Sweeter than All -- Johnson Oatman, Jr.

What is the tastiest, sweetest confection to your palate? A scientist might say such a compound would have to possess the chemical known as Lugduname (which a Chemistry textbook might depict this way). If someone said Jesus --to accurately define just how special and far above other faint copies of Him we could examine—was like Lugdumane, just how much more potent would He be? Science says the chemical shown schematically here is between 220,000 and 300,000 times as sweet as regular sugar. In fact, this chemical is so strong, it hasn’t been approved for use in our food. It must be that its dosage is hard to balance or restrict so that it doesn’t harm the human body. Did Johnson Oatman feel that way about Jesus when he said He was “Sweeter than All” in 1900? What would make this 44-year old man say that?

Johnson Oatman must have had plenty of ongoing and previous real-life experiences as the 19^th rolled into the 20^th Century to compare to the person of his faith. He’d been part of his father’s family commercial business as a young man, and later after his father’s death he sold insurance to make a living. These were following his initial inclination as a 19-year old to pursue formal ministry, although his ordination did not lead to larger roles in church work, but only in small local congregations in New Jersey, his lifetime home. So, by the time middle-age had come upon Oatman, he’d been pointed at various times in three different professional directions. His life’s avocation, songwriting, had also taken hold, a grip that would continue in a very firm—some might say consuming—way for the rest of his life. He would complete between three and five thousand lyrical compositions before his life concluded in 1922, a stunning amount, especially since it appears he did not begin this “hobby” until in his 30s. His father’s influence, as a notable singer and man of faith, no doubt also made its impact on the junior Oatman, distilling in him the fusion of music and faith. Most likely it was his family, and most prominently his father, who inclined his heart to believe the Christian faith could overcome any life-challenge. He may have been writing songs for about a decade, or at least for several years, when he expressed his ‘Sweeter…’ sentiments. Had the insurance business or other ventures around his New Jersey home brought into sharper relief how much he valued God? As an ordained minister, maybe he was also trying to encourage other believers in one of the local churches where he ministered part-time. Even sporadic preachers probably hear lots of the miseries of churchgoers than they know how to cure. Oatman’s musical remedy was no mystery. Taste Him. Let Him surmount your life’s ills.

Maybe it occurred to Oatman as he read David’s words about tasting (Psalm 34:8), or another ancient songwriter’s thoughts (Psalm 119:103) on the same sensation, that God is good, a sweetness that spurs my craving Him. Like the sweetest part of my meal – dessert, the concluding course--Oatman’s fourth verse of “Sweeter…” is about what he expected to taste as he entered life’s final phase.  This sweetness has such staying power, that it will endure even as I encounter death and approach Eternity’s territory. Johnson could imagine that scene, convinced as he was of God’s potency. Can you?  

Information on the song’s composer was obtained from the books  Amazing Grace – 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, 1990, Kregel Publications; The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs, by William J. and Ardythe Petersen, 2006, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.; and 101 More Hymn Stories by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1985. 

See also here for four verses and refrain of hymn: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/s/w/e/sweetrta.htm

See also here for brief biography of the composer: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/o/a/t/oatman_j.htm

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

Here’s some background on the chemical Lugduname:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lugduname

Jesus, Rose of Sharon -- Ida A. Guirey

She must have been looking at a very specific portion of Biblical text as she mulled over how to call out to

God’s son. “Jesus, Rose of Sharon” sprang from the consciousness of Ida A. Guirey in the early 1920s, but what compelled its emergence? Was it something unique to herself that she wanted to say, matching the select nature of the text at which she peered? Was she seeking or in a special marital relationship that drew her to the text she read? How old was she? Did she appreciate nature, including beautiful and fragrant flowers, like roses (or tulips, like these that could be the ‘rose’ on Israel’s Plain of Sharon)? The answers to a host of questions like these and maybe others could tell us important details about her, but since “Rose of Sharon” is still here, it provides us some insights of her that we can reflect back upon ourselves.

The few details we know of the otherwise anonymous Ida A. Guirey tell us she wrote song poetry in the early 20^th Century, including ‘…Rose of Sharon’ that she must have composed as she looked at one of the more obscure books of the bible. She composed only a handful of song poems, including one (in 1909?) during the first decade of the 20^th Century, so by 1921-22, when ‘…Rose’ is attributed to Guirey, her age probably was that of at least a young woman, if not older. Only Song of Solomon (aka Song of Songs; chapter 2, verse 1) uses the phrase Guirey borrows for her song’s title and oft-repeated phrase. Love is on the mind of most of us when we open the pages of this bible book…was it also Ida’s state of mind? We know not if she had an intimate bond with someone on earth as she read Solomon’s words, but certainly she loved Jesus, and sought His embrace and impact. We could also surmise that perhaps she appreciated nature’s beauty, and the facet of Jesus’ nature that a Sharon rose calls to mind. Flowers might seem fragile to some minds (like mine), but Ida’s thoughts tell us she believed His strengths lay in that imagery. Perhaps she had a green thumb (!), along with a deep desire to see His way more deeply affect her life and those around her.  Roses need good soil and other nourishment –sunshine, water—that really only He can give. Ida Guirey may have concluded that our Creator is the unique source of growth and beauty, to make herself and others flourish and be who He created His offspring to be.  

What Ida prayed to receive is common to all of us, if we want His best. She apparently had deduced that God’s creative power and beauty could flow through herself and be a magnet for those nearby (v.1), if only she would allow those things to increase personally (v.2). To heal others’ spiritual ills and infuse them with a submissive desire to honor Him (vv. 3-4) was the model Christian community—even a worldwide one—that Ida envisioned. Ask yourself, ‘am I there today’? ‘Impossible’, you say? Ida must have thought otherwise, or judged the connection with Him was worth the effort. She might have thought there was an extraterrestrial place where the ideal could culminate, too. Know where to go to find that?  

The following links are the sources for songs by the composer, the only scant information on the composer: http://hymntime.com/tch/bio/g/u/i/guirey_ia.htm

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

Restore My Soul – Sylvia Rose

Sylvia Rose had been doing what all good teachers and counselors do, and yet it had worn her down in 1985. People who care about others for a living may often experience this phenomenon, but do they find their way out of the debilitation the way Sylvia did, with something like “Restore My Soul”? She began this rather unique experience during a visit to Fort Worth and Terrell, Texas (see map here; Fort Worth and Terrell are west and east of Dallas, respectively) 

with a method that probably other musicians have employed – music. Yet, the way this incident played out in prayer and resolved her dilemma was something she could never have predicted. After all, could she have imagined that what had driven her into such a depression would actually turn her spirit around? This episode’s result may have caused her to reevaluate her impact on the people she assumed were impervious to her influence.

Sylvia Rose was a teacher and music-maker who was in the midst of her life’s work in Michigan in the middle-1980s when she needed a break.  (Her song’s story in her own words is complete in the link below at the end of this blog entry.) She loved teaching and music, but her career had a drawback that was beginning to gnaw at her conscience. How could she persuade students to avoid choices that would cause them so much pain? She saw substance abuse and sexual promiscuity among many she was mentoring, yet seemed powerless to sway them toward healthier lifestyles, though she tried. Her anxiety-relief solution, at least temporarily, was a trip to a conference in the Lone Star state. Even so, her spirit was so low that she attended only evening sessions of the event, and instead spent the daytime with a piano at a friend’s home. Her musical-prayer times in solitude were the genesis of the song she would write – ‘Give me restoration, revival, renewal’, she cried out to Him. One evening’s conference time following her prayer seclusion gave her the results she sought, although she did not recognize its translation initially. It was young people and their many problems that had compelled her brief sabbatical, so when one of those former mentees greeted her that night with an envelope, she presumed it was another cry for help. She ignored the envelope’s contents until later that night, feeling she was too spiritually deficient to step up so soon to the counseling role again. But, alone later in bed, she discovered it was a note of gratitude and a small check from this former student. It was a light-bulb moment – here was God’s answer to her prayer! The rest, as someone has said, is history.

What does the rearview mirror look like, particularly if it follows a tough scene? Sylvia might have answered differently after “Restore My Soul” came to life. She hadn’t wasted time advising students after all, had she? At least one looked in his rearview mirror, and saw her.  Perhaps it dawned on Rose with new meaning, that she’d been a seed-planter, privy to the seed’s growth only after she’d already departed from the vicinity of its soil. ‘Occupy the path of someone He wants me to contact, although it’s not forever’, Sylvia might have said to herself. It might be just a few years in somebody’s school experience. Just be a pointer. The forever angle comes from another person who’s watching my life unfold.      

The story at the following link, the composer’s website, is the only source for this song scoop: http://www.srosepublishing.org/restore-my-soul.html

Shall I Crucify My Savior? -- Carrie Elizabeth Ellis Breck

How could a 41-year old housewife and mother be of a mind to kill another person? Someone might have had that question mark about Carrie Elizabeth Ellis Breck, upon reading the text of a poem she crafted and labeled “Shall I Crucify My Savior?” She was a devout Christian, a model of the Christian wife, in fact. Really, the only mildly offensive characteristic of Carrie Breck might have been the sound of her singing voice -- hardly a criminal offense.  Was there a hidden life, some furtive element that she wanted to confess as she penned the words of this hymn in 1896? And how might she commit such a felony, this woman whose frequent posture in a rocking chair with a child (like one seen here) was hardly menacing?

That Carrie Breck became the author of so many songs for Christian believers to learn is at once a startling, yet conceivable fact when her biography is opened. Her faith was nurtured initially by parents, and indeed the artistic derivative of these beliefs undoubtedly developed when she was young. She wrote poetry even as a youngster, much of which was published. Yet, her ‘voice’ would be limited to that heard through her pen, since the audible tones she could make were most often off-key. This irony—that a hymn-writer lacked the melodic gift, pleasing to the ear—evidently did not discourage Carrie, however. Her 2,000 poems indicate she was blessed with rhythm, if not the vocal musical expression of them to match. Her role as a wife and mother also reportedly restricted her artistry for a period after her 1884 marriage. But, she must have adjusted, for it’s said she generated some of her thoughts during this period while engaged in household tasks, or perhaps as she took a breather and sat with a child on her knee. “Shall I Crucify…?” was evidently so-conceived by this middle-aged New Jersey mom and homemaker. But, her mood at the time of the hymn remains invisible, except for what she reveals in her words. What was happening that made her so sensitive to her Savior’s welfare? Was it something she confronted often in her lyrical conscience?

Carrie Breck’s faith, if it was like others’, must have compelled some self-examination at times. She does not explicitly answer her own musical question, but we can presume she’d already inwardly responded by posing this troubling proposition. How did Carrie crucify Jesus, someone she professed to love and follow?  She implies she had dishonored his name (v.1), paid more attention to the world’s lures (v.2) , and with her human nature driven him to Golgotha (v.3). What’s a housewife’s life got to do with killing the Lord? It seems she felt that she hadn’t kept Him in His rightful place. When I flunk at this, as Carrie must have felt, I find the fallout is that I also fail--miserably—at human-to-human relations. Get it right with Him first, she might say. Think that might make my human links better, too? It’s worth the attempt.     

See these websites for brief biography: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/b/r/e/breck_cee.htm

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

 

Some biographic information on the composer was also obtained from the books  “Amazing Grace – 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions”, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, 1990, Kregel Publications; and “The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs”, by William J. and Ardythe Petersen, 2006, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

I Must Tell Jesus -- Elisha Albright Hoffman

Elisha Albright Hoffman was doing what might seem to be a natural, expected thing for a minister to do one day, when a reverse-ministry circumstance – a kind of boomerang – happened to him in Lebanon, Pennsylvania (see location on map here). Was it the first time that he talked with some spiritually needy individual, and the person almost immediately absorbed his help, and gave back some words that stuck in his brain? “I Must Tell Jesus”, he had first uttered, but perhaps little knowing at that moment that this assertion would endure beyond a few hours. Or, on the other hand, maybe Hoffman had grown accustomed to unexpected musical encounters. See what you think.

Elisha had been a minister for some time by his mid-50s, as the end of the 19^th Century approached in 1894, but the episode that led him to “I Must Tell Jesus” may have had some elements that were different from the rest of his ministry life. Although he was a native Pennsylvanian, he ministered for the vast majority of his career in several churches in Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan between 1880 and 1922. So when he visited a discouraged believer in 1894 in a southeast Pennsylvania community, this was evidently a pretty small dot on the map of his life’s work. Whatever had brought him there was brief, yet meaningful. Hoffman’s own memory indicates he had visited a woman on multiple occasions, including one day when she was so depressed about her many struggles and listened intently as he read various bible passages to lift her. What would these have been – words of Peter (1 Peter 5:6-7), Paul (Philippians 4:6-7; Ephesians 3:14-20), James (5: 13-16), and even Jesus (John 14:27)? Elisha must have been very familiar with sharing God’s word with people, but had others responded as this woman apparently did, with the title of a song he’d compose later that day? Her apparently brimming confidence had struck him. The Lord is alert to reply, if I am bold enough to admit my weaknesses, Hoffman says in his prose. Newfound poise is a moment to remember, the composer must have thought to himself. God hasn’t forgotten. He’s just waiting for me to  depend on Him. Even a minister in his mid-50s can use a reminder, right?

    

Hoffman must have been thinking many thoughts as he left the woman whose words and demeanor still echoed in his mind. Is life here too distant from what I can read in my bible? Is it relevant? One wonders if Elisha may have pondered initially just how much he could really say to assuage this woman’s spirit. His account of the incident indicates she expressed desperation at one point in their discussion. Is that when she and the composer really rediscovered God’s ear still listens – when I have run out of options? How quickly desperation evaporates, when I am convinced He’s there – that’s another lesson to underscore here. Try it out, OK?         

See more information on the song discussed above in 101 More Hymn Stories by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1985; Then Sings My Soul – 150 of the World’s Greatest Hymn Stories, Robert J. Morgan, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003; Amazing Grace – 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, 1990, Kregel Publications; and The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs, by William J. and Ardythe Petersen, 2006, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 

Also see following sites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisha_Hoffman

http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/h/o/f/hoffman_ea.htm

http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/i/m/u/imustell.htm