I'll Live in Glory -- John M. Henson

He was over halfway there, and what he said in 1936 may have been something he shared with his partner. John Melvin Henson most likely was somewhere in northern Georgia (perhaps near or in Gordon County, where he was born) when he penned the words “I’ll Live in Glory”, a belief he and his partner Homer Morris must have shared and then co-published as a song they thought would resonate with other believers. The 49-year old John had been engaged in music-writing, teaching, and publishing for many years when he wrote these words and music, one of the few hundred songs attributed to him over his 84 years on earth. His thoughts suggest he was an energetic, eager, life-loving servant, but also one who wasn’t afraid to ponder his mortality and what life’s end would mean. In fact, one might surmise that such thoughts were probably what galvanized his being, his purpose for living.   

John Henson had been an avid music professional in various forums for at least 25 years by the time he wrote “I’ll Live in Glory”. In his early 20s, he started teaching others to sing and later formed the music publishing enterprise, Morris-Henson Company, with his friend Homer. Additionally, John was routinely writing poems and sometimes the music, too, for new hymns like “I’ll Live…”. He had much over which he could reminisce in 1936, so was he pondering how things were going as he penned the first few words of his poem? He apparently enjoyed life enough to want to stick around for a while, even if it had “…uneven ways” (v.1), an intriguing reflection for someone in the midst of America’s Great Depression. How was the Morris-Henson Company faring during this economic upheaval? John makes no further asides to earthly life, except to say he wanted to be useful in God’s kingdom – “…be of service along this pilgrim way…” (v. 2). Looking forward to an unfathomably better existence would not have been unusual for anyone during the mid-1930s, so John’s enthusiasm for the ‘glory by and by’ refrain he employs is rational. (He uses this phrase at the end of each verse, as well as twice in the refrain that’s sung three times.) Who wouldn’t look forward to ‘glory’ when circumstances, for himself or others he could observe, had become depraved by comparison? This simple thought was one John must have reasoned others about him would sing with gusto. It might be more common among the elderly, whose health more likely makes life difficult or even grim, but the daily drudgery can afflict people of all ages. Henson’s upbeat tune and verses must have heartened more than a few who chose to look forward and upward as he did.

How soon’s the ‘by and by’, anyway? For John Henson, it didn’t arrive for another 35 years. His song’s first few words tell us that he probably wasn’t disappointed that ‘by and by’ didn’t arrive in 1937. At 49, one would expect he might have thought ‘I don’t want to go just yet!’ Yet, he would have gone willingly (‘…but if my savior calls me..’ v.1). One can imagine that John didn’t sit idly, waiting to see what the answer was. Although what motivated him was thinking about where he wasn’t at the moment, he didn’t waste his flesh-and-blood moments. Draw others, the more the merrier. Make the ‘by and by’ that much sweeter, with a multitude to join in a common hurrah. That’s the message of Revelation (7:9; 19:1, 6). You think John Henson might have read the same thing, before he wrote his poem?     

See site here for very brief biography of the author-composer: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/h/e/n/s/henson_jm.htm

See also here: https://hymnary.org/person/Henson_JM

Beautiful Isle of Somewhere -- Jessie B. Pounds

Jessie Hunter Brown Pounds was 36, and had been sick, perhaps not an uncommon circumstance for her. Did that morning’s unfortunate physical discomfort cause Jessie to imagine a “Beautiful Isle of Somewhere”, where she would never have to suffer the same way again? Indianapolis (its flag is shown here) was her new home, where she and her new husband were beginning their lives together, worshipping and serving at the church where he (John Pounds) was the pastor. So, it must have made Jessie especially uneasy to miss accompanying her husband to the church that day. Would the other church members be worried about her? If she couldn’t be with him physically, maybe Jessie could be with John by thinking on a topic they both appreciated – heaven. Was it in fact his sermon topic for the day?

Jessie was no stranger to either sickness or hymn-writing as she thought about her latest poem in 1897, the morning she felt ill in Indianapolis shortly after marrying. She’d reportedly been sick often as a child, prompting her family to educate her at home rather than to send her to public school. So, it must have been there under her parents’ tutelage where she began writing poetry. Jessie, a teenager living in northeastern Ohio, was soon sending her poems to a Cleveland newspaper. It was an editor who coaxed Jessie that her poems could be hymns, a suggestion that she took to heart. As someone has said, the rest is history, some 800 hymns later by some accounts. So, was it her sickly nature as a child that was the necessary familiar setting, creating the scene one Sunday morning as Jessie sat at home? She’d been married just a few weeks, so being unable to accompany her husband to worship must have been doubly painful, on top of the physical malady that afflicted her that day. Heaven was obviously on her mind, so she wrote a new poem to explore how its environment would be a blessing, somewhere. The earth’s shortcomings also must have been on her mind, as she longed to go to the somewhere else place, a beautiful isle. Separation, even briefly, from her man, and a sickly body were the dual conditions that spurred ‘Beautiful Isle…’, a result that came to fruition swiftly. Her thoughts had concluded in just the few hours that she spent alone. It must have quickened her spirit to think of that serene island and how it would overwhelm her present misery.

It’s no surprise that the things Jessie considered about the heavenly ‘somewhere’ outnumbered those earthly maladies she wanted to leave behind. Sunshine and songbirds, and especially a living God (v.1); lengthy days, completed duties, a strong heart, and a welcome reward [guerdon](v. 2); a lightened load, rippling clouds, and singing angels (v. 3) were all mental images that Jessie saw. Only a fleeting undefined sadness (v. 1) translated from her thoughts down to the pen she held. Truth and renewal (refrain) were also conditions that Jessie particularly exclaimed as she considered Somewhere, over and over again. Somewhere might be thought of like ‘Someday’ or ‘Sometime’, a hope-filled, confident expression. No maybe about it in Jessie’s verses. Somewhere is real. You got Somewhere to go?   

See here for the song’s story: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/b/e/a/beautisl.htm

See here for brief biography of the author: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/p/o/u/pounds_jb.htm

Also, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessie_Brown_Pounds

In the Land of Fadeless Day -- John R. Clements

This 32-year old would be prolific in more than one way in his faith expression, but he was probably just getting started, as one century neared its conclusion and another one was about to commence. John Ralston Clements made his home in the Binghampton, New York area, and may have spent much of his time in a classroom (perhaps similar to the one shown here – in what was known as Lestershire [now Johnson City], New York – sometime before 1923), or in a grocery store, but wherever he was, he probably had a song-poem in his head. He was Irish-born, but evidently adapted well to America as he pursued the faith he accepted as an 18-year old in his new country. It was 1899, and John had a counterpoint to darkness in a poem he called “No Night There” (also known as “In the Land of Fadeless Day”), perhaps one bit of mental imagery he tried to get his students to visualize.

It’s probably not too speculative to suggest that John Clements was heavily involved in the education of many students around the turn of the 18^th-19^th Century, and that this perhaps played a part in many of the poem-songs he wrote. His family had emigrated to the U.S. from Ireland when John was two years old, and later he worked in the grocery business as a young teenager and evidently into his adult years. He was the first president of what was known as the Practical Bible Training School – later to be renamed Davis College (after its founder, John Adelbert Davis), a position he held shortly before the turn of the century until 1914. So, John Clements was evidently fairly accomplished and recognized for his acumen by the time he was in his early 30s. The poetry he produced – he would reportedly write some 5,000 poem-songs over his lifetime – was one manifestation of his prodigious ability. He must have touched several hundred, if not thousands of students during his 17-year stint as the school’s president, too. Moreover, he certainly possessed a pretty strong conviction, based upon these two data points – his poetry and leadership of the school. You can sense it in the song he wrote also around this time. Notice the phrase ‘..the city foursquare’ that he uses repeatedly (it’s in all four verses he composed). Do you think John was describing the eternal city’s geometric shape, really? Or, was he more likely struck by ‘foursquare’ in the sense of this city’s firmness and certainty, based upon its founder? One can imagine that John evaluated his own life, and that of the school’s students, and concluded that their convictions should be forthright and strong, matching that of the city where they all wanted to live ultimately. Perhaps John communicated this attitude in the various roles he played, as school president, poet, and even as a grocer.

Conviction was one word that must have described John Clements. Meet life with a faith head-on. Don’t try to swerve too much, he might have said. John, like any of us, certainly knew of the valleys. He wrote about them in his song’s refrain – ‘tears…death…pain…fears’. But, he juxtaposes them against the stunning scenery of the city he saw in his mind. That’s where his faith found its foundation. If your houses creaks, like mine, it’s natural sometimes to wonder if there’s a structural problem. Probably smart to maybe have it checked out by an expert, huh? How’s your foundation doing? Maybe that’s not too far off from a question John Clements might have asked himself.        

See here for brief biography of the author: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/c/l/e/clements_jr.htm

See here for all four verses of the song: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/n/n/i/nnighthr.htm

Also, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Clements

See link here re: the school the author started: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis_College_(New_York)