Awake My Soul and Sing: Poems Inspired by Favorite Hymns

For centuries hymns have carried people through all sorts of times. The messages of those trusted songs ring with all-new joy, comfort, and hope here in a delightful gift book featuring the hymn-inspired poetry of Helen Steiner Rice.Then Sings My Soul celebrates the familiar lyrics of forty-five cherished hymns plus the surprising stories behind them, like: * How "Be Still My Soul," the favorite hymn of Olympic runner Eric Liddell, fueled his athletic training and eventual career as a missionary to China.* How a woman, blinded in a childhood accident, brought vision to the church, writing more than 8,000 hymns in her life, including "Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine." These are the same hymns that Rice not only sang, but lived and wove into her inspirational writings. Packaged with beautiful photography, this lovely book is accompanied by a choral CD with more than an hour of choral renditions of Rice's-and the world's-most beloved hymns.

Itís amazing and incredible, but itís true as it can be, God loves and understands us all and that means you and me . . . His grace is all-sufficient for both the young and old, For the lonely and the timid, for the brash and for the bold.

Hymns like ìAmazing Graceî inspired poetry like these lines by Helen Steiner Rice, and carried her through every season, event, and milestone in life. The hymns, Helenís inspirational reflections on them, and background on how each of these hymns came to be will transport you too. From the 1920s to her death in 1981, Helen Steiner Rice was the unofficial poet laureate of Americans seeking hope and optimism. Her books have sold more than seven million copies. Virginia J. Ruehlmann of Cincinnati, Ohio, continues the legacy of her friend through the Helen Steiner Rice Foundation. She has compiled nearly fifty volumes of Mrs. Riceís inspirational verse and poetry.