"Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Praise Him all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen"
One of my earliest church memories is everyone standing up to sing the doxology. We went to a small Methodist church in McGaheysville, VA with my grandparents until I was about 4. I remember resting my head on my grandma's lap and then, suddenly, everyone would stand up and sing this song as the offering plates were being delivered back up to the pulpit.
However, most of my growing up years were spent in a small rural Mennonite congregation in Grottoes, VA and guess what....they sang the Doxology too, but not nearly as often. I am assuming most denominations in the Christian church sing it.
When I was in 8th grade I started attending Eastern Mennonite High School. Then I was hit with a totally different version of the doxology...AND EVERYONE KNEW IT, except me (probably not true, but it felt that way)! Most people didn't even need to look at their hymnal for the words. The music director just said, "118' and well...everyone just sang this beautiful song I'd never heard before!
Some people call it the "Mennonite Anthem" or "606" "118". Here's "606" being sung at a convention I went to in 2011:

​The original doxology was written by Thomas Ken for his students at Winchester College.  He wrote a collection of prayers and included hymns as well. There were three sections: a morning hymn, an evening hymn, and a midnight hymn. The morning hymn was 14 verses long (can you imagine!!!??)! Each section ended with the words that we are most familiar with in the doxology. So the students were repeating "Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow" three times a day.  Here's the story behind the song with Dan Wilt:

Comment about your experience with the doxology. Did you grow up with it? How often did you sing it? 

​     You may have heard the song, “O Love that Will Not Let Me Go” sung by Sandra McCracken and Indelible Grace. A few other artists have recorded their own versions as well. I was introduced to this song by my dear friend Sarah about 5 years ago. Afterwards, it seemed like the song would pop up randomly...even on an NPR radio program one day. So I decided to do a little more research on the song and discovered it is actually an old hymn  written in a matter of minutes! What!?
  The hymn, "Oh Love that Will Not Let Me Go," was written in 1882 by George Matheson. He had a condition that was causing him to lose his eyesight. He had been engaged, but his fiance broke it off with him because she didn't think she could be married to a blind man. His sister helped care for him up until her marriage. Matheson actually wrote "Oh Love that Will Not Let Me Go" while everyone was away at his sister's wedding. It is believed that the wedding of his sister brought back memories of heartache, which led to him writing the song. Here is what Matheson said about the hymn:
"My hymn was com­posed in the manse of In­ne­lan [Ar­gyle­shire, Scot­land] on the ev­en­ing of the 6th of June, 1882, when I was 40 years of age. I was alone in the manse at that time. It was the night of my sister’s mar­ri­age, and the rest of the fam­i­ly were stay­ing over­night in Glas­gow. Some­thing hap­pened to me, which was known only to my­self, and which caused me the most se­vere men­tal suf­fer­ing. The hymn was the fruit of that suf­fer­ing. It was the quick­est bit of work I ever did in my life. I had the im­press­ion of hav­ing it dic­tat­ed to me by some in­ward voice ra­ther than of work­ing it out my­self. I am quite sure that the whole work was com­plet­ed in five min­utes, and equal­ly sure that it ne­ver re­ceived at my hands any re­touch­ing or cor­rect­ion. I have no na­tur­al gift of rhy­thm. All the other vers­es I have ever writ­ten are man­u­fact­ured ar­ti­cles; this came like a day­spring from on high."

​The rainbow pictures were taken by my sister a few years ago. I actually woke Levi up from his nap that day to go look at the rainbows. When we walked outside, it was still raining, but the sun was out and there was this beautiful double rainbow! Anyway, it reminded me of the line in the song that says "I trace the rainbow through the rain, and feel the promise is not vain."
 I attend a Mennonite church and we sing this song, but not out of the hymnal (at least not that I’ve ever heard). We do sing the Indelible Grace version of it with the worship team though. In our hymnal it is number 577. Do you sing this hymn? Is it new to you?



O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

O light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.

​O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.