It’s a
mystery, though there are at least two theories about its authorship. One says
a composer crafted at least the original first verse, and his own experience
may have inspired additional verses by his contemporaries. This Missourian,
W.B. Stevens, knew something about emotional hardship, for it seems he wished
to know in the future – in a “Farther Along” that he composed in the early 20th
Century -- the answers to his troubles. Another theory is that another
composer, W.A. Fletcher, had also experienced some loss and composed the verses
to “Farther Along” in 1911. Both were ministers, and both had evidently
experienced a common malady as mortals – mortality.
Whoever
composed the words to “Farther Along” must have felt that life was unfair,
perhaps even in its potentially most lethal way. The most prevalent hypothesis
is that a minister in Queen City, Missouri (in Schuyler County – see its
courthouse here in 1878, a site he may have seen frequently) – W.B. Stevens wrote at least the first verse upon the
occasion of his young son’s death. Stevens had counseled others in similar
circumstances, yet this time he found it impossible to accept his own oft-given
advice. Other evidence suggests perhaps the editor of the first songbook in
which “Farther Along” appeared in 1911 – Barney Warren – had written some of
the verses. Yet a third theory is that another minister – W.A. Fletcher – had
penned the words during a train trip to minister to Indian country while his
absent wife was preparing to give birth to their first-born. He, too, must have
felt or had encountered someone else whose situation seemed unjust. What’s the
answer when you’re feeling His way for you has become strewn with potholes? Whether
it was Stevens, or Warren, or Fletcher, what’s the remedy the poet prescribes
for the sense that one’s state of affairs has become untenable? In Stevens’
case, the most difficult for any believer – death of an innocent child—how
could one manage such an incident? Fletcher
missed his wife and the unique event he longed to witness – his child’s birth;
how could God insist he be elsewhere, even if it was to do a great work? Their
words, or at least the feelings they shared, tell us 100 years later how they
handled the disappointment. It’s called the future. And, it’s described in more
than one way, perhaps because different expressions of the same concept reach
different people in their own way. In just a few verses, the author or authors
assign various names to the future, in addition to the song’s title ‘farther
along’. ‘Sunshine’, ‘beautiful gate’, ‘glory’, ‘home in the sky’, ‘bright
mansion’, and ‘by and by’ all portray a time and place where life’s inequities
are overridden, nullified. Those who are there won’t feel as we who remain
here. That’s the challenge, isn’t it?
I need
patience, I’ve discovered, and “Farther Along” underscores that reality. But,
you and I are not alone in this, our composer-friend/s tell us. Maybe ministers
just see this truth biting people more intimately and frequently than the rest
of us do. Their prescription is one they’ve recommended many times, probably
because there is no alternative. If the present is too unfair, overlook it.
Don’t try to decipher my world’s inconsistencies. Instead, gaze at the finish
line; in fact, stare at it, dwell in it. The afterlife is the only way
to make mortal life livable.
See more
information on the song discussed above in The Complete Book of Hymns –
Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen
and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006.
The
composer is written about in this website’s thread: http://boards.ancestry.com/localities.northam.usa.states.missouri.counties.schuyler/901.4/mb.ashx
The
composer is also the subject of another blogger’s post here: https://hymnstudiesblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/quotfarther-alongquot/
This
site suggests another composer was the originator of the song: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farther_Along_(song)
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