Saturday, July 20, 2013

Anywhere With Jesus -- Jessie Brown Pounds and Helen Cadbury Alexander Dixon



She was a native of one area, and usually didn’t wander far from there, especially in her later years. But, perhaps Jessie Brown (later she married a preacher named Pounds) must have mused about what it was like for her on those few occasions when she did travel. And, she was also prodded by the tune’s musical writer to think of the refrain “Anywhere with Jesus” as she considered her prose for the poem she wrote in 1887. And, this didn’t stop with her, for another hymnist, Helen Cadbury Alexander Dixon, picked up on the same theme in 1915 and wrote two more verses. Both women were unique; they were in fact separated by an ocean (see the Atlantic Ocean here). But, they found something in common in this hymn.

 It’s said that the tune, which was written before the words took form, were what started this composition that today we know as “Anywhere with Jesus”. The tune-writer, Daniel Towner, had heard a powerful message by Dwight Moody one evening in Binghamton, New York in 1866, and it caused him to boldly ponder that he could be anywhere with the assurance that God would also be there. He contacted a 26-year old hymnist named Jessie Brown that he knew in Cleveland, Ohio, and asked her to give the hymn’s title a prominent place in what she would write. Jessie’s talent for prose had been nurtured since adolescence, and though she’d had to quit her post-high school education because of poor health, she didn’t let that stop her from pursuing a career as a writer over the succeeding four decades. She composed three verses, two of which are commonly used today. Traveling around and sleeping were the themes of these two verses, which she must have felt covered the spectrum of her existence. No matter if she was wide awake and moving about, or instead was slumbering, she evidently felt a peace because of His presence. She travelled to meetings and other fora outside of Ohio because of her profession, so perhaps that helped spur her thoughts about spending time away from home and yet having a security blanket. Almost 30 years later in 1915, 38-year old Helen Cadbury – the British chocolate heiress – in Birmingham, England came across the hymn and added her two verses, which survive today in most hymnal versions. Her verses suggest she needed companionship (her 1st verse) and an encouragement to reach out in missionary work (2nd verse). This is really a window onto Helen’s life, which she recognized as a teenager she wanted to commit to missionary work. She was instrumental in establishing The Pocket Testament League, a form of evangelism this shy girl put into personal practice to help talk to friends about their eternal needs. Friends and mission work…they both come through clearly in Helen Cadbury Alexander Dixon’s words and indeed her life. She really meant what she wrote.

Separated by the Atlantic Ocean, and by almost 30 years, Jessie and Helen may not have ever met on earth. Helen, in fact didn’t write her additional verses for Jessie’s original poem until six years before Jessie died at age 60. And, although Jessie may have travelled professionally in her younger years, it’s said that she preferred to stay at home in Ohio, a desire that likely meant she was there in her later years too. Helen, meanwhile, was a native Briton, who apparently only lived in the U.S with her second husband Dr. Amsji C. Dixon, after their marriage in 1924, well after Jessie’s death. (She apparently returned to her childhood home near Birmingham, England after her second husband’s death.) Despite their distance in time and space, they met poetically and musically -- kind of a nice thought, huh? Someday, somewhere, time and space won’t matter for any of us.







See all five verses here (1,2, and 5 by Jessie, and 3+4 by Helen): http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/a/n/y/anywhere.htm

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