“Go, Ye Messengers of Heaven” is one of the lesser-known hymns in the current Latter-day Saint hymnal. It is a fine hymn, but is unfortunately relegated to the back of the book among a group of hymns designated for “men” or “men’s choir,” and as such, is rarely sung.
The words are credited to President John Taylor (1808-1887), but there is no evidence of his authorship. In all likelihood, this attribution is an error resulting from the similarity of its first line to that of another little-known hymn written by Taylor, “Go Ye Messengers of Glory,” also found in the current Latter-day Saint hymnal.
“Go Ye Messengers of Heaven” was first published in 1841 at Nauvoo, Illinois, in Emma Smith’s A Collection of Sacred Hymns, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Taylor, at this time, was serving a mission in England, and had one year previously helped compile a hymnal for the European Saints with fellow apostles Parley P. Pratt and Brigham Young, A Collection of Sacred Hymns, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, in Europe. Taylor included some of his own hymns in this collection, including “Go Ye Messengers of Glory.” If he had authored “Go Ye Messengers of Heaven,” it is probable he would have inserted it one of the later editions of his own hymnal, rather than sending it to Emma Smith for publication in Nauvoo. Seven additional editions of the Manchester hymnal were published between 1841 and 1849, but “Go Ye Messengers of Heaven” does not appear in any of these. It was eventually added in 1851, long after Taylor had ceased to be involved with the hymnal, and appeared in every official Church hymnal until 1948. Although it was dropped from the hymnal in 1948, it was brought back in 1985 as a piece for men’s voices. “Go, Ye Messengers of Heaven” was never attributed to Taylor during his lifetime. In fact, he was not credited as this hymn’s author until 1927, forty years after his death. “Go Ye Messengers of Glory,” in contrast, was attributed to Taylor in 1863, shortly after author names were first introduced into the hymnal.
TRANSPORT, the tune to which we sing the words “Go Ye Messengers of Heaven,” was first published in the Juvenile Instructor on May 15, 1887, originally set to a hymn with the first line “From on high the Lord is calling.” Both words and music were attributed to F. Christensen.
Two years later the tune was paired with the words “Go Ye Messengers of Heaven” and published in The Latter-day Saints’ Psalmody (1889), where it was given the name TRANSPORT.
In the current Latter-day Saint hymnal, this tune is still attributed to the anonymous F. Christensen. Although Christensen is not listed as a Latter-day Saint composer in the hymnal’s index of “Authors and Composers,” evidence suggests Christensen was, in fact, a member of the Church. The Latter Day Saints’ Millennial Star, on June 11, 1883, in an article concerning “Utah News,” lists awards given “for words and music for hymns, songs, anthems, etc. contributed in response to the call of the Deseret Sunday School Union.” One of the names listed is “F. Christensen.”
The name “F. Christensen” can also be found mentioned in the Juvenile Instructor nearly one month later, on July 1, 1883: “Elder George Reynolds…read the following list of poetical pieces which, though not awarded prizes, were worthy of special and honorable mention:” Among the subjoined listing of poems and their authors is the following: “Join the Children of the Lord. F. Christensen, Fairview, Sanpete Co.”
F. Christensen, who composed the tune TRANSPORT, is almost certainly Mads Frederick Theobald Christensen (1837-1917), a Danish convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint, who went by the name Frederick Christensen, and was a resident of Fairview, Utah. His contributions to the Skandinaviens Stjerne (“Scandinavian Star”), the periodical of the Scandinavian and Danish Mission, are often signed “F. Christensen.” He also contributed several hymn texts to the Danish hymn book, and was a talented musician.
Mads Frederick Theobald Christensen (1837-1917)
Frederick Christensen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, on March 10, 1837, the third of four sons born to Dorthea Christiane Thranum Christensen and Mads Christensen. His older brother was well-known artist Carl Christian Anton Christensen. The Christensen family lived in poverty, and Frederick and his brothers were educated at the Royal Orphanage, a school for poor boys. Upon completion of his education, Frederick was apprenticed as a saddler.
His mother joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint in 1850, and Frederick was baptized three years later, on April 8, 1853. He immigrated to Utah with his mother the following year, traveling across the plains with the Hans Peter Olsen Company, which arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on September 5, 1854. He settled in Springville, Utah, and later moved to Fairview. He was married on June 3, 1861, to Christine Sophia Rasmussen, and two years afterward, on December 26, 1863, he entered into a polygamous marriage when he married Fredericka Olson.
At the request of Church president Brigham Young, Christensen volunteered to settle in Muddy Valley, in present-day Nevada, near the confluence of the Muddy and the Virgin Rivers. He helped built the settlement of St. Thomas, where he and his family lived for the next eight years. In 1871 Christensen returned to Fairview, and worked various jobs until he was offered the position of principal in the Fairview district school in 1879.
Christensen served three missions to Scandinavia: the first from 1883-1885; the second, 1898-1899;and the third, 1905-1907. He mostly worked in the mission office as writer and translator for Scandinavian Star, and helped revise the Danish hymn book.
During his third mission to Copenhagen, Christensen’s wife Christine passed away, and he was married for a third time, to Jensine Serine Larsen, on June 7, 1907, shortly before leaving Denmark. (His wife Fredericka passed away in 1889.)
Christensen moved to Mt. Pleasant, Utah in 1905, where he lived for the remainder of his life. He was seriously injured on July 12, 1917, when he was run over by a runaway team of horses. He died two days later, on July 14, 1917, and was interred at the Fairview City Cemetery. He was remembered by his granddaughter Ruby C. Smith as a “‘very loving man’ who was ‘gifted in music.’” (Black.)
Notes:
*Another hymn written by F. Christensen, “Join the Children of the Lord,” was published in the Juvenile Instructor on January 15, 1888. 
This hymn was immediately adopted by the Primary Association and published in Hymns and Sacred Songs Designed for the use of the Children of the Latter-day Saints (1888). This hymn was later included in many other Latter-day Saint Primary Song books, including Deseret Sunday School Songs (1909), usually with the original first line “Join with us in sweetest chord” slightly altered to “Join with us in sweet accord.” This hymn was also used by the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and can be found in that denomination’s Zion’s Praises (1903), The Hymnal (1956), and Hymns of the Saints (1981). It was dropped from the official Community of Christ hymnal in 2013, when their most recent hymnal was published.
*Christensen contributed several original hymns and translations to the Danish hymn book. See for example: Salmer og Aandelige Sange for Jesu Kristi Kirke af Sideste-Dages Hellige (1906), hymn numbers 66, 264, 271, 273, 277, 278, 279, and 281; and Zions sange: en samling af udvalgte sange (1910), hymn numbers 45, 49, 101, 121, 138, 141, 146, 150, 187, and 195. Hymns by his brother Carl can also be found in these collections. Both of these books are viewable online at hathitrust.org.
Sources:
“Fairview,” Deseret News, August 7, 1872, 6.
“Utah News,” Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star, June 11, 1883, 375.
“Deseret S. S. Union Meeting,” Juvenile Instructor 18, no. 13 (July 1, 1883), 203.
F. Christensen, “Hymn,” Juvenile Instructor 22, no 10 (May 15, 1887), 160.
F. Christensen, “Join the Children of the Lord,” Juvenile Instructor 23, no. 2 (January 15, 1888), 32.
“F. T. Christensen Dies From Injuries,” Deseret Evening News, July 19, 1917, 10.
Anton H Lund, Scandinavian Jubilee Album (Salt Lake City: n. p., 1900), 75.
Susan Easton Black, Shauna Christine Anderson, Ruth Ellen Maness, Legacy of Sacrifice: Missionaries to Scandinavia, 1872–94 (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, 2007), 77-78, http://rsc.byu.edu/archived/legacy-sacrifice-missionaries-scandinavia-1872%E2%80%9394/c (accessed April 3, 2012)
Latter-day Saint Hymnology 