The song choices today were also music to my ears - there were several old hymns sung, and this one elderly lady who was sitting behind me had a strong and powerful soprano voice, which sounded much like my mother's.
It was when the song, "Blessed Assurance" began, and I heard this dear woman singing, that the tears just flowed down my face. It sounded just like my mother was standing behind me singing this hymn, which I heard her sing many times throughout my life, as it was one of her favorites.
Here's a little history about this song:
This is Fanny Crosby (1820-1915), who wrote the words to this beautiful hymn.
Words:
bio("Fanny Crosby","c/r/o/crosby_fj")
Fanny Crosby, 1873:
My friend, Mrs. Joseph F. Knapp, composed a melody and played it over to me two or three times on the piano. She then asked what it said. I replied, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!”
Music: Assurance,
bio("Phoebe P. Knapp","k/n/knapp_pp");lmn("a/s/s/Assurance")
Phoebe P. Knapp (MIDI, score).
This hymn was sung in the Academy Award winning movies Places in the Heart (1984) and Trip to Bountiful (1985).
“During the recent war in the Transvaal,” said a gentleman at my meeting in Exeter Hall, London, in 1900, “when the soldiers going to the front were passing another body of soldiers whom they recognized, their greetings used to be, ‘Four-nine-four, boys; four-nine-four;’ and the salute would invariably be answered with ‘Six further on, boys; six further on.’ The significance of this was that, in ‘Sacred Songs and Solos,’ a number of copies of the small edition of which had been sent to the front, number 494 was ‘God be with you until we meet again;’ and six further on than 494, or number 500, was ‘Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine.’”
If you're not familiar with this hymn, you can click on the midi link above, and if you are familiar with it, I'm sure you understand the emotion that this song brings.
Here are the words to this beautiful hymn:
Blessèd assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.
Refrain
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior, all the day long;
This is my story, this is my song,Praising my Savior, all the day long.
Perfect submission, perfect delight,
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
Angels descending bring from above
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
Refrain
Perfect submission, all is at rest
I in my Savior am happy and blest,
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.
Refrain
Thank God for the talents he gives to each of us, and may we all use them to glorify Him!
Janelle
1 comment:
Sounds like a wonderful church Janelle :) You are blessed! xox
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