He liked another song so much, that he wrote another one very similar to it. James Cleveland Moore had heard this other song (That Beautiful Land) perhaps since childhood, and it stuck with him, so that he wrote his own version, “Never Grow Old”, an idea that was somehow meaningful to this fellow still in his mid-20s. He was a Georgia-native, where he would minister (as well as in nearby Florida) for his entire life, so home meant something to him, as he would poetically express. And, not just the written word, but singing was important to James, an art form that he spent his life practicing and teaching others to value. That must be because he thought singing would continue in the afterlife, a belief he would incorporate into his poem.
James Moore had deeply ingrained ideas about his faith and how to express it by the time he was in his mid-20s and ‘Never Grow Old’ came to fruition. This song’s predecessor (That Beautiful Land) had come to light just a year after James’ birth in 1888, so its influence on James probably grew from his childhood and up through his early adult years, culminating in his own effort to describe the eternity. The Iowa-born writer of That Beautiful Land (Mrs. F.A.F. Wood-White) focused her thoughts on heaven’s beauty and the inhabitants’ eternal youth. Her repeated line ‘And nothing shall ever grow old’ captivated James’ heart, apparently, for he made that vision the centerpiece of his own poem. But instead of describing heaven – his words tell only of a ‘beautiful home’ – and its glory, James contemplates this inheritance’s impact on us who will live there. James marvels that ‘we will never grow old’ there, that it’s a place ‘where we shall never die’ (v.1, 2), something that’s hard to fathom. Perhaps that’s the part that most intensely captures believers’ spirits, since we all live and then die, eventually. Was there something in James’ life, maybe the death of one or more people, that made this idea so especially attractive to him as a 26-year-old? His own life’s chosen pursuit, singing and teaching others this skill, likewise emerges from his poetry. ‘Happy praise…sing’ (v.2), and ‘…our voices will blend’ (v.3) occupied James’ mind and his hope, not unlike Mrs. Wood-White who also thought about a place where ‘the ransomed will sing’. This singing he expected would be part of his heavenly pastime wasn’t just a wispy hope for James; he spent his time on earth for the following 45 years after writing ‘Never Grow Old’ engaged in making music and teaching others to do the same. He reportedly wrote some 500 songs, for two years was president of the Georgia-Florida-Alabama Tri-State Singing Convention, and was president of the Southern Singers’ Association of Georgia. Perhaps James was just getting warmed up for what was to come, huh?
Did James’ hope for a singing afterlife grow as he aged, and because the inevitable approached? Not only could he see death approaching, but if he was like others who age, things that he did as a young, strong, confident corporeal lost some or most of their vitality. If James was aware of himself and those around him in 1914, he could foresee what would happen as the decades advanced. We grow old, a fact that a person can resist or try to ignore, but ultimately must accept. That is, unless you decide to check out early. But, if the thoughts of age and sickness trouble you and me, James had a solution. Think about where those facts of life are overcome. You got another plan? If you come up with a blank, try James’s idea, OK?
See all three verses and the refrain, and a very brief potential explanation of the song’s origin here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/n/e/v/e/nevergro.htm
See brief biography of the author here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/m/o/o/r/moore_jc.htm
See here for another song that may have helped spawn “Never Grow Old”: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/t/h/a/b/thabland.htm
See here for reference to the author of “That Beautiful Land”: Mrs. F. A. F. Wood-White (hymntime.com)
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