Writing the words of an old hymn so we might speak aloud, or if desired, to sing. But there is so much comfort in reading words from over a hundred years back, and feeling as if they were penned today. Oh, how they shed new light on familiar themes:
There were nine-ty and nine that safe-ly lay In the shelter of the fold, But one was out on the hills a-way, Far off from the gates of gold,
A-way on the mountains wild and bare, A-way from the tender Shepherd’s care,
A-way from the tender Shepherd’s care.
Lord, Thou hast here Thy nine-ty and nine; Are they not enough for Thee? But the Shepherd made an-swer:
“This of mine has wan-dered a-way from Me, And al-though the road be rough and steep, I go to the des-ert to find My sheep,
I go to the des-ert to find My sheep.”
But none of the ran-somed ev-er knew How deep were the wa-ters crossed; Nor how dark was the night That the Lord passed thro’
Ere He found His sheep that was lost. Out in the des-ert he heard its cry Sick and help-less, and read-y to die,
Sick and help-less, and read-y to die.
Lord, whence are those blood drops all the way,
That mark out the moun-tain’s track?
They were shed for one who had gone a-stray Ere the Shep-herd could bring Him back. Lord whence are Thy hands so rent and torn? They’re pierced to-night by many a thorn,
They’re pierced to-night by man-y a thorn.
But all thro’ the mount-tains, thun-der riv’n, And up from the rock-y steep, There a-rose a glad cry to the gate of heav”n;
“Rejoice! I have found my sheep!”
And the an-gels echoed a-round the throne, Rejoice for the Lord brings back His own,
Rejoice for the Lord brings back His own.
Elizabeth C. Clephane had written a poem that found it’s way in 1874 in a penny newspaper of those days. Ira D. Sankey, a song leader for Evangelist D.L. Moody, cut it out and put it in his music notebook.
At a meeting in which Moody gave a sermon on the Good Shepherd, he asked Sankey, “Do you have an appropriate solo in which to close?”
It is told that Ira Sankey prayed a quick prayer and turned to the poem in his notebook, and, on-the-spot, wrote its melody!
Today, so many years later, melody known or not, the words comfort, touch, and move us to hope deeper and believe greater in our dear Good Shepherd’s love. We must read it aloud and rejoice in our hearts that our Good Shepherd never tires to seek and to save the lost.
The old hymns, they remind us that He loves most.
And His good Word reminds us that His love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13).
God’s love is deep and wide. Human-kind can’t comprehend God. Perhaps we spend our lifetimes understanding His amazing grace. And then,
one day, we shall see Him, face to face.
