Sung by and for Sankey
When lying in weakness and the darkness of blindness the musical genius of the evangelistic world, Ira D. Sankey, was visited by Dr. F. B. Meyer, of London, a long-time friend. “Would you like me to sing something for you?” asked Sankey as Meyer was about to leave. Then he began: “There’ll be no dark valley when Jesus comes.”
Though weak, he continued through all four stanzas, ending with
“There’ll be songs of greeting when Jesus comes,
There’ll be songs of greeting when Jesus comes;
And a joyful meeting when Jesus comes
To gather His loved ones home.”
On an Easter morning a group of young people went to the home of Sankey in Brooklyn, when he was in his last illness, and outside the window amid the morning sunshine sang the hymn which he had sung to thousands of others, and which he greatly cherished: “There’ll Be No Dark Valley When Jesus Comes.”
The thoughtfulness of these young people was greatly appreciated by the great evangelistic singer. It was an inspiringly appropriate message for a sunrise song service on an Easter morning.[29]
CHAPTER XIV
Funeral Music
The Christian assurance of immortality brings its message of consolation most appropriately in life’s darkest hours when death invades the family circle. No one has pierced the veil between the present and the future life, but there is a sense of the fitness of things which has convinced men of divers creeds that a life beyond is a reality. It is the desire for completion and not merely for continuance which quickens in our breast the hope of life everlasting. It is moreover certified to us by the fact of the living Christ through whom we commune with God. This experience convinces us that our earthly pilgrimage is the prelude to the heavenly life of spiritual attainment and satisfaction.
Thus when the physical remains of our loved ones are consigned to the earth, we have the assured confidence of a reunion in the land that is fairer than day. Since Jesus Christ has brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel, we know that death does not sever the ties which bind us to those who have crossed the flood. We shall meet again when the day dawns and these shadows flee away. This is the outlook of faith which comforts and cheers us.
“For what e’er befalls, Love conquers all,
And Death shall not prevail.”
The thought deepest in the soul often finds expression at a crisis. This fact is what led to the