He was inquisitive, that much we know. Maybe even puzzled,
or bewildered, you might say. But, that type of thinking led him toward an
answer as he pondered several parts of Jesus’ biography, and as he composed his
response in “Why Did My Savior Come to Earth?” in 1892. James Gerald Dailey had
some talent for composition and music publishing, and would spend his life
between several locations as he spread the message of God through the music he
must have loved. But, what was he encountering in 1892 that made him ask
questions and dwell on the answer he found?
A few details of James G. Dailey’s life are known that tell
us he was someone who wanted to propagate the truth about God through the music
medium in the eastern United States in the latter 19th and early 20th
Centuries. He was born in Delaware in the mid-1850’s, and must have lost his
father early on in life, as he is known to have moved with his mother to
Brockwayville (known today probably as Brockway), Pennsylvania around age 18. It’s
a small town in north-central Pennsylvania, not far from Punxsutawney, and
today is part of the national historic culture of that region because of a
nearby railroad and its many stops near there (like the one pictured in nearby Scottsville
here in 1874, as it might have appeared to the Daileys). What would make this
mother and her son go to a small town like Brockway is not known. Perhaps they
had a family connection there. We can guess that his mother may have played an
influential part in his musical development, one which led him to write some
15-20 songs over his life, and publish at least three works, including one of
which compiled some songs for use in worship while he and his mother lived in
this small-town environment. It was during the Daileys’ life there that James also
composed his hymn with the question mark. Later on, in the latter years of the
1800s and early 1900s, James lived in Freedonia, New York and then in
Philadelphia. He apparently especially appreciated the God-Son’s love for him
by the time he was 38 years old, as he marked 20 years of living with his mom
in small-town north-central Pennsylvania. Can you imagine James and his mom, from
a rather humble, obscure area? Perhaps James felt he didn’t really stick out as
anything special, a theme that is apparent in his prose. Why’d he come to earth
for me, this nobody from nowhere, and go through hurts and sorrow like I have?
And, why did he decide to die for somebody like me? James’ questions have but
one answer. Love.
James answers that Jesus gave His life because of this love…a
thought we might often limit to appreciating how this was manifested during His
execution. But, perhaps James Dailey was thinking of more. He seems to
appreciate that the incarnate God also gave up His life the whole time He was
here. When He was born in the manger, when He was scorned by the multitudes for
befriending ‘sinners’, and when He experienced the distress of everyday living in
the 1st Century, He was sacrificing then too. Would it surprise us
if Jesus was longing to be in heaven again at those moments? Is that maybe why
He spoke of His Father’s kingdom so much, because He missed it so? He loves me
so, James Daily reminds me. ‘I’m nobody’, James might have been saying, but
somebody in Brockway, Pennsylvania made him realize that that’s who Jesus came
to find and take back with Him. Feeling insignificant, small, and obscure? Come
join the rest of us!
See following sites for brief details on the composer: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/d/a/i/dailey_jg.htm
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