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
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