Softly and Tenderly
Softly and Tenderly is an old hymn of the 19th Century written by Will Lamartine Thompson, who lived from 1847 to 1909. He composed gospel, secular, and patriotic songs. He struggled to get his hymns and songs published early in his career, so he founded his own publishing company and self-published his works.
This hymn became one of his most popular and well-known. It has been recorded by Amy Grant, Reba McEntire, Trisha Yearwood, Kelly Clarkson, Johnny Cash, and Alan Jackson. It has been featured in the movies and shows Junebug, The Accidental Tourist, True Blood, and A Prairie Home Companion, where it was sung by Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep.
Thompson was friends and worked with the well-known evangelist Dwight Moody. As he was dying, Moody told Thompson, “Will, I would rather have written ‘Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling’ than anything I have been able to do in my whole life.” The lyrics are a gentle call for those who feel lost and alone to simply, “Come home.”
Great Is Thy Faithfulness
The hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” was written by Thomas Chisholm in 1923. The song became instantly popular throughout the country and was frequently used in the Billy Graham Crusades. It has been recorded by the Gaithers, Carrie Underwood, and Cece Winans.
Thomas Chisholm was a schoolteacher in Franklin, Kentucky, which is close to the Tennessee boarder with Nashville. He served as a minister in the Methodist church for one year after a religious conversion, but he resigned due to poor health. He later became a life insurance agent in New Jersey. Some of his other notable hymns include, “Living for Jesus,” and a whole lot I had never heard of.
Though ministry was not his calling, Chisholm wrote over 1,200 hymns and sacred poems in his lifetime, many of which were published in various periodicals. The music to this hymn was written by William Runyan. This hymn quotes the words of Lamentations 3: 22-23, “The faithful love of the Lord never ends. His mercies never cease. Great is thy faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.”
In the Bulb
The hymn, “In the Bulb” was written by Natalee Sleeth in 1985 at a concert celebration of her music at Pasadena Community Church in St. Petersburg, Florida. Sleeth was a longtime composer of music having studied music and piano at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.
Her husband, Ronald, was a United Methodist clergy and professor at Perkins School of Theology. While serving as music secretary at Highland Park United Methodist, she composed one of her most known anthems, Canon of Praise, which became the highest selling anthem in the history of the publisher. She went on to write and compose more than 200 choral anthems, usually writing both lyrics and music.
“In the Bulb” has become a favorite for funerals, but that was not Sleeth’s intention. She wrote that the anthem came at a time when she was "pondering the ideas of life, death, spring and winter, Good Friday and Easter, and the whole reawakening of the world that happens every spring." Parts were inspired by a T.S. Eliot poem.
The connection to funerals likely came when her husband died of cancer shortly after the anthem was written. He requested that it be played at his funeral. Natalie Sleeth often wrote anthems that were theologically accessible to children. The words of this hymn are a very clear and unmistakable promise, “In our death, a resurrection; at the last, a victory, unrevealed until it season, something God alone can see.”
What a Friend
The writer of “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” Joseph Scriven, was born in Ireland in 1820. After college in Dublin he was engaged to his sweetheart and love of his life. But horrifically and tragically, the day before the wedding, she accidentally drowned. Scriven never recovered from the shock of this loss. He moved to Canada to get away from everything.
When word reached him that his mother was seriously ill, he wrote a poem called “Pray Without Ceasing.” He soon fell in love a second time with Eliza. Six weeks before their wedding, she too died. She succumbed to tuberculosis. The 25-year-old Scriven took a vow of poverty, sold all he had, and devoted his life to serving the poor and physically impaired.
He continued to give all he had to those in need. He refused to do jobs for money, only for those who could never repay. And to all he spoke of the love of Jesus. Thirty-one years later, he was worn and weary and seriously ill. His friend took him in to care for him. In attempting to write Scriven’s last will, his friend found the poem written long ago, which Scriven said was written “between the Lord and I.”
One morning Scriven was not in his room. Delirious with fever, he had wandered out to a small creek where he was found on his knees, hands clasped as if in prayer, having passed out and drowned in a few inches of water. The words of his poem were set to music and became an instant hymn of comfort and help around the world. Though his life was marked by trouble and turmoil, Scriven always held firm to the hope found in his faith.
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