In the Desert of Sorrow and Sin -- Henry Robert Trickett

Is this graphic-map shown here of a place in Illinois on the Mississippi River really a desert? Is that what the composer Henry Robert Trickett was really thinking when he wrote “In the Desert of Sorrow and Sin” in 1887? This region is a small, rather desolate area, at least probably by some standards. But some might tell Henry, if he were still here today, that he chose this place to live, so ‘don’t complain about its condition’. Or, it’s more likely that Henry Trickett was actually thinking metaphorically about something that tormented his life – whatever that was. How does one manage one’s existence in a desert, anyway?

Henry Robert Trickett was a native Briton who came to United States as a youth, returned to England for some of his schooling, and then made the circuit again to his American home in Illinois once he’d decided that ministry was to be his life. Hamilton County and a farm there in the Land of Lincoln was his homestead for the last several decades of his life, reportedly, where he must have been when he confessed in this song that all was not well. He’d studied law, so maybe this inclination caused him to feel the weight of a guilty conscience as a 48-year old farmer and minister. He apparently was very involved in evangelistic work, so was it his contact with others and their eternal circumstances that additionally compelled this song’s conception? Though accustomed to some isolation on his farm, Henry must have made many acquaintances in the communities of Hamilton and Nauvoo on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, in Keokuk (Iowa) on the river’s western bank, and in Missouri too, where he’d ministered for a time. This part of Illinois (particularly Nauvoo) also had a history of religious awareness, as Joseph Smith and Mormonism were focused there in the mid-19^th Century. Other faith groups in the Protestant, Catholic, and Lutheran traditions also took hold in this area, so the area’s residents were undoubtedly accustomed to soul-searching like Trickett’s. Perhaps he worked out some of the distress, either his own or of those he knew, in the few dozen songs that we know he wrote. His words at the end of verse one suggest he or someone he knew had often been at the end of his rope …’see my strength and hope nearly gone’. But, verses two and three show that while Trickett was certain of his own weakness, he could depend on God’s compassion too. It was a message that was personal and probably resonated with many he knew.

Henry Trickett was a well-known minister in the Hamilton County, Illinois area by the latter 19^th Century. He apparently wrote Christmas messages in a local newspaper in Nauvoo for several years as a senior citizen, probably because his was a recognized and respected voice. Could that have been true because Trickett spoke a language, with a confessor's dialect that others heard readily? He was a minister, but was authentic in pointing out his sin warts, too. When someone like Henry Trickett admitted faults, what do you suppose others said in response? What do you think they’d say today if you or I did this? Be ready with that glass of water.         

Check out the following link to read about the composer:

http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/t/r/i/trickett_hr.htm

See this site for brief information on one area near composer’s home: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nauvoo,_Illinois