Tell Me the Old, Old Story -- A. Katherine Hankey

This 32-year old English woman was sick, and was it perhaps the depth of her illness that spurred the prodigious 50 verses that she would compose over a several-month stretch? From those 50 verses would spring “Tell Me the Old, Old Story”, a poetic appeal that Kate Hankey (her first name actually is Arabella) constructed to express what she initially sensed most strongly. Another part of the same poem led to a companion hymn (I Love to Tell the Story; see Feb. 13, 2016 entry of this blog) that would consummate her request and then the desire to relate what she’d heard. Quite a woman, someone who would not be stopped from sharing what she felt was most important, even while too ill to go about doing so in person. How many of us would do this?

Kate Hankey was the daughter of a wealthy banker, but she found her spiritual roots via other stimuli in her life in 19^th Century England. The Hankey family were ardent believers in what was known as the Clapham sect of Anglicanism. Besides being a Sunday school teacher, she was inspired by the likes of John Wesley and William Wilberforce, and therefore believed strongly in anti-slavery and pro-missionary positions in the social structure of the time. She would also travel to South Africa as a nurse, and cared for her handicapped brother for a time. She herself would become seriously ill in 1866, preventing her, apparently, from fulfilling her most passionate purpose – teaching about and steering others to the Holy Son. Nevertheless, during her recovery from the malady that laid her up, she wrote a lengthy poem that conveyed two main thoughts: She wanted to hear the story – Part 1, The Story Wanted – and then she wanted to be able to re-tell it – Part 2, The Story Told. You can tell from what she penned that she still felt sickly, with phrases like ‘weak and weary’ (v.1), and ‘…time of trouble, a comforter to me.’ (v. 3) She relates that she began in January of that year, and finished her thoughts some 10 months later. This was a person who knew not how to quit! Can one say that her perseverance and devotion were rewarded, since she indeed did recover and lived many more years (until 1911)?

Kate Hankey would probably say that she was rewarded, but not perhaps in the way others might have thought. Her health rebounded, and she lived many more years. Did she merely bask in her recovered physical well-being, though? If she stayed true to her pre-sickness form, we can guess that she continued teaching, and still supported abolitionism and missionary works. She wrote only a few hymn texts over her lifetime, but that doesn’t tell the entire story. Kate’s story may have been simple, contained in but a few sentences necessary to relate its highlights. The other story we have from her, she would undoubtedly say, is more noteworthy. Perhaps that was enough reward for her. It’s OK if another story outranks hers, don’t you think?   

 

See more information on the song story in these sources: The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006; 101 Hymn Stories, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1985; and A Treasury of Hymn Stories by Amos R. Wells, Baker Book House, 1945.   

See this site for all of the original verses: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/t/e/l/l/tellmoos.htm

See a few brief details of the composer’s life here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/h/a/n/k/hankey_ak.htm

See this site also for a brief biography of the author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Hankey

I Love to Tell the Story – Arabella Katherine Hankey

This Englishwoman had a mission, yet she didn’t give up its pursuit even while prostrate. One might even ask if Katherine Hankey became sick as part of God’s plan for her to say “I Love to Tell the Story” in an even greater way than she had been doing before. After all, it gave her a chance to reflect and relate in perhaps 100 verses her thoughts as she lay in a bed. The two songs derived from her poem were but a small portion of what she wrote, of how she felt about her faith’s impact. Her exhortation in the poem tells what perhaps is most important to a storyteller. It’s not about how she clung to its details, or about the quality of her voice, or the delivery and pace of her words. Kate would be gratified if we just passed along the story.  

Arabella Katherine Hankey was a 35-year-old Anglican in 1869 who’d been engaged in Christian ministry for many years, and who would continue on for several decades after composing the poem “The Old, Old Story” in the mid-19^th Century. Even as a teenager of a wealthy banker in London, Katherine (known as Kate by most) began sharing the Christ story, probably as a result of an upbringing by devout believers in the Clapham suburb of the city. The believers in this sector of London were not only believers, but also those who put their faith into action. Philanthropy, teaching, social justice (they were slavery abolitionists, led by William Wilberforce) and missionary work marked this group. As such, Kate taught Sunday school classes all over London, initially in her own neighborhood. As a missionary abroad in Africa, she contracted an undefined serious illness that required a lengthy recovery over several months, apparently disabling her from her life’s purpose. The measure of her emotion at this prospect may be the length of the poem she crafted, over 50 stanzas, in which she urges the story’s recitation. Imagine her being handicapped, but with her memory and desire still intact. If she couldn’t stand or travel to find others to communicate the message, her hands would have to do the job. So, she described how this mission made her feel ‘satisified’(v.1), of its ‘wonderfully sweet’ (v. 3) nature that spoke to ‘hungering and thirsting’ people (v.4). She obviously felt intensely the absence of her normal activities, of sharing and seeing the expressions on her students’ faces. But, more than that, she must have felt if she could draw others into being storytellers, the effect of her life, even while suspended, would synergistically increase His kingdom. It’s as if she was putting in action, though personally immobilized, what the psalmist says (34:8) – just taste that, and see how good it really is! Go tell others!

Kate had the message, from start to finish, in her poem. The other parts of her poem relate how God’s plan evolved from creation through Christ, and then through His spirit’s arrival in each of us to spur the story onward. Twenty centuries after Him, we have the advantage of being in the era where we can examine His completed work. From the Garden to now, we’re part of His creation, His story of creatures made in His likeness. ‘How’s that feel?’, I ask myself. Way too much to grasp? Adam and Moses could talk to Him, but they lived before Christ consummated the deal. It’s all way more than I can fathom, honestly. But, not for Him! I just need to keep marveling at the story the way Kate must have.      

See more information on the song story in these sources: The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006; Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990; and 101 Hymn Stories, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1982.

See the story told here also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Love_to_Tell_the_Story

http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/h/a/n/hankey_ak.htm

See biography here of composer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Hankey

A link to the original poem the composer wrote: http://www.wholesomewords.org/poetry/oldstory.html