Saturday, June 27, 2009
Take the Name of Jesus with You
HYMN HISTORY:
Despite being a bed-ridden invalid for much of her life. Lydia Baxter was known as a zealous Christian worker. She was born on September 2, 1809, in Petersburg, New York. Shortly after her conversion as a young person, she and her sister were personally responsible for establishing a Baptist Church in her home of Petersburg, New York. After her marriage, she moved with her husband to New York City, where she continued
her Christian service. Her home was known as a gathering place for preachers, evangelists, and Christian workers, who came to her for inspiration and advice. Her friends used to say that a visit to her sickroom was not so much to give her encouragement and comfort as to receive some buoyancy for their own spirits.
Mrs. Baxter was also an avid student of the Bible and loved to discuss the significance of scriptural names with her friends. “You recall,” she often said, “that when Esau was born, Jacob had hold of Esau’s heel, as if he were trying to pull his twin brother back, so he could be born first. Consequently he was named Jacob, which means ‘supplanter.’ Isaac means ‘laughter,’ for when Abraham and Sarah learned that, at their advanced age,
they were to become parents, they laughed out loud, thinking it was impossible, as well as incredible. As for the names of the twelve sons of Jacob, after whom most of the twelve tribes of Israel took their names, they were named for the strange events surrounding their birth, as well as the rivalries which existed between the wives of husband-father Jacob.”
Mrs. Baxter would often inform her friends that Samuel means “asked of God,” Hannah “grace,” Sarah “princess,” and Naomi “pleasantness.” But the name that meant everything to Lydia Baxter was the name of “Jesus.” Whenever she was questioned about her cheery disposition despite her physical difficulties, she would reply, “I have a very special armor. I have the name of Jesus. When the tempter tries to make me blue or despondent, I mention the name of Jesus, and he can’t get through to me anymore. The name Jesus means
‘Savior’ and it comes from the same Hebrew root from which the names of Joshua and Joash come.”
“Take the Name of Jesus With You” is said to have been written by Mrs. Baxter on her sick-bed just four years before her death on June 22, 1874, in New York City. Although she wrote a number of other gospel hymn texts, this is her only hymn still in common usage. Mrs. Baxter also had a collection of devotional poems published in 1855, entitled Gems by the Wayside.
William H. Doane composed the music for this text shortly after Mrs. Baxter wrote it, and the hymn was first published in the hymnal, Pure Gold, edited by Doane and Robert Lowry, in 1871. This hymn was widely used, during the Moody-Sankey evangelistic campaigns, in the latter quarter of the nineteenth century. It is still a most popular and usable hymn with evangelical congregations everywhere.
~101 More Hymn Stories by Kenneth W. Osbeck
Lydia Odell Baxter - Lyrics
1809-1874
Born: September 2, 1809, Petersburg, New York.
Died: June 22, 1874, New York City
William Howard Doane - Composer
1832-1915
Born: February 3, 1832, Preston, Connecticut.
Died: December 23, 1915, Rhode Island.
Buried: Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Take the Name of Jesus with You
Take the Name of Jesus with you,
Child of sorrow and of woe,
It will joy and comfort give you;
Take it then where'er you go.
Precious Name, O how sweet!
Hope of earth and joy of Heav’n.
Precious Name, O how sweet!
Hope of earth and joy of Heav’n.
Take the Name of Jesus ever,
As a shield from every snare;
If temptations round you gather,
Breathe that holy Name in prayer.
Precious Name, O how sweet!
Hope of earth and joy of Heav’n.
Precious Name, O how sweet!
Hope of earth and joy of Heav’n.
O the precious Name of Jesus!
How it thrills our souls with joy,
When His loving arms receive us,
And His songs our tongues employ!
Precious Name, O how sweet!
Hope of earth and joy of Heav’n.
Precious Name, O how sweet!
Hope of earth and joy of Heav’n.
At the Name of Jesus bowing,
Falling prostrate at His feet,
King of kings in Heav’n we’ll crown Him,
When our journey is complete.
Precious Name, O how sweet!
Hope of earth and joy of Heav’n.
Precious Name, O how sweet!
Hope of earth and joy of Heav’n.
