Lord’s Day, Vol. 4 No. 32

In the Sweet By and By

– Prescription from a Drugstore.

Sanford Bennett (1836-98), a music teacher and instrumentalist, owned a drugstore in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. His friend, Joseph Webster, who had frequent bouts of depression, would often come to the store. Together they would compose songs that helped Webster come out of his melancholy.

One day Webster entered the drug store, obviously despondent. When Bennett inquired of the difficulty Webster replied, “It’s really nothing. It will be all right by and by.” That reply sparked an inspiration. Bennett responded: “The sweet by and by. That would make a good hymn.”

Sitting at his desk in the drugstore, Bennett wrote the words as they seemed to pour out from his mind. He handed the sheet of paper to Webster, who brightened quickly.

Webster reached for his violin, tuned it, and began to compose a melody for the hurriedly written lyrics.

In less than thirty minutes from the time Webster had walked into the store in a melancholy mood, he and Bennett, and two customers who happened to be in the store, were heartily singing a new song, “The Sweet By and By”.

 It was published in 1868 and has since been a source of inspiration to many, often sung as a comfort at funerals.

 

There’s a land that is fairer than day,

            And by faith we can see it afar;

For the Father waits over the way

     To prepare us a dwelling place there.

 

Refrain

In the sweet by and by,

We shall meet on that beautiful shore.

 

We shall sing on that beautiful shore

            The melodious songs of the blest;

And our spirits shall sorrow no more,

            Not a sign for the blessing of rest.

 

Refrain

In the sweet by and by,

We shall meet on that beautiful shore.

 

To our bountiful Father above

            We will offer the tribute of praise

For the glorious gift of his love,

     And the blessings that hallow our days.

Drugstores are places where people go for prescriptions for all kinds of maladies. This hymn was born in a drugstore as a prescription for depression. May its message of comfort and joy lift our spirits this day.

Our lives are so geared to this earth that we rarely think of heaven and what God is preparing for us.

When discouragement would overtake us, let us look from the temporal to the eternal, from what earthly circumstances may inflict to what God is doing within and for us.

 Let us remember that God is preparing what “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived…for those who loved Him.

 1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

Take heart, our future is in His hands, and it will surpass our most daring dreams!

[Extracted and edited from Songs in the Night by Henry Gariep]

 

Yours lovingly,

Pastor Lek Aik Wee