She was
just 22 years old and living in a rather obscure village called Brookeborough
in a Northern Ireland county (see the coat of arms for the county of Fermanagh
here). And yet, Charitie Smith had a feeling that she was not forgotten,
especially by the God whom she imagined she would encounter someday. She didn’t
keep that to herself, but coaxed others to think about what it might be like to
stand “Before the Throne of God Above”. It was 1863. She had quite a ways to go
to inherit her eternal reward – in fact, another six decades, into the next
century. Yet, that didn’t seem to discourage Charitie from pondering her
condition -- not with a faraway, hoped-for, ‘please save me’ request. No, she
thought of her condition in terms of the present. That’s faith.
Her
father’s influence in Charitie’s early life was undoubtedly a major factor in
how her faith expressed itself in ‘Before the Throne…’. Charitie’s father was a
minister serving in a local church at the time that she crafted this song, so
we can safely assume that she and her family had conversed or sat under the
sound of one of his sermons, giving rise to what she would pen in the three
verses we have today. She reportedly used the title “The Advocate” for what she
wrote originally, so could those have been words from one of her father’s sermon
texts that stuck with her? What bible might she and her minister-father have
used at the time? The King James Version would seem to be a plausible answer, and
if so, just one place has that word: one of John’s letters (1 John 2:1), where
the great apostle with this name writes of Jesus. Without other known
circumstances for what Charitie composed, we can assume that John’s words and
other biblical reference points regarding Jesus’ role as Charitie describes Him
were foundational for what she penned. She calls Him ‘a great high priest’
(v.1), ‘the risen Lamb’, the ‘I AM’, and the ‘King of glory and of grace’ (v.3).
Why would someone like Charitie, as well as probably her father, think of Jesus
as an advocate, except that she was very aware of her shortcomings and needed
someone in a legal sense to defend her? Her vision of the heavenly courtroom is
made more distinct with words like ‘plea’ and ‘plead’ (v.1), guilt and pardon,
(v.2). God’s sovereignty on ‘the throne’(v.1), and in ‘the just’ (v.2) nature
He possesses is not something to be debated or doubted. And yet, He’s ‘Love’
(v.1), the perfect counterpoint to what might otherwise be a heartless, autocratic,
rule-maker. At 22, Charitie undoubtedly had lived enough to have experienced making
plenty of mistakes. She needed mercy, but loved Him for His grace, too. Her name
was ‘on His heart’ and ‘His hands’ (v.1), and she’d been ‘purchased’ (v.3) by
Him, allowing her life to be ‘hid’ with His (v.3).
Do earthly
attorneys fashion a relationship with clients the way Jesus does with me? In 19th
Century Northern Ireland, what might Charitie and the rest of the Smith family
have experienced if crime befell them? Perhaps such an episode reminded them of
the difference – starkly so – that God makes in the Divine-Human interface. Not
every lawbreaker (including especially road rulebreakers, right!) pays for his
or her penalties. God is more thorough, ultimately, as a traffic court judge
than the ones I’ve seen here. That makes me cower, as I recall how many errors
I’ve made in 58 years. But, I should sigh with relief – even ecstasy – that He’s
also on the receiving end of my punishment. Think about it. What other God is
on a throne and on a cross?
See the
following site for some information on the song’s author: https://www.hymnologyarchive.com/before-the-throne-of-god-above
See some
scant information on the author here also: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/b/a/n/c/bancroft_cls.htm
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