He was a relatively young man who wrote some thoughts to
describe his outlook as he prepared to enter his professional life. What would his
contemporaries have expected from Isaac Newton Carman in the mid-19th
Century as he studied in Appalachia, apparently for a career in church ministry?
One can assume that the theme of his composition “Here We Are But Straying
Pilgrims” emerged from what he was learning, probably influenced to some degree
by one or more his professor-mentors. Was he struggling or watching others contend
with difficult circumstances? If so, we could gather that he and his acquaintances
with whom he shared his thoughts were also cheered by the song’s confident
refrain. It was a buoyancy that must have stayed with him for decades.
Though very little is known of Isaac Carman, a few details
provide a rough sketch so we can fill in some of the important blanks of his
life. He was reportedly attending Bethany College in western Virginia (it would
be part of the state of West Virginia, less than a decade later) , from where
he graduated in 1855. (See picture here of the Bethany church built in 1852, contemporaneous
with Carman’s college career.)One of his chief mentors may have been Alexander
Campbell (of the Stone-Campbell movement, the genesis of the Church of Christ
in the Appalachian region of the U.S.), from whom he must have been encouraged
to pursue his faith, not only through some song-writing but also in formal
ministry. Carman was apparently still a minister in Rochester, New York in
1906, some 50 years after graduating from college in the West Virginia hills. Isaac
is credited with just a handful of songs, perhaps the best known of which is
his description of himself and his contemporaries as ‘straying pilgrims’,
written perhaps in 1854 just before he acquired his college degree. What was on
the mind of this 25-year old student? Problems were certainly not invisible to
Carman, if his penned words are true to his impressions of life at that
juncture. He saw the way of Christian faith was frequently rather obscure
(verse 1), tiresome (verse 2), and fraught with danger posed by his enemy
(verse 3). Yet, he maintained that the
reward of the next life would be worthy of our stamina. Was that idealism, the
zeal of a college student ready to take on the world? If it was, he must have
gathered some of that exuberance from those around him, including Campbell, and
made it his own philosophy. How else
could one explain this fellow’s ministry in Rochester fifty years hence? He may
have written a bare few tunes, but perhaps this one and the others nevertheless
proclaimed his conviction loudly enough.
I believe, and yes I know struggle, but I keep on going. That’s
the one sentence sum-up of how Isaac Carman might have described the journey
upon which he’d just begun in 1854. You might add a couple of more words,
though. We, Our. Small words, but Carman uses these plural pronouns ten times
in his three verses, and twice more in the refrain, evidence that he depended
on the fellowship of other believers. Let’s all go together, he says, a
sentiment still worth repeating today. I or you might get lost--stray, like a
dumb animal—but there’s others on the path to reach out a hand. Stick out yours
to help or be helped today.
See here for very brief information on the song and its
composer: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/h/e/r/herewabs.htm
Also see here for more scant information on composer: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/c/a/r/carman_in.htm
See here for more information gathered by another hymn blogger
enthusiast: http://hymnstudiesblog.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/quothere-we-are-but-straying-pilgrimsquot/
One original source for information on the composer is
referenced here: http://www.hymnary.org/DNAH
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