Oh Say, What Is Truth?
272; 331

Text: John Jaques (1827–1900; LDS)
Music: Ellen Knowles Melling (1820–1905; LDS)
Tune name: JAQUES

In lofty language, this hymn asserts the priority and eternal nature of truth. All else may disappear; earthly power and riches count for nothing; but “truth, the sum of existence, will weather the worst / Eternal, unchanged, evermore.”

The hymn was written by an early Latter- day Saint missionary. It is likely that John Jaques was weighed down many times by the hardships of his calling, but he took comfort in recalling the all- consuming and overriding value of the truth whose messenger he was. These words might well serve as a morale- building reminder to a discouraged missionary. If truth is really “the brightest prize / To which mortals or Gods can aspire,” then it is worth any sacrifice.

George D. Pyper commented on this hymn in Stories of Latter- day Saint Hymns: “Among the hymns written by John Jaques is one which has taken its place as a classic among the writings of Mormon hymnists.” George D. Pyper’s account of the circumstances of this hymn’s origin is highly speculative but interesting nevertheless:

“Elder Jaques was called upon to return to England as a missionary from 1869 to 1871. His appointments frequently took him to Stratfordupon- Avon. On one occasion he sat there in an attractive nook, lost in reverie, perhaps feeling the influence of the great Shakespeare himself, pondering the words of Pilate, when he asked the Master, ‘What is Truth?’

“That question, he thought, has come down through the ages. Truth is a tiny word. Yet within it is encompassed the very foundation of the universe. In a figurative sense, those five letters stand as the supporting pillars of the bridge of experience, across which only mankind may enter into the fullness of earthly existence and reach the portals of that higher intelligence which leads, in our belief, to eternal life and happiness. Truth, the key to knowledge, its quest the noblest desire of man, underlies all our progress— our civilization. In a religious sense, it is the everlasting way to everlasting life. It offers an explanation to the deep riddle of our being— the past, the present, and the hereafter. And thus meditating upon the faith he had espoused, his surroundings brought to mind the lines of Shakespeare, ‘It is all as true as it is strange, nay, it is ten times ten times true, for truth is truth to the end of reckoning.’ [Measure for Measure, Act V.] It was no doubt such thoughts as these that inspired him to write ‘O Say, What Is Truth?’ which has a high place in Latter- day Saint hymnody” (121–22).

The hymn text was first published in the Millennial Star in 1850. It was printed with the present tune, JAQUES, in the 1887 Improvement Association Song Book.