Messing with hymns

When we switched from Ancient and Modern Revised to Common Praise a few years ago I discovered that the new book, though it now provided hymns like "Ye who own the faith of Jesus" and "Sweet Sacrament divine", was very short on penitential hymns. In some moment of madness the editors also decided to reintroduce verses that were previously, and fortunately, omitted. Some old hymns have been amended by changing an archaic word into something more modern. Some other hymnbooks have lost "consubstantial, coeternal" from the doxology of "Blessed City, heavenly Salem" and I was glad to find a Facebook group opposed to the dumbing down of doxologies.

The relatively small sins of commission and omission in Common Praise are as nothing compared to some internet hymnals. Couples marrying here and preparing their own order of service often download hymns. Today brought the unbelievably bad second verse of "Love divine, all loves excelling."

Breathe, O breathe thy loving Spirit,
Into every troubled breast!
Let us all in thee inherit;
Let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
End of faith, as its beginning,
Set our hearts at liberty.

No wonder the AMR editors noted that "Stanza 2 is omitted". A pity someone put it back in.

But the prize for the worst reworking of a hymn goes to an internet version of "Praise my soul, the King of heaven." It is de-pronouned, de-gendered, and defaced. It works on the basis that you cannot use a gender-specific pronoun in reference to God - and we all know that God is not gendered in that way - but the result is truly dreadful. One stanza shows this:

Fatherlike, God tends and spares us;
Well our feeble frame God knows;
Motherlike, God gently bears us,
Rescues us from all our foes.
Alleluia! alleluia!
Widely yet God's mercy flows.

So please write a new hymn, if you have the skill, but don't mess with the old ones.