Songs in Season by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · May 11, 1905

_Songs in Season_

By W. A. S.

How an appropriate stanza of a good old hymn lifts in the prayer and social meeting. I am reminded of it by notes on an old envelope of a social meeting held one Sabbath afternoon at the foot of the Santa Cruz Mountains in the island of Jamaica. Our Jamaica brethren sing. They know our hymn-book better than we in America, I believe. Their devotional meetings are enlivened and deepened with hymns just to the point. Praise must be the keynote of the live prayer and social meeting. We praise too little. And when hearts make melody together praising God in testimony, it is good to hear the song of praise touching the very chord of the testimony before it ceases to vibrate. More attention may well be given to encouraging those who have the gift of song to freely use it for God’s glory in the prayer and social service.

We were gathered in a two-days’ general meeting at Santa Cruz. Brethren and sisters came riding and walking in from mountains and valleys. Many walked eight, ten, or twenty miles, and they came to receive a blessing. One rather frail young lady who had walked eighteen miles bore witness: “The Lord has given me strength physically and spiritually.”

One said, “I know that this is a saving message, because it saves me.” Then the hymn rang joyously out,—

“Saved to the uttermost, I am the Lord’s; Jesus, my Saviour, salvation affords.”

A brother said, “This is the very day that I used to come into this district and

drink and swear. I thank God to-day for a part in his work.” And all joined in singing praises for the changed life,—

“My Jesus, I love thee, I know thou art mine, For thee all the follies of sin I resign; My gracious Redeemer, my Saviour art thou; If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.”

Many were the thanks for the truth that had halted steps on the downward way. “God called me out of darkness into his wonderful light, and I shall never cease to thank him,” was the next note of praise sounded, and they sang,—

“The Light of the world is Jesus!”

“I have spots and wrinkles still, but I am trusting the blood of Jesus to make me whole,” said one. Then,—

“The cleansing stream I see, I see, I plunge, and O, it cleanseth me! O praise the Lord! it cleanseth me, It cleanseth me, yes, cleanseth me.”

Here, with faltering lips and swelling heart, one soul made her surrender to the truth: “I here give my life and strength, my all, to God, and ask God to take me and use me to his glory.” From all hearts burst forth the words,—

“Just as I am, thou wilt receive, Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve; Because thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.”

One said, “Five years ago this truth found me, and I have never regretted that I cast in my pilgrimage with the people of God.” Some tuneful heart was ready with the hymn,—

“We’re bound for the land of the pure and the holy,”—

and how the invitation of the chorus rang out from that little meeting-house,—

“O say, will you go to the Eden above?”

That was a good meeting, and throughout the songs came instantly and naturally to lift all hearts to purer heights of love and praise. “Thirty miles’ journey is nothing to the blessings I have received at this meeting,” was one brother’s testimony. Another brother had walked sixty miles, from Falmouth, on the north coast. These brethren of Jamaica have their trials, within and without, common to us all. They bear something of scoff and scorn for the truth. But though the way may be rough, they know how to smooth it with song; and it is a blessed gift, well used. May the devotional services among us grow brighter and brighter with songs from the heart the nearer we get to the home land.

W. A. S.