I Will Sing the Wondrous Story -- Francis Harold Rowley

The words he originally used sound like those of a preacher, a man asking a question of hearers as he considered what convincing words might coax their hearts. (Perhaps not unlike Jesus—see picture of Him here at the His “sermon on the mount”.)   

Francis Harold Rowley must have also spent some time talking with his musical collaborator, Peter Bilhorn, as he thought about the message he wanted to convey in “I Will Sing the Wondrous Story”. What was it that Rowley thought had spoken powerfully to Bilhorn, who had only recently given himself to God? He’d been a minister himself for just eight years, and maybe he’d never been approached with a suggestion to pair words with musical notes in this expressive form before, to articulate what emotionally edgy formula was successful. If it was his only song-poem, what better message to claim as a ‘one-hit wonder’!

He was a 32-year old evangelist in Massachusetts, who was probably feeling the glow of success in the community in that year of 1886. Rowley recounts that there was lots of interest in religious messages, and his cooperation with a recent convert may have underscored for him how open hearers were to what he might say. His musical assistant, Peter Bilhorn, had become a believer just the year before, in 1885, and evidently carried the fire within him to propagate to others what had happened for himself. He had the musical skills, and as he listened to Rowley he decided this fellow had the word skills that would make a new hymn possible. Rowley clearly was motivated, for he produced what Bilhorn needed overnight. His original first line ‘Can’t you sing the wondrous story?’ may have resonated from his imagination as a speaker in the pulpit, as he addressed curious listeners. Try substituting ‘you’ for all the other ‘me’ or ‘I’ pronouns, and indeed it does begin to sound like Francis in the pulpit, trying to persuade you to give in to what your heart might have been whispering. He probably had heard his young friend Bilhorn’s story of confession and conversion, still fresh in his experience. What had compelled Peter to take the faith-step, and would that speak to others? Nothing works like a personal story to capture someone’s attention and begin to make one consider how his life parallels what he’s hearing. As a 21-year old, Bilhorn would have had a youthful zest that communicated well with others. Indeed, Bilhorn went on reportedly to produce some 2,000 songs in his lifetime. And, Francis Rowley would go on evangelizing for over 20 additional years.

Francis Rowley and Peter Bilhorn had two methods, but one message. Two lives intersected to generate a hymn that still exists over 120 years later. If you’re a speaker, see if what you describe matches what a musician nearby is trying to find words to say, and therein might lie the potential for something unique and synergistic. That’s the Rowley-Bilhorn experience. Even so, other hymn-writers might tell you that a lot of what they craft doesn’t persist decades later, making “I Will Sing…” one of the more special accomplishments. What made it endure? Maybe only He knows for certain. Maybe He also knows which ones we’ll be vocalizing, maybe even some of the forgotten ones here in this life, in the next life, maybe? Let’s go find out!       

Information on the song was also obtained from the books  101 Hymn Stories by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1982; 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.

Hear the music and read all five original verses here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/i/w/i/iwilsing.htm