Making melody

The other day at work I was quickly scanning my brain for a good hymn I could sing to myself to make the boring, lonely minutes go by when the classic song, "Victory in Jesus," suddenly popped into my head. The result was happiness in my soul that I remembered the lyrics, reminding me once again how important the old hymns are to my emotional state:

I heard an old, old story
How a Savior came from glory
How He gave His life on Calvary
To save a wretch like me
I heard about His groaning
Of His precious blood's atoning
Then I repented of my sins
And won the victory

Oh, victory in Jesus, my Savior forever
He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood
He loved me 'ere I knew Him and all my love is due Him
He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood

Today, thinking of this hymn again, I looked up its author on the internet. According to one site, Encyclopedia of Arkansas, "With the exception of his protégé, Albert E. Brumley, no other Arkansas figure contributed more to the development of the Southern gospel music genre than singer, songwriter, and publisher Eugene Monroe Bartlett Sr.

"In 1939, a stroke rendered Bartlett partially paralyzed and unable to perform or travel. Amid such bleak circumstances, he wrote his final and most beloved song, 'Victory in Jesus,' an optimistic number that's been sung by millions in worship services and recorded by gospel’s biggest names. Bartlett, who died in 1941, was posthumously inducted into the Gospel Music Association’s Gospel Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1973.

"A diverse songwriter, Bartlett penned singing convention favorites such as 'Everybody Will Be Happy Over There' and 'Just a Little While,' songs that were popularized by the leading gospel music quartets of the day, including Hovie Lister & the Statesmen, the Stamps Quartet, the Blackwood Brothers, and the Blue Ridge Quartet.

"In an era in which the exchange of music between white and black recording artists and writers generally benefitted white artists and black writers the most, Bartlett’s song 'He Will Remember Me' was recorded by at least two important African-American gospel groups, the Sensational Nightingales and the Staple Singers, as well as black gospel legend Albertina Walker. Revealing his sense of humor, Bartlett also produced light-hearted fare such as 'You Can’t Keep a Good Man Down' and 'Take an Old Cold Tater and Wait,' a country music hit for Grand Ole Opry star Little Jimmy Dickens."

The refrain from "He Will Remember Me":

Will the Lord remember me
When I am called to go?
When I have crossed death’s chilly sea,
will He His love there show?
O yes, He heard my feeble cries,
from bondage set me free.
And when I reach the pearly gates
He will remember me.

The refrain from "Just a Little While":

Just a little while to stay here,
Just a little while to wait,
Just a little while to labor
In the path that’s always straight,
Just a little more of troubles,
In this low and sinful state,
Then we’ll enter Heaven’s portals,
Sweeping through the pearly gates.

The second stanza from "Everybody Will Be Happy Over There":

Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers will be singing 'round the throne,
In that land where no one ever knows a care;
And the Christians of all ages will join in the triumph song,
Ev'rybody will be happy over there.

*****

Here's an old post on the subject of classic hymns:

Cleaning out my dad's mountain of books after his death, I came across a 1964 guide giving the history of famous hymns. Author Helen Salem Rizk noted in the foreword:

“No one really knows how many hymns have been written in the history of the Christian church. Some authorities say over 3 million; some say over 5 million and some say more.

"Isaac Watts alone wrote over 200 in less than two years; 6,500 are attributed to Charles Wesley, the 'sweet bard of Methodism,' and Fanny Crosby, the blind hymn-poetess, completed at least 8,000 singable hymns.”

The first entry Rizk's gives in her alphabetical list is “A Charge to Keep I Have,” written in the 18^th Century by Wesley. She writes, “Sung to the tune of ‘Old Kentucky,’ by Jeremiah Ingalls, this revival hymn could be heard swelling from tent and camp ground all over America.”

In my other book on hymns, it says of Wesley’s song, “Jesus, Lover of My Soul,” “A hymn of this quality doesn’t need any popular account of its origin to give it added greatness. The meaningful simplicity of the text is sufficient.

"It should be added that 156 simple one-syllable words appear among the 188 words of the text. Christ is presented as a ‘lover,’ ‘healer,’ refuge,’ ‘fountain,’ ‘wing,’ and ‘pilot’—the all-sufficient One.

"Truly each Believer can say with Wesley, ‘Thou, O, Christ, art all I want, more than all in Thee I find . . .’ This is a hymn that never loses its appeal for it speaks to the basic need of every human heart, a personal dependence upon the infinite God.”

The second entry in Rizk’s book is Martin Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” written in the summer of 1529. The summary states, “The famed theologian, after a long period of deep depression, had found spiritual comfort in the strength of Psalm 46.

"Luther repeated over and over the words, ‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.’ With this thought in mind, he hurled his defiance at all his foes, physical and spiritual, the struggles of mind and body, the opposition of pope and people, and penned these words never to be forgotten by mortal men.”

The third entry is Henry Francis Lyte’s “Abide with Me,” written in 1847, only months before Lyte’s death. The book says “the ravages of tuberculosis left him weak and exhausted. After Sunday church he strolled by the sea until sunset, thinking of the abiding presence of God and a hymn poem he started many years before in the early days of his ministry.

"Lyte was really too tired to complete the poem and thought of putting it aside until his return from Italy. However, some inner compulsion pressed him to finish the last line. That evening he placed the completed line ‘Abide with Me’ in the hands of his family. He never returned from Italy, dying two months later on November 20. If he had waited until he returned, one of the world’s most famous hymns would not have been written.”

The fourth entry is, “Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed,” by Isaac Watts, who wrote over 600 hymns and is considered one of the greatest hymn writers of all time.

The passage summarizes, “A very unusual man, Watts served as minister of the English Congregational Church, preaching his first sermon at 24. History says that though he was a charming man, his stature was small and his physical appearance hard to believe.

"Only 5 feet in height, his face was sallow with a hooked nose, small beady eyes and a deathlike pallor. One lady, a Miss Elizabeth Singer, who had fallen in love with his poetry and thought she had met her soulmate at last, refused his hand in marriage when she finally saw him, with the remark, ‘I admired the jewel but not the casket!’ However, his hymns have been jewels admired by all generations of Christians.”