He Will Hold Me Fast Selah Sheet Music – This hymn of devotion has its roots in three continents. The story begins with the American evangelist R.A. Torrey (1856–1928) and his musical director, Charles Alexander (1867–1920), who were touring Australia in 1902 when they met a young pianist, Robert Harkness (1880–1961).
Dr. Torrey and Mr. Alexander came to my hometown of Bendigo in June. Before his coming, a committee of the Mission came to me and asked me if I would help out at the meetings by playing the piano part of the time. I am not interested in evangelistic meetings; indeed, I was rather opposed to it, but I was struck with the idea that perhaps my good father and mother would be pleased if I took part in these meetings, and I consented. I hadn’t been into the first meeting ten minutes before I discovered it was going to be decidedly hot, much warmer than I expected.
He Will Hold Me Fast Selah Sheet Music
Mr. Alexander announced hymn no. 7, and soon I played a two-line hymn, with an old Southern tune. I wasn’t very interested and played it in a wild way. On playing the “Song of Glory,” when I got to the heart, I closed the book; I had quickly memorized it and improvised an accompaniment to the chorus to try to displease Mr. Alexandre; but instead of displeasing him, he turned and looked at me and said, “Go on. Keep it up. That’s what we want.’ So I continued. The next time we had the choir I played a full octave accompaniment, thinking he would probably be upset, but I wasn’t there to be upset. At the end of the meeting, the Dr. Torrey asked me if I was a Christian. I got up and said, “No, I’m here to play the piano.” Dr. Torrey left me and went to pray for me, I think.[1]
Curiosities Of Music, By Louis C. Elson—a Project Gutenberg Ebook
After this experience, Alexander challenged Harkness to accept Christ. Harkness, moved by Alexander’s genuine concern for his spiritual well-being, agreed. In addition, Alexander was so impressed by Harkness’ skills that he employed the young man in his touring band, forming a partnership that lasted several years.
After their work in Australia, the team traveled to Tasmania, New Zealand and India before moving their efforts to the British Isles. In 1905, while in London, towards the end of their campaign, the team came into contact with the singer Ada Habershon (1861–1918), resulting in their first collaborative composition:
A few days before the movement ended in the Strand, a new gospel song was added to Mr. Alexander, who achieved instant popularity. It was titled, “Oh, what a change!” and was written by a lady already well known for her sacred verse, Miss Ada R. Habershon. She was a campaign worker and heard Dr. Torrey speak one afternoon on “The Second Coming of Christ.” She was greatly impressed by the Doctor’s words, and on returning home wrote the beautiful verses of the hymn. … Shortly after, Miss Habershon delivered the lines to Mr. Harkness with the request that he would put music on them. During Dr. Torrey’s sermon one night, while the pianist was scanning the lines, he had an inspiration and, taking a piece of paper from his pocket, wrote down the melody. The hymn was promptly printed as originally written, without any alteration, and delighted all who were privileged to hear it. During the last days of the campaign the Strand was sung on average at least once at each meeting.[2]
By early 1906, the team was in Toronto, Canada. According to one account, Harkness had met a young convert there, who “expressed a fear that he could not resist”, [3] so he wrote to Habershon in England to request more texts to address this feeling. Harkness later described how Habershon’s response came after the team had moved its work to Philadelphia:
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It was the year 1906, during the Mission in Philadelphia. I remember Dr. Torrey was preaching to about 4000 people in the Armory. During one sermon I took out some slips of paper with some words that Miss Habershon had sent in response to a request for some verses on keeping the power of Christ. I read along the lines of “He’ll hold me”; the melody came to me, and I worked on it there and then, writing the music for the verses and the chorus.[4]
The following summer, 1907, the song was presented at the Moody Bible Conference in Northfield, Massachusetts. One journalist described how this song “captivated everyone…and was sung and whistled throughout the venue”.[5]
In the spring of 1908, Charles Alexander returned to Philadelphia with evangelist J. Wilbur Chapman (1859–1918) and later gave this testimony regarding the song’s impact:
During our mission in Philadelphia last spring, Dr. Charles W. Gordon called me through the waiting room of the hotel where we were staying and introduced me to a fine-looking young man and told me about this history … His face lit up as he told us how he had been at our meeting a few days earlier and had been converted. When I questioned him, I found that he had been in the dark and felt that he was too weak to live a Christian life. He was in the meeting when I was leading the people to the song “He will hold me fast,” and he said that was the message he needed. The thought that Christ could bear him, and that he need not depend on his own will-power, or on his own strength, was the means of his decision for Christ.[6]
He Will Hold Me Fast (live) Chords Pdf (shane & Shane)
Just a few weeks after the Philadelphia Crusade, Chapman and Alexander (and probably Harkness) were leading a crusade in Kansas City. One journalist described how “He’ll hold me” was the highlight of the experience:
The climax of the song service came when Mr. Alexander joined the choir and the audience (6,000 people) in singing the new anthem of Mr. Harkness, “He will hold me fast.” The people were electrified by the great volume of the melody, such as had probably never been heard in the building before, and by the thought of Christ holding us in the midst of all the temptations and trials of life.[7]
“He Will Hold Me” was first circulated in leaflets and/or small pamphlets prepared for revival meetings, including a leaflet published in Toronto in 1907 (WorldCat). Its first appearance in a hymnal or songbook was in the
(NY: Christian Herald, 1907). The original version has four stanzas and a refrain. Musically, it has the unusual feature of placing the melody on the bass line. In an interview in 1909, Harkness described his reason for doing so:
He Will Hold Me Fast (satb ) By Keith & Kris
I adopted the plan of putting the melody in the left hand and writing a little accompaniment for the right, having the idea of listening to a cello in an orchestra. This had been used in secular songs, but it was something quite new in gospel songs, and I was very keen to get away from the old three- or four-chord accompaniment. Some of the leading gospel writers said they would never be sung, because they were against the rules of gospel hymns, but the public apparently didn’t care about the rules, as they quickly became very popular, and since then a large number of writers have adopted the principle.[8]
Despite the song’s initial success, it fell into disuse after the mid-20th century. In recent years, it has enjoyed a resurgence through a new tune by Matt Merker of Capitol Hill Baptist Church (Washington, D.C.). According to Merker, a member of his congregation had given him a copy of the original gospel song, but he initially put it aside.
I forgot about the song for a while, but later brought it up again when I was walking through a difficult personal season of doubt and uncertainty. I was struggling with difficult questions of faith and struggling to place my trust in the enduring power of God’s saving grace. John Piper’s 2012 T4G sermon on Jude vv. 20-25 was a lifesaver for me, and Jude 24 became an anchor for my soul in that difficult time: “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and present you blameless in the presence of his glory with great joy… .” … I brought out “He Will Hold Me Fast” again and the words served me deeply. I wanted to see the resurrection and the return of Christ in the lyrics, as our hope is guaranteed by the reality that Christ has risen and is coming again come. I first shared the song with my wife and then with our pastor, and he suggested we try singing it as a congregation. We presented the song to CHBC in early 2013, and the church quickly owned the song and began to sing it joyfully (and in very loud voices!).[9]
Merker’s version combines Habershon’s original four stanzas into two, with some minor alterations, and adds a
Store — Selah
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