through the years, many good brethren have written songs that have been used for a while and then forgotten. This seems to be undoubtedly quite normal because, as time passes, new songs are written, and many older ones naturally fall into disuse. But there was something about this song that caught my attention the very first time that I heard it. While we already have many songs about heaven in our books, this is a good one that perhaps deserves “dusting off” and being given a second look.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Wayne S. Walker In his book Hymns and History, Forrest M. McCann wrote, “Various individual Christians have published hymnals used more or less regionally in the United States and by segments of the Stone-Campbell Movement. Among these, without any effort to be definitive, are the following: S. H. and Flavil Hall, The Gospel Message…<\/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-85794","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":35011,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-history-of-our-hymnbooks\/","url_meta":{"origin":85794,"position":0},"title":"A History of Our Hymnbooks","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker originally published in Faith and Facts, October 1999 Back in the very late 1700s and early 1800s, the conditions in this new nation appeared just right for a number of different men from different denominational backgrounds in different parts of the country to begin calling for\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":60633,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-do-most-churches-of-christ-use-shaped-note-hymnbooks\/","url_meta":{"origin":85794,"position":1},"title":"Why Do Most Churches of Christ Use Shaped Note Hymnbooks?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 1, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker Question: I'm still doing some research as time permits regarding hymnbooks and how certain practices arose among our brethren. I know the history of shape notes well, but not how the system came to be used (and how widely it still is) among our brethren. A\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":85794,"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":86059,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/psalms-hymns-and-spiritual-songs\/","url_meta":{"origin":85794,"position":3},"title":"Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 25, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 15 No. 1, January 2015 We know from the New Testament and can infer from later writings of church leaders that Christians of the first century did sing in their worship, but we do not know precisely what songs they sang or exactly\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":85794,"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":19283,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-can-i-find-acapella-recordings-for-the-songs-in-our-songbook\/","url_meta":{"origin":85794,"position":5},"title":"Where can I find acapella recordings for the songs in our songbook?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I had a cassette collection of the Songs of the Church Acapella and I think they were sung by the Meistersingers. I moved and my tapes were lost and are sorely missed. Do you know of any source where I could buy another set? I am a song leader\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85794","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=85794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}