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Speed Away

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Words: Frances Jane (“Fanny”) Crosby (b. March 24, 1820; d. Feb. 12, 1915)
Music: Isaac Baker Woodbury (b. Oct. 23, 1819; d. Oct. 26, 1858)

Note: Without much question, Fanny Crosby was the premiere gospel song writer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She wrote something like 8,500 songs, and quite a few of them are still popular–To God Be the Glory, Blessed Assurance, Safe in the Arms of Jesus, Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour, and many more.

Fanny was blind from the age of six months but she never let this hinder her many activities and accomplishments. She was trained, and later became a teacher at the New York City School for the Blind. There she was befriended by future president Grover Cleveland, who spent hours writing down poems she composed.

She was the first woman to speak before a joint session of the American Congress (April, 1846), and she performed at the White House for President James Polk around the same time. Interestingly, she was a distant relative of popular singer Bing Crosby. Early on, Miss Crosby wrote many secular songs and poems. She put her faith in Christ at the age of thirty. Then, from her mid-forties onward she wrote only hymns.

(Stanza numbers in brackets below refer to the stanza number in The Cyber Hymnal. Find the link at the bottom of the article.)

We could describe a fast car as speeding along. But speed is a relative thing. What is great rapidity in one case is a mind-numbing crawl in another.

A garden snail may think it’s hurrying when it travels 0.047 kilometres per hour. Human beings can go much faster. Sprint champion Usain Bolt runs short distances at about 45 kms/hr (28 miles per hour), which was often near the top speed of the earliest automobiles. Today, racing cars can travel almost ten times as fast.

But all of this is dwarfed by the speed of light. In one second it travels nearly 300,000 kilometres (186,000 miles)–which is equal to seven times around the earth. At that rate, light from the sun, 93,000,000 miles away, takes only eight and a half minutes to reach us.

Speeding in a car beyond the set speed limit is illegal. It can also be dangerous, especially when the highway is wet or icy. But there are times when speed can be a wonderful thing. Think of the way we can see on television what’s happening on the other side of the earth, almost as it happens. Receiving news from Japan or the Philippines, or sending messages there, can be done in seconds.

These facts relate to a missionary hymn written by Fanny Crosby in 1890, after she heard a song called Speed Away, that had been produced forty years earlier. It recounted a legend about an Indian maiden who died. Her father mourned her loss, until she sent a bird from the Happy Hunting Grounds with a reassuring message for him.

Fanny loved the melody, and she wrote a Christian missionary hymn to fit it, using the same title but with a totally different message. Ira Sankey, the music director of evangelist Dwight Moody, adapted Woodbury’s original tune to suit the words. In the years since, it has been used often at farewell services for departing missionaries.

(1) Speed away, speed away, on your mission of light,
To the lands that are lying in darkness and night;
’Tis the Master’s command; go ye forth in His name,
The wonderful gospel of Jesus proclaim;
Take your lives in your hand, to the work while ’tis day,
Speed away, speed away, speed away.

(3) Speed away, speed away with the message of rest,
To the souls by the tempter in bondage oppressed;
For the Savior has purchased their ransom from sin,
And the banquet is ready, O gather them in;
To the rescue make haste, there’s no time for delay,
Speed away, speed away, speed away.

We have tools to do that more quickly today than Christians did in 1890. But the question is: Are we using the tools we have? Are we busy in the Lord’s work? There is reason for haste. The Lord Jesus told John in his book of prophecy:

Behold, I am coming quickly [or soon], and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.

Rev. 22:12

If His coming was “soon” in John’s day, it is very soon today. We must serve the Lord with the view that His return could come at any moment. Meanwhile, we have a commission to fulfil:

“You shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). “Go into all the world and preach the gospel” (Mk 16:15).

Questions:

  1. What are some things that require haste?
  2. What are some things where haste often causes problems?

Links:

Rise, My Soul, and Stretch Thy Wings

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Words: Robert Seagrave (b. Nov. 22, 1693; d. circa 1759)
Music: Amsterdam, by James Nares (b. Apr. 19, 1715; d. Feb. 10, 1783)

Note: Robert Seagrave was an English clergyman who was appointed Sunday Evening Lecturer at Lorimers’ Hall, a Baptist meeting house in London. He also worked with John and Charles Wesley, and evangelist George Whitefield. In 1742, Seagrave published a book with the lengthy title, Hymns for Christian Worship, Partly Composed and Partly Collected from Various Authors. Included in it was this hymn about longing for heaven.

(Stanza numbers in brackets below refer to the stanza number in The Cyber Hymnal. Find the link at the bottom of the article.)

What is time? The Oxford Dictionary tells us:

“Time is the indefinite continued progress of existence and events that occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future.”

As creatures of time, we remember yesterday, we live today, and we anticipate tomorrow. The present moment is our God-given currency, to invest or to waste, to spend helpfully or harmfully. But what of the past and the future?

It’s best not to dwell too much on personal memories of days gone by. Either we become discouraged, and flooded with regrets about past failures. Or we are inflated with pride over our perceived successes. Neither is particularly helpful. Like a runner in a race, constantly looking back may cause us to stumble and lose ground.

As to the future, it’s a wise thing to plan and prepare for it. As the Lord put it:

Which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it–lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, “This man began to build and was not able to finish”?

Lk. 14:28-30

But having planned and prepared, we mustn’t assume a kind of divine sovereignty over tomorrow. We are not God. In this mortal life, there is no guarantee we’ll be able to do what we hoped to do. So many unexpected things can intervene–both pleasant things and ones not so pleasant. Perhaps we have a surprise visit from a good friend we haven’t seen in years, or maybe illness keeps us home when we intended to go to a concert.

The Bible says:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit;” whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that”.

Jas. 4:13-15

Though we must live out our mortal span of years, and are responsible to use them well, God’s Word encourages Christians to see the present as transitory, while comforting ourselves with the future the Lord has in store for us. Unlike our own plans, God’s designs will always be fulfilled.

Let not your heart be troubled….I [Jesus] go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

Jn. 14:1-3

Later, from a prison cell, Paul wrote that he had “a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better” (Phil. 1:23; cf. II Cor. 4:17-18). And he said this to the Thessalonian believers: “Thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words” (I Thess. 4:17-18).

(1) Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings,
Thy better portion trace;
Rise from transitory things,
Towards heav’n, thy native place:
Sun and moon and stars decay,
Time shall soon this earth remove;
Rise, my soul, and haste away
To seats prepared above.

(4) Cease, ye pilgrims, cease to mourn,
Press onward to the prize;
Soon our Saviour will return,
Triumphant in the skies:
Yet a season, and you know
Happy entrance will be giv’n
All our sorrows left below,
And earth exchanged for heav’n.

Questions:

  1. How can confidence about our heavenly home affect our lives here and now?
  2. Is it possible to focus too much on heaven and our future there? (Why? Or why not?)

Links:

I Want to See My Saviour First of All

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Words: John Willard Peterson (b. Nov. 1, 1921; d. Sept. 20, 2006)
Music: John Willard Peterson

Note: John Peterson was the preeminent gospel song writer of the mid-twentieth century. His many songs, such as It Took a Miracle, Surely Goodness and Mercy, Heaven Came Down and Glory Filled My Soul, and It’s Not An Easy Road, and his many choir cantatas, have been used by evangelical churches all over the world.

(Stanza numbers in brackets below refer to the stanza number in The Cyber Hymnal. Find the link at the bottom of the article.)

Setting the right priorities in life seems to be a concern for many. That’s clear from the flood of books and web articles dealing with the subject. Priorities come into play in life’s big decisions, but also in our daily tasks. The man who’s embarrassed to find he’s painted himself into a corner failed to plan wisely which part of the floor to paint first.

There are some ways to establish priorities that are not advisable. One is to respond to everything that comes up the moment it comes up. But bouncing from one thing to another in this way can lead to a disordered and stressful existence. And it means we’re being victimized by what someone has called the tyranny of the urgent, and in the process we may be missing what is most important.

Another technique is to pick the easiest or most enjoyable task to do first and leave the more difficult or unpleasant until later. Admittedly there can be some benefit to this. It gets us moving. Writers use this technique when they suffer from writer’s block. An article is urgently needed, but they can’t think of what to write, or how to start. Experienced authors tell them to write anything–a letter to a friend, a grocery list, anything. Get the creative juices flowing. Then go back to the article.

But the danger of leaving difficult or less enjoyable tasks until later is that “later” may never come. Like tomorrow, it’s always being pushed off into the future. In the extreme, an opportunity may be lost forever, or the strength to do what we need to do may trickle away, having been expended on lesser things.

As to the spiritual priorities of the believer, Ecclesiastes reminds us that setting those should start early in life. This will begin as the task of parents (Prov. 22:6), training the child to:

Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come, and the years draw near when you say, “I have no pleasure in them”.

Ecc. 12:1

The Lord Jesus said we are to:

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things [the things of life that tend to worry us so much] shall be added to you….Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

Matt. 6:32-33

And Paul expressed his priority this way:

One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind…I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Phil. 3:13-14 – a way of saying that he wanted to finish well.

And let’s project our thoughts into the future. What will be our priority when we get to heaven? We often speak of the beauty of heaven, and the fact that we will have new resurrection bodies that won’t get sick or wear out. But what’s heaven’s priority? Surely it is being with the Lord, knowing Him, and honouring Him. When John received his revelations about the future, he was summoned to heaven, and he tells us what he saw first:

Behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne.

Rev. 4:1-2

Fanny Crosby wrote a song in 1891 about her priority on reaching heaven. One stanza says,

Through the gates to the city
In a robe of spotless white,
He will lead me where no tears will ever fall;
In the glad song of ages
I shall mingle with delight;
But I long to meet my Saviour first of all.

About half a century later John Peterson expressed that in his own way.

1. In heaven there are many things I’m longing so to see,
Its beauties surely will my soul enthrall;
But when I’m ushered to the realms of blest eternity,
I want to see my Saviour first of all!

I want to see my Saviour first of all,
Before on any others I would call;
And then for countless days
On His dear face I’ll gaze,
I want to see my Saviour first of all.

Both of these saints of God–who have meant so much to the church with their music ministry–are now experiencing that fellowship with the Lord they to which they looked forward so ardently.

Questions:

  1. What are your priorities for today?
  2. What are your priorities for your life as a whole?

Links:

Jesus, the Name High Over All

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Words: Charles Wesley (b. Dec. 18, 1707; d. March 29, 1788)
Music: Gräfenberg, by Johann Crüger (b. Apr. 9, 1598; d. Feb. 23, 1662)

Note: Charles was the hymn writing brother of John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement. He wrote more than six thousand hymns, with quite a few still in use. Hark, the Herald Angels Sing, Christ the Lord Is Risen Today, Jesus, Lover of My Soul, O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing, and many more, came from his pen. There were actually twenty-two stanzas of the present hymn originally. Most hymnals seem to use only six or eight.

(Stanza numbers in brackets below refer to the stanza number in The Cyber Hymnal. Find the link at the bottom of the article.)

It has been the traditional call of an officer of the court since the Middle Ages. “Oyez! Oyez! All persons having business before the Honourable Judge So-and-So are admonished to draw near and give their attention, for the Court is now in session.” The twice repeated “Oyez” is not a form of “Oh ye.” It means, “Hear! Listen!” It’s a command for silence and the attention of those present.

Standing before the court may be a guilty individual whose crime has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. “Guilty as charged!” No clever lawyer has been able to wipe away the stain on his record. The evidence has shown clearly that he committed the crime, and now the judge will pronounce the sentence.

On the other hand, the one before the court may be there to appeal his innocence. There has been an accusation made, but the individual did not do what is claimed. Overwhelming evidence in his favour has been presented. In that case, the judge will support the rights of the accused and rule quite differently. “Not guilty!” The person is free to go his way with no charge against his record.

There is a real sense in which, when a pastor or missionary preaches a sermon, they are calling, “Oyez! Oyez! All persons having business before God, the Judge of all, are admonished to draw near and give their attention.” Many times the Bible calls for silence before a holy God. For example:

The Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.

Hab. 2:20

Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!

Ps. 46:10

Be silent in the presence of the Lord God.

Zeph. 1:7

We are to give heed to His Word when it’s proclaimed. It may be a word of comfort and assurance for those have put their faith in Christ. Their sins are forgiven, and they stand guiltless before the Lord (Jn. 5:24). Or, it may be a sharp word of condemnation for those who have sins charged against them in the court of heaven (Rom. 3:23). In either case, “Oyez! Oyez!” Listen to what God says.

On August 6th, 1774, Charles Wesley was preaching at a church in Cornwall, England. Even though we consider him a hymn writer, he did more than that. On this particular occasion Charles was preaching, and he spoke boldly about the sins that had corrupted the community. He condemned the drunken revels of the people, urging them to repent and put their faith in Christ.

But these were rough times. Suddenly a man stood and began to curse and swear, and contradict the message from God’s Word. Wesley was quite used to people trying to disrupt the meetings. He sternly exclaimed, “Who is he that pleads for the devil?” And he proceeded to expose the blasphemer’s sins with such spiritual power that the man ran from the church.

Clearly there are times when the “soft answer [that] turns away wrath” (Prov. 15:1) is needed. But other times, as John the Baptist (Lk. 3:7-8), the Lord Jesus (Jn. 8:44), and Peter (Acts 8:20-21) illustrate, the strong, direct approach is called for.

After the man had gone, Wesley offered a prayer for him. And it was this incident that inspired him to write the hymn Jesus, the Name High Over All.

(1) Jesus! the name high over all,
In hell or earth or sky;
Angels and men before it fall,
And devils fear and fly.

(2) Jesus! the name to sinners dear,
The name to sinners giv’n;
It scatters all their guilty fear,
It turns their hell to heav’n.

(3) Jesus! the prisoner’s fetters breaks,
And bruises Satan’s head;
Power to strengthless souls it speaks,
And life into the dead.

(6) Thee I shall constantly proclaim,
Though earth and hell oppose;
Bold to confess Thy glorious name
Before a world of foes.

Questions:

  1. How did you handle someone who angrily differed with you about your faith?
  2. What have you learned from this post, or others on this website?

Links:

If That Isn’t Love

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Words: Joyce Reba Luttrell (“Dottie”) Rambo (b. March 2, 1934; d. May 11, 2018)
Music: Joyce Reba Luttrell (“Dottie”) Rambo

Note: Dottie Rambo wrote more than 2,500 gospel songs. We Shall Behold Him is another of hers. She died as a result of injuries sustained in a bus accident.

(Stanza numbers in brackets below refer to the stanza number in The Cyber Hymnal. Find the link at the bottom of the article.)

How many things that are called “a sure thing” really aren’t? That investment in stocks that were supposed to bring big dividends. That horse that was certain to win the Kentucky Derby. What was claimed to be definite so often disappoints us.

In 1957-58, the Ford Motor Company developed the Edsel automobile, and had high hopes for it. But it was rejected by the public as overpriced and unattractive. It has become a lasting symbol of failed expectations. In design and start-up costs alone, Ford lost two hundred and fifty million dollars.

It was Benjamin Franklin who said:

“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

But that axiom is wrong on several counts. Taxes come and go, and the Bible teaches that both Enoch (Heb. 11:5) and Elijah (II Kgs. 2:11) were caught up into heaven without dying. And those believers who are alive when Christ returns, will be ushered into His presence without passing through death (I Thess. 4:16-17).

So, can nothing be said to be certain? Is there no sure thing? Yes, the Bible is always true and trustworthy. As Jesus said to His heavenly Father, “Your word is truth” (Jn. 17:17). That means the many promises of God in it are reliable. We can depend on what He has said. And the love of God for His children–which the Bible talks about–is also a sure thing.

How was the love of God most clearly revealed?

In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him….The Father has sent the Son as Saviour of the world.

I Jn. 4:9, 14

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Jn. 3:16

The Son of God…loved me, and gave Himself for me.

Gal. 2:20

In his book, Stories Behind Popular Songs and Hymns, Lindsay Terry tells the touching story behind two gospel songs about the love of God, songs written by gospel musician Dottie Rambo.

Dottie’s older brother Eddy was not a Christian. In fact, he’d led a very wicked life. A gambler and a thief, he’d spent time in prison. But now he was dying of cancer. His body had wasted away to a mere sixty-five pounds, and doctors said he had only a few weeks to live. When his sister tried to speak to him about salvation, he replied that he was too big a sinner for God to ever save him.

It was with her brother in mind that Rambo wrote the song He Looked Beyond My Fault and Saw My Need. When she sang it for Eddy, he wept, and asked her to write out the words for him. A few days later, Dottie Rambo was in a church to minister in music. There, after asking for prayer for her brother, she seemed to sense that something wonderful had happened to him.

The next day, she visited Eddy again, and he told her that the morning before he had finally found peace with God. She realized that he was truly saved, and told him more about the wonderful love of God for him. In her joy of that she later wrote a second song that says:

He left the splendour of heaven, knowing His destiny
Was the lonely hill of Golgotha–there to lay down His life for me.

If that isn’t love, the ocean is dry,
There are no stars in the sky, and sparrows can’t fly!
If that isn’t love, then heaven’s a myth,
There’s no feeling like this, if that isn’t love.

Of course, we don’t really prove the love of God by feelings, however inspiring. Feelings come and go, and they’re not always an accurate reflection of reality. The old children’s hymn offers a better evidence.

Jesus loves me, this I know,
For the Bible tells me so.

It’s the Word of God that assures us of His love. And the love of God is as certain as there’s water in the ocean and stars in the sky. But even when He destroys both of those one day, to make way for a new heaven and new earth (II Pet. 3:10, 13; Rev. 21:1), the love of God will remain constant. It’s, what Jeremiah described to Israel as “an everlasting love” (Jer. 31:3). A sure thing.

Questions:

  1. What has been your own experience of the love of God?
  2. What does the Bible mean when it says “God is love” (I Jn. 4:8, 16)?

Links:

Faith of Our Mothers

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Words: Arthur Bardwell Patten (b. March 26, 1864; d. May 10, 1952)
Music: St. Catherine, by Henri Frederick Hemy (b. Nov. 12, 1818; d. June 10, 1888)

Note: To Frederick Faber’s Faith of Our Fathers, Pastor Patten has added Faith of Our Mothers. I see in the Cyber Hymnal there is also a Faith of Our Brothers, though the poetry seems rather forced and inferior in that case. (And yes, there is an adaptation of Faber’s original that includes “Faith of our sisters” in one stanza.)

(Stanza numbers in brackets below refer to the stanza number in The Cyber Hymnal. Find the link at the bottom of the article.)

Many can testify to the influence of their mother on their own faith in God. In my case, it was my mother who led me to personal faith in the Lord Jesus when I was seven. She continued to have a positive influence on my life until the Lord took her home in 2001.

Another mother who’s had a tremendous impact on the church at large is Susanna Wesley (1669-1742). The daughter of a pastor, she was the twenty-fifth of his twenty-five children. She married Samuel Wesley, another pastor, when she was sixteen, and had nineteen children of her own, though only eight survived. She was a gifted and strong-willed woman, far ahead of her time in many ways.

Susanna believed in firm discipline, balanced with a warmth of affection. She was largely responsible for the education of her children. The day after each child turned five, schooling began. There were classes six hours a day, and school subjects included Latin and Greek. She also organized her time so she could give some individual attention to each of her children, every day.

She conducted a Sunday afternoon church service for her children, in which they would all sing psalms, and she would read one of her father’s or her husband’s sermons. Clearly, she believed the Bible’s admonition, “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6). As adults in the community learned what she was doing, they asked if they could attend those services. Eventually there were over two hundred people who did so!

Though she never wrote a book, or preached a sermon of her own, Susanna Wesley is sometimes called the Mother of Methodism. Two of her sons, John and Charles went on to have a worldwide influence in their service for Christ. John, the founder of the Methodist movement, travelled about 225,000 miles on horseback around England, preaching the gospel in more than 40,000 sermons. He looked back with great fondness on the loving care and influence of his mother.

Charles, the premier hymn writer of the eighteenth century, produced more than 6,500 of them, many of which are still in use. It is only possible to give a sampling of his songs here:

Christ, the Lord, is Risen Today
Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
Depth of Mercy, Can There Be
Lo! He Comes, with Clouds Descending
Love Divine, All Love’s Excelling
O for a Heart to Praise My God
O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing
Rejoice, the Lord Is King
Ye Servants of God, Your Master Proclaim

Two of his songs, Hark, the Herald Angels Sing, and Jesus, Lover of My Soul, have long been considered among the finest hymns in the English Language.

It is right and proper for us to honour the contribution of mothers to our life and service for Christ, and to the strength of our own families. In 1920, American pastor Arthur Patten wrote a hymn about that. Clearly, it was designed as a partner to Frederick Faber’s Faith of Our Fathers, written seventy years before, and makes use of the same tune.

Thus we have both a special day of the year, and a unique hymn to “Honour [our] father and mother” (Eph. 6:2). To honour (in Greek timao) is to value as precious, to express our esteem for. That is what God calls us to do regarding our parents. Kenneth Wuest’s Expanded Translation shows that this is in a continuous tense. It’s something we are to keep on doing: “Be always honouring your father and your mother.”

Patten’s hymn says:

(1) Faith of our mothers, living still
In cradle song and bedtime prayer;
In nursery lore and fireside love,
Thy presence still pervades the air:
Faith of our mothers, living faith!
We will be true to thee to death.

(2) Faith of our mothers, loving faith,
Fount of our childhood’s trust and grace,
Oh, may thy consecration prove
Source of a finer, nobler race:
Faith of our mothers, loving faith,
We will be true to thee till death.

(3) Faith of our mothers, guiding faith,
For youthful longing, youthful doubt,
How blurred our vision, blind our way,
Thy providential care without:
Faith of our mothers, guiding faith,
We will be true to thee till death.

Questions:

  1. What contribution did your own mother make to your life and service for Christ?
  2. What do you believe to be the greatest contribution a mother can make in the lives of her children?

Links:

I Do Not Ask, O Lord

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Words: Adelaide Anne Procter (b. Oct. 30, 1825; d. Feb. 2, 1864)
Music: Orono, by Karl Pomeroy Harrington (b. June 13, 1861; d. Nov. 14, 1953)

Note: Though her work is little known today, Adelaide Procter was one of the most popular writers in England in her day. A friend of Charles Dickens, and the favourite poet of Queen Victoria, her works outsold those of any contemporary poet other than Tennyson.

Many well known authors of the day were family friends and visited in the Procter home. As for Adelaide, she was already creating her own poems before she could read or write. When a little girl, she carried around a small book, as a child would carry a doll, and when she thought of some lines of verse, her mother would write them down for her in the book.

Dickens published many of the things she wrote, and he commented about her:

“When she was quite a young child, she learnt with facility several of the [mathematical] problems of Euclid. As she grew older, she acquired the French, Italian, and German languages [as well as skill in] piano [and] drawing.”

(Stanza numbers in brackets below refer to the stanza number in The Cyber Hymnal. Find the link at the bottom of the article.)

Adelaide Procter never married, though she was engaged for a time. But in the area of charitable works her passion grew and never diminished. She worked tirelessly on behalf of the poor, the homeless, and the unemployed. She visited the sick and taught the unschooled. An early feminist, she also addressed the particular needs of women.

To quote Charles Dickens again: “Swift to sympathize, and eager to relieve, she wrought at such designs with a flushed earnestness that disregarded season, weather, time of day or night, food [or] rest. One of her poems shows us her compassionate vision.

In that very street, at that same hour,
In the bitter air and drifting sleet,
Crouching in a doorway was a mother,
With her children shuddering at her feet.

Some of Procter’s poems have been set to music. One of these is The Lost Chord, a song recorded by many, including the great Enrico Caruso, who sang it at a benefit concert for the rescued victims of the Titanic’s sinking. It’s not a true hymn, but the song shows the unique power of music to inspire and uplift the soul.

Though Miss Procter was a Roman Catholic, her poetry and hymns deal with themes that are shared by Protestants too, and are found in many hymnals. One of these is I Do Not Ask, O Lord. It deals with the call to Christian service, and with a rejection of the easy road. That is reflected in the words of the Lord Jesus who said:

If anyone desires to come after Me [be my disciple], let him deny himself [i.e. reject the demands of Self, in selfishness and self-will], and take up his cross, and follow Me.

Matt. 16:24

Living for Christ and serving Him is not how we earn eternal salvation. That’s a gift of God’s grace, received through faith in the Saviour who paid our debt of sin at Calvary (Eph. 2:8-9). The life of service comes afterward, as our response to God’s grace. “Those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works” (Tit. 3:8).

And being a servant of Christ will require sacrifice. Against us there’s the opposition of a godless world, and of spirits of darkness. There’s also weariness and discouragement along the way. For some, being Christ’s follower even means the extremity of a martyr’s death. The Lord said of Paul, “He is a chosen vessel of mine….I will show him how many things he must suffer for my sake” (Acts 9:15-16). And suffer he did (II Cor. 11:23-28).

It’s with an understanding of these things that Adelaide Procter states her own life’s priorities in her hymn.

(1) I do not ask, O Lord, that life may be
A pleasant road;
I do not ask that Thou wouldst take from me
Aught of its load.

(2) I do not ask that flowers should always spring
Beneath my feet;
I know too well the poison and the sting
Of things too sweet.

(5) I do not ask my cross to understand,
My way to see;
Better in darkness just to feel Thy hand,
And follow Thee.

Through her ceaseless toil on behalf of others, work that took her into dark and vermin infested places, the author contracted tuberculosis. She was bedridden for over a year, and finally died at the age of thirty-eight. Facing eternity with a smile, her last words were, “It has come at last.”

Questions:

  1. Who do you know personally, who has made great sacrifices to serve the Lord?
  2. What does Paul mean when he says, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21)?

Links:

Happiness Is the Lord

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Words: Ira Forest Stanphill (b. Feb. 14, 1914; d. Dec. 30, 1993)
Music: Ira Forest Stanphill

Note: A gifted musician, Stanphill was already playing piano, organ, ukulele, and accordion by age ten. By the time he reached seventeen, he was composing and singing, participating in revival crusades, prayer meetings, and tent campaigns. As a singing evangelist, he preached all over America and in over forty other countries. He was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1981.

(Stanza numbers in brackets below refer to the stanza number in The Cyber Hymnal. Find the link at the bottom of the article.)

What is happiness? Or what does it mean to be in a happy mood? The dictionary suggests a happy person is delighted, pleased, and glad about something. The word has been widely applied and frequently used, or misused.

The term “Happy Hour” came into common parlance in the 1950s and 1960s. It refers to the time, roughly 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. when bars and taverns offer drinks at reduced prices, or with free snacks. The name seems to imply that alcohol is a significant ingredient in the prescription for human happiness. But that’s more than questionable. Surely a temporary drug-induced euphoria is not true happiness–especially when its aftermath is a headache–or worse!

The American Declaration of Independence states that “the pursuit of happiness” is a God-given right. For the eighteenth century authors of the declaration, happiness meant personal well being and prosperity. But is that a right? Or perhaps are these things more of a privilege earned by hard work?

Cicero, a Roman lawyer, said happiness is “tranquility of mind.” But the Greek philosopher Aristotle went much further. He said, “Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” Taken in its most obvious sense that’s very self-centred. It implies that everything and everyone around me is there to make me happy, and it misses the grander and eternal purpose expressed in the Bible.

As an important aside, I know sometimes modern Bible versions substitute the word “happy” for the King James Version’s “blessed,” (e.g. in Psalm 1:1), but the latter is far richer than a fleeting happy mood. And knowing Christ as Saviour is not necessarily a guarantee of unwavering happiness. Way back when I was a kid we used to sing in Sunday School:

I’m inright, outright, upright, downright
Happy all the time.

But that is simply not true. Even the Lord Jesus, “a Man of sorrows” (Isa. 53:3), while on earth, wept and was grieved (Lk. 19:41; Jn. 11:35). And I prefer to use the words joy and rejoicing rather than happy and happiness. Happiness seems to have more of an association with happenings in our lives. Joy goes deeper. We can find joy, even in trying circumstances that do not engender happiness (cf. Heb. 12:2).

As the Westminster Shorter Catechism (created in 1646-47) puts it: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.” This calls attention first to the reason God created us: for His own rightful glory.

“For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:36). “Glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (I Cor. 6:20). “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (I Cor. 10:31).

Our enjoyment of God is the other side of the coin. As the children of God seek to bring honour and glory to Him, they enjoy His fellowship.

“Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?” (Ps. 85:6). “I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High” (Ps. 9:2).

“Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full” (I Jn. 1:3-4). “You [Lord] have made him most blessed forever; You have made him exceedingly glad with Your presence” (Ps. 21:6).

The glorifying of God and the enjoyment of God are not merely to be the occupations of time, but of eternity too. In the heavenly city, “A voice came from the throne, saying, ‘Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!’” (Rev. 19:5). “You [Lord] will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps. 16:11).

One day in 1974 pastor and hymn writer Ira Stanphill was driving home from his church office in Fort Worth, Texas. The car radio was on, and a bar was advertising their Happy Hour, and promoting their alcoholic beverages. Then a cigarette commercial told of how their product would bring happiness to smokers.

That’s standard for commercials, isn’t it? Whether it’s toothpaste or deodorant, a smart phone or a car, it’s touted as the last great answer to the problems of the human race. If you want true happiness in life, you’d better buy the right yogurt or the right glue.

Pastor Stanphill found the repeated use of the word happiness jarring. He thought, “Happiness does not come with these things, but with knowing Christ.” As he drove along, he created a chorus in his mind, and sang it. When he got home, he went straight to the piano and wrote it out.

That song has since been sung around the world. And notice how Pastor Stanphill seems to recognize that mere happiness, by itself, was not enough. He adds, “Real joy is mine, no matter if teardrops start.” The joy we have in Christ shines through the clouds that sometimes overshadow our path. Happiness (or better, “real joy”) is found in a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He Himself is our joy!

The song says, in part:

Happiness is to know the Saviour,
Living a life within His favour,
Having a change in my behaviour,
Happiness is the Lord.

Real joy is mine, no matter if teardrops start;
I’ve found the secret–it’s Jesus in my heart.

Questions:

  1. Why are Christians able to have joy, even in trying times?
  2. What does the Bible mean when it says, “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh. 8:10)?

Links:

Father, I Know That All My Life

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Words: Anna Laetitia Waring (b. Apr. 19, 1823; d. May 10, 1910)
Music: Brother James’ Air, by James Leith Macbeth Bain (b. Nov. 21, 1860; d. _____, 1925)

Note: Anna Laetitia Waring was born into a Quaker family in Wales, but at the age of nineteen she joined the Anglican church. We know only a little about her. She apparently led a quiet, godly life, and was active in charitable work, especially with the Discharged Prisoners’ Aid Society. Having mastered Hebrew as a young girl, she delighted in reading daily from Psalms in their original language. Miss Waring also wrote hymns. The most familiar today is In Heavenly Love Abiding, a meditation on Psalm 23.

There are some oddities with the metre of the present hymn, and with the text adjusted to it, as it appears in the Cyber Hymnal. The metre is ostensibly 8.6.8.6.8.6, but that is not what the text has there. For example, line 3 of stanza 6 reads, “I would have my spirit filled the more” (9 beats), when it should be 8–“I’d have my spirit filled the more.”

I found earlier versions of the hymn better fitted to that metre, and a tune that suits it. To Brother James’ Air, by Scotsman James Bain, I sang The Lord’s My Shepherd, in a male choir, many years ago. The text I’ve given of the present hymn fits that melody well. (You can listen to the tune here, and print a copy of the music.)

(Stanza numbers in brackets below refer to the stanza number in The Cyber Hymnal. Find the link at the bottom of the article.)

We live in a world that often promotes bigness as equaling “betterness” (to coin a word), and as something to be preferred. Littleness, by this measure, is inferior or insignificant.

It comes up in the food we eat. We can get the super large drink, or order a hamburger piled so high it defies any attempt to get it in our mouths. Bigness is touted in sports, too. Heavier football players, taller basketball players. And people crave bigger houses–often beyond their needs or their means. Then there’s bigness in the military: bigger ships, bigger guns, bigger rockets. And there’s bigger entertainment: bigger shows, bigger movies and bigger stars.

But bigness doesn’t necessarily insure quality or effectiveness. Nor is it always to be preferred. Do you prefer a big debt, or a small debt? A big, crippling, life-shortening disease, or a small bruise? And small things can do wonders. When my wife had cataract surgery, we saw one of the tiny lenses they insert in the eye. So small! But what a big difference those lenses have made!

In the Scriptures, the Lord warns many times about not having an inflated idea of ourselves.

Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

Prov. 26:12

I say…to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

Rom. 12:3

The Pharisees of Jesus’ day had a problem with this. They prided themselves in their religiosity, but it was often a hollow and hypocritical sham. While they made a big show of charitable giving, or praying in public (Matt. 6:2, 5), they were ready to “devour widows houses” without scruple (Matt. 23:14). Their religion was only skin deep; they had no personal heart relationship with God. The Lord compared them to “whitewashed tombs” (Matt. 23:27).

How much better to realize our own smallness before God. The Bible says, “He remembers that we are dust” (Ps. 103:14)–and dust is pretty helpless stuff. As Christ put it, “Without Me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5). But the great blessing of our smallness and weakness before God is that our lives reveal His power, to His greater glory (II Cor. 12:9). “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (Jas. 4:6).

Anna Waring’s song expresses her humility, and a willingness to fill a small and unheralded place of service, in the will of God. Note the insightful fifth line in stanza 2, “A heart at leisure from itself”–which I take to mean not dwelling on Me, and my accomplishments.

1. Father, I know that all my life
Is portioned out for me,
And changes that are sure to come
I do not fear to see;
I ask Thee for a present mind
Intent on pleasing Thee.

2. I ask Thee for a thoughtful love,
Through constant watching wise,
To meet the glad with joyful smiles,
And wipe the weeping eyes;
A heart at leisure from itself,
To soothe and sympathize.”

3. I would not have the restless will
That hurries to and fro,
Seeking for some great thing to do
Or secret thing to know;
I would be treated as a child,
And guided where I go.

5. I ask Thee for the daily strength,
To none who ask denied,
A mind to blend with outward life
While keeping at Thy side;
Content to fill a little space,
If Thou be glorified.

Questions:

  1. What gifts do you have that the Lord has given? And how are you using them?
  2. What does the author mean by saying, “I would be treated as a child”?

Links:

Come, Said Jesus’ Sacred Voice

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Words: Anna Laetitia Akin Barbauld (b. June 20, 1743; d. March 9,1825)
Music: Forgiveness, by George Mursell Garrett (b. June 8, 1834; d. Apr. 9, 1897)

Note: Anna Laetitia Akin was the daughter of a pastor in England. A child prodigy, at the age of two, she was able to read simple stories, and by three she was reading as well as most adults. Her understanding of the Scriptures also grew quickly.

An incident when she was five reveals her precociousness in the latter. Her father spoke to another man about the angels in heaven, saying that their joy and happiness was complete, and they therefore could not experience more, since they were perfectly happy already. But little Anna piped up, “Papa, I think you are mistaken,” reminding him of the text that says, “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents” (Lk. 15:7, 10).

By the age of twenty, Anna Aikin had mastered French, Italian, Latin, and Greek, and she became a classics tutor, and a hymn writer. She married a pastor and teacher named Rochement Barbauld, but it was not a happy union. He developed a violent temper which turned into full insanity. When he attacked his wife with a knife, she had him committed to an asylum. He later escaped, and finally committed suicide.

(Stanza numbers in brackets below refer to the stanza number in The Cyber Hymnal. Find the link at the bottom of the article.)

Have you ever watched an ant hill? Those little creatures are constantly coming and going. A steady procession leaves the nest to forage for food, and the ants return, sometimes carrying loads that seem far too great for their size.

On a much larger scale there is continual coming and going all over the world. Whether it’s cars and trucks on busy highways and along city streets, or the streams of people in malls and stores, there is much coming and going. We are each busy with the tasks before us day by day.

Though they did not possess motorized vehicles, it was much the same in Bible times. And God’s Word promised His people Israel, “The Lord shall preserve [guard] your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore” (Ps. 121:8). In the New Testament, after Christ’s disciples had a busy time of ministry, we read, “He said to them, ‘Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.’ For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat” (Mk. 6:31).

There is a spiritual coming and going as well, and it relates to each one of us. We come to the Lord seeking His grace and mercy, and go out to live for Him and serve Him. To come to the Lord in faith, seeking His help and blessing, will find us abundantly rewarded. Using the symbolism of water to picture the life-giving work of the Spirit of God, Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink” (Jn. 7:37-39; cf. 4:14).

But many, in the days of Christ’s earthly ministry, followed Him for awhile and then deserted Him. When that happened, “Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you also want to go away?’ But Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life’” (Jn. 6:67-68). To depart from the Lord is to leave the place of blessing and take the path of unbelief and disobedience. In terms of a search for eternal salvation, turning our back on Christ can only be eternal condemnation (Matt. 7:23; 25:41).

But we as believers need to come to Him too. The invitation is still open to respond to the Lord’s summons, “Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). Anna Barbauld wrote a hymn inspired by that verse, during her years after the terrible distress and danger caused by her husband’s insanity.

Her hymn, which she entitled The Gracious Call, shows that she found comfort in the Lord.

(1) “Come,” said Jesus’ sacred voice,
“Come, and make My paths your choice;
I will guide you to your home,
Weary pilgrim, hither come.

(2) “Thou who, houseless, sole, forlorn,
Long hast borne the proud world’s scorn,
Long hast roamed the barren waste,
Weary pilgrim, hither haste.

(3) “Ye who, tossed on beds of pain,
Seek for ease, but seek in vain;
Ye whose swollen, sleepless eyes
Watch to see the morning rise.

(4) Ye, by fiercer anguish torn,
In remorse for guilt who mourn.
Here repose your heavy care:
Who the stings of guilt can bear?

(5) Hither come, for here is found
Balm that flows for every wound,
Peace that ever shall endure,
Rest eternal, sacred, sure.”

Questions:

  1. In what personal circumstance have you found rest for your soul in the Lord?
  2. Is there someone you know to whom you could bring words of comfort and assurance during a difficult time?

Links:

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