Through The Hymnbook

Reverend Bert Jones: The happy chimes are ringing and I welcome you into the organ loft for that special time of music we call Through the Hymnbook. In this edition of Through the Hymnbook, you are going to hear some very special songs, so come right in and enjoy.

Great composer Dvořák wrote a beautiful song and he called it "Songs My Mother Taught Me to Sing." And the reason I'm playing "Songs My Mother Taught Me to Sing" by Dvořák is that in this journey through the hymnbook, I'm going to go through the hymnbook looking for songs that my mother taught me to sing and play.

I shall always remember my mother singing this great old gospel favorite. She loved to sing it many, many times. She would sing it when she would be playing with all of us as children out in the yard. She would sing it when she would be rocking the baby to sleep or pushing the cradle at night. "'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take Him at His word." She had learned the secret that it is indeed sweet to trust in Jesus. It is sweet to take Him at His word.

Then the special joy of hearing Mother sing these words, "I'm so glad I learned to trust Him." And I know that He'll go with me even to the end.

How well I remember learning the hymn, "Majestic Sweetness Sits Enthroned Upon the Savior's Brow." His head with radiant glories crowned, His lips with grace o'erflow. This was Mother's favorite hymn. It was so special that she often would repeat this hymn, stanzas of it, in her testimony as she traveled from church to church.

How she loved to give the words of stanza four: "To Him I owe my life and breath and all the joys I have. He makes me triumph over death; He saves me from the grave." Since this was Mother's special favorite, it was sung by the congregation at her funeral service in August of 1972.

Yes, this time going through the hymnbook looking for songs Mother taught me to sing. Here's a song Mother taught me to sing and Mother loved to sing it herself, often in revival meetings back in the days when she and Father would travel in meetings and sometimes as a little boy I would go along with them to play the piano or the organ.

This song was usually sung at some time or another by Mother. "There is never a day so dreary, there is never a night so long, but the soul that is trusting Jesus will somehow find a song. Wonderful, wonderful Jesus! In my heart He implanteth a song. A song of deliverance, of courage, of strength. In the heart He implanteth a song."

There is never a cross so heavy, there is never a weight of woe, but the Jesus will help to carry, because He loveth so. There is never a care or burden, there is never a grief or loss, but the Jesus in love will lighten when that burden is carried to the cross.

Here's another song I can remember learning so that I could play it for Father and Mother to sing in revival meetings. It was very effective and Mother loved to sing it because she loved the message of the song. It was based in the story where in the life of Jesus, a sad, needy woman came and she just touched the hem of His garment.

But with that touch of faith that only touched the hem of His robe, she was made whole. I can remember Mother singing this often and here on the song sheet from which I'm playing, it gives me the key in which she used to sing it, the key of D-flat.

She only touched the hem of His garment as to His side she stole amidst the crowd that gathered around Him and straightway she was made whole. Oh, touch the hem of His garment and thou too shalt be free. His saving power this very hour shall give new life to thee.

Songs My Mother Taught Me to Sing. As the song "Wonderful, Wonderful Jesus" says, "In the heart He implanteth a song," and in the heart of Mom Jones, Ruth Kay Jones, there was certainly planted a song. A song of the Savior, a song that meant so much to her and a song that she could not keep inside, but had to come out.

Now Mother never had any music lessons. She never had a piano lesson. She only knew the music she had learned in the public schools of Wilmerding, Pennsylvania where she was born and reared. But they did have a very good school system and to go to the schools of Wilmerding, you learned to read music.

So Mother applied her musical training and taught herself to play the piano. She not only played the hymns and the gospel songs of the church, but she wanted her children to know the great classics, the great sacred classics. So often on an evening when there might be some little bit of free time, she would play the piano and gather us around the piano as she taught us from the old books.

Sometimes on a Sunday afternoon, we would find ourselves there and out of a great big family songbook, how well I remember being introduced by my mother to the great song, "Largo" by Handel. Or again, Mother would teach us some of the great old anthems that she and Dad had learned when as young people they sang in the church choir.

And she put all of this to work, and she did not sit idly by, but she taught these to her children. I shall always remember that beautiful anthem that she taught us and they had sung it in their church choir: "The King of Love My Shepherd Is."

Often people say, "How do you know so many hymns and gospel songs and sacred classics?" Because they're songs my mother taught me. She wasn't a graduate of the music department at a college. She never had a piano lesson, but she applied herself, taught herself to play the piano and she taught music to her children.

Here's a beautiful song. It was the first duet song my mother and her older sister sang together. Her sister was Mildred Kay, Mildred Kay Deller, and Mother's name was Ruth Kay, Ruth Kay Jones. And as young girls singing in church, they sang this beautiful song: "Oh, my soul, bless thou Jehovah, oh, my soul, bless His holy name."

The music is from the classical sextet from the opera Lucia by Donizetti. But the girls learned it and they sang it, and what a thrill to know this beautiful music. "Oh, my soul, bless thou Jehovah."

Her grandchildren all remember this one. It was that special Kirkpatrick tune for "Away in a Manger," the tune that Grandma always used when she sang anybody to sleep near the Christmas season. And what a beautiful tune it is as "Away in a Manger" would be sung and always to this tune.

And so you see, the lady who wrote the song "In Times Like These You Need a Savior" had a wide scope of musical knowledge and she passed along her musical knowledge to her children, including me. I want my sister Carol to sing a verse of a song that Mother used many, many times in our family services. It sort of told her own experience and she passed it along to all of us. Maybe some of you remember her singing this song.

Carol: My thoughts turn back to days of childhood. I see our little village home: my mother, father, sisters, brothers, I little dreamed how far we'd roam. Long years have passed and we have wandered and some now rest beneath the tomb. I want to meet that happy household when Jesus wakes us from the gloom. I want my loved ones to go with me.

Reverend Bert Jones: Mother would urge other fathers and mothers to say this same sentence.

Carol: I pray not one should miss the way. Oh Jesus, help me lead my loved ones up to that land of fadeless day.

Reverend Bert Jones: Of course, when Father was called home so suddenly, the shock of it was so great, our first impression as a family was to say, "We can't go on, we can't go on." But Mother had learned a rather new song in 1961, a song by Stuart Hamblen, which said it meant so much to her, "Until then, keep on keeping on."

And so she sang it to us often: "Keep on until that day when the Lord calls you home too." And so we kept on and the radio ministry continued. Songs my mother taught me to sing and play.

And perhaps my playing these songs, songs mother taught to me, will inspire some other mother somewhere to teach some songs to her children too. Songs of inspiration, songs of faith, songs that will endure long after you have gone home to be with the Lord. I hope it's been a blessing to you. Until next time, this is Bert at the organ console saying, "I'm thankful for the song Jesus gave to me."