14th May 2022

This Sunday we’re singing Edith Cherry’s hymn, “I have heard Thy voice, Lord Jesus”. And I can’t wait. It’s a song of deep consecration, though this verse unfortunately will be omitted from the final cut:

All for Jesus, Master keep it,
Chiming on within my heart;
Chiming when the way is gladsome,
Chiming when the teardrops start.
Chiming when the shadows gather,
Chiming when the sunbeams throng;
Chiming till the music merges
Into heav’n’s eternal song.

Edith Cherry suffered polio as a child, and was in heaven by the age of 25. Such a short life, but fruitful and furnished with a folio full of compositions that were not shallow, but deep with devotion, and chiming with grace, and expressing love for God through the harder and more painful times of life. And with the result, that like the making of the pearl, something beautiful was born through something irritating. 

Said one biographer of her: “She was a bright winsome girl with a spirit deeply taught in the truths of God. Sweet and gentle in disposition, but frail in body, yet that did not sadden her life – scarcely handicapped it – seemed rather to thin the casement through which the light of Heaven shone into her spirit.” What a lovely tribute, and what a warming way to describe her disability. And may my thicker casement not resist the light of heaven, but reflect heav’n’s love, and chime with faith regularly on the hour.

DM 14th May 2022