Rise Up O Men of God -- William Pierson Merrill

Without knowing this story, someone might glibly dismiss him and his effort as an example of male chauvinism. He does seem to leave the female population on the sidelines – but why? William Pierson Merrill, despite how it might have looked, was indeed pitching “Rise Up O Men of God” at the masculine gender as he pondered an issue he wanted to address in 1911. He must have thought there was a pressing need as he penned the words, but how would we know that if all we had was the text he authored? Who would you think of if you wanted to capture some mental imagery of men serving God? Do some missionaries come to mind, or, closer to home, how about workers in a soup kitchen (like those shown here)?  

William Merrill’s call to action in 1911 might have been interpreted by some as an aggressive, chest-beating battle-cry—since it was directed at men. But, anyone who knew him probably should have known this minister was an advocate of an entirely different agenda. He’d been a pastor (minister) for over 20 years, including the previous 15 in a Chicago area Presbyterian church, from where he’d been trying to spur men to be more active in the church. He was a noted pacifist, indeed the first president of the Church Peace Union, in an era when the war drums were beginning to beat louder prior to the planet’s first global conflict – World War I. Perhaps those years’ atmosphere helped feed Merrill’s outlook, his great desire to motivate men to God’s work, and particularly the brotherhood movement within Presbyterianism, to complement more robustly the work Christian women were pursuing. An editor nudged Merrill to compose a hymn to further this cause, and while aboard a ship on Lake Michigan a magazine article extolling strong men in the church caught his eye, and the rest, as they say, is history. William had written the song before the ship docked. He called upon men to prepare and take part in a different battle than much of the world was forecasting. Nevertheless, the exclamation marks punctuating his words belie any tranquility his professional demeanor dictated, instead showing the urgency of this service call he felt compelled to make. 1911 was also a transition year for Merrill, when he left Chicago for New York City and the Brick Presbyterian Church, where he ministered actively for the next 27 years. Could “Rise Up …” also have been Merrill’s parting message for his Chicago hearers?  If so, it was a message not meant exclusively for Chicago’s environment.

Merrill must have seen much in Pennsylvania where he started in 1890, in Illinois where he was inspired to compose this message for his fellow men, and probably later in New York. The words he wrote apply universally, prompting devout believers to address social ills through sacrifice, a strategy necessary in any American city, and throughout the world too. Maybe it was part of Merrill’s pacifist message, that church work that ministered to hurting people was a stronger antidote for conflict than bullets. Is there still conflict today, somewhere on planet earth? Someone says our inner cities are combat zones, with poverty, crime, substance abuse, and other maladies rampant therein. Am I hearing what William Merrill is saying…do you?

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

See story here also:

http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/r/i/s/riseupom.htm

See biography of composer here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_P._Merrill

Seek Ye First -- Karen Lafferty

Be a learner, and then be a teacher. That may be the best way to describe what Karen Lafferty did when she wrote “Seek Ye First” in 1972 as a 24-year old ‘Jesus people’ person. Actually, she might have been called an imitator, too, because she was really repeating words that others had first spoken centuries, in fact millennia and more, earlier in history (see picture here of one – Jesus at his most well-known preaching venue, the Sermon on the Mount). Was it a one-time lesson that she was learning, or in fact something more enduring? Can one teach while still learning? Those are questions perhaps best answered by examining the roots of this seeking episode that Karen let speak to her in the early 1970s.

Karen Lafferty’s evolution as a Christian and music-maker prepared her for “Seek Ye First” in some challenging ways, perhaps a tone not unlike what her spiritual predecessors experienced in the biblical era when words she would later echo were first articulated. Lafferty had reasons to believe success was within her youthful grasp in her early ‘20s. She’d competed and nearly been crowned Miss New Mexico, while she had been busy obtaining a music degree and honing skill in several musical instruments -- oboe, piano, saxophone, guitar, and of course her voice. She had a job singing at a popular club in New Orleans, and the stepping stones seemed to be in place for a career in show business. Looks and talent is a strong combo, after all. Yet, when Jesus’ spirit captured her heart, that’s when life got more turbulent, less certain. She was turned down by the Campus Crusade music ministry, and was having trouble making financial ends meet, since she no longer sang at the club because she felt that was at odds with her newfound walk as a Christian. Churches paid meagerly for her musical efforts and the guitar lessons she tried to offer more widely fell on almost barren soil too. It was one evening during this bleak period that she studied with other believers, and the topic was Jesus’ sermon on a worry-free life (Matthew 6:25-34). His teaching to ‘seek first’ indeed infected Karen, and she almost immediately matched His words to a tune she’d created. Verses 2 and 3 also soon flowed upon her study of other portions of Jesus’ early ministry (Matthew 7:7, Matthew 4:4) and Moses’ life also (Deuteronomy 8:3). Besides these biblical stories’ convenient phraseology, the characters’ life examples—of faith, despite challenges—must have likewise caught Karen Lafferty’s attention.   

Moses and Jesus have vivid lives that have inspired millions. But, have you noticed that their stories don’t promote ‘peaches and cream’? Moses’ words (verse 3 of Lafferty’s song) remind the people they had had to learn that sustenance came from God, not from food. Moses wasn’t immune to physical hunger—perhaps the most basic human challenge. Nor was Jesus in the wilderness when he repeated those words (Matthew 4:4), but He learned, and then taught others this axiom.  Words are good, but His are matched by experience. When my stomach growls, my muscles ache, or some privation invades my life, “Seek Ye First” reminds me the words were preceded by a walk, a real life. Try seeking and finding and living.  

Sources for the song story are the books “Our God Reigns: The Stories behind Your Favorite Praise and Worship Songs”, by Phil Christensen and Shari MacDonald, Kregel Publications, 2000; and “The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs”, by William J. and Ardythe Petersen, 2006.

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.

Have Thine Own Way -- Adelaide Pollard

Mid-life crisis? Was this among the circumstances of 40-year old Adelaide Pollard as she contemplated her situation in 1902? She must have felt, as many do at one or multiple times in their lives, that she’d reached a point where she was passionate to do something, yet was frustrated by the hurdle in her way. Was her desire not something good for His kingdom, she wondered? Has he not put this aspiration inside me? And then, in quite an unexpected way, she encountered someone she’d never met before, who spoke something that got inside her. Though certain of His will before this incident, Adelaide must have concluded that she needed to say “Have Thine Own Way” more deeply and intently. She needed to be like potter’s clay (maybe like the one I made many years ago, shown here).

Adelaide Pollard was part of several ministries for God for many years before and after the turn of the 20^th Century, and so was accustomed to following wherever He seemed to be leading. She’d been a teacher, including as a bible instructor, in the Chicago area in the 1880s. She also had followed and participated in the work of two evangelists prior to turning 40, the second of which was in New England. It was there that she was keenly motivated to seek missionary work in Africa, yet bitterly disappointed in her drive to raise funds for the trip. Perhaps she’d poured out her soul over this deep regret to a group at a prayer service one night, for it was there that an anonymous old woman said something that germinated deep within Adelaide. Was it the wisdom that comes from experience, perhaps some distress in her own life, which caused the elderly woman to pray the words that Pollard used later that same night as her hymn title? Not only had the old woman’s words pierced her; Adelaide also found inspiration from an ancient writer, someone who might identify with her emotional state – Jeremiah. This prophet’s imagery of a potter (Jeremiah 18:3-4) found its way into her response in the hymn. In submissive words, she speaks of putting aside her own agenda in favor of His. Interestingly, many years later, she actually did go to Africa briefly. She then spent the war years (World War I) in Scotland before returning to the U.S. in the postwar era.

So, could it be that part of her surrender to Him meant moving about on His timetable?

How would Adelaide Pollard answer? Besides moving physically several times in her 72 years, she must have more than once moved emotionally-spiritually. Pollard is credited with writing perhaps a few dozen hymns, but among them are several with titles that suggest she surrendered again and again to what He wanted her to do. “Have Thine Own Way” wasn’t just one episode of Adelaide Pollard’s story, but really rather like a window we can peer through to see what’s inside. Are there windows about me, which others may be looking through? What do they see? Maybe it should be Who they see, huh?

See more information on the song discussed above in 101 More Hymn Stories by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1985; Then Sings My Soul – 150 of the World’s Greatest Hymn Stories, Robert J. Morgan, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003; Amazing Grace – 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, 1990, Kregel Publications; and The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs, by William J. and Ardythe Petersen, 2006, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 

Also see following sites:

http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/p/o/l/pollard_aa.htm

http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/h/t/h/hthineow.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Have_Thine_Own_Way,_Lord

There Is Sunshine in My Soul -- Eliza Edmunds Hewitt

She had just been released from a kind of prison-like experience, and being mobile again, overflowing joy surged through her. That’s the quickest, one-sentence description of what sensation Eliza Edmunds Hewitt felt in 1887 as she scribbled the words for “There Is Sunshine in My Soul”. She could have moaned about how long she’d been trapped, about the lost time and tedium of the past several months, or how she intended to repay the one responsible for these circumstances. But at that moment, rediscovering and appreciating the blessing of her physical freedom and His care for her blotted out those other moods.   

 

Eliza was a 35-year old who had been disabled by an accident, recovered for a time, and then discovered that this period was a precursor for her life’s work. Hewitt had begun what she thought was her life’s calling as a teacher in Philadelphia, after attending schools there herself as a youngster. She was at the corner of 23^rd and Brown Streets one day, in a classroom at the Northern Home for Friendless Children (see a sketch of it here), when her life took an unexpected turn. Teaching in a school for orphans must have had its challenges – was it more or less difficult than other schools is a debatable question – but Eliza could not have welcomed the assault from a student who cracked her across the back with a piece of slate one day. The incident left her in a large cast for several months, a trial that surely had at least part of her wondering ‘why me?’ You can infer from the words she penned the day of her release from this cast what she was doing. Taking a walk through a sunny park on a spring day radiates from the words she composed, a blessing that she just couldn’t ignore upon her return to her home from this stroll. She could walk again! Did she hug the doctor? If she did, she thanked Jesus still more, for perhaps the experience had focused her conscience upon Him more than ever. The song-writing she’d begun after her bed-ridden experience had evidently made a lasting impression upon her, so that when her spinal condition turned out to be chronic, she turned to an alternative life’s work. Sunday schools and song-writing were her passion from that point forward, producing an abundance of hymns – over 1,700!—until her death in 1920.

What pushes someone like Eliza Hewitt to such prolific heights? Had she read about Joseph, the great son of a Genesis patriarch, who might have bemoaned his imprisonment in Egypt?  He avoided revenge’s temptation. No jail kept him from using what was inside of himself, not even death’s threat. He was the hint of Him, so to speak, who would later arrive on the scene of history and overcome life’s reverses. Eliza must have remembered Him too, don’t you think?       

See more information on the song discussed above in 101 More Hymn Stories by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1985; and Then Sings My Soul – 150 of the World’s Greatest Hymn Stories, Robert J. Morgan, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003.

See here for list of composer’s works: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/h/e/w/hewitt_ees.htm