Tell It to Jesus Alone – Edmund Simon Lorenz

One fellow wrote the words, and another translated them into the language we know today.  Edmund Simon Lorenz must have been lonely and sad at times, or at least knew some people who were, perhaps stirring him to write “Tell It to Jesus Alone” in the latter 19^th Century, perhaps as he lived in Ohio (see picture of its seal here).

Its words must have spoken to Jeremiah Rankin, for he translated the song’s words from the original German to English a few years later. Their paths crossed in the mid-1870s, leading to the creation of the song’s English version. Was there something that Lorenz might have shared with his like-minded colleague Rankin as the two discussed how friendless and lonesome people needed to hear the therapy recommended in the song’s words?

Edmund Lorenz was just 22 years old when he crafted the musical remedy for the dark feelings he describes in “Tell It to Jesus Alone”, a period in which he also was entering upon his life’s purpose.  He’d already been a German language teacher and a school principal when he apparently decided after a few short years that he wanted something else, prompting him to move to Dayton, Ohio to become a music editor at age 19. Over the next decade he studied theology in several places, including in Germany, and invested himself in his faith as an ordained minister via the United Brethren in Christ Conference in Ohio. He also was married and began to have children by the late 1870s. Apparently, something still missing in his life or in others he observed in 1876 must have contributed to his thoughts about grief, lonesomeness, and other anxieties he dwells upon in the four verses and refrain of “Tell It…”. Was he troubled particularly prior to finding a mate and family life? Did he talk with others who were approaching life’s end, since death’s prospect (verse four) was part of his vision? The same questions might be asked of the 48-year old Jeremiah Rankin, the translator of the song into English. Lorenz and Rankin intersected during their collaboration on Francis Murphy’s Gospel Temperance Hymnal  in 1878, the episode in which they must have decided that “Tell it…” could be transformed from Lorenz’ native tongue (and first published in Fröliche Botschafter) into English. The two men were a generation apart, yet no doubt appreciated the emotions described in the hymn, as well as its recommended treatment for the maladies afflicting the soul. Friendship.  

‘Who’s an island?’, Lorenz and Rankin must have mused jointly. No one in life’s journey wants to be alone. Even the most hardened, ruthless criminals stuck in prison may be punished with something still more severe  -- solitary confinement. The two composers may have noticed something else about human friendships. Sometimes they fail us, just because there’s something like a fallibility clause in our human nature. It’s just part of the landscape of our existence. That’s why Jesus’ entry into the picture is so great. He’s been like me, but He’s also something better – in fact, He’s transcendent, an ‘Overcomer’. He’s the model for me. Could that be why He wants me to think of Him as my friend?

See here for information on the song’s composer:  http://www.hymnary.org/person/Lorenz_Edmund

Also see here for more information on the composer: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/l/o/r/lorenz_es.htm

See here information about the English translator of the hymn: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/r/a/n/rankin_je.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah_Rankin

See here for all four verses and refrain of hymn: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/t/e/l/tellitto.htm