Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand – Jennie Wilson

She was a 48-year old whose life had been spent, some might say, as a cripple. But that didn’t stop or slow down Jennie Wilson, who knew how important it was to “Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand”, perhaps a paraphrase of how she felt about her life up until that point. (Maybe she was inspired like others by Michelangelo’s Creation, when God reached out with his hand to create us.) She was contemporaneous with another female poet-composer, and similarly prolific in her output, and also shared a physically challenging lifestyle with this fellow lyricist. One could compare these two women and say that these facets of their lives were no accident, that in fact their makeup spurred the musical vigor in them. What obstacles did they see, or did they instead consider them stepping stones, a reason to reach out and experience Him?

Jennie Wilson was a lifelong Indianan who was struck in childhood with a spinal malady that left her wheelchair-bound, but not defeated, for the balance of her life.  It’s said that she composed approximately two or three thousand hymn texts over her lifespan, an amazing number considering that she lived to the age of just 57. Some people nicknamed her the ‘Fanny Crosby of the west’, comparing her to this counterpart who lived to the age of 95 in the Connecticut and especially New York City areas. Both women were challenged by physical impairment – Crosby was blind, while Wilson could not walk – but neither would probably have called herself disabled. In contrast to Crosby, Jennie Wilson’s life was not as well-known, and so the circumstances of her songs are likewise not readily known. But, we can surmise with the few facts we know that Jennie was in or near her native South Whitley, Indiana (northeast Indiana) when she wrote “Hold to God’s…” in 1904. One historian of her life says she exhibited few signs of an invalid, and travelled to Winona Lake, west of her home in northeast Indiana, as well as other places in the state for bible conferences. She’s not listed among the notable people of South Whitley, a small rural place, but that could merely reflect her character and her choice to live in and mimic an unremarkable, mid-western community. It’s likely her songs flowed from this same environment, perhaps somewhere in South Whitley or one of the conference venues she enjoyed frequenting annually.

Do Jennie Wilson’s words provide other insight into her emotions or the intellectual mindset of this 40-something composer? Despite the slow, dull existence one might presume pervaded Wilson’s northeast Indiana home, she hints that there was a fast-moving ‘swift transition’ she sensed (verse 1), one that drew her loyalty to Him. Did her health incline her attitudes also? She died prematurely, which could suggest she had lingering health problems, ones that might have lead to her expiration nine years later. But even if her death was unexpected, other life events can make one introspective, and malleable for His use. ‘Whatsoever years may bring’, Jennie says (verse 2), so she felt life held uncertainties that she could manage only with His presence. Maybe she also was ‘forsaken’ (verse 2) by friends, a not uncommon experience, but nevertheless still painful. Health, fickle circumstances, and loneliness. Do those sound familiar? Jennie knew those wouldn’t dictate her next life. Isn’t that a great thing to know?  

            

The sources for the information on the composer are here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/w/i/l/s/wilson_j.htm

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

See verses to her hymn here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/h/o/l/d/hold2god.htm

See  description of composer’s birthplace here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Whitley,_Indiana

When We All Get to Heaven – Eliza Hewitt

Eliza Hewitt was once a school teacher. Since she died in 1920, it’s not really a surprise that I use that word ‘once’ in reference to her vocation in the past tense. But, people might have used this word to describe her while she was still living too, in fact long before she departed from this earth. Eliza Hewitt began her teaching career in public schools soon after graduating in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the late 1800s, but she was forced to stop by a physical disability in her spine. She was handicapped for most of her life, so we might feel sorry for her. Yet, she didn’t become disabled – far from it. She channeled her life into instruction on Sundays, and even if she couldn’t be a Monday-Friday teacher in a conventional sense, one might say she taught many more people than she might have by standing in a classroom. In fact, she still does today, through many songs she wrote, like “When We All Get to Heaven”.

Eliza Hewitt became a Sunday school superintendant at the North­ern Home for Friend­less Child­ren, and also at the Cal­vin Pres­by­ter­i­an Church, but her song-writing career contained perhaps her best teaching. She didn’t live in despair, nor in the past as a ‘once’ person. Notice the words she uses in the song “When We All Get to Heaven”. Her words, when put to music by her friend Emily Wilson at a summer camp at Ocean Grove, New Jersey, instruct us, as well as move us emotionally about our eternal home. From her words, we find that we can be confident, that we can look forward to many things up there. ‘Mercy’, ‘grace’, a home with Jesus, never-ending happiness, glory and splendor of our Master, and His divine beauty -- these are all the mental images that flowed through Eliza Hewitt’s spirit in 1898.

There’s something else, too, another small word that captures my attention…will. Hope comes through in Hewitt’s song. That seemingly insignificant word ‘will’ is pretty important, because it lets me lean forward, to vocalize my yearning for something more, particularly if life here has been hard. I have to admit, I don’t yet get this one. My life hasn’t taken an ugly, unexpected turn…yet. Eliza came at life, and this song, from an experience that makes me cringe. But, knowing that she didn’t crumble, but in fact thrived and rejoiced in anticipation of her future gives me pause. I need not be overwhelmed by physical challenge, even aging. Sure, I and my family and friends won’t always smile as we decline. I expect that I’ll creak (I already do, in some ways), and curse my own body’s discomforts at times. But, I think I’m beginning to detect a wry smirk on my face, reserved for Satan’s darts, knowing he cannot lay a hand on my future. Is that overconfidence talking, a chutzpah that hasn’t yet been tested? Maybe, but Christian examples like Eliza Hewitt help gird my faith, and I’m counting on God helping me discover more ‘songscoops’ like her. Here’s a 4th verse to Eliza’s song: “Onward to the prize before us! Soon His beauty we’ll behold; soon the pearly gates will open, we shall tread the streets of gold.”

Information on Eliza Hewitt gathered from the following website: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/h/e/w/hewitt_ees.htm Stories on Eliza Hewitt also in the following books: “The Complete Book of Hymns: Inspiring Stories about 600 Hymns and Praise Songs”, by William J. and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 2006. “Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions”, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990.