Savior, Teach Me -- Jane E. Leeson

 

In her heart, this Englishwoman was a teacher of children, though whether she ever set foot in a classroom is not clear. Jane Eliza Leeson’s 19^th Century instruction, instead, came through her pen, as when she asked her Creator to impart something pretty basic to her in “Savior, Teach Me”, so that she could pass it along to her students. Her life’s attitude was such that she was probably unconcerned whether her authorship of the song was recognized or not. Jane’s objective was to communicate the root message, to coax her hearers that He had something to teach that no one else could. So, what was it that Jane, from deep inside central England (see it’s flag here; she was perhaps some 100 miles north-northwest of London) in 1842, wanted the ‘Savior (to) Teach Me’?

 

Love. In a word, that was the daily lesson that Jane Leeson thought God could teach us. What had Jane seen or experienced by the time she was 34 years old that prompted her to write five verses on this theme? That’s not too difficult to answer, looking at the body of work that Jane contributed largely across one decade in the mid-1800s, and from the little we know of her faith background. Jane had evidently learned, probably in her own childhood bible lessons, the basic definition of God – God is love (1 John 4:8). It’s perhaps the most fundamental thing to know about Him. So, Jane was echoing what she had known all of her young life up to that point. But, it was more than intellectual acknowledgement she sought. Responding to the love He’s shown was one aim that Jane emphasized in her poem. ‘Loving Him…’ (v.1); ‘...may I move…serve…follow…’ (v.2); ‘…Thy steps to trace…’ (v.3); ‘…rejoice to show…’ (v.5) were the manifest ways that Jane pledged would move her from mere recognition of God’s nature to adoption of His nature. ‘Serve’ (v.1), ‘Grace’ (v.2), ‘Obedience’ (v.4) were other words that Jane yoked to His love in ‘Savior, Teach Me’, in case her hearers didn’t grasp that these were likewise intrinsic to His nature. Did Jane herself live out this love, or did she just write about it? It’s said that Jane was very humble, and did not immediately seek recognition for her works, so we could say she instead re-directed attention from herself to the love-Giver of whom she wrote. Another way that we can see how Jane responded in her life to this love, was in the multiple publications she penned (between 1842 and 1853), especially for children. ‘Savior, Teach Me’ was included in one of her first publications (Hymns and Scenes of Child­hood; or a Spon­sor’s Gift [Lon­don: Burns, 1842]), but she didn’t stop there. She kept responding and applying the lesson of love she’d received from Him for the next 11 years and eight subsequent publications, employing the poetic gift that she’d received from Him. This love is evidently a potent thing!

 

He loved like no one else ever before. That’s another theme in her poem that Jane Leeson only implies just once, in verse one – ‘Sweeter lesson cannot be’.  Jane learned quite a bit from this four-letter word, but she’d probably say the source is what makes this phenomenon so extraordinary. This love is still giving, in fact. Of all the earthly love songs I’ve ever heard, the characters’ lives ultimately move beyond the scenes composing the songs’ parameters. People die, or maybe the love wears out somehow, and so the object of love changes. Jane’s love is different. It’s from a never-dying, never-changing, and once-for-all-times-sacrificing God. You got a love that can top all of that?   

   

See more information on the song story in these sources: Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990; and A Treasury of Hymn Stories – Brief Biographies of 120 Hymnwriters with Their Best Hymns, by Amos R. Wells, Baker Book House, 1945.  

 

Also see this link, showing all five original verses: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/s/t/e/a/steachme.htm

 

Also see this link for author’s brief biography: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/l/e/e/s/leeson_je.htm

 

Also see this site for author information: https://hymnary.org/person/Leeson_Jane

Open My Eyes, That I May See -- Clara H. Scott

 

This writer was feeling self-conscious, so perhaps she was praying for more of His consciousness. Maybe Clara H. Scott wondered whether all of her senses were engaged, prompting her to ask God to “Open My Eyes, That I May See”. It seems that she was looking a lot further out than the Iowa landscape, where she’d spent most of her life (see its flag here). Was it in fact more than visual clarity that Clara sought, as she looked about her surroundings and thought about her disposition to serve Him with her whole being? Was she attuned to listening to others even, as she mulled over her prayer that day? From what she penned, it seems her poem’s title words indeed originated with an ancient anonymous poet, meaning that an echo emerged from her being that was centuries old.      

 

Clara Scott might have been around 54 years old when she asked God to open her eyes by the last few years of the 19^th Century, but she had been sensitive to His leading for many years by the time she penned this musical prayer. She was still a teenager in the mid-19^th Century when she attended a music school in Chicago and then went on to teach at a seminary in northwestern Iowa a few years later. She eventually authored up to four publications, filled with her vocal and instrumental musical compositions, by the end of her life. ‘Open My Eyes…’ was apparently written and published (in 1895) just two years before she died tragically in an accident. She was well-schooled and adept in her musical vocation at that point, but does one ever stop learning? From her viewpoint, was she also still trying to teach students what must come from within a writer-composer’s spirit, in order to please the giver of musical talent? Either or both of these attitudes could have motivated Clara to ask for open eyes (v.1) and ears (v.2); and for a mouth and heart (v.3) willing to communicate His principles. Clara may have looked to an ancient psalm (Psalm 119:18) for the reminder and inspiration she needed for her verses. The ancient writer sought Him out, but could he have realistically expected to exhaust the well of wisdom that God possesses, even in the bible’s longest book, and its longest set of verses (176 verses are in Psalm 119)? That would not have been an uncommon thought, if Clara’s mind went there as she read what her songwriting ancestor shared with his readers. How does one communicate with the inexhaustible God, and become more like Him in musical verse? That’s what Clara was after.

 

What more could be said of Clara Scott? It’s instructive, that while Clara’s works filled four publications, and one might say they sum up her life, she said something quite different in her own words in ‘Open My Eyes…’. She says she waited ‘silently’ for His Spirit (refrain). That speaks louder than all the other works she wrote, perhaps, to inform us who Clara Scott really was. She was His, or at least she wanted to be. She wasn’t looking at herself, except to see how He formed and moved her own spirit. She might have been a 19^th Century poetess-composer, but she wasn’t averse to looking backward to another writer two or three millennia old, to find what she really wanted. That ancient writer felt the same way. All of us should share that goal, no matter what century we occupy.  

   

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; and Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990. 

 

See brief biography of the author here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/s/c/o/t/scott_chj.htm

 

See all three of the hymn’s original verses and the refrain here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/o/p/e/n/openeyes.htm

How Long Has It Been? -- Thomas Mosie Lister

 

Was he perhaps on his knees as he thought over what he wanted to verbalize? “How Long Has It Been?”, Mosie Lister wanted to ask so many people for whom he was praying one day. He may have even been reading and reflecting on the way God Himself was postured in a garden during His own most difficult earthly episode (see the artwork here of Christ in Gethsemane, by Heinrich Hofman in 1866). Lister had been studying, singing, and composing music for some time, and yet he probably didn’t come upon what he wanted to say the first time he considered his acquaintances who had drifted away from a faith they once held. Instead, it more likely was a gnawing feeling that stayed with him, until one day he happened upon the words, some that he’d been rolling over in his mind. So why not use these words?

 

That question was so simple, that Mosie Lister barely waited another moment to start scribbling the words to voice his musical question. That episode did not mean that Mosie’s songwriting penchant was a ‘natural’ thing however, a fact to which his own parents and his educational pursuits would attest. Though he would say that the words to ‘How Long…’ were finished in ten minutes, one would have been surprised to expect that from the youngster whom the Lister parents coaxed to start singing in rural Georgia in the 1920s/early 1930s. He apparently possessed no ear for musical tones, but through lots of effort, including his pre- and post-World War II pursuits to formally study music, he overcame the deficiencies his parents had initially identified. By his mid-to-late 20s, Mosie had been in three professional singing groups before he altered course into songwriting and forming a publishing company in his early 30s (by 1953). By this time, he surely had seen at least a few people around him also alter course, but in a negative way to walk away from God. This bothered Mosie deeply, readily provoking the thoughts that were on his heart to say to them, some of whom had abandoned God years before. Mosie’s purpose was obvious – convict them, turn them around. And, it wasn’t just a casual conversation that he suggested they pursue. Besides being on their knees (vv.1 and 3), these wayward who wanted to return to Him should share ‘…hidden secrets’ (v.1) and speak with God all night (vv. 1 and 4). One of Mosie’s longings for the lost people was that they would find peace, compassion, friendship, and purpose for living that begins with submission in prayer (vv. 2 and 4).

 

Mosie’s words resonated with thousands, even millions of people. Over a million copies of ‘How Long…’ had reportedly been reproduced by the early 1960s, five years after Mosie’s hand first wrote in a burst what his spirit was feeling. Mosie must have thought that a prayer is one of the most effectual enterprises. From a personal and professional standpoint, how great was it that Mosie’s 10-minute effort garnered more than a million copies of profit? But, in an infinitely greater way, how effective is it to pray to God? He’s called the Almighty, and so many other names because it’s really impossible to capture Him in just a few names, or even dozens or scores of names. He’s infinite, many times more than a million. And, I can pray to Him. What is standing in the way of you connecting with the unbounded God? Mosie asked you, too. Are you ready to ask yourself?

   

See the source for the song story in this source: 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 the story here also: https://thescottspot.wordpress.com/2016/09/16/how-long-has-it-been-written-in-1956/

 

See brief biography of the author here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/l/i/s/t/lister_tm.htm

See more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosie_Lister