Lead Me to Some Soul Today -- Will Houghton

 

It was 1936, and he was president of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago (see a 21^st Century picture of it here). Will Houghton no doubt knew of his predecessor Dwight Moody’s character, and probably many of the things he had said, even if they were decades before he took over at the Institute and discovered more of the details of Moody’s life and penchant for reaching people with the Christ message. “Lead Me to Some Soul Today” may be a direct quote or paraphrase of something that Moody had said, and which was subsequently repeated to Will one day. Perhaps it was a plaque on the wall, even? If it held no other place, maybe that’s why Will Houghton decided it needed some place more permanent, like in a song verse. He didn’t want to clutter it up with more, so he kept it pretty brief.

 

Others may have added their own words to what Moody originally said, but Will Houghton took his forerunner’s idea and asked for a spirit of submission and consecration to accomplish what he could not do on his own. Will had already spent most of his life in ministry in several places, but evidently what he discovered in Chicago at the Moody Bible Institute sparked something anew. Houghton had been a committed believer and served in several places in Pennsylvania (Canton, New Bethlehem, and Norristown) in the 1915-1920 period; in Atlanta, Georgia from 1925-28; and in New York’s Manhattan borough from 1930-34, so for him to say some very basic things in his brief poem suggests the life and example of Moody had struck him in a fresh way. ‘Teach me…just what to say’, ‘melt my heart’, ‘fill my life’, were all personal prayers that Will uttered in 1936 as he considered how best to communicate Jesus Christ to people. In short, a large part of spreading the message began within himself. Having the sensitivity to see the desperate condition of people was a prerequisite, and accepting that these weren’t just strangers, but ‘friends of mine…lost in sin’. Evidently, Will thought he and other believers needed ‘..to care’ more. Maybe they all needed to ‘pray’ more, too. Dwight L. Moody had said many quotable things, but perhaps none was more central to his outlook than when he said “So, if we only lead one soul to Christ, we may set a stream in motion that will flow on when we are dead and gone …” (from The Overcoming Life). Could that help explain the extensive travels of Moody and others of his time, that they sought even one more person whose potential impact would be worth the effort, perhaps decades into the future?

 

Certainly, Moody preceded Houghton, by about two generations – Moody’s life: 1837-1899; Houghton’s life: 1887-1947 – so did that motivate Will Houghton? Can you and I be similarly stirred by someone we may have never even met? The answer is obvious – Yes! It happens all the time, and that’s why there are so many history-lovers, including myself. In fact, it’s hard to imagine any person who isn’t spurred on, in his or her imagination, by someone who has gone on before us. It might be a blood relative, or a nation’s leader (like a Washington or Lincoln), or maybe the epitome of what you aspire to be professionally. Maybe that person’s outlook speaks to you, and draws out of you your very best. Will Houghton would have probably spoken the names of several people – like Dwight Moody -- who were inspirations, as he thought about himself. There’s one who’s inspired untold numbers of humans for generations, including D.L. Moody and Will Houghton. He’s still doing that.      

 

See the words for song here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/l/e/a/d/m/leadmsst.htm

See author’s biography here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/h/o/u/g/houghton_wh.htm

 

This source suggests the brief details of the song story: https://silentword.org/lead-me-to-some-soul-today/

 

See this for place from where the song story may have emerged: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moody_Bible_Institute

 

See here for person whose life may have inspired the song: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_L._Moody

See here for quotes from the person who may have inspired the song’s author: https://moodycenter.org/the-quotable-moody-d-l-moody-quotes/

To the Work -- Fanny Crosby

 

Do you think she might remember if we ask her someday? I plan to ask her if I get to see her in the afterwhile! Fanny Crosby was most likely living in a Manhattan district (see its flag here) in New York City in 1869, and spoke “To the Work” to probably herself and others with whom she collaborated to help the poor of the area. We don’t have testimony from her to confirm this speculation, and perhaps her memory might falter if she were here to consider our probing for the story of this song’s emergence. After all, can someone with something like 8,000+ hymns to her credit be expected to recall the particular details of each song’s development? We can be certain that if we see and talk to her someday, and trusting that she will have a perfect memory – courtesy of a glorified body granted by our God – then we shall discover these and many other minutiae.

 

How many different rescue missions did Fanny Crosby (formally known as Frances Jane Crosby; also as van Alstyne, due to marriage in the mid-1800s for a time) actually support? At least five were on Fanny’s radar – Water Street, Bowery, Cremorne, Howard, and Door of Hope – along with other unnamed missions. She had plenty of energy, wouldn’t you say? And, she didn’t just visit the neighborhoods where these missions operated; she lived among the poor served by them. Perhaps that magnified for Fanny the truth of the poor’s harsh reality – every day is uncertain. Fanny evidently saw there were at least two things she could do to reverse that. Notice how many times in her poem she mentions ‘work’, ‘toil’, or ‘labor’. Twenty-seven times is more than enough to drive home her point: I need to work, and in fact it enriches my life and someone else’s when I do. The multiplicity of missions where Fanny spent time is mirrored in what she wrote – she was hardly ever not working. She, who could not physically see, was evidently so fine-tuned in her other senses, that she knew that ‘…the hungry (needed) fed’, and that they were ‘weary’ (v.2); and that there was ‘a kingdom of darkness and error’ for those who could see (v.3). She was not content with letting people remain so bound. As much as they needed daily sustenance, they needed hope, the other element of herself that she translated to the poor. She ends her last three verses with something that would especially have resonated with those stricken with poverty: something priceless is in fact free! And, this free salvation is forever! Pardon the exclamation marks, but how can one not shout this? Just trust and cling to the cross of the One who suffered, even as you poor have suffered, and even more. This hope of everlasting freedom isn’t a wispy dream. It is certain, and it has been purchased with something divine that cannot be diminished.

 

We’ll have all the time we need someday to appreciate Fanny and other believers, and bask in the wonder of Him and how he made us to sing. It’s rather amazing how much Fanny Crosby wrote and contributed to Christian hymnody, and yet all the while lacking eyesight. ‘Gotta be a God-thing’, someone says. Fanny so loved to work while being a terrestrial, one might wonder what job she will have in Eternity, where there will be no poor or sick. The answer we will discover once we’re there, but it’s safe to assume that adventure will also be a ‘God-thing’. From what Fanny has said herself, just being able to see Him – as she’s said, perhaps the first sight she will ever behold – will be enough. I hope God will let her take part in a few more hymn-writing episodes.

 

 

See all the verses here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/t/o/t/h/tothewor.htm

 

See the author’s biography here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/c/r/o/s/crosby_fj.htm

 

Also see here: https://hymnary.org/person/Crosby_Fanny

 

And here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Crosby

I Want to Be a Worker -- Isaiah Baltzell

 

Those who knew him might have said he was a leader. Isaiah Baltzell did not necessarily see himself that way, since what he said in “I Want to Be a Worker” suggested that he was content serving in one of the everyday, routine roles where he found himself. And yet, he apparently also did not hesitate to be out front guiding the activities of others in the exercise of his faith. Precisely what works were on Isaiah’s mind in Reading, Pennsylvania in the latter half of the 19^th Century is not known, but his inner resolve was the key factor. Isaiah didn’t care what the job was, but rather whose purpose he was serving, and he left no doubt about that with the words he penned, a poem that was among dozens that he authored.

 

Isaiah Baltzell had been busy at his work for over 30 years by the time he said what must have been plain in his life in 1880. Perhaps he just wanted to underscore who he felt God had made him to be when he reached his mid-to-late 40s. He’d been a converted believer in Christ since his mid-teens, and since that time had pursued various ways of living life as a ‘worker for the Lord’, as he would phrase his outlook some 30 years later in verse one of his poem. By early adulthood, Isaiah was a certified preacher, and then later served two stints as an elder in a regional church fellowship in eastern Pennsylvania. Along the way, he was also a delegate to three different conferences, as well as a trustee at Otterbein University in Ohio. So, despite the humble way Isaiah would describe himself and his position, he was obviously recognized by many others as someone they could trust. Could that have been because of his attitude? His poetry indicates he was willing to work, but not to gather others around his own feet. He wasn’t the owner of ‘the vineyard’, and though we don’t know the specific circumstances of what spawned ‘I Want to Be a Worker’, Isaiah made it clear for anyone to read what he thought about any elevation of his own personality. ‘Direct them toward the One above, while I busy myself here below’ – that might have been the way Isaiah would have summed up affairs. What did Isaiah see associated with the work? ‘Love’, ‘trust’, ‘sing’, and especially ‘pray’ were among the action verbs in Isaiah’s toolkit for this work. ‘Lead’ was also in his thoughts, but only insofar as bringing others to God. Part of Isaiah’s purpose might have also been to express that this work was not onerous; this labor led to a place where ‘all is peace and love’ (v.2), a ‘happy home’ (v.3), to ‘joys on high’ and never-dying ‘pleasures’ (v. 4). With such an exquisite goal, Isaiah coaxed others to be ‘strong and brave’ in the certainty of Jesus’ ‘saving power’ (v.3).    

 

Isaiah Baltzell was not a wavering person, from what we can gather in the brief accounts of his 60 years on earth. And, though he might have been an unassuming person at heart, that didn’t mean he limited the expression of the gifts he’d been given. Preacher, elder, poet-lyricist, music-writer and publisher, educational trustee – Isaiah was blessed in a number of ways to serve. And yet, he remained grounded. How much of what Isaiah became was due to the sweat of his own brow, versus what he was given? That would be an interesting question to ask him, wouldn’t it? That one could spark probably several hours of conversation. Could ‘I Want to Be a Worker’ have been this poet’s own conversation and answer to himself on this topic? How would you answer the same question?    

 

See all the verses here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/i/w/t/b/iwtbwork.htm

 

See the author’s biography here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/b/a/l/t/baltzell_i.htm

 

Also see here: https://hymnary.org/person/Baltzell_Isaiah