Sang the Hymn from Memory
When Theodore Roosevelt was running for the presidency in 1912, he spent a weekend with William Allen White in Emporia, Kansas. The plan was to take him to the Congregational Church on Sunday morning for worship, but the guest asked if there were not a German Lutheran Church in town.
“There was, and I took him there,” said White.
A feature that impressed the host is related in The Autobiography of William Allen White. Both building and congregation were small. Naturally everybody stared at Roosevelt in amazement. But the preacher lined out the hymns, and White was delighted to note that Roosevelt stood with the congregation and sang three stanzas of
“How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent word!”
without taking up the hymnal. He showed no hesitation concerning the words.
Perhaps, however, White did not know that the hymn was one of Roosevelt’s favorites. Both Andrew Jackson and Robert E. Lee were fond of it; and it was used at the funerals of both Lee and Roosevelt.
Its frequent use in services of worship in the United States is indicated by the fact that it is placed second in the Inter-Church Hymnal by Morgan and Ward (1930).
An early memory of the writer is that of an old man at a large religious gathering. During the evening this hymn was sung. He stood erect and with face aglow as he joined in the singing. He had seen much of life and doubtless realized from personal experience the reality of the words he was singing. Possibly he was recalling some specific hours in life; for when the third verse was reached, he lifted his face and continued to sing with others:
“When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.”
The tears now began to flow down his cheeks; but he sang clear to the closing lines as he continued to wipe away the tears:
“The soul that on Jesus still leans for repose
I will not, I will not desert to his foes.
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never, forsake.”
This is a good memory hymn, for its assurances are fitted to many situations and emergencies of life.