Wordwise Hymns

It is astonishing to discover how many authors of our hymns had some disability, or wrote out of some dark experience in their lives. For example:

• Fanny Crosby (To God Be the Glory, All the Way My Saviour Leads Me) was blind. So was John Milton (Let Us With a Gladsome Mind), and George Matheson (O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go), and William Walford (Sweet Hour of Prayer), as was Lelia Morris, later in life (What If It Were Today? Nearer, Still Nearer).
• Annie Johnson Flint (He Giveth More Grace, God Hath Not Promised) was confined to her room with crippling arthritis most of her life. So was Lydia Baxter (Take the Name of Jesus with You).
• Charlotte Elliot was a bedridden invalid when she wrote the great invitation hymn, “Just As I Am.” Catherine Hankey (I Love to Tell the Story, Tell Me the Old, Old Story) wrote her hymns while confined to bed to recover from a serious illness. Eliza Hewitt (More About Jesus, When We All Get to Heaven) developed a severe spinal condition and was confined to bed for a long period.
• Frances Ridley Havergal (Take My Life and Let It Be, Who Is on the Lord’s Side?) was in poor health all her life, and she died at the age of 43. Thomas Chisholm (Great Is Thy Faithfulness) served as a pastor for a short time, but frail health forced him to resign.
• Major Daniel Whittle (Showers of Blessing, Have You Any Room for Jesus?) was a Civil War amputee.
• William Cowper [pronounced Cooper] (God Moves in a Mysterious Way, There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood) suffered from bouts of suicidal depression. Joseph Scriven (What a Friend We Have in Jesus) seems to have suffered from depression as well.
• Both George Young (God Leads Us Along) and Horatio Spafford (It Is Well) wrote songs as a declaration of faith after a time of great family tragedy.
• Luther Bridgers wrote “He Keeps Me Singing” after the death of his wife and children in a fire. Thomas Dorsey wrote “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” after his wife died giving birth to a son (who also died).

These are just a few examples of many. Even when there was not a prolonged disability, many created songs in periods of deep distress, or out of crisis circumstances. Because of such things, the poetry of their hymns grew out of the intense reality of their experience with God. No dry, dusty religiosity here. We sense in their message the ring of reality and the richness of their faith.

Perhaps we wonder how or why such beauty and blessing grows from times of suffering. There are could be many reasons. One is that those limited in some way–perhaps even bedridden–by a disability or adversity found time to explore new avenues of creativity and service for Christ. (One pastor never knew he could write hymns until he lost his voice and could no longer preach!)

Also, with their focus narrowed, their attention concentrated, they sometimes discovered deeper insights into the ways of God. They learned what it means to truly depend on God. Then, as the Lord blessed them, and blessed others through them in unique ways, they proved with the Apostle Paul what the Lord means when He says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (II Cor. 12:9).