481. Sweet are the promises
Wm. A. Ogden, 1841-97
The third stanza is based on Matt. 11:28: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” but the author has substituted “weary” for the word “labor.”
Wm. A. Ogden, who wrote the words and music of this song, was born in Franklin County, Ohio. At the age of six, he moved with his parents to Indiana where he enlisted, at the outbreak of the Civil War, in the 13th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. After the close of the war, he resumed his musical studies under Lowell Mason, Thomas Hastings, E. E. Bailey, and B. F. Baker, President of the Boston School of Music. In 1870, he published Silver Song which reached the enormous sale of 500,000 copies. Ogden won distinction as a teacher and conductor of large convention choruses. For six years he was director of music at Iowa Normal School but his greatest musical work was done at Toledo, Ohio, where he moved in 1881 and served as superintendent of public school music from 1887 until his death. He loved children and enjoyed teaching them. His training of 3,000 children in 1894 was the distinct triumph of the great Saengerfest held that year in Toledo. Ogden wrote scores of popular songs, always composing both the words and music.