To Love Someone More Dearly -- Maude Louise Ray and F.(or S.)H. Pickup

They wanted to say what motivated their lives, their work, their energy.  One was a poet and the other probably a minister, though little else is known of either of the composers who wanted to share their thoughts about what moved them to faith in the early 20^th Century. “To Love Someone More Dearly” may be the only hymn associated with either Maude Louise Ray or Stanley Howard Pickup, but they nevertheless were in touch with the same train of thought. Did they know one another? Work was evidently important, and especially what Christian labor should encompass, a theme relevant not only in their era but for us a century later.  How should we think of our life’s energy, versus what a scientist name Joule invented centuries ago – a crude but useful machine (see it here) – to measure energy?

Maude Ray, according to limited information, was a 23 year-old New Yorker, while Stanley Pickup was a 36-year old Canadian when each of them composed verses a decade apart in the early 1900s. Maude had begun her work, soon after graduating from college in Poughkeepsie, as an editor for a magazine in 1901-02 that became known as Christian Work, so it seems more than just coincidental that her poem’s two stanzas a year later addressed what she understood was her ‘task’. Was this part of her editorial frame of mind as she helped steer the magazine’s content? Less is known of Pickup (including how his name might have morphed into F.H. , versus S.H.), but he was possibly a Methodist minister from Ontario. His third verse came in 1913, indicating he was aware of Ray’s work relatively soon after her initial two verses. Perhaps Ontario’s proximity to New York, separated by a mere few hundred miles, helped spur his awareness of her efforts, too. While they must have appreciated each other’s perspective, there are differences in what they chose to express. She focused on what her work should be terrestrially, while he looked vertically, to the culmination of earthly work. Maude said love, serve, and guide others here, and devote oneself to godliness and purity; those were things on which to meditate and in which to rest, to really be content. Stanley must have surmised that yes, Maude was correct, and just imagine knowing the reward of such a life! It must have been a message Pickup promoted often in his position.

How does a 23-year old New Yorker and a 36-year old Canadian come to these conclusions? It’s as if they had already seen what a wizened, gray-haired believer could reflect on after many more decades of experience. Maybe, in fact, that’s what was ‘at work’ – the life-examples of one or more others nearby showing them what practically a life ‘at work’ should resemble, as decades upon decades accumulate. It makes you wonder, does work ever really stop here? God ‘worked’ right from the beginning (see Genesis 1 and 2) – in fact, ‘work’ is in the Bible more than 500 times. Another preacher said we should enjoy work (Ecclesiastes 3:22), and yet another said essentially the same centuries later (Colossians 3:23). Think Maude and Stanley learned from those guys, too? Can you and I?        

Freely, Freely -- Carol Owens

Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give. (Matthew 10:8)

She and her husband had a charge, not from just one man but from two. ‘Tell others what you think is most important about the church’, Carol Owens heard one man say. And so, the genesis of what she and her husband Jimmy would include in a production began. At some point soon thereafter Carol investigated the roots of their beliefs and decided that ‘Freely, Freely” was a very key concept they should communicate to observers of the musical they would be presenting. It would be a crowd of not just observers, but seekers whom they wanted to introduce to the second man Carol had heard as she and Jimmy set about constructing the message to convey.

Carol and Jimmy Owens had bought into the Jesus movement in the countercultural environment of the late 1960s and early 1970s and made it their mission to introduce others to the Jesus they knew. So in 1972, 41-year old Carol and her husband must have found it pretty self-evident on whom they should focus a musical production that a church leader suggested they design. The Church on the Way in Van Nuys California (Los Angeles area –see map), where the church leader (Jack Hayford) ministered, no doubt reflected their own views and also one of the church’s members, Pat Boone, with whom they collaborated on the musical. They saw Jesus as the focus, but must have wondered at some point what of His divine message they should repeat in the production. He said many things, but which one was most important? Perhaps they put themselves in the shoes of the Apostles who also had a message to deliver (Matthew 10), and decided that the Master’s directions from that 1^st Century episode were still good enough two millennia later. It’s free. That’s what they thought would resonate with a broad group of people who needed to heed Jesus’ words. It was no accident what they predicted would result from this central theme, that people would “Come Together” as the musical’s title proclaimed. The Owens-Boone show went on the road, including England, in hundreds of venues. It started with a Messiah some 2,000 years before them who said his envoys should heal the sick, revive the dead, and point toward the Divine source – all for free. It would stun anyone in anytime to witness such events, something Carol must have surmised as she read from Matthew.  

Can you imagine what a sensation it was when Jesus came for a visit? ‘Just believe’, He said. No one went away sick, usually. Our medical practices today deliver far less and cost a lot more. He offers even more that no one here can pretend to mimic in even the smallest way. And, it’s still free, a foreign concept on this planet where priceless products always seem to have a price. So, that’s probably why the Owens song doesn’t have me focus on the methods He employs or the results of an encounter with Him, although those are fascinating details of a Jesus visit. Notice throughout her words that Carol says ‘in Jesus name’. I cannot buy what only He possesses. He’s the sensation.     

See more information on the song discussed above in this source: 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 following websites have information on the church where the composer developed the song: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Church_on_the_Way

http://tcotw.org/home

Here’s a link to the broad movement in which the composer and her spouse found themselves at the time of the song’s composition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_movement

We'll Work Till Jesus Comes -- Elizabeth King Mills

She was nearly anonymous, and maybe a little clairvoyant? Could that be the two characteristics most often associated with the all-too brief career of songwriter Elizabeth King Mills? She had a notable spouse, and she also died as a young woman, but if the words of her hymn “We’ll Work Till Jesus Comes” tell us more, then we could also say she certainly put her hope and trust in Christ, and speculate that she in fact longed for the next life.  Was she unhappy with her mortal existence, as one might surmise from her poem? What led to her early departure from the Earth? What does the work-energy model of you and me look like – a scientific equation (like one shown here), or some other model?

Elizabeth Mills lived only into her mid-20s in the early portion of the 19^th Century, so perhaps much of her potential went unrealized. One might think that the spouse of a member of England’s Parliament would have had more recorded biographic information, yet relatively few details of Mills’ life are apparently known. She began life in 1805 in London as the daughter of Philip King, and later was the wife of Thomas Mills, a member of England’s legislative body. In April 1829 she died, but of what cause is unknown, though we can imagine it might have been considered tragic because of her young age – just 24 or 25. Was she aware of a health issue that could shorten her life? It’s another question without an answer, yet one might think she had some clue that earthly life held no guarantees. One of her handful of hymns, “We Speak of the Realms of the Blest”, was written just a few weeks before her death, and thematically hints of someone looking beyond this life. In fact, some of Mills’ other song poems have the same trait, not too surprising for a believer, but nevertheless perhaps revealing of her emotional state. “We’ll Work…” shows Elizabeth imagined a peaceful, restful home, a place where she could put aside earthly concerns. Was her life unhappy, maybe because of health or another kind of challenge?  For her, songwriting may have been therapeutic, if this were true. Perhaps her circumstances also allowed her to grasp an elemental truth – mortality.  

Elizabeth apparently accepted one fact, which led to her recognition of another. Not a lot of philosophical hairsplitting needs to happen to know the following: death is real, and I need an escape hatch. Do you suppose Elizabeth’s poetry evolved because her demise was imminent, cruelly thrust upon her? If so, she could have been bitter. Yet, she must have instead sensed that the other end of the life equation was not in doubt, courtesy of our Creator. I didn’t like math in school, but I think the math solution Elizabeth found is the one I need too. What about you? If He could construct me to work like this diagram above, do you think He’s got the other stuff in hand too?

   

See this link for scant biographic information on the composer: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/m/i/l/mills_ek.htm   

See more information on composer here: http://www.hymnary.org/person/Mills_Elizabeth     

See this link for the song’s verses: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/w/e/l/wellwork.htm

O Spread the Tidings 'Round -- Frank Bottome

His words published by 1890 and put to music probably were the subject of more than one sermon he delivered. Frank Bottome’s “The Comforter Has Come” (may also be known by its first line ‘O Spread the Tidings ‘Round’) was a declaration of some exciting news he wanted to share with hearers, probably as he considered the difficulties some of them could not escape. Certainly, some of them – in fact, all of us – need Him to come and be like the dove that alit on Jesus (shown here in the Portuguese painter Almeida Junior’s 1895 artwork). What else might have motivated this 67-year old minister to remind believers that God is still present, that His Spirit should not be forgotten?

Frank Bottome began and finished his life as an Englishman, and in between those two points began his life’s ministry and built his poetic resume that expressed his faith through music in America. Though born in north-central England in 1823, Bottome immigrated to the New World when he was 27 and began his work in the Methodist Episcopalian Church. As he turned 40, he’d received an honorary doctorate in theology, while also being active in music and ministry concurrently. He wrote a few dozen hymn texts, and also compiled several hymnals, including the 1890 compilation (Precious Times of Refreshing and Revival) in which his thoughts and zeal about the “The Comforter..” first appeared. Perhaps his words in the verses tell us all we need to know about the circumstances of its development. Verses one through three hint that human struggle was on Bottome’s mind, as the ‘woes’ (v.1), ‘wail’ (v.2), and ‘captive’ (v.3) nature of our earthbound days spoke to him. It’s likely that Bottome was engaged in reading about the Comforter described in John’s gospel (chapters 14-16) in the King James version, the bible translation most common for his time. Was it an aggrieved church member, even himself, or perhaps an unbeliever that he was seeking to encourage as he read from John and composed his poem? His role as a minister must have brought him into contact with many whose daily woes and captivity troubled his spirit. How does the average soul confront the ‘dreadful wail’ and ‘fury of the blast’, an unavoidable hurricane-like storm? As he approached his life’s conclusion in his late ‘60s, perhaps Bottome -- who lived just a few additional years, until he died in 1894 – wanted some reassurance himself. He apparently returned to England as he approached Eternity, and went on to the next life while in a small village in the southwest portion of that island nation.   

        

Somewhere along the way, after Bottome’s original words expressed his thoughts, alternate language has been employed in the song’s verses and refrain, thus shining the light on another member of the Trinity. So, in some versions of the song, the “Comforter” does not make His appearance, while ‘the Lord of lords’ and ‘King of kings’ is lauded -- also very appropriate, but notably different than what Frank Bottome wanted to convey. It raises the issue of which members of the Godhead we should honor, or at least the modifiers of Bottome’s poem must have thought so. Why did Jesus send the Comforter? He wouldn’t have come, except that Jesus completed His mission first, and then called for the Spirit to accompany us in this next era. Our earthly days and our future days are both important to God, undeniably. We’ll see God. We can see Him now, too, if we look close.  

 See more information on the song discussed above 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; and Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990.

See biography of composer here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/b/o/t/bottome_f.htm

http://www.hymnary.org/person/Bottome_Francis

See all five verses here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/c/o/m/f/comfortr.htm

Will You Not Tell It Today? – Jessie Brown Pounds

It most likely coalesced in this 26-year old single young woman as she lived in northeast Ohio (see map here), and was influenced, at least indirectly, by her father. Jessie Brown (she later married a preacher named Pounds) may have even listened to one of her father’s evangelistic messages as she considered her musical question “Will You Not Tell It Today?”. It sounds like someone trying to prod a listening heart into action, so maybe it was a father speaking to his daughter, and she repeating the conversation. She also may have had an editor from one point in her life, and maybe even a president (Garfield), to credit for the poetry she composed that year. And, there may have been others in her world whose debates had stirred her spirit to self-reflection. Jessie was the product of a community, and so she reciprocated, someone might say.

Jessie Brown’s precocious childhood probably left very few acquaintances surprised at her progression and achievement as a writer-poet-composer. Her father’s conversion and eventual choice to become a pastor and her mother’s role as a schoolteacher undoubtedly influenced Jessie’s knowledge-seeking spirit in childhood. It’s said that this schoolgirl listened to lots of debates among the Hiram (northeast Ohio)-area intellectuals – including James A. Garfield -- as religion and politics were thrown about verbally. It was no accident that Jessie was a writing prodigy as a teenager and went to college at Hiram before needing to withdraw unfortunately because of poor health.  She’d also been sickly as a child, and therefore most likely got a concentrated dose of her mother’s teaching and her father’s preaching in the home. When she was 15, Jessie was producing articles for Cleveland newspapers and faith-based publications, and later was mentored by Isaac Errett, the well-known editor of Christian Standard.  She spent most of her life of 60 years in her native area, thinking and writing of life there. Much of her productivity was the at least 400 (some say 800) hymn poems she composed, reflecting the ardent heart she possessed for spreading the Christian faith. Her words in “Will You Not Tell It Today” were a product of the area’s local Christian community, the Disciples of Christ. The words sound like what might have been sung during an evangelism campaign, or what might have been more commonly called a ‘meeting’.  The first two verses have her pondering personally the gratitude she has for her Savior, and how that compels the hymn’s question. Verse three turns the focus completely on hearers who’ve yet to commit. It’s a three-verse pattern very familiar to meeting-goers, certainly, and also to a young woman trained hearing others talk, teach, preach, debate, and urge others to a viewpoint.

Jessie Brown did what came easy for her, given the upbringing she experienced. She also loved her northeastern Ohio home, and left it only on occasion, it’s said. The nurture she felt found its way through her hands onto the pages of hundreds of songs and other written words, and so she was doing something that could be described as circular. What she received, she put back into her output, which fed her community, and must have fed her too so that she could go on repeating this cycle. Hey, that kinda sounds like a church, doesn’t it? Now you know how to get fed.      

See following sites for biography of composer: http://www.hymnary.org/text/if_the_name_of_the_savior_is_precious_to

http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/p/o/u/pounds_jb.htm

https://books.google.com/books?id=9mDHxQeSiK8C&pg=PA217&lpg=PA217&dq=jessie+brown+pounds&source=bl&ots=nNs7woRAIC&sig=fTFeUat1PMbY3gML4TEvhtctgKs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=zOrqUa78I5LH4AO74YGYBQ#v=onepage&q=jessie%20brown%20pounds&f=false