Hymn that save a life

[sjw83071]

I have been doing a little research on hymns that pre-date the Civil War and thus would have been familiar to soldiers. I just ran across this story. I have not tried to verify it. But I thought I would share it. I do want to try to find other sources for this.

Hymn- Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us

A story related to this hymn is told about Ira Stankey, a musician who worked closely with Dwight L. Moody. On one occasion, Stankey sang this song, "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us" at a public gathering. Afterwards, one of the guests pulled him aside and asked if Stankey had served on guard duty on a particular night in a particular place. Stankey, who had served in the Union army, said that he had. The other man said that he had served in the Confederate army. On the evening in question, he had started to shoot a Union soldier when the Union soldier began to sing "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Me." The Confederate soldier, who had often heard his mother sing that song, couldn't do it. Singing "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us" had saved Stankey's life.


https://www.sermonwriter.com/hymn-stories/savior-like-shepherd-lead-us/

 

[KansasFreestater]

What an amazing story. Thank you so much for sharing it here!

There are some wonderful stories related to music in the Civil War, but that's the first one I've heard about a song actually saving a life. Wow. Gives me goosebumps!

Another story I really love is related in the Gettysburg Audio Tour narrated by Stephen Lang. He tells about a wounded soldier, lying helpless out on the field between the two sides on the night of the second day, who began singing "Come Ye Disconsolate"... I could never tell the story the way Stephen Lang does, so I won't even try. For me, that story -- and his singing of that song -- is worth the price of the whole set.

 

[James N.]

Sounds like typical apocryphal nonsense - except sometimes that nonsense turns out to be true!

 

[KansasFreestater]

True story:
I heard a Kansas woman speak, a number of years ago, about her experience of having been kidnapped by strangers from her home. She was eventually rescued, but at some point along the way, she just instinctively started singing "Jesus Loves Me." Can't say the hymn saved her life, but at the very least, it calmed her and helped her keep her head -- and, being unexpected, probably knocked her captors a little off balance. Given the ubiquity of that song in many American children's childhoods, who knows? Maybe they'd grown up with it, too. If so, it might have touched some old, long-buried spark in them that dissuaded them from killing her when they could have.

 

[KansasFreestater]

I have been doing a little research on hymns that pre-date the Civil War and thus would have been familiar to soldiers. I just ran across this story. I have not tried to verify it. But I thought I would share it. I do want to try to find other sources for this.

Hymn- Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us

A story related to this hymn is told about Ira Stankey, a musician who worked closely with Dwight L. Moody. On one occasion, Stankey sang this song, "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us" at a public gathering. Afterwards, one of the guests pulled him aside and asked if Stankey had served on guard duty on a particular night in a particular place. Stankey, who had served in the Union army, said that he had. The other man said that he had served in the Confederate army. On the evening in question, he had started to shoot a Union soldier when the Union soldier began to sing "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Me." The Confederate soldier, who had often heard his mother sing that song, couldn't do it. Singing "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us" had saved Stankey's life.


https://www.sermonwriter.com/hymn-stories/savior-like-shepherd-lead-us/

The article at the link mentions "Jesus Loves Me." From the Wikipedia entry about that song comes a story you might like:

In 1943 in the Solomon Islands, John F. Kennedy's PT-109 was rammed and sunk. Islanders Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana who found Kennedy and the survivors remember that when they rode on PT boats to retrieve the survivors, the Marines sang this song with the natives, who had learned it from Seventh-day Adventist missionaries.​

 

[John Hartwell]

Plausible, perhaps, though also perhaps too "neat." In most cases, singing anything while on picket or guard duty where an enemy might be in earshot is not to be encouraged.

 

[sjw83071]

In 1943 in the Solomon Islands, John F. Kennedy's PT-109 was rammed and sunk. Islanders Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana who found Kennedy and the survivors remember that when they rode on PT boats to retrieve the survivors, the Marines sang this song with the natives, who had learned it from Seventh-day Adventist missionaries.

Great story! Thanks for sharing!

 

[sjw83071]

In most cases, singing anything while on guard duty where an enemy might be in earshot is not to be encouraged.

I agree. I don't believe I would be singing on picket duty

 

[Blessmag]

Amazing hymnal
After leaving the sea for an office job in 1755, ( John ) Newton held Bible studies in his Liverpool home. Influenced by both the Wesleys and George Whitefield, he adopted mild Calvinist views and became increasingly disgusted with the slave trade and his role in it. He quit, was ordained into the Anglican ministry, and in 1764 took a parish in Olney in Buckinghamshire.

Three years after Newton arrived, poet William Cowper moved to Olney. Cowper, a skilled poet who experienced bouts of depression, became a lay helper in the small congregation.

In 1769, Newton began a Thursday evening prayer service. For almost every week's service, he wrote a hymn to be sung to a familiar tune. Newton challenged Cowper also to write hymns for these meetings, which he did until falling seriously ill in 1773. Newton later combined 280 of his own hymns with 68 of Cowper's in what was to become the popular Olney Hymns. Among the well-known hymns in it are "Amazing Grace," "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken," "How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds," "O for a Closer Walk with God," and "There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood."
http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/pastorsandpreachers/john-newton.html

 

[AshleyMel]

Beautiful words!

1 Savior, like a shepherd lead us,
Much we need Thy tender care;
In Thy pleasant pastures feed us,
For our use Thy folds prepare:
Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus,
Thou hast bought us, Thine we are;
Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus,
Thou hast bought us, Thine we are.

2 We are Thine, do Thou befriend us,
Be the guardian of our way;
Keep Thy flock, from sin defend us,
Seek us when we go astray:
Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus,
Hear, O hear us when we pray;
Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus,
Hear, O hear us when we pray.

3 Thou hast promised to receive us,
Poor and sinful though we be;
Thou hast mercy to relieve us,
Grace to cleanse, and pow'r to free:
Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus,
Early let us turn to Thee;
Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus,
Early let us turn to Thee.

4 Early let us seek Thy favor,
Early let us do Thy will;
Blessed Lord and only Savior,
With Thy love our bosoms fill:
Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus,
Thou hast loved us, love us still;
Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus,
Thou hast loved us, love us still.

https://hymnary.org/text/savior_like_a_shepherd_lead_us

 

[7thWisconsin]

William Cowper (pronounced "Cooper") was also a friend of William Wordsworth, and frequently stayed with him. Cowper would be diagnosed as clinically depressed were he alive today. In the Calvinist theology of the time, some are predestined for eternal glory, and, therefore, by extension, some predestined for eternal damnation. The shorthand for this concept is "limited atonement." Anyway, Cowper was convinced that he was one of the latter - that he was condemned to eternal damnation and there was nothing he could do about it - it was for the glory of God. I sincerely believe he was one surprised saint when the Lord said to him "well done, good and faithful servant."
Hymns, in the 18th century, did not have fixed tunes. The metrical pattern of the hymn was noted in the lyrics, and you could sing the words to any tune that fit the arrangement of syllables. (I have used the metrical index in the back of the hymnal to pair lyrics with different tunes from time to time, but most congregations can't stand looking at one set of notes, and singing another, even if most of the people don't read music. Odd, huh?) It really wasn't until the gospel hymn movement after the War that individual hymns began to be composed to be sung with their own distinct tunes. People like Ira Sankey, P.P. Bliss, George F Root, William Bradbury were collaborating with each other. Many had Civil War connections with their musical careers.

 

[sjw83071]

People like Ira Sankey, P.P. Bliss, George F Root, William Bradbury were collaborating with each other. Many had Civil War connections with their musical careers.

I'm glad you posted this. I did intend to post that his correct name is as you have it, Ira Sankey.

 

[sjw83071]

Beautiful words!

Indeed! I love finding out familiar hymns pre-date the civil war

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

But how dreadful if the story were somehow true, picket or no, with all of us pitching it entirely? I agree, it does, of course seem like one of those. But it sure was a weird war.

Not off thread? There's the one about a very young Confederate soldier knocking on a Northern housewife's door, asking to be taken in? She does, he stays, becomes one of the family, grows up and buys the farm next door. Seems really unlikely. Harriet Bayly, Gettysburg. Love that story, poor guy, so far from home.

Carry on bringing up old hymns? You guys keep mentioning hymns which I'll decide OH, my favorite! Until the next member's mention, then that one is.

 

[donna]

Thanks for posting on this hymn. I love so many of the old hymns. I was researching on them also. Many were favorites of soldiers during this time period.

 

[7thWisconsin]

But how dreadful if the story were somehow true, picket or no, with all of us pitching it entirely? I agree, it does, of course seem like one of those. But it sure was a weird war.

Not off thread? There's the one about a very young Confederate soldier knocking on a Northern housewife's door, asking to be taken in? She does, he stays, becomes one of the family, grows up and buys the farm next door. Seems really unlikely. Harriet Bayly, Gettysburg. Love that story, poor guy, so far from home.

Carry on bringing up old hymns? You guys keep mentioning hymns which I'll decide OH, my favorite! Until the next member's mention, then that one is.

Postwar revivalist preaching was highly emotional, and involved lots of romanticized stories about the war. Unfortunately, many, if not all of them were made up whole cloth. Sherman flatly denied that he ever sent a telegram to Allatoona that said "hold the fort for I am coming" so there goes that great story. The story about the "pocket testament that stopped a bullet and saved my life" was an old saw that was more fiction than fact. Charles Finney told a story about a sword that wasn't true. Then there's that widely debunked story about Lee kneeling at the altar with a black man for communion. (I even told that one once before researching it better.) Sad to say, but some preachers can't pass up a story, however dubious, in an attempt to make the greatest story ever told more attractive. I heard that old one about the 18th century sailor swallowed by a whale about a year ago, and the jury has been in for 25 years that he was a drunken liar. Basically, if I read a story in an old sermon, I consider it suspect until I can research it. (I didn't mean this to sound harsh, but it is a criticism of my fellow preachers.)

 

[James N.]

... Hymns, in the 18th century, did not have fixed tunes. The metrical pattern of the hymn was noted in the lyrics, and you could sing the words to any tune that fit the arrangement of syllables. (I have used the metrical index in the back of the hymnal to pair lyrics with different tunes from time to time, but most congregations can't stand looking at one set of notes, and singing another, even if most of the people don't read music. Odd, huh?) It really wasn't until the gospel hymn movement after the War that individual hymns began to be composed to be sung with their own distinct tunes. People like Ira Sankey, P.P. Bliss, George F Root, William Bradbury were collaborating with each other. Many had Civil War connections with their musical careers.

Perhaps not-so-oddly enough (especially for those who know me) one reason I quit attending my local Methodist Church was that the tune to Doxology/Old Hundredth was changed to some gobblygook tune I'd never heard before. (To my mind at least, just as stupid: some "revision" of the Methodist Hymnal has made Doxology no longer #100 - which gave it its popular Civil War-era name - but is now 105 or some such; like they couldn'tve backed it up a few pages!) This also seemed to coincide with the introduction of more and more "modern" hymns and songs which of course nobody had ever heard of. This sort of garbage is usually done to supposedly make it more appealing to the youth - as though they'd know the difference, not being familiar with the traditional versions in the first place - and where else but in church should tradition be found?

 

[7thWisconsin]

Old Hundredth is a very useful common meter tune! I know dozens of hymns that will fit it! And it's what the band played at the cemetery dedication at Gettysburg in November 1863.