I’d like to start this time with a song, a hymn, that is old enough to be in the public domain. Which means we can quote it word for word without having to have permission from someone!

Fanny Crosby (1820-1915) was a 19^th century hymn writer. I found a short but informative article on her at this link.

Fanny’s eyes became inflamed when she was just six weeks old and was soon blind. Her father died that same year, and so, her mother had to go to work as a housekeeper for a wealthy family. As a result, Fanny went to stay with her grandmother, which may have turned out to be one of the greatest blessings of her life. This woman taught her all about nature, how to identify trees from the feel of their leaves, and even flowers from touch and birds from their songs. Fanny began to memorize Bible early on as well, listening to her grandmother read the Bible and poetry. She also told Fanny from an early age that “God has a special purpose for everything he made, including you.”

By the age of twelve Fanny had memorized Genesis through Numbers, and Matthew through John. Fanny said the verses were like friends that cheered her up when she felt sad about not being able to attend school (or have any friends, I imagine). But when she was 14, she was able to go to the New York Institution for the Blind. The poetry she had written since she was young, just got better, and after graduation, she became a teacher there. Her poems and hymns, (she wrote more than 9000 songs), were eventually used by well-known pastors and even presidents. She also married an organist she met at her school.

Some story, huh? What I found amazing about the song we are going to look at, is just how honest and transparent it is, not something I would associate with the time frame and that culture, two centuries ago.

The title was originally Jesus is Tenderly Calling, but is now just called Tenderly Calling. I wonder if in more recent times, Jesus was taken out of the lyrics, but the meaning is still very clear. The “voice” in the song is clearly a spiritual and Christian one: either God, or Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, or angels, or God’s voice, that resides deep in our hearts.

My favorite version is a Bluegrass one, of course, but I don’t believe anyone will complain about Tim O’Brien’s voice. Also, Mrs. Crosby wrote the lyrics, but it was put to music by the composer George C. Stebbins, and a very beautiful melody it is.

And so, if you have Spotify or another streaming service, please go ahead and check it out. You can find the version I mentioned under the artist Hot Rize, on their album Take it Home. Tenderly Calling is the last song on that album.

Here are the lyrics:

Sometimes when I’m feeling lonesome, and no one on earth seems to care
I’m all by myself in the darkness, with no one and nothing to share
Just when it feels like it’s over, and I’ll never make it alone
I hear the voices of angels, tenderly calling me home

Home come on home
Ye who are weary come home
Softly and tenderly calling
Home come on home

I try to keep it together, and I never let on that I’m scared
till sometimes I fall to pieces, scattered and lost everywhere
and just when it feels like it’s hopeless, and I’ll never make it alone
I hear the voice deep inside me, its tenderly calling me home

Home come on home
Ye who are weary come home
Softly and tenderly calling
Home come on home

Don’t be afraid of the darkness, don’t run away from the storm
stand up and face your reflection, and feelings you try to ignore
cause after the tempest is over, and you let yourself go on thru
you’ll hear a voice in the silence, it’s tenderly calling to you, and it’s singing

Home come on home
Ye who are weary come home
Softly and tenderly calling
Home come on home

Softly and tenderly calling

Home, come on home

As I hinted above, the words remind me more of recent songs in which we have found it easier to acknowledge our internal struggle, our low self-esteem and depression; for we have finally come a little more to terms with it, and at least some of the time, we’re not too ashamed to admit it. But, you know, maybe folks in Mrs. Crosby’s time were more introspective and honest than we know. The Puritans were brutally honest about their internal struggle, maybe the more common folks in Fanny’s time were as well. Maybe this is something that was lost in the age of Positivism which came into favor in the early 19^th century and continued until two World Wars woke everyone up.

And so, what if we stopped here for now, and all listened to this song a good number of times, and then came back in a couple of weeks to discuss it? I very much look forward to it.

Next time,
Sam