ChosenRebel's Blog

Friday is for Heart Songs

There are treasures waiting for us. Every day they are waiting for us in the faith of those who have gone before us.

In a more literate age, they poured their faith into cups made of words and handed them to the world, words made of steel, words formed with meditation and passion.

In contrast, our age is filled with images and platitudes. Theirs was filled with words and song. Today their gifts are wrapped up in books gathering dust on shelves and labeled “Hymnal.” But there is gold to be chiseled from their pages.

About a year ago, Ed Gross, a friend, sent me a video that someone sent to him. It was a simple handheld camera capturing a congregation singing this fantastic treasure of grace as a part of congregational worship. I had never heard the hymn but I loved it. The hymn is titled “He Will Hold Me Fast.” Here’s the link to a version with the lyrics included.

I had to find out more about the author.

Here’s what I found.

Ada Habershon was a hymnist born into Christian family in Marylebone, England in January of 1861.  She was raised in a Christian home. In her twenties, she was a member of the circle surrounding Charles Spurgeon and through that connection met Dwight L. Moody and Ira Sankey in 1884. She was a keen student of the Bible and “at their urging, she visited the United States, delivering a series of lectures on the Old Testament that were later published.” (Wiki)

She also wrote another hymn, one that is very well known, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”

But let’s leave that hymn for another time.

Right now, or perhaps before you turn the light out tonight, let the hymn and the words of your sister Ada, and the voices of the Capitol Hill Baptist congregation, encourage your soul in the gospel, and in your Savior.  Enjoy.