Nearer still nearer 

 For the believer, growing older should mean a greater awareness of God's love and fellowship as well as an increased desire for usefulness in Christian service. The golden years should be the most fruitful time of life. A lifetime of companionship with God ought to produce a more mellow and gracious Christlike spirit. Because there are fewer demands and pressures in life, the older Christian can enjoy opportunities for effective ministry that he or she has never attempted. A "do-nothing retirement" must never become the goal of any believer's life.

      There is nothing more tragic, however, than a professing Christian who has grown disgruntled and self-centered in later years. It is true that as we age we simply bring into full bloom the traits that were begun in our early years. If, then, we wish to have positive and productive attitudes as seniors, we must begin to develop these traits while we are still young.

      This song's author and composer, Mrs. Lelia Naylor Morris, was an active worker in the Methodist church. She continued to write gospel songs during the last fifteen years of her life, even after becoming blind in her early fifties. "Sweeter As the Years Go By" was written during the early years of her blindness. It is said that during this difficult time in her life, Mrs. Morris used a twenty-eight-foot-long blackboard with music lines to help her in writing hymns. She wrote more than one thousand hymn texts, as well as many of the tunes. She never stopped writing until the time of her home going.

      Several of Lelia's other gospel hymns still in use include: "What If It Were Today?," "Let Jesus Come into Your Heart," and "Nearer, Still Nearer."

      Mrs. Lelia N. Morris's handicap and age never deterred her from being productive for God. Despite the difficulties of life, she continued to "bear fruit" and to enjoy a relationship with her Lord that became sweeter with each passing year. What a worthy example for each of us to emulate!

Blessed Assurance

Though she become blind at six weeks of age through improper medical treatment, Fanny Crosby wrote more than eight thousand gospel song texts in her lifetime of ninety-five years. Her many favorites such as "Blessed Assurance" have been an important part of evangelical worship for the past century.

      Often the themes for Fanny Crosby's texts were suggested by visiting ministers who wished to have a new song on a particular subject. As she once said, "Our home is a beehive of activity with so many friends dropping in and requesting a new hymn for some special occasion." At other times musician friends would first compose the music and then ask Fanny for matching words. Such was the prompting for the hymn "Blessed Assurance." One day Mrs. Joseph (Phoebe) Knapp, who was an amateur musician, the daughter of a noted Methodist evangelist, and a close personal friend, visited Fanny in her New York home.

      "Oh Fanny, I have had a new melody racing through my mind for some time now, and I just can't think of anything else. Let me play it for you and perhaps you can help me with the words."

      After kneeling in prayer and clutching her little Bible, the blind poetess stood to her feet with face aglow: "Why, that music says, 'Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine. . . .'"

      Soon the words began to flow from her heart, and there was born another of the more than eight thousand gospel hymns by this godly woman, the "queen of gospel music." And still today our hearts are inspired and our spirits lifted as we sing this musical testimony together.

      Only eternity will reveal fully the host of individuals whose lives have been spiritually changed and enriched through the texts of Fanny Jane Crosby's many hymns

I know whom I have believed

There is much about the spiritual life we do not fully understand, but we can still live with certainty and triumphant faith. The apostle Paul understood when he exclaimed, "I know whom [not merely what] I have believed" (2 Tim. 1:12a).

      Daniel Webster Whittle and James McGranahan, author and composer of this hymn, supplied many other choice gospel songs, including "There Shall Be Showers of Blessing," "The Banner of the Cross," and "Christ Liveth in Me." Whittle was a Civil War veteran who accompanied Union general William Sherman on his march through Georgia. At the close of the war Whittle was promoted to the rank of major and was thereafter known as Major Whittle. After the war he returned to Chicago, where he became treasurer of the Elgin Watch Company. In 1873, at the urging of D. L. Moody, the major left his successful position to become an evangelist. He enjoyed a most effective ministry for the rest of his life. He was ably assisted musically by P.P. Bliss and later James McGranahan. Many of Whittle's hymns bear the pseudonym "El Nathan." The piece "I Know Whom I Have Believed" is known by that name.

      James McGranahan had a limited formal education, but at the age of nineteen he was teaching in singing schools throughout the East. He became known for his beautiful tenor voice and commanding personality. After Bliss died in 1877, McGranahan became music director for Major Whittle's evangelistic campaigns in England and North America. McGranahan was a pioneer in his use of male choruses. He collaborated with Ira Sankey and other musicians in many gospel publications. in addition to supplying the music for many of Major Whittle's texts, McGranahan composed the music for such gospel favorites as "My Redeemer," "Christ Returneth," "Christ Receiveth Sinful Men," "Verily, I Say unto You," and "Go Ye into All the World."

O worship the king

This hymn, written and published in 1833 in a hymnal entitled Christian Psalmody, is one of the finest from the early nineteenth century Romantic Era. It has often been called a model hymn for worship. It has few equals in expressive lyrics in the exaltation of the Almighty. Each of the epithets applied to God--King, Shield, Defender, Ancient of Days, Maker, Redeemer, Friend--as well as the vivid imagery--such as, "His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form" and the references to His attributes--power, might, grace, bountiful care, love--all combine to describe with literary eloquence and spiritual warmth the majesty and praise-worthiness of our God.

      Sir Robert Grant was born into a setting of high political life in Bengal, India, in 1779. His father, Charles, was a respected ranking leader in India and a director of the East India Company. Later he became a member of the British Parliament from Scotland. He was also a zealous leader in the evangelical wing of the Anglican Church. Robert, too, became active in business and politics and eventually was appointed Governor of Bombay in 1834. Like his father, Robert was a devout and deeply spiritual lay evangelical Christian all of his life. Though involved in secular and political pursuits, Robert Grant maintained a strong interest in the missionary outreach of the church throughout his lifetime. He was greatly loved by the people of India, who established a lasting memorial there in the form of a medical college bearing his name.

      In 1839, a year after his death in India, his brother, Charles, had twelve of Robert's poems published in a little volume entitled Sacred Poems. Although several of these poem hymns received some acceptance, only this text is still in common usage in most hymnals today.