Brother Gary Kelly Sunday Evening 2/24/13

Brother Gary Kelly Sunday Evening 2/24/13

I have here the ‘hymn story’ book, “Then Sings My Soul.”  I don’t know if I was introduced to this book by Brother Herb or if I found it in my own search for hymn stories.  I have read in it and there are stories that have spoken to me.

All my life from the time I was a child going to the Church of God in Plains to now we have sung, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.”  I have heard it sung by many different cultures.  Until I read of it, I never had any identity with how this song came to be.

When I read the hymn story, at first I was somewhat disappointed in it and thought that I would never have an opportunity to bring it to others.

The chorus of the song was written in 1887 by a man that really enjoyed music.  He taught in a singing school in Alabama and was staying in a boarding house.  When he got home from school he got two letters each from a former student.  Both of these young men’s wives had died and they were broken hearted.

Deu 33:26  There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky.

Deu 33:27  The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them.

As he read these scriptures, he began to ponder, and these words came to his mind, “Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarm; leaning, leaning; leaning on the Everlasting Arms.” 

He wrote the chorus and sent it to his friends.  Then he wrote a letter to a hymnist and told him that he had a really good chorus to a song but didn’t have any stanzas.  This hymnist wrote the verses. 

I’m glad that in the time of greatest sorrow there has been someone there before us and he wrote this chorus: “Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarm; leaning, leaning; leaning on the Everlasting Arms.”

353 in the hymnal.