Today in 1951 – Ida Reed Died

Life was a long and difficult struggle for Ida Lilliard Reed Smith. (Smith was actually a pen name. Ida never married.) Sick and often bedridden, impoverished and lonely, yet she is said to have written some 2,000 hymns. In 1939, ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) recognized her for making a “substantial contribution to American music.”

She is remembered today for one song only, published in 1896. It was inspired by a story she read as a child called “A Princess in Calico.” The tale concerned a little girl who maintained a sunny disposition through life, in spite of trials and hardship. When asked her secret she replied, “Oh, it’s because I belong to the King!” That recollection led Ida Reed to write the song of testimony I Belong to the King.

“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” (I Jn. 3:1). “And if children, then heirs–heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17).

I belong to the King; I’m a child of His love,
I shall dwell in His palace so fair,
For He tells of its bliss in yon heaven above,
And His children in splendour shall share.

I belong to the King; I’m a child of His love,
And He never forsaketh His own.
He will call me some day to His palace above;
I shall dwell by His glorified throne.

I belong to the King, and His promise is sure:
That we all shall be gathered at last
In His kingdom above, by life’s waters so pure,
When this life with its trials is past.

(2) How Cheering Is the Christian’s Hope (Data Missing)

The author of this little song is unknown. It concerns the Christian’s hope of a promised heavenly home (Jn. 14:2-3), and the prospect that “we shall always be with the Lord” (I Thess. 4:17). The lines of verse are in the Common Metre (8.6.8.6) and could be sung to such tunes as Belmont or Crimond.

How cheering is the Christian’s hope,
While toiling here below!
It buoys us up while passing through
This wilderness of woe.

It points us to a land of rest,
Where saints with Christ will reign;
Where we shall meet the loved of earth,
And never part again.

Fly, lingering moments, fly, O fly;
Dear Saviour, quickly come!
We long to see Thee as Thou art,
And reach that blissful home.