The Last Good Bad Hard Times (Part 2)

Written by Patricia Benoit

Yes, we’re hunkered down to escape present the spread of COVID-19.  We can take comfort from our online connections such as Sunday worship and the Book of Common Prayer.  St. Luke’s is alive, working and helping others. Our congregation is alive and open to the community.

So, how did other people in previous hard times handle real restrictions, deprivations and desolations?

How Can I keep From Singing?

In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, traveling evangelists crisscrossed the county conducting revivals, preaching at camp meetings and baptizing anybody within a hallelujah shout of flowing water. This was especially true in Central Texas where a steady stream of religious preachers and musicians pitched tents.

Local farmers and ranchers, isolated by miles between homesteads, gathered annually for these revivals. These became part reunions, part worship and part good times.

Among those who frequented Bell County hinterlands was Ira David Sankey (1840-1908), American gospel singer and composer, known for his long association with Dwight L. Moody. Among their notable reunions were held in the outskirts of Salado, Belton and Nolanville in the late 1880s.

Sankey pioneered church music popular well into the 21^st century. Sankey witnessed and understood the hard times rural folks experienced, battered by the elements, poor crops, loneliness and harshness 19^th century frontier.  One of his most enduring is “How can I keep from singing” with hymn text by Robert Lowry.

Jesus used isolation as a time for prayer and restoration.

Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Luke 5:15-16

Even in the dark lonely days, let songs help us find our new creation.

How Can I Keep From Singing?

My life goes on in endless song
Above earth’s lamentations
I hear the trumpets sounding strong
That hails a new creation
Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear its music ringing
It ever echoes in my life
How can I keep from singing?

And though the shadows gather ’round
The endless song it giveth
My strength within and joy abound
The world of truth it liveth
Though dark the night and long the road
I hear the music ringing
And with such power and grace bestowed
How can I keep from singing?

No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to this rock I’m clinging
How can I ever come to harm?
How can I keep from singing?

Then sings my soul with love profound
A fountain ever springing
Deep from the earth how sweet the sound
How can I keep from singing?