Hark! 'Tis the Shepherd's Voice -- Alexcenah Thomas

She was a teacher and must have felt she had some students that were like wandering sheep. Could it be that this 28-year old educator may have coaxed friends and other acquaintances to help redirect her students with the words “Hark! ‘Tis the Shepherd’s Voice I Hear”? Alexcenah Thomas  evidently taught or administered the education of youngsters in many places by the beginning of the 20^th Century, but seemed aware many years before then that waywardness was something she wanted to address. Not much else is known of Alexcenah, though she left some hymn poems, of which “Hark…” (also known as “Bring Them In”) is the most well-known. She also collaborated with a musical composer, William Ogden, who was a noted producer of children’s music. That common theme of children between Ogden and Thomas must have played a pivotal role in their partnership on ‘Hark…’.

Alexcenah Thomas was in various places over the last few decades of the 19^th Century when she pursued her career in children’s education, paired with writing a few dozen hymn poems. Though it is unknown where the paths of Alexcenah Thomas and William Ogden intersected, most likely it was their mutual Christian outlook and interest in musical endeavors that compelled their meeting. Alexcenah evidently was from Philadelphia and was educated in Chicago, followed by various stints as a teacher or principal in central Pennsylvania, Washington, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Georgia, and New York. Meanwhile, Ogden was reportedly in Ohio and various other places to pursue his passion to educate children musically. It was the year 1885 when the two cooperated to produce “Hark…”. Alexcenah’s poetry doesn’t explicitly mention children, but adults in God’s world would be children too, so her address to an audience to search for sheep and assist the ‘Shepherd’ could have been intended for either kids or grownups. We might presume that since Ogden worked with Thomas to write the music for the song, that he felt it was useful for the younger generation. Had they both experienced errant children in their professional endeavors, and thereby found a mutually resonant issue they wanted to emphasize? It would be hard to imagine individuals so deeply engaged in the lives of children who had not had some heartaches. Personal anguish is frequently a motivator for music and poetry, as the creators seek out some therapeutic salve to ease pain. Just consider William’s and Alexcenah’s ancestor, the great Psalmist David. He wrote to express his inner struggle. Did it help?

David’s words, and Alexcenah’s words many centuries later say something that doesn’t wear out or grow old. We contact each other, an unavoidable fact of being born. And, along the way I choose to walk, I either move toward or away from others. It can happen quickly. Or, more often, I can drift, bit by bit. Perhaps that was what Alexcenah saw – people she could sense were drifting away, unable to bring themselves to reverse course. Do those people want to be drifters? Or, do they just want a hand to reach out? What’s the Shepherd telling you?

The following website has a soundtrack for the song: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/b/r/i/bringthe.htm

See more information on the song discussed above in Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990.

See biography of hymn poetess here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/t/h/o/m/thomas_a.htm

See biography of her musical collaborator-composer here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/o/g/d/ogden_wa.htm

Seeking the Lost – William Augustine Ogden

He was probably in Toledo, Ohio (see its map here) at what he must have presumed was mid-life, in his mid-40s. He was an educator, lover of music, and most importantly what might be called a signpost. But was that all William Augustine Ogden wanted to be at this point, a static pointer? One might gather from his words in “Seeking the Lost” that Ogden yearned to be more than that. Signs have a message, one that must be compelling to capture the attention of passersby. But, they cannot move, and so the opportunity to convey something important, even urgent, to an audience is largely confined to a slim moment, or perhaps multiple moments if the viewer/s travel in the same area repeatedly. William must have thought it made more sense to make the message mobile, to take it on the road and proactively search for broken people.

What life experience by 1886, when he wrote “Seeking the Lost”, had prompted Ogden to write persuasively the words about seeking wanderers? His music ear developed at a young age, so that he was studying and reading music by his 10^th year, and later writing and singing in a chorus by 18. So, by the time he joined a volunteer unit in Indiana during the Civil War, music was a familiar chord in his life, so much so that it’s probable this carried him through the war. Indeed, his organization of a male chorus was renowned throughout the Army of the Cumberland. Had he known some of the generals of this army, perhaps Rosecrans or Ulysses Grant, or maybe Sheridan or Sherman? It’s not known if particularly Ogden’s music in this era helped promote faith, but it was not uncommon for soldiers to adopt religious tunes on the battlefield or in the camps before or after combat engagements. Perhaps this was where his own faith was first stretched to be intentional, proactive. Following the war, Ogden followed his heart and gathered more education, ultimately producing at least 10 song books. He became a teacher in the U.S. and Canada, including the superintendence of Toledo schools by 1887, the year after “Seeking the Lost”. It’s not improbable that his students in this northwestern Ohio area were among those he sought out with the message contained in his music.  But, unlike the martial nature of the war experience he’d endured, his prose endorsed a ‘kindly entreating’ (verse 1), a ‘mercy’ (verse 3) to draw hearers to Jesus. This was no doubt a quality any teacher would have needed to be successful. War and classrooms may not have had much in common, but Ogden evidently took something along inside himself in both venues that spoke to those around him.    

Do events from decades ago affect you and me? It goes without saying that this is true. William Ogden had a childhood filled with music, one that wasn’t blotted out by warfare and bloodshed, though he was probably shaped some by that episode. Some men must have come out of it embittered. What did it do for William Ogden? We know he took up his pre-war musical refrain, and 20 years later something was propelling him. Read his words and listen to his music, and you can detect a synergy there, a compilation of his life’s purpose, a God-given talent, and a light that peeked out from a great gloom two decades earlier. It must have been a pretty resilient thing, whatever it was. He is, isn’t He?

See these sites for biography of composer and the words to the hymn:

http://www.hymnary.org/person/Ogden_William

http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/o/g/d/ogden_wa.htm

http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/s/e/e/seeklost.htm

Information on the army of which the composer was a part earlier in his life:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_the_Cumberland  

Where He Leads I'll Follow -- William Augustine Ogden

From Ohio to Indiana, as a soldier through a bitter war, as a music student, and then back in his birth-state where he had a number of successful publishing efforts, this composer had reached a point in his life at which he wanted to make a pledge. William Augustine Ogden was a 44-year old success story when he wrote “Where He Leads I’ll Follow” in 1885, but of what was he thinking, the past or what was still to come? He’d seen enough by then, really, to probably be in a reflective mood, perhaps drawing upon one or more episodes that caused him to express his loyalty to the One who’d brought him to that point.  

William Ogden must have discovered something musically as a youngster that stuck with him through thick and thin for the next several decades. After his family left Ohio for Indiana when he was six, Willy Ogden found his musical ear and voice, and was growing this part of his being by the time he was eight. Reading music in the church by age 10 and writing lines of music from memory a little thereafter, the young Ogden was, not surprisingly, an active choral member at the church by the time he was 18. What happened over the next several years might have discouraged other budding musical minds, but not William Ogden’s. Although he volunteered for the Indiana infantry at the outset of the American Civil War, this life-challenging event did not divert William’s musical growth. Instead, he organized a choir of his fellow soldiers, which became renowned throughout the Army of the Cumberland. Music during the Civil War was in fact quite important, as a tool for morale, both in camps and on the battlefields.  Thus, it’s quite likely that it served as a further catalyst for Ogden’s music development, imbuing him with an appreciation for the power of this medium, of what it could impart to the human spirit in this decisive period.  It probably was therefore no surprise that at the war’s conclusion, Ogden pursued his musical career more ardently, studying with several mentors. Although he’d already put together one song collection in 1861, his 1870 songbook The Silver Song was very successful (half a million sold), and the rest, as someone has said, is history. He went on to publish many more collections, compose, and teach over the next two to three decades, including as the superintendant of music at schools in Toledo, Ohio (see its flag here).

Was William Ogden thinking about what had been, or what was still to come as he composed a song about following Jesus in 1885? He might as easily have vocalized ‘Where He’s (Already) Lead Me’, especially as he thought about surviving the war experience two decades earlier. Or, he might have been thinking of something in his present tense in 1885, perhaps his latest success in publishing, Notes of Victory, another accomplishment on his already healthy resume. He was still relatively young, and no doubt looked forward to doing more. But, he may also have realized that life could be unexpectedly cut short. His third verse of ‘Where He Leads…’ shows he appreciated that a burdened life could find ultimate relief only in God. He also wrote that Jesus’ message and love-example far outshone anything in his experience (verses 1 and 2). He sounds like a teacher, yearning to coax others to learn what he’d grown to trust. No, not what, but Who. As Ogden might have said, the ‘where’ is important, but the ‘who’ is really the key on this trip.    

   

See following link for biographic information on the composer: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/o/g/d/ogden_wa.htm

Hear all three verses here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/w/h/l/whlifoll.htm

 

See this site for description of Civil War music: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_the_American_Civil_War