“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.”
(Psalm 121:1-2)
Per Scriptum E. Wesley – Mackinac Center Intern
As we near the Christmas season, I thought it appropriate to reveal the history behind a hymn that has been very influential in critical moments of the history of liberty. From the origins of freedom of speech in England to the American Civil War, Charles Wesley’s hymn Jesus, Lover of My Soul graced the lips of many a distressed person. This hymn usually sung at Christmas is not well known in our present day, but during the Civil War, it was highly respected. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote that the first two lines were her father’s last breath, and Stowe’s brother, Rev. Henry Ward claimed, “I would rather have written that hymn of Wesley’s… than to have the fame of all the kings that ever sat on the earth. It is more glorious. It has more power in it… that hymn will go on singing until the last trump brings forth the angel band; and then, I think, it will mount up on some lip to the very presence of God.”1 Just like the Christmas truce of 1914, this hymn seems to bring the Christmas spirit of peace and giving everywhere it goes. The words are as follows:
Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O my Savior, hide,
Till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide;
O receive my soul at last.
Other refuge have I none,
Hangs my helpless soul on thee;
Leave, ah! leave me not alone,
Still support and comfort me.
All my trust on thee is stayed,
All my help from thee I bring;
Cover my defenseless head
With the shadow of thy wing.
Wilt Thou not regard my call?
Wilt Thou not accept my prayer?
Lo! I sink, I faint, I fall!
Lo! on Thee I cast my care.
Reach me out Thy gracious hand!
While I of Thy strength receive,
Hoping against hope I stand,
Dying, and behold I live.
Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
More than all in thee I find;
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
Heal the sick, and lead the blind.
Just and holy is thy name,
I am all unrighteousness;
False and full of sin I am;
Thou art full of truth and grace.
Plenteous grace with thee is found,
Grace to cover all my sin;
Let the healing streams abound,
Make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art,
Freely let me take of thee;
Spring thou up within my heart;
Rise to all eternity.
Charles Wesley
The origins of the hymn are somewhat legendary, but I give most credence to the following account by Rev. Edwin M. Long in 1875. Long’s story matches the symbolism of the song:
Charles and John Wesley, and Richard Pilmore were holding one of their twilight meetings on the common, when the mob assailed them, and they were compelled to flee for their lives.
Being separated for a time, as they were being pelted with stones, they at length in their flight, succeeded in getting beyond a hedge row, where they prostrated themselves on the ground, and placed their hands on the back of their heads for protection from the stones which still came so near that they could feel the current of air made by the missiles as they went whizzing over them.
In the night shades that were gathering, they managed to hide from the fury of the rabble in a spring-house. Here they struck a light with a flint-stone, and after dusting their clothes, and washing, they refreshed themselves with the cooling water that came bubbling up in a spring, and rolling out in a silver streamlet.
Charles Wesley pulled out a lead pencil… and from the inspiration of these surroundings, composed the precious hymn:—
‘Jesus, lover of my soul.’
The flight had no doubt suggested the second line:—
‘Let me to Thy bosom fly.’
The waters gliding at his feet,—
‘While the nearer waters roll.’
The tempest and storm from which they had just found a hiding-place, the figure,—
‘While the tempest still is high;
Hide me, O my Saviour hide
Till the storm of life is past.’
As each was left alone to seek safety in flight,—
‘Leave, Oh, leave me not alone,
Still support and comfort me.’
Trying to cover their defenseless heads with their hands, the lines,—
‘Cover my defenseless head
With the shadow of Thy wing.’
Having sunk to the ground, faint and weary, the third verse. As this is generally omitted, we give it entire:—
‘Wilt Thou not regard my call?
Wilt Thou not accept my prayer?
Lo! I sink, I faint, I fall!
Lo! on Thee I cast my care.
Reach me out Thy gracious hand!
While I of Thy strength receive,
Hoping against hope I stand,
Dying, and behold I live.’
Washing their wounds and bruises the thoughts of the last verse, which is the fifth in the original,— ‘Let the healing streams abound, Make and keep me pure within.’
And lastly, the fountain of spring-water from which they drank, and obtained fresh life,
‘Thou of life the fountain art,
Freely let me take of Thee.
Spring Thou up within my heart
Rise to all eternity."
These interesting facts were given by Mr. Pilmore, who was an eye-witness, to an intimate friend, Mr. Hicks, who stated them to Rev. I. H. Torrence of Phila., from whom I received them.2
During the 18th Century, England had only just begun to gain the right to free speech, and indeed, Wesley authored the hymn before the global influence of the US Bill of Rights advocating free speech. Violence often clouded the beginning of every new idea, and with the rise of the Methodists, controversy soon met Wesley everywhere. Fleeing for his life for merely expressing his views, he penned this hymn as the out flowing of his heart. It is a hymn asking for the release of the tyrannies of this world, and its influence remained no less imperative to the 19th century mind.
Many stories of desperate victories and fruitful defeats overwhelm this hymn’s history. Two girls sung it while sinking beneath the waves on the deck of a steamship with no hope of escape. A mother was rescued clinging to her child and a bit of wreckage at sea while singing it.3 Being interrupted by death at the line ‘still support and comfort me’, an American drummer boy at the battle of Chickamauga found his last strength with the solace of this hymn.4 Long relates another story of a gentleman searching for religious stability:
As he paused a moment in his walk the sound of singing reached his ear; he opened the door and listened. It was the children's nurse just putting her young charge to bed. Clear and distinct came the tone to Frank's ear,—
‘Jesus, lover of my soul, Let me to thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high.’
‘Ah!’ thought the listener, ‘that is just what I need. I would give the world to be able to sing that from my soul.’5
Perhaps the most poignant moment of this hymn in the history of liberty was one unbelievable Civil War story as told by Amos R. Wells in 1906.
In a company of old soldiers, from the Union and Confederate armies, a former Confederate was telling how he had been detailed one night to shoot a certain exposed sentry of the opposing army. He had crept near and was about to fire with deadly aim when the sentry began to sing, ‘Jesus, Lover of my soul.’ He came to the words,
‘Cover my defenseless head
With the shadow of Thy wing.’
The hidden Confederate lowered his gun and stole away. ‘I can't kill that man,’ said he, ‘though he were ten times my enemy.’
In the company was an old Union soldier who asked quickly,
‘Was that in the Atlanta campaign of ‘64?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then I was the Union sentry!’
And he went on to tell how, on that night, knowing the danger of his post, he had been greatly depressed, and, to keep up his courage, had begun to hum that hymn. By the time he had finished, he was entirely calm and fearless. Through the song God had spoken to two souls.6
While both soldiers would claim they were fighting for liberty, they agreed more than they disagreed, and though the war raged around them, the Confederate providentially withdrew his claim on the life of an enemy.
“Peace on earth, goodwill to men!”
NOTES:
1. Edwin M. Long, Illustrated History of Hymns and their Authors, (Philadelphia: Joseph F. Jaggers, 1876), 460.
2. Ibid, 440-441.
3. Ibid, 442, 445, 446.
4. Amos R. Wells, Twenty-four Memory Hymns and their stories, (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1906), 44.
5. Long, Illustrated History, 456.
6. Wells, Twenty-four Memory Hymns, 44-45.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Long, Edwin M. Illustrated History of Hymns and their Authors. Philadelphia: Joseph F. Jaggers, 1876.
Wells, Amos R. Twenty-four Memory Hymns and their stories. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1906.
Image sources (in order of article):
Sierra Nevada Albert Bierstadt circa 1871
Jwesleysitting
Miranda - The Tempest JWW
Camp Fire Winslow Homer
