In the Garden - a hymn

  As I was searching through old hymns, snippetts of an old song began to play in my head, but I just couldn't remember more than one complete line..."I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses...." I knew this song was more familiar to me than that. What made me sad, was these are the songs I loved and no one sang them much anymore. So I began to sing it out loud. And after about the second or third time..."and the voice I hear, something..on my ear??? La la "son of God..something something." Pause. And then: "And he walks with me, and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own."  HOW could I have forgotten. What is the name of that song? "And the joy we share as we tarry there, None other has ever known!"  "What a theme song for my blog I thought."

Could it be in my old hymnal? Oh please be in my old hymnal. In the back of the hymnal an index of "first lines in lower caps" of the songs. And there it was: IN THE GARDEN, by C. Austin Miles.

"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." is vs 2.

These beautiful old songs are now part of the public domain, but it was originally copyrighted in 1912, and was used by permission in the 1940 copyrighted version of the Broadman Hymnal, by Broadman Press out of Nashville, TN. But now I am curious about Austin Miles.

Charles Austin Miles was born January 7, 1868 in Lakehurst, N. J. He lived til March 10, 1946 when he died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (March 10 is my dad's birthday.) Also known as A.A. Payn, he was educated to be a Pharmacist. Instead, he wrote his first song, "List 'Tis Jesus Voice" in 1892 at just the age of 24. Thereafter, he worked for his Publisher, Hall-Mack Co., for 37 years. He once said that he preferred to be remembered for his gospel songs not his work, for by that he could better serve his master. "I Have A Friend" seems to have been published 2 years after his death. It was one of 18 songs he is known to have written, along with 3 songs for which he wrote the music. Those included "Somebody's Praying for You."  Others that were very familiar to me were: "Dwelling in Beulah Land," "A New Name Written Down In Glory," "Wide, Wide as the Ocean," and "Win Them One By One."

If we consider the number of years in his adult life, and realize that while working a job, he was writing still - during those 54 years before his death, he averaged a piece of music about every 2 1/2 years.

When I thought about the fact that the hymnal was published in about 1940, I realized this man was a contemporary, even in his old age, of my mother and her family. When my grandmother was young, these were new songs to them. Did they learn them and sing them in church?  What was it like to sing them for the first time? Did they know they were singing the songs that woud stick in our heads and stay in our hearts? As time goes by, I hope and pray they are not lost.

My fondest memory of this song: This was one of several that as a child I sang at the top of my voice, riding my bike as the wind challenged me to sing ever louder. Unknowingly, I was building my diaphragm, something that accidentally gave me the ability to sing nicely when I was older.  For a while anyway.

~Lord, you considered the Psalms of David worthy of saving. Please don't let these old songs be lost especially in my heart, while I continue to live. Amen~