****GOD LEADS HIS DEAR CHILDREN ALONG

Haldor Lillenas, the founder of the music-publishing company that bears his name, immigrated to the United States from Scandinavia as a young man.  A kind Christian lady befriended him and taught him the English language.  She also taught him about Jesus and, she introduced him to the world of Christian hymns.  One of her favorites, which she sang often, was GOD LEADS HIS DEAR CHILDREN ALONG. 

 

Years later Haldor began to research the origin of that hymn.  What he found was that there is not much information or any reliable records about the author, George A. Young.  He was a poor preacher who worked hard as a carpenter to provide for his wife and family.

 

After years of sacrifice, George was able to build a small house for his family.  But soon after they occupied it, while he was preaching in another community, some gospel-hating young punks set fire to their home.  It was completely destroyed.

In 1903, George Young published his hymn for which he wrote both the lyrics and the score.

   

And that’s about all we would know if Haldor had not dug a little deeper.  Without the modern convenience of Google Search, he discovered that the writer, George Young, had passed away, but that his widow was living in a nearby town.  So, he found an address and he drove out to meet her. 

When he stopped at a gas station to ask for directions, the attendant said, “Sir, that’s the County Poor House, up the road about three miles.  And mister, when I say poor house, I really mean poor house!”

When he arrived, he found a poor, elderly woman, in simple surroundings. But she was rich in spirit; she radiated with joy, and she spoke of how the Lord had guided her and her husband over many years.

She said, “My husband and I were married while we were very young. God gave us a wonderful life together; he led us from day to day. We had so much of Jesus. But then God took him.”

Then she told him, “I am so thankful that God has led me here!  You know, every month, people come into this place to spend the rest of their days.  Many of them are so sad and in such great need of help and comfort.  And so many of them don’t know my Savior.  I have been able to cheer them and introducing them to the Lord Jesus Christ.  Isn’t it wonderful how God leads His children?”

GOD LEADS HIS DEAR CHILDREN ALONG is presumed to be George Young’s personal testimony of his unwavering faith in God, through times of great trials and difficulties.

****JESUS, THOU JOY OF LOVING HEARTS

The hymn, JESUS, THOU JOY OF LOVING HEARTS, comes from a portion of a very long, ancient poem written by Bernard of Clairvaux.  

The first stanza reads like Bernard’s personal testimony.  He was a wealthy nobleman by birth.  He had tasted the “best bliss that earth imparts.”  But he wasn’t satisfied so, he gave up everything and turned to Jesus.

The dictionary defines bliss as supreme happiness; utter joy, or contentment:

What would the world’s best bliss look like for you?  The world has their ideas (money, power, influence, prestige, education, fame, family, good health) but the supreme happiness, the utter joy, the contentment that those things bring are fleeting.  Just when we think we have it, we become bored and want something more.

At one time, John D. Rockefeller was the world’s richest man and first American billionaire.  There is an unverified story about a reporter who asked him, “How much money is enough?” To which he allegedly responded, “Just a little bit more.”

So, how much is enough?  Can we ever get enough to make us happy?  Well, unlike some health and prosperity gospel preachers who claim that “we can have our best lives now,” God’s Word tells us otherwise.

 King Solomon had great wealth, power, notoriety, and unparalleled wisdom, and yet he considered all of life’s best bliss to be vanity.  Listen to some of his words from Ecclesiastics 1.

^“What profit has a man from all his labor?  The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor the ear filled with hearing.  There is nothing new under the sun.

“I was king over Israel in Jerusalem.  And I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven;   I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind.

“And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly.  I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind.   For in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.”

The Apostle Paul looked for worldly bliss in his religion. Here is a list of his boasted accomplishments in Philippians 3:

“I was circumcised on the eighth day. 

“I was born a member of God’s chosen people, the Israelites.

“I was part of Israel’s favored clan, the tribe of Benjamin.

“I was a son of Hebrew parents and able to speak the Hebrew language.

“I was a member of the Jewish religion, and part of the most strict and prestigious group of all the Jews, the Pharisees.

“My zeal for God was so great that I even persecuted Christians.

“I was blameless before God; I followed every law of my religion!”

But, Paul too, was unfulfilled and, about his best bliss,  he continued:

“But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord… I consider [my accomplishments] as rubbish that I may gain Christ, I want to know Christ.”

The best bliss the world can offer is unsatisfying and fleeting.  In this hymn of prayer, the author points our hearts to the Joy of knowing Jesus.   He is the Fountain of Life, the Light of men, the Truth, and our Good Savior.  He is the Bread of Life for our hungry hearts, and He is the Living Water for our thirsty souls.

He is our Eternal Bliss.


[This is a new hymn for me.  The melody is unfamiliar but it works well with music for other hymns written in the same meter.   Try it to the tune of "O Master, Let Me Walk With Thee."]

****PRECIOUS LORD, TAKE MY HAND

The great American trombonist and bandleader, Tommy Dorsey, has often been credited for writing the classic gospel song, PRECIOUS LORD, TAKE MY HAND.  But that is not true; it was written by a different man with the same name.  The real composer was a jazz pianist, named Thomas Andrew Dorsey.

Dorsey was born in Georgia in 1899. His father was a Baptist preacher, and his mother, a piano teacher.

After a successful, early career as a blues musician, at the age of 29, Dorsey was converted and switched to gospel music, and for more than 40 years, he served as the choir director at Chicago’s Pilgrim Baptist Church.  He was known as the father of black gospel music.

In an account he wrote for Guideposts Magazine, Dorsey said, “I was 32 years old and a fairly new husband.  My wife, Nettie, and I were living in a little apartment in Chicago.  I was scheduled to sing for a revival in St. Louis.  I really didn’t want to go because Nettie was in the ninth month of her pregnancy.  But a lot of people were expecting me so I started the trip.   On the way, I realized that I had forgotten my music case, so I returned home to get it and found Nettie asleep.

“As I stood next to her, I felt a sense of uneasiness about leaving.   Nevertheless, I headed back to the car for the drive to the meetings.

“The next night, after I had finished singing, a messenger boy handed me a telegram with the message, ‘YOUR WIFE JUST DIED.’

“When I returned home I learned that Nettie had given birth to a baby boy.  My emotions swung between grief and joy.  Yet, before the night was over, my son had died as well.

“I fell apart.  I felt that God had done me an injustice.  I didn’t want to serve Him anymore.  I just wanted to go back to the world of jazz that I once knew.”

Some of the thoughts that haunted him were that his reluctance to leave his pregnant wife had been a leading from God, and he wondered if he had been disobedient by ignoring it.

But God's Word is our comfort; "For I, the Lord your God will hold your right hand, saying to you, 'Fear not, I will help you.'" (Is. 41:13)

It was during a subsequent visit with a Christian friend that he sat down at a piano and found himself at peace while playing an old melody that he remembered from his Sunday School days; “Must Jesus Bear The Cross Alone?”

As he played through that hymn he began to tweak the melody and write some new lyrics.  When he had finished, he gave the song to his friend who introduced it the next Sunday, to the choir at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church where Martin Luther King Sr. was the Pastor.

Dorsey wrote, "As the Lord gave me these words and melody, He also healed my spirit. I learned that when we are in our deepest grief when we feel farthest from God, this is when He is closest and when we are most open to His restoring power. And so, I go on living for God willingly and joyfully, until that day comes when He will take me and gently lead me home."

These lyrics have offered comfort to many who have suffered significant grief and losses. “Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the Light; take my hand Precious Lord, lead me home.”

****MY HEAVENLY FATHER WATCHES OVER ME

This is an abbreviated account of the full story that first appeared in Homer Rodeheaver’s book, Song Stories of the Sawdust Trail, published in 1917.

Bobbie Steele was the only child in a non-Christian family.  He never heard anything about God except when his mother needed a disciplinary threat.  She would tell him that if he wasn’t good, God would punish him.

(At this point, I want to be clear.  Whenever parents make those kinds of threats, they are teaching their children a heresy that says God saves good people and He punishes bad people.  The truth is, we are all sinners by birth, by actions, and by choice, and we all deserve His eternal punishment.  But the Good News is, ”God demonstrates His love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:8)

    

Bobbie loved his father. They worked together and they played together.  Whenever Bobbie was upset, his dad would comfort him by holding his big gold pocket watch up to his ear so he could hear the soothing sound of the ticking.

But all that ended abruptly, at an early age.  His father suffered a fatal injury at work and, as he was dying, he asked Bobbie, “You like my watch, don’t you, son?”

Bobbie answered, “You bet I do, Dad!”

Then his father gave the watch to him, laid his head back, and died.

Bob’s mother remarried an abusive man who mistreated him and took the watch for himself.   His mother was no help; she always sided with her husband and this time was no different; she let her husband have the watch.  That was when Bob grabbed it from him and ran away from home. 

He was able to find some work in the shipyards in Cleveland.  When a co-worker falsely accused him of theft, Bob whacked him on the head with a shovel.  Even though the man wasn’t seriously injured, Bob was sentenced to three years in prison for assault and battery.

After his release, he joined a gang of armed robbers and he began drinking.  He hooked up with a partner and they operated an illegal whiskey still.  When their operation was raided by revenue agents, his partner was shot dead, but Bob escaped.

During those years, he married a girl who knew nothing about his illegal activities.  When she gave birth to a daughter, Bob tried to stop drinking but it wasn’t long before he started again and this time the drinking was worse. He pawned his father’s gold watch to buy more liquor.  

Fed up with his drunkenness, his wife took their daughter and left him.

Bob was a no-good derelict.  He was hungry, sick, and without hope.   On one cold rainy night, he was huddled in a doorway and was thinking about committing suicide when he saw a large crowd gathering for a meeting down the street.  He thought if he could get inside, he could warm up a little. 

What Bob didn’t know is that he had stumbled into a gospel meeting.

Even though he was a little fuzzy-headed from his whiskey, he heard the Gospel preached by Billy Sunday, and he heard the crowd singing a song by William Martin. 

God saved Robert Steele that night.  And, like David, he could say, “The Lord…brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps.” (Ps. 40:2).

A few days later Bob went to see his wife and told her all that had happened.  She tearfully welcomed him back into her arms and her life.  And with his family restored, they invited his widowed mother to live with them.

When his daughter began taking piano lessons, the first real song she learned to play was the one her father had heard the night he was saved; MY HEAVENLY FATHER WATCHES OVER ME.

****MY JESUS, I LOVE THEE

Over the past three years, I have presented stories and commentaries on twelve hymns that share something in common.  They are:

1. Holy Bible, Book Divine 
2. Alleluia, Alleluia, Give Thanks To The Risen Lord
3. May The Mind Of Christ, My Savior
4. Now Thank We All Our God
5. I Sing The Mighty Power Of God
6. Savior, Like A Shepherd Lead Us
7. Stand Up And Bless The Lord
8. Take My Life And Let It Be Consecrated
9. For The Beauty Of The Earth
10. Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne
11. All Creatures Of Our God And King
12. More About Jesus

So, what do they have in common?  They were all written for CHILDREN.

Last week I did an internet search for best hymns and Sunday School songs for children, and NONE of those hymns were listed.   Instead, I found songs like:

1. This Little Light Of Mine
2. He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands
3. Give Me Oil In My Lamp
4. Father Abraham Has Many Sons
5. I’m In The Lord’s Army
6. Zacchaeus Was A Wee Little Man
7. Deep And Wide
8. O You Can’t Get To Heaven On A Roller Skate
9. Ten Little Angels

I think we do children a disservice by presuming that they can’t understand and appreciate good hymns.  Music is an effective tool for worship, for teaching and for memorization so, instead of giving them the musical equivalent of junk food, we should teach them hymns that build them up in the faith, support biblical doctrines, and glorify God.

 

Today’s hymn, MY JESUS, I LOVE THEE, was not written FOR children but it was written by a very young man.  His name was William Featherston and, according to most hymn historians, he wrote the poem shortly after he was saved, at the age of about 12 years.

So, how could a young, new Christian write such a fine hymn? 

Well, there’s not much available information about him, except that he attended church throughout his childhood.  Certainly, he must have learned great truths about his great God from the teachings of his parents, the preaching of the Word of God by his pastor, and, quite possibly, from the rich hymns of the faith that were sung each week in his church.

 One Christian writer, Tim Challies, noted that this song assures us of our salvation, celebrates the Gospel, delights us in the loveliness of Christ, strengthens our resolve to praise Him through all our circumstances, and fixes our hope on our eternal home in glory.

William Featherston never saw his hymn in print or heard it sung. He died at the age of 27.  It was several years after his death that Adoniram Judson Gordon gave the poem a melody and published it in his book of hymns.