NeuroDivine

Hymns | Matthew 25 | 13 September 2026

Set against the sacred geography of Antrim—from Slemish Mountain to Rathlin Island—this hymn pairs ancient Irish imagery with Jesus’s Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25). It speaks to the universal struggle between fear and faithful service, inviting us not to bury our gifts in the earth, but to step into the wind, rain, and grace of a life fully spent for the Master.

The Master calls us each by name,
By Slemish slopes where ancient fires
Once whispered through the basalt winds
And stirred the old, unseen desires.

2.
For Erin’s God who shapes the dawn
Still walks the cliffs of Moyle’s wild shore;
Sea‑spirits rise to greet His call,
Hill‑spirits echo evermore.

3.
Yet some hearts tremble at the charge,
Like heather bowed in Antrim’s breath;
They bury gifts in earth‑deep realms
Where stone‑sp’rits brood on life and death.

4.
But when the Master comes again
Past sheep‑paths down to Cushendun,
The land itself leans in to hear
What works our mortal hands have done.

5.
Well done, good servant, enter in—
The feast is lit with lantern flame;
The triad‑powers of grace and truth
Uplift the ones who spent His name.

6.
So send us forth with talents bright,
Through Antrim wind and Rathlin rain;
Let earth and sky and sea‑born hosts
Bear witness as we rise again.

Hymn information 

First line: The Master calls us each by name
Text: Michael McFarland Campbell
Metre: LM
Tune: Tallis’s Canon
Theme: The Parable of the Talents, North Antrim
Scripture: Matthew 25
NDH-0341

© Michael McFarland Campbell. 2026. 
Permission granted for local church or parish use with attribution. Not for commercial reproduction.

A note on the Irish landscape and imagery

The hymn follows the landscape of County Antrim, in the north-east of Ireland. Slemish is the mountain traditionally associated with Saint Patrick’s years as an enslaved shepherd. Its dark volcanic rock stands within the wider basalt landscape of Antrim; the “ancient fires” therefore suggest both the mountain’s geological origins and the older spiritual memory carried by the land.

Erin is a traditional poetic name for Ireland. The Sea of Moyle is the stretch of water between north-east Antrim and Scotland, deeply embedded in Irish and Scottish story. In the legend of the Children of Lir, the enchanted children spend three hundred years upon its cold and stormy waters. Here, its cliffs and sea belong to God’s creation and answer the Creator’s call.

The sea-spirits, hill-spirits and stone-spirits are poetic personifications of the natural world rather than rival gods. They draw upon an Irish imaginative tradition in which land, sea and sky seem alive with memory and bear witness to divine action.

The heather bending in the Antrim wind represents the fearful servant: alive and gifted, but bowed down by apprehension. The buried talent disappears into an earth of ancient stone, while the land itself waits to see whether human beings will use what has been entrusted to them.

Cushendun is a small coastal village where the Glendun River reaches the sea. The sheep-paths descending towards it place the returning Master not in an abstract biblical landscape but upon the glens and hillsides of Antrim. Christ comes along familiar paths, and the very land “leans in” to hear what its people have done with their gifts.

The triad-powers of grace and truth echo the fondness of early Irish literature and teaching for truths arranged in groups of three. For many Christian readers, they also quietly suggest the life and action of the Holy Trinity.

Finally, Rathlin is the island lying off Antrim’s northern coast, exposed to Atlantic wind and rain. The hymn’s last verse gathers earth, sky and sea around it as witnesses. The landscape through which the servants have travelled becomes part of their offering: not scenery alone, but creation sharing in their faithful service.