Anywhere With Jesus
Question: Roger asks, “I lead the singing at our church in Troy, Kansas, and I’m having a problem finding the story behind the hymn: Anywhere With Jesus. Do you have it?”
Answer: Well, I can give you a bit of information about it. “Anywhere with Jesus” was first published in 1887. As printed in most hymn books today, it is actually the work of two people, having been revised about 30 years after the original was produced.
Jesse (Brown) Pounds (1861-1921) suffered from poor health as a child, and was educated at home. When she was 15, she began submitting articles and poems to Cleveland newspapers, and various religious publications. A few years later, an editor told her some of her verses would work well as hymns. That got her started, and she eventually went on to write over 400 gospel songs, as well as some cantatas and operettas. In 1896 she married a pastor named John Pounds.
Mrs. Pounds is responsible for the first two verses of the hymn as it is often printed now (likely including the refrain). They are: “Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go, / Anywhere He leads me in this world below; / Anywhere without Him dearest joys would fade; / Anywhere with Jesus I am not afraid. / Anywhere with Jesus I am not alone; / Other friends may fail me, He is still my own; / Though His hand may lead me over dreary ways, / Anywhere with Jesus is a house of praise.”
Then, around 1915, Helen (Cadbury) Alexander (1877-1969) added some verses of her own. Helen Cadbury, the daughter of a prominent British businessman (and heir to the Cadbury chocolate fortune), married Charles Alexander, the song leader for R. A Torrey in his evangelistic meetings. She traveled with the team and helped in the work, until her husband’s death in 1920. The verses added by Mrs. Alexander are:
“Anywhere with Jesus, over land and sea, / Telling souls in darkness of salvation free; / Ready as He summons me to go or stay, / Anywhere with Jesus when He points the way. / Anywhere with Jesus I can go to sleep, / When the dark’ning shadows round about me creep, / Knowing I shall waken nevermore to roam; / Anywhere with Jesus will be home, sweet home.”
The hymn became a favourite of the Christian Endeavour movement. A group of young people associated with them was in the practice of going to Sing Sing Penitentiary on Sunday afternoons, to lead a service for the prisoners. The hymn became a favourite there. Among the inmates were two men sentenced to death for a murder committed during the burglary of a house. During these weekly meetings, they heard the gospel and put their faith in Christ as Saviour. On their last day on earth, when the two were led to the place of execution, they confessed their sins, saying they deserved the punishment they were facing. But they each added they believed God had forgiven them, and through His grace they could go “anywhere with Jesus.”