This ‘Floating Bethel’ (shown here) was a barge on the Ohio River that was apparently what a certain evangelist had ridden in his travels, perhaps even during the time in which he wrote some poetry in 1893. Daniel Sydney Warner (more often called D.S. Warner) told those who would listen that “His Yoke Is Easy”, a message he must have related countless times in his trips to preach and convert people to Christ. This poem was one that he penned near the end of his life, after decades of sermons. So what was D.S wanting to communicate, and what spurred him to write the words? Let’s see what we do know, and what we might have to leave for later.
The short answer about D.S. Warner’s “His Yoke Is Easy” is that we don’t really know what or if a specific episode stimulated his creation. Nevertheless, he travelled widely, and must have needed plenty of compelling resources to help convey his messages, so perhaps ‘His Yoke…’ was created in that spirit. Much of his experience as an evangelist was in the Ohio River valley, including the episode on the Ohio River barge in the year following his 1893 penmanship of the song. He also travelled as far as California and to several states in the Midwest and South, and to Ontario, Canada. At 51 years old, when he wrote the poem that would subsequently be put to music (by Barney E. Warren), Warner had undoubtedly encountered so many people who needed God, but needed coaxing. A song might help advance Warner’s point; could that have been the impetus for the scores of song poems that he crafted, that they would be readily available tools in his journeys? If so, ‘His Yoke…’ is written as if it’s a personal endorsement of God by the author, an appeal from himself to an audience listening to his pitch. ’I’, ‘me’, ‘my’, and ‘mine’ are the personal pronouns that D.S. employs 16 times in his verses and three more times in his refrain to emphasize the intimate nature of his experience with the One he came to recommend. If we can surmise from his poetry what kind of preaching message he usually delivered, we might conclude that Warner didn’t use the hellfire and brimstone approach, as other evangelists might have. Instead, D.S. persuaded his hearers with God’s love (vv. 1-2), His rescue of the sinner (vv. 3 and 5), and his own response of devotion to this God. These are messages that still work today. Everyone wants a loving God, and we’re all mistake-makers.
D.S. Warner also realized that God’s opponent (Satan) is often near, trying to steer me away from the Savior (v. 4). Don’t be fooled, Warner admonished. It was a warning that he needed to heed himself two years later, when death came knocking and took him in Michigan, probably before he expected to go. The same year that Warner wrote ‘His Yoke…’, he co-authored with his musical collaborator, Barney Warren, a collection called Echoes of Glory. One might guess that ‘His Yoke…’ is among the Echoes collection. Someday, when we all arrive home, we might think of all the songs we’ve sung here as echoes. But, they won’t be faint ones. They’re strong foretastes now, pulling me like magnets toward the destination I should choose. The other way is the one our adversary has waiting for the unfortunate fool. D.S. might have said it many times as an evangelist: Listen to the message He’s singing to your heart.
See this link for information about the author: https://hymnary.org/person/Warner_Daniel
See extensive biographic on author here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Sidney_Warner
Also see this link for author’s very brief biography: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/w/a/r/n/warner_ds.htm
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