Jesus Loves Me -- Anna Bartlett Warner

So easy that a child could understand it? How about an army cadet? Maybe someone asked Anna Bartlett Warner those questions in 1860 when the subject of her poem “Jesus Loves Me” came up in conversation, for she and her sister Susan had encountered and tried to teach both children and military men in their life on Constitution Island in Highland Falls, New York (see a picture here of the island). They spent a good deal of time teaching the bible to army cadets at West Point, but they also wrote works intended for children, the apparent motivating factor in what they both did to bring life to this title phrase that is so elemental to Christian faith. It’s so simple a child could grasp it, but not too juvenile for young men in uniform to hold fast to it, too.    

Anna Warner was 33 years old by the time “Jesus Loves Me” appeared in print, perhaps one of the highlights of the Warner sisters’ efforts spanning several decades in southeastern New York state. Perhaps decades earlier, when both of them were children living in New York City with their wealthy attorney-father, they could not have imagined the life they would eventually pursue out of need. The collapse and loss of most of their family’s treasure in 1837 ushered in radical changes for the Warners, including a move to the island that sits adjacent to the U.S. Military Academy. An uncle had been the academy’s chaplain, a connection that probably gave the sisters an entrance to bible instruction for the young men attending there. But, making financial ends meet was also necessary, thus spurring Anna and Susan to write as their chief means of provision. The two objectives – teaching bible and making a living –at least occasionally intersected, including when ‘Jesus Loves Me’ was penned. Say and Seal was a novel, with an episode relating a Sunday school teacher’s attempts to console a child who is facing death, that Susan had in work. The poem that Anna wrote was this fictious character’s solution for the angst-ridden child whose departure is certain. Yes, death may be sure, but Anna’s poetry makes other facts about life and death abundantly clear, thus transmitting courage to a fearful child – and the rest of us, too -- about to enter the unseen. An unshakeable truth emerges from Anna’s heart via her pen. The God-Son who died and arose loves me, and has paved the way for me to join Him. Is anything more consequential at the end than this knowledge? Was it just a child’s perspective that Anna and Susan had in mind with this, or could the gravity of life, and what might await of group of army cadets in their pursuits, also have been at work in the mid-19^th Century? We’re all children, particularly when death approaches with a brutal, numbing certainty.

How does anyone face death with composure? A minister at my mother’s wake reminded us that death is an ‘appointment’, one that none of us can miss. The Warner poetry acknowledges this as well, that life’s end has an unavoidable poignancy. But, Anna says, that’s not all. That’s not even a wisp compared to what He says to me. Perhaps that’s why William Bradbury (he wrote the chorus to Anna’s poem) has us vocalize those three words repeatedly and innocently, yet boldly. It’s not something I need to gloat about, but it is reassuring. If you still have no peace when you think of the end, you need this. No one needs to miss this.

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; Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990; 101 Hymn Stories, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1982; and Then Sings My Soul – 150 of the World’s Greatest Hymn Stories, Robert J. Morgan, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003.

Also see this link, showing all four original verses and a brief account of the song’s development: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/j/e/s/u/jesuslme.htm

Also see here for song information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Loves_Me

Also see this site author information: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/w/a/r/n/warner_ab.htm

Here also for biography of author/composer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Bartlett_Warner