On Our Way Rejoicing: Meaning, History, and HERMAS Tune
"On our way rejoicing"
- Written
- 1863
- Category
- Hymn
- Status
- Published
- Rights
- Public domain
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Story
On Our Way Rejoicing is John Samuel Bewley Monsell’s 1863 hymn of joyful Christian pilgrimage, later revised for processional use. It is often sung to Frances Ridley Havergal’s HERMAS, an independently composed tune published in Havergal’s Psalmody in 1871.
Overview
On Our Way Rejoicing presents the Christian life as a shared journey sustained by praise, hope, and confidence in God. Its spiritual movement is not triumphalism in the shallow sense: difficulty is acknowledged, yet the congregation is called to continue in faith because its security rests in God rather than in favorable circumstances.
The hymn joins several dimensions of discipleship. It links joy with perseverance, daily service with trust in divine blessing, confidence with the victory of Christ, and the journey of faith with worship of the Triune God. That combination gives the text unusual usefulness at the close of worship, when a congregation moves from gathered praise back into ordinary Christian vocation.
Pastorally, the hymn offers a form of resilient joy. Its theology allows sorrow and Christian rejoicing to coexist, while directing hope toward Christ and the final goal of the believer’s journey. For this reason it has been used in contexts of sending, pilgrimage, assurance, thanksgiving, and the close of worship.
Historical Background
John Samuel Bewley Monsell first published On Our Way Rejoicing in Hymns of Love and Praise in 1863. John Julian’s Dictionary of Hymnology, as reproduced by Hymnary, identifies the hymn on page 124 of that collection and states that it originally consisted of four stanzas of eight lines. Monsell appointed it for the First Sunday after Trinity, placing it within the church-year framework that shaped a substantial portion of his hymn writing. The earliest form therefore predates the familiar refrain structure found in many later hymnals.
Monsell subsequently revised the text for processional use. Julian reports that the principal revision was the repetition of material from the opening of the hymn as a refrain after each stanza. The revised form appeared in Monsell’s Parish Hymnal in 1873 as number 155, although Julian notes that some of the changes had circulated before that publication. This revision is historically important because it changed the hymn’s congregational shape: a continuous four-stanza text became a hymn with a recurring response especially suitable for movement and corporate participation.
The tune HERMAS belongs to a separate history. It was composed by Frances Ridley Havergal and was already in print in Havergal’s Psalmody and Century of Chants in 1871, a volume she edited from the musical work of her father, William Henry Havergal, while also adding material of her own. A later historical study of the Church Hymnary identifies HERMAS in that 1871 source and notes that it was set there to Monsell’s different harvest hymn Earth Below Is Teeming. This evidence rules out the idea that HERMAS was originally composed for On Our Way Rejoicing. It also shows that the text and tune developed independently before becoming a familiar pairing.
Hymnal transmission broadened the hymn’s musical life considerably. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century collections paired Monsell’s text with HERMAS but also with tunes such as ST. ALBAN and numerous other melodies. Hymnary catalogs more than two hundred hymnal instances of the text, demonstrating wide editorial circulation across different English-language traditions. The refrain form became especially useful in collections that classified the hymn for processions, closing worship, Christian pilgrimage, joy, or going forth.
Later hymnals also altered stanza selection and wording. Some omit material, adjust archaic expressions, or place the refrain differently, so no single modern hymnal should be assumed to reproduce Monsell’s 1863 text exactly. The original nineteenth-century text and Havergal’s nineteenth-century tune are public domain; however, a modern arrangement, harmonization, translation, or editorial adaptation can carry separate rights. The durable historical core is therefore Monsell’s 1863 hymn, his later processional revision, and the subsequent pairing with Havergal’s independently composed HERMAS.
Biblical Foundations
Isaiah 55:12 provides one of the clearest biblical parallels for the hymn’s union of movement, joy, peace, and praise. The prophetic picture of God’s people going forth joyfully gives a scriptural frame for a hymn that sends worshipers onward rather than leaving praise confined to the sanctuary.
Psalm 84:4–5 deepens the pilgrimage theme by connecting praise with strength found in God and with hearts directed toward the journey to worship. Acts 8:39 supplies a New Testament narrative parallel: after receiving the gospel and baptism, the Ethiopian official continues his journey rejoicing. Romans 8:31 grounds the hymn’s confidence in God’s saving favor rather than in human circumstances.
Second Corinthians 6:10 is especially important pastorally because it holds sorrow and rejoicing together. Christian joy need not deny grief. Colossians 3:16 adds the corporate dimension, portraying the church teaching and encouraging one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Together these passages illuminate the hymn as a song of communal pilgrimage, resilient joy, and sustained discipleship.
Verse Explanation
The hymn begins by establishing the governing image of Christian pilgrimage. The congregation is imagined as a people moving together in praise, with its confidence grounded in God even when the journey includes sorrow or uncertainty.
Its next movement connects faith with ordinary moral and practical discipleship. Joy is not detached from responsibility; the journey includes love of God and neighbor, daily work, and trust that faithful service rests within God’s providential care.
The following movement shifts the basis of assurance toward Christ. Christian confidence is presented as derivative rather than self-generated: hope rests in what Christ has accomplished and in the security he gives to believers.
The hymn concludes in doxology. The journey that began as joyful movement resolves in worship of the Triune God, so pilgrimage, discipleship, assurance, and praise are gathered into one theological whole. In the later processional form, the recurring refrain reinforces this corporate identity each time the congregation returns to its central act of praise.
Theological Reflection
The hymn presents Christian existence as pilgrimage: believers are people in motion, not people who have already reached their final rest. This gives its joy an eschatological direction. Hope comes from knowing whose people they are, who accompanies them, and toward whom their lives are moving.
Its theology of joy is equally important. The hymn does not require believers to pretend that sorrow, uncertainty, or struggle are absent. Instead, it places those realities within a larger confidence in God’s faithfulness and in Christ’s victory. This is close to Paul’s paradox of being sorrowful yet always rejoicing: Christian joy is a theological posture rooted in grace, not a demand for constant emotional brightness.
The hymn also moves toward explicitly Trinitarian worship. Christian perseverance is related to the Father, the saving work of Christ, and the presence of the Holy Spirit. The closing doxological emphasis prevents the journey from becoming merely a lesson in determination; the church travels in worship and dependence upon the Triune God.
Church Impact
The hymn’s reception is best demonstrated by hymnal circulation. Hymnary catalogs more than two hundred instances of Monsell’s text, spanning Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Adventist, Covenant, Sunday-school, and other collections. This breadth shows sustained editorial adoption across traditions, although hymnal inclusion alone cannot establish how often any particular congregation sang it.
Its classifications have varied with context. Some hymnals place it among songs of joy, pilgrimage, assurance, or Christian life; others use it specifically for closing worship, sending, or processional occasions. The Service Book and Hymnal of the Lutheran Church in America paired it with HERMAS in 1958, while Evangelical Lutheran Worship retained the hymn in its sending repertory in 2006. The Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal also uses HERMAS and places the hymn at the close of worship.
The text’s adaptability has contributed to that circulation. Editors have shortened it, revised wording, and paired it with different tunes while preserving its central identity as a song of joyful Christian movement. Its continuing usefulness lies in joining departure from worship with assurance, discipleship, and praise rather than treating the end of a service as merely a conclusion.
Musical Notes
HERMAS is a tune by Frances Ridley Havergal associated with 6.5.6.5 D texts and commonly used with a refrain. It was published in Havergal’s Psalmody and Century of Chants in 1871. A historical account of the Church Hymnary identifies the tune in that source with Monsell’s separate harvest text Earth Below Is Teeming, confirming that HERMAS did not originate as a setting of On Our Way Rejoicing.
The later pairing is nevertheless well established. Hymnary catalogs HERMAS with hundreds of hymnal instances and records it with Monsell’s hymn in Lutheran, Adventist, Covenant, and other collections. Different hymnals transpose the tune and sometimes alter the treatment of the refrain, so a single printed key or harmonization should not be treated as intrinsic to Havergal’s melody.
Monsell’s processional revision and Havergal’s regular, strongly shaped tune work effectively together because the recurring refrain gives singers a clear point of return. For congregational use, the musical priority is forward continuity and clear phrasing rather than an exaggerated march effect; the historical evidence supports processional use, but not one universally prescribed tempo or accompaniment style.
Application
- Use the hymn at the close of worship to connect gathered praise with the Christian life that continues after the service.
- Teach Christian joy as resilient trust that can coexist with grief rather than as denial of hardship.
- Pair the hymn with Isaiah 55:12, Psalm 84:4-5, or Acts 8:39 when teaching about pilgrimage, sending, and joyful discipleship.
- Connect its emphasis on daily faithfulness with ordinary service to God and neighbor rather than only with dramatic acts of devotion.
- Use its final theological movement to reinforce that Christian life and worship are grounded in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Discussion Questions
- How does the image of pilgrimage change the way Christians understand ordinary discipleship?
- Why did Monsell’s addition of a recurring refrain make the hymn especially suitable for processional use?
- What do Isaiah 55:12 and Psalm 84:4-5 contribute to the hymn’s theology of joyful movement?
- How does 2 Corinthians 6:10 help distinguish Christian joy from denial of sorrow?
- What difference does it make to know that HERMAS existed independently before it became associated with this hymn?
Teaching Tips
- Introduce the hymn with its documented 1863 publication and explain Monsell’s later revision for processional use.
- Read Isaiah 55:12 and Psalm 84:4-5 before singing to establish the biblical connection between joy, pilgrimage, and worship.
- Explain that HERMAS was a pre-existing Havergal tune published in 1871, not a melody originally written for this text.
- Use 2 Corinthians 6:10 to discuss how Christian rejoicing can coexist with real sorrow or difficulty.
- If comparing hymnals, note differences in stanza selection, wording, tune, and refrain placement without assuming that one modern form is the original.
Sources
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Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology — John Samuel Bewley Monsell biography
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Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology — Frances Ridley Havergal biography
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Hymnary.org — On Our Way Rejoicing text authority and publication history
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Hymnary.org — HERMAS tune authority
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IMSLP — Havergal's Psalmody and Century of Chants 1871 scan
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The Music of the Church Hymnary and the Psalter in Metre — HERMAS source note
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Dictionary of National Biography — John Samuel Bewley Monsell
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Bible Gateway — World English Bible Isaiah 55 verse 12
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Bible Study Tools — World English Bible Psalm 84 verse 5
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Bible Gateway — World English Bible Acts 8 verses 39 to 40
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Bible Gateway — World English Bible Romans 8 verse 31
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Bible Gateway — World English Bible 2 Corinthians 6 verses 10 to 12
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Bible Gateway — World English Bible Colossians 3 verse 16
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