This World Is Not My Home -- Albert E. Brumley

He was on his third place of earthly abode when he declared that he wasn’t really satisfied with the places he’d lived. Albert Brumley said “This World Is Not My Home”, so he wasn’t really trying to accuse any place’s residents of being unfriendly, namely Spiro, Oklahoma where he’d grown up, Hartford, Arkansas where he’d gone to music school, and Powell, Missouri where he had met his wife and lived with his family in 1936 (see the map). It was a pretty rough time all over, during the Great Depression, so perhaps that underscored Albert’s inclination to yearn for a place beyond this planet to call home. It was a musical habit that was one of Brumley’s trademarks.

Music and faith were wound into Albert Edward Brumley from an early age, making his life’s passion that he lived out into his early 70s a calling he undertook with conviction, despite the economic poverty from which he sprang. His inauspicious start as the son of cotton sharecroppers left him with meager resources to pursue the music that he decided by age 16 was his path. But, his upbringing by parents of Christian faith, who also routinely used music in the home as a socializing tool in the community, gave Albert dual drives to overcome the financial hurdles. He also found a Christian music benefactor in Hartford in neighboring Arkansas – Eugene Bartlett – who gave Albert his start in formal training and a music publishing business there. Singing schools that he conducted and marriage – to Goldie, whom he met in Missouri – would also contribute to Albert’s progression. Albert’s composing habits, to write his ideas on various scraps of paper and to make Goldie his sounding board, are probably the background to most of his songs, including ‘This World…Home’. This 31-year old musical master – reportedly, some might have labeled him an oddball – was undoubtedly living in Powell, and still working out his musical ideas with his wife and the music company Bartlett owned, when he penned the words about home in 1936. What led he him to write them is not clear, yet his theme about the Christian life’s destination is not uncommon among the hundreds of songs attributed to him. He thought about his eternal inheritance a lot. Heaven = Home. If Brumley had been a math genius, that’s the eternal equation he would have authored.           

Got a clear picture of heaven? I don’t think I look often enough, honestly, to say what it is I see behind the most obvious facade. Is it awesome? Yes. But, Albert thought it was more appealing to draw a picture of God’s goodness to stir his spirit. The Lord is his ‘friend’, and angels coax him toward the goal (v. 1, and refrain). Albert also sensed that others are waiting, rooting, and celebrating (vv.2-3) as the day of reunion approaches. Has earthly life been good, or not so much for you? Look ahead, and see if you can imagine it the way Albert did. That’s the best therapy for what goes on here.  

See more information on the song story in these sources: The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006.  

  

See a thorough biography of the author/composer here: 

http://www.therestorationmovement.com/_states/tennessee/brumley.htm

 

See brief biography of the author/composer here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_E._Brumley

And, here: https://hymnary.org/person/Brumley_Albert

Here, also: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/b/r/u/brumley_ae.htm

 

See biography on composer in Our Garden of Song, edited by Gene C. Finley, Howard Publishing Company, West Monroe, Louisiana, 1980.

I Am Resolved -- Palmer Hartsough

He sounds like a man on a mission, with the words of his conviction forthrightly in the title of what he crafted at the age of 52. In fact, perhaps it was really someone else’s mission that spurred Palmer Hartsough to pen most of what he had to say in “I Am Resolved” in the latter years of the 19^th Century. Palmer had only recently moved to Cincinnati to work hand-in-hand with a publisher, when in 1896, his boss asked him to stretch his creative muscles, to go further than he had with the song’s original words, evidently with a plan in mind to use the newest words in a wider way. Palmer initially may have had some folks in mind at a mission or a church whose music he guided, but perhaps it was the experience of a lengthy train ride that gave Palmer’s boss the idea for something more wide-ranging. After all, does a person have more than one resolution in life -- perchance multiple sub-resolutions that flow from one that is paramount?

Palmer Hartsough had been a music professional for all of his adult life when he spelled out his convictions in “I Am Resolved”, a musical pledge that someone could say eventually took him deeper into devotion some 10 years later. Hartsough may also have had some musical bloodlines that helped fix his calling in life, even as he progressed through his later years. Another Hartsough, Lewis T. (14 years Palmer’s senior), was active in music-writing and as a Methodist minister in 19^th Century New York, Utah, Wyoming, and finally Iowa; whether Palmer and Lewis T. were related is unclear, however. Palmer’s calling at the time he wrote “I Am Resolved” was music direction at a Baptist church and the Bethel Mission in Cincinnati, concurrent with his association with the Fillmore Music Company in the city. The company’s owner apparently coaxed Palmer's creativity toward some additional words for the song after accompanying several travelers who sang the original song on the way to San Francisco for a convention. This request no doubt posed no serious predicament for the music veteran Palmer, who’d been a travelling music teacher and music studio owner in the Midwest for many years before arriving along the banks of the Ohio River in 1893. Nevertheless, did this episode stick with Hartsough, or cause him to consider a new, tangential direction in its wake? Some 10 years later, as a 62-year old, Hartsough became an ordained Baptist minister, later serving in Michigan in that role until he retired in 1927 at the age of 84. That epilogue to “I Am Resolved” tells us something about Palmer: He wasn’t a malingerer, someone who was satisfied with marking time. He examined himself, and wasn’t afraid of a resolution that challenged his direction – even if it was one that he’d spent decades pursuing.

What was it Palmer resolved, or persuaded others to resolve in 1896? Don’t loiter about with insignificant pursuits in the world (v.1); keep the Savior Jesus in sight, with Him as your guide and end goal (vv. 2-3); doing these will get one to the only destination that really matters, despite potential opposition from others (vv.4-5). Are you set in your ways? Has the direction become a bit predictable, the air a little stale? Can you imagine Palmer Hartsough doing a little self-inspection, and implementing a course correction? Was it a 10-year process? If he could do it, can you or I do the same?       

See information on the song’s author here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/h/a/r/t/hartsough_p.htm (Palmer Hartsough)

See the song’s verses and a brief report on the song’s use here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/i/a/m/r/iamresol.htm

http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/h/a/r/t/hartsough_lt.htm (Lewis T. Hartsough)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Hartsough

Jesus Is Tenderly Calling You Home -- Fanny Crosby

She might have used a telephone like the one shown here (in this 1886 advertisement in the New York/New Jersey area), or at least seen one used. The telephone was one of the new wonders of the Industrial Age, this machine you could talk into and carry on conversations with people many miles away. If Fanny Crosby was in touch with her world – and, she was – she would have used various ways to make sure that a voice mail that related “Jesus Is Tenderly Calling You Home” reached its intended recipients.  Of course, she was very adept with the medium of music; in fact, since one of her five senses (sight) was not available to her, maybe the hearing upon which she relied so much was especially attuned musically to calling out to people who needed to hear the message. Is it just a coincidence that the Divine One also doesn’t want me relying on eyesight to believe in Him, but does want me to hear Him?

Frances Jane Crosby (Aunt Fanny, as she was often called) was one of the most well-known blind musical prodigies of her time, or any other time. Having only four of her basic senses in play, Fanny did not let that slow her down. Over, 8,000 hymns are attributed to her, and her work among many rescue missions in the New York area is just as noteworthy. All this was without the benefit of eyesight, including the mission works which were in large part during her years as a senior citizen. In 1883 when she wrote about Jesus’ call, Fanny was living in a Manhattan slum. While there, she reportedly worked with various missions, perhaps because it gave her easy access to those who most needed to hear the call of God. Any of the at least half-dozen missions that she frequented at the time may have inspired what she passed along to the destitute in “Jesus Is…Calling…”.  These would be the people who felt ‘weary’ or had a ‘burden’ (v. 2). Although she could not see their faces, Fanny must have heard their voices often enough to recognize the sense of rejection the poor in Manhattan experienced. Sure, they needed financial help, but maybe more than that, they needed to feel like somebody cared. Who better than a blind lady to let them know that God’s son was the ultimate source of compassion. His hand never slapped down anyone who was already wallowing in the gutter. ‘Tenderly calling’, that’s the phrase Fanny chose to communicate that His arms are wide open.

Water Street, Bowery, Howard, Cremore…these were some of the mission names familiar to Fanny, and by way of acquaintance, therefore, to God in 1883. Fanny must have heard and spoken many times the words of Him who talked about ‘the least of these’ (Matthew 25:40, 45). Does the message where I frequent instead seem to bounce off those who hear? Maybe identifying the gaps we all have that cannot be closed here is the strategy for sharing that would reach the ears, and hearts, of those at the other end of the line. Fanny found a way to reach them without one of her senses. She just kept forwarding the calls from Him.  

See more information on the song story in these sources:

The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006.   

See this site for all of the original verses: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/j/i/t/jitcyhom.htm

See a few brief details of the composer’s life here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/c/r/o/s/crosby_fj.htm

See this site also for a brief biography of the author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Crosby