This fellow nicknamed ‘Pap’ was 46, and was spending a good bit of time, and perhaps even living in Chattanooga (see its flag here) in 1933, because of the business he co-owned and was running there. He must have already written many songs by this time in his life, but Jesse Randall Baxter, Jr. evidently wanted to repeat what may have been pretty obvious when he said “I Love My Savior, Too”. Too? What was behind this one little extra word he inserted at the end of this statement of devotion? Was his partner in the music-publishing business, Virgil Stamps, somebody else Pap might have been thinking about as he said ‘too’? After all, Virgil was the one who had started this music enterprise (in 1924) in Texas, where the main office was located; Chattanooga, Tennessee and Pap came along two years later in 1926. No one would probably ever think of Pap as the junior partner, compared to Virgil, but since the Stamps-Baxter name became so common among gospel music lovers, could it be that Pap wanted to emphasize that he was just as fervent as Virgil, though his name came second? Or, was Pap really thinking about another person?
Pap Baxter was the creator of some 500 song texts over his lifetime of production in the field of gospel music, an endeavor that really did not end with his departure for eternity in 1960. His wife Clarice ran the company for another 12 years (it was subsequently sold in 1974), a time that only prolonged the reputation of Stamps-Baxter and its imprint on Southern Gospel. Pap’s induction into the Southern Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame in 1997 further recognized his contributions and really his lifestyle of attachment to God through the medium he so loved. This comes through in these words he fashioned into a song as a 46-year-old. We know not the precise details of what prompted Pap’s poetry in ‘I Love My Savior, Too’, yet he was a gifted songwriter surrounded by others, including his partner, who probably helped spur what Pap wrote, perhaps helping him see the God he served more clearly. Baxter’s musical output indicates he was someone who needed only a regular reminder of the source of his gift to coax an appreciation through song to the surface. One might say that his use of ‘too’ in his song’s title and in the refrain was really a reflection of Pap’s response to the Jesus who had first shown him love. Verse 1 suggests he saw His Divine Guide as the initiator of the rapport between them … ‘loves me I know’ (v.1), and Pap’s reciprocation is shown in the following two verses as he ‘walk (s) with Him each day (v.2), and ‘serve (s) His friend…and lean (s) on His arm’ (v.3). What is the ‘too’ in a believer’s life if it isn’t walking, and serving, and leaning on Him daily?
Pap did plenty to say ‘too’ in his life musically – over 500 songs -- in response to his Creator, as well as suggest a number of other ways in this one song to express ‘too’. How can one love God in return? Here’s some other verbs, besides the ones mentioned above, which Pap used to describe his answer to Him who loved first. ‘Sing(ing)’, ‘go(ing)’, ‘cling(ing)’ (v.1); ‘doing’, ‘kneeling’, ‘say(ing)’ (v.2) are other ways that Pap Baxter had found to say ‘I love you back, God!’ There’s so many more, that it’d be interesting to see what others Pap used in the hundreds of other songs he wrote. Would all of those verbs exhaust the possibilities? It prompts another question: How infinite is Him we serve? Let’s talk over that answer in another time and place and share them with Pap – after we’ve spent life here scoping out some of those methods!
See biographic information on author here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/b/a/x/t/baxter_jr.htm
Here also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.R._Baxter
See here for information about the music company the author co-owned/operated: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stamps-Baxter_Music_Company
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