Music for Our Souls – "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" by Thomas O. Chisolm

Last month I wrote about the famous hymn writer Isaac Watts. Let’s continue looking at the hymns and writers of the past whose lyrics have touched our hearts and encouraged our souls.

Many Christians watching this month’s presidential inauguration of President Trump quickly recognized the hymn Great is They Faithfulness that we heard playing at the beginning of the event in the capitol rotunda. (You can see that here if you missed it.) Such an awe-inspiring hymn it is, as it proclaims God’s faithfulness throughout the world, in every season, and through every circumstance! The lyrics hold great meaning in my own life, and perhaps you find hope, peace, and comfort in them too.

Two men combined their talents with earnest prayer to create this classic we’ve now been singing for ¾ of a century.

THOMAS O. CHISOLM

Thomas O. Chisolm was born in 1866, in a cabin in Franklin, Kentucky. Though a frail child, he became a school teacher at sixteen. At twenty-seven, he gave his life to Jesus Christ during a Gospel revival, and he became an ordained minister in 1903. Other than Chisolm’s inclement health which caused him to resign from the pastorate after only a year as a pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, he lived what you might call an ordinary life.

 

Several years after leaving the ministry, Chisolm took a job as an insurance agent, moving around some. However, he wrote a great deal of sacred poetry during those years, penning over 1200 sacred poems in his lifetime. Many were printed in various Christian periodicals. His writing eventually led him to became the editor of The Pentecostal Christian Herald for a period of time.

Some of his poetry he sent in letters he exchanged with friend and little-known musician William M. Runyun. Runyun was particularly drawn to the piece titled Great Is Thy Faithfulness, and he determined to set it to music. Runyun said:

“This particular poem held such an appeal that I prayed most earnestly that my tune might carry over its message in a worthy way, and the subsequent history of its use indicates that God answered that prayer.”

The hymn's broad use didn’t occur right away. But it was published, and eventually, it came to the attention of a professor at Moody Bible Institute. In 1945 George Beverly Shea began singing it at Billy Graham’s evangelistic crusades. Great Is Thy Faithfulness soon swept the world.

One reason, I believe, that the hymn has resonated with so many is because of the Scriptural themes winding throughout.

• Verse One reflects James 1:17 where we are told that there is no changing nor shadow of turning with an ever-faithful God.
• Verse Two notes that all of God’s creation heralds His glory, as His Word points out time and again.
• Verse Three speaks of our sin He not only pardons, but then how God grants us a kind of peace that passes our understanding, to endure as no other kind of peace can, 1 John 1:9. He also promises that His presence (the Holy Spirit in us and His Word to us) will cheer and guide us. And finally, how he will give us strength for each day, as it is needed. OH, how I need those things! 
• Then there’s that beautiful chorus, the root of the song, which hearkens to Lamentations 3:22-23, reminding us that God’s mercy is new every morning. It also reflects Philippians 4:19, pointing out how our Faithful Father will continue to provide for our every need.

Of the poem itself, Thomas Chisolm said:

“…I must not fail to record here the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God and that he has given me many wonderful displays of his providing care, for which I am filled with astonishing gratefulness.”

As an author myself, I am incredibly inspired both by the words of this hymn and by the remarks of these two men who wrote and composed it. First, Chisolm yielded his talents to God. He wrote this poem first as a reminder to himself of God’s faithfulness and to show his own gratefulness to his Savior. Another of his works that has come to be treasured is Living For Jesus, composed by C. Harold Lowden.

 

For Runyun’s part, the fact that he so carefully bathed the project in prayer in order to give God the utmost glory and for the piece to possibly to bless others, shows me how I should treat every subject and story that God gives me to write about, and it reminds me how I should live my life in even the smallest, most ordinary ways.

In many regards, Chisolm lived an ordinary life. But God can use the most ordinary human to exclaim His glory and goodness. Now don’t you feel like singing along?

 

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New news for an older title! The Deepest Sigh, book one in my Echoes of the Heart series has finally come to audio and is free on Audible! 

Farmer's daughter Marilla Eckert marries the man of her dreams, but soon faces the bitter realization that his devotion has always belonged to another. When heartache strikes on every front, an offer of comfort is hard to resist. Can they ever find their hearts' true homes?

Find out more.

Bobby Pins, Plumbing, and Other Challenges of Writing about the 1920s

The 1920s can be a real puzzlement for writers. In some ways, there were so many modern changes taking hold that it was hard to keep up with for people who lived through them, and in other ways, for many, life hadn't changed much from the 1800s. Region had a lot to do with this. City and rural living made a difference. In the 1920s, many people still hadn't even enjoyed the modern conveniences that some of the rich did during the gilded age 20, 30, or 40 years previously. In other ways, the new era ushered in changes with the speed of a telephone call.

Take plumbing for instance. Very wealthy people and even some hotels enjoyed some manner of indoor plumbing in the late 1800s, but by 1920, only one percent of American households enjoyed such. One percent! That means that even in cities during the roaring twenties, people were still hand-pumping their water and taking late-night treks to the outhouse or sliding a bedpan out from beneath their bed. They may have used a water closet or had a bathroom, but all the after-effects had to be carried away.

Some homes may have had a system for dispensing, but we've all seen or heard of people in large cities pouring their "slops" out the window into the gutters below, and woe to anyone who happened to be passing nearby!

When I'm writing about that period, I always have to pause and ask, "Would this family have been part of that one percent or not? What kind of system did their town have?" It's easier to answer if they lived rurally. Then, as I've mentioned in previous posts, I have to ask about electricity. Some had it in 1920, but most did not. They still used gas lighting or oil lamps.

Image by munik manalo from Pixabay

Now let me direct your attention to a odd detail that also effected the period. I'm currently finishing a book set in 1920 about a young woman named Polly who has very fine hair. She has trouble keeping her hair pins in place. Of course, I first imagined slipping bobby pins, because that's what I'm familiar with. But did you know that bobby pins weren't invented yet?

Bobby pins as we know and refer to them were invented during the twenties. Their creator was Luis Marcus, a San Francisco cosmetics manufacturer. After WWI, as women began bobbing their hair and the flapper era swept in, he started hand-making the pins and selling them in sets of two for thirty-five cents. He considered calling them "Marcus pins", but chose instead to name them after the new, bobbed hairstyles, deciding on the simple "bobby pins" we know today. Interestingly, Marcus never got rich on the invention, and didn't even care to talk much about them, even though they changed a part of women's worlds.

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

Hair pins were the ancestors to bobby pins. Either long and straight or U-shaped, hair pins could be jabbed into the hair to hold styles in place or to keep a hat where it belonged. Barrettes, on the other hand, have been worn for centuries.

Image by Briam Cute from Pixabay

Frankly, I'd never given a lot of thought to bobby pins until my current heroine started having trouble keeping her thin hair in place. Suddenly I found myself wondering, gee, did they even have bobby pins then? Just another conundrum about the little details we face when we write historical stories.

I'll be excited to introduce my post-WWI heroine to you with the thin and newly bobbed hair. Her story will release next January (2024) in a novel titled Polly. She is the first in the Apron Strings series of heroines connected together over the decades by a single recipe book.

In the meantime, I hope you'll add my other 1920s series, Echoes of the Heart, to your book list beginning with The Deepest Sigh. Below are the opening lines. 

God bless, and happy reading!

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