A few days ago, my husband Jeff asked me if I ever sing "I come to the garden alone. . ." while I'm out in our garden, toiling away at tilling and tending.
My answer, "Yes, absolutely."
"In the Garden" has been a hymn favorite for generations. A song popularized especially for how it's often been sung during funerals and at Easter services, harkens back to the story of Mary Magdalene coming to the garden tomb to mourn her Savior. And then! She hears His voice, and He reveals Himself to her first. Our risen Lord! Oh, what sweet swells that scene conjures in our breasts!
C. Austin Miles must have visualized it well as he penned the lyrics, for according to his great-granddaughter, the verses were penned in a New Jersey basement, where not even a window allowed the daylight in, much less a garden view.
Image by wirestock on Freepik
But who was C. Austin Miles, and what inspired him to write such a beautiful, timeless hymn?
Charles Austin Miles (January 7, 1868-March 10, 1946) studied at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and the University of Pennsylvania. However, in 1892, he gave up his career to purse the writing of Gospel songs. His first Gospel song, "List! ’Tis Jesus’ Voice", was published by the Hall-Mack Company, where he later became editor and manager of the music publishing company for 37 years.
He is quoted as saying, "It is as a writer of gospel songs I am proud to be known, for in that way I may be of the most use to my master, whom I serve willingly although not as efficiently as is my desire."
I love that! Writers of fiction drawn from a Christian world view are prone to questioning whether or not their work serves any larger purpose. We sometimes even feel like it's a guilty pleasure (even though there are days we want to pull our hair out over a plotting or character development issue). Yet, we feel God's pleasure when we write the things that are pleasing to Him. This is how Mr. Miles must have felt, to believe so strongly in his calling. He wrote 398 songs in his lifetime, and he wrote the music to at least eight others. In the Garden was the result of personal quiet time spent with God.
A hobby of Miles' was photography, and he created a darkroom for developing film in his New Jersey basement. With the ability to see well enough to read his Bible in the red lighting of the darkroom, he would often spend the time awaiting his developing process to finish by reading his Bible. Sometimes he purposely read with the desire of creating worshipful songs from Scripture.
I confess that I have often read my Bible with an eye to themes that resonate in stories I want to write. Now and then, God places one directly into my heart.
It was on a day in 1912, while reading in his darkroom, that Miles opened his Bible to John, chapter 20, and read again the story of Mary Magdalene coming to the tomb of Jesus. Discovering he was no longer there, her heart sank, for she feared his body had been stolen. Then she heard his voice behind her. When she thought it was the gardener speaking, He said her name. "Mary."
Have you ever heard the Lord speaking your name to your heart? Calling your attention to him?
I think that maybe that's what happened to C. Austin Miles at that moment. So touched by the thought of what had happened, he didn't need a garden outside his window to imagine it.
Miles' recalled how he gripped his Bible, his muscles vibrating with the urgency to write the lyrics to the poem, thinking, This is not an experience limited to a happening almost 2,000 years ago. It is the daily companionship with the Lord that makes up the Christian's life.
Later, Miles said that the lyrics came quickly. That evening he composed them for a musical setting that became the song we love today.
Do you go to the garden alone to hear the voice of Jesus?
The Garden of Gethsemane at Jerusalem (Deposit Photos)
In the Garden
I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.
Refrain
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
He speaks, and the sound of His voice,
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.
Refrain
I'd stay in the garden with Him
Though the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe
His voice to me is calling.
Refrain
Sing along:
Discover more hymn history on Cindy Ervin Huff's recent post telling the story of Just As I Am.
Would you enjoy a 1920 novel that isn't all big cities and gangsters? Rather a small, quiet town in western Wisconsin, a charming Victorian tea house, where friends and lovers are home from war? Come to Hudson, a place where everyone wants a fresh start, whatever that might look like.
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