Humble Yourself – Bob Hudson

Someone says ‘He was a kid!’ At least, initially, this would be the first-blush reaction when information surfaces that the words and music to a song are attributed to a boy who was no older than twelve. Was it his only song? Did Bob Hudson write other tunes, other than “Humble Thyself (also known as Humble Yourself) that appeared in print by 1978? What could one surmise from what Bob wrote, and especially so if no other information were known about him? Bob Hudson may be virtually anonymous, but if he’s reached the age of 50 years (as of 2016), surely someone somewhere has discovered, or at least asked him, what transpired in the life of a boy that made “Humble Thyself” the result. Did he maybe look at Saint Humility (pictured here, painted by Lorenzetti in 1341) to gain inspiration for what he wrote?

Bob Hudson may be the same person born in 1966 to whom the song is credited in the one source this blogger found regarding this simple song about humility and a Christian’s core beliefs. Where he was and what he was doing are mysteries, but at least he didn’t leave his fellow believers wondering what he was thinking. We have his words. They have a simplicity that’s elemental to the song’s message. Humbling oneself presupposes that you do not become complex in telling others how you’re doing this – and Bob sticks to his song’s titular directive. Whether he composed the additional verses (two, three, and four) that sum up what a Christian believer does to express himself is also unknown, but if he did, they too say some things powerfully, and yet plainly, about what he thought at the time. It was in perhaps the mid-1970s or a little thereafter, and Bob evidently had a great respect for God, which told him he should hold Him in awe and act humbly as a believer in order to experience His blessing (v 1). He wasn’t a weak, scared, puppy-like creature, but someone whom we could speculate learned his attitude and behavior from adult role models – parents, teachers, or church leaders, perhaps. They would have been the ones to instill in him principles regarding Jesus’ identity, including the life-and-death meaning He holds for the Christian (v.2). Everyone needs what He offers, so amply expressed in Newton’s hymn (Amazing Grace), and paraphrased by Bob (v.3). And, even as a boy, Bob looked forward to eternity (v.4) That’s really all one needs, what Bob had learned by age 12, and what he said in four short verses.      

It would be interesting to meet and know Bob Hudson. And yet, there’s still more that is intriguing about this anonymous fellow that we can deduce from his song, before we meet him. His reverence for God is also suggested in the key signature of “Humble Yourself”. It’s an E-minor chord that Hudson leans upon for his musical foundation. Interesting, huh? That’s not a routine journey for the musician, particularly a juvenile, but maybe it shows he was serious about being truly genuine with his expression – to fear God in his innermost self. What better way musically to accomplish this. Bob was being taught well, and he knew something about honoring his Creator that wasn’t so immature. Jesus said, ‘Let the children come…’ (Luke 18:15-17). Bob may have heard this too.

  

The following site indicates the author-composer was born in 1966, and the song copyrighted in 1978: http://www.hymnary.org/person/Hudson_B

I'll Live for Him -- Ralph Erskine Hudson

Loyalty was the message this 39-year old multitalented Ohioan (in the Alliance area of northeast Ohio, shown here) wanted to communicate with a three-verse composition he conceived, not only to remind himself but also those he taught. It must have been modeled for him at some point in his early life, so that he could see it and incorporate this submission and devotion into his own spirit, to say “I’ll Live for Him” in a musical way. Did it stem from his parents or other adults around him in his youth? Were there other experiences that molded his character, and that spurred his interest in music and compelled him to serve God?     

There may have been several facets of Ralph Hudson’s life experience up until 1882 that coaxed the words of “I’ll Live for Him” from the inner being of this teacher-composer-publisher-evangelist. Though little is known of his parents, Henry and Sarah, and their family life in probably western Pennsylvania, it’s at least plausible that his faith and musical inclination developed under their influence. Ralph, as a youth entering adulthood, volunteered for the Union army during a three-year period (1861-64) of the Civil War, an epoch that must have also shaped him fundamentally. Perhaps some of his pursuits in the postwar era had germinated in the early-to-mid 1860s, when he was a nurse in hospitals, witnessing the wounds that battle could inflict on the human body and psyche. He also married in this period, so we can guess that what he later became must have had his wife Mary’s assent, or perhaps that she actively encouraged his musical and faith-based ambitions. He became a professor of music at the Mount Union College in 1870’s-Alliance, Ohio, was active in the temperance movement and evangelism through a Methodist-Episcopal church there, further exercised his music muscles via hymn-writing and a publishing business, and also collaborated with another minister for a time in the real estate business. He was one the early supporters of the Salvation Army in Alliance also. One can imagine that Ralph lived these various facets of his life consistent with his faith, if the words of his 1882 composition rang true. From all appearances, his life with Mary and his six children in 1882 was happy, as the words of the refrain he wrote indicate he expected to be—‘How happy then my life shall be’--if he lived to serve Him. Their life was probably not without some downbeat moments, including perhaps the death of an oldest son between 1870 and 1880. Ralph must have lived and seen enough—good and bad, even a horrible war—to convince himself that living for God was what he needed, a pattern that endured until the century turned over and he died shortly thereafter.   

What page on my calendar might persuade me to look backward as well as forward, perhaps as Ralph Hudson did when he penned “I’ll Live for Him”? A lot of us treat the end of December that way. It’s ‘resolution’ time – lose that weight, start and finish that project, stop bad habits, adopt healthy ones. Some of Hudson’s lifestyle habits in 1882 had been or were the following: serving his country, caring for wounded, raising a family, worship, evangelism, encouraging restraint (vice alcoholism), and writing music. He’d practiced some good habits, it seems. His hymn words tell how I can manage and focus all of my habits, my lifestyle. You got a New Year’s resolution?   

See following sites for brief biography on the composer and the song’s verses: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/h/u/d/hudson_re.htm

http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/i/l/l/illlive4.htm

http://bereanbibleheritage.org/extraordinary/hudson_ralph_e.php

Also see more information on the song’s composer in 101 More Hymn Stories by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1985.