Let us look to Jesus

Let us look to Jesus. F.M. Hamilton* (1858-1912). From Songs of Love and Mercy:Adapted to the Use of Sunday Schools, Epworth Leagues, Revivals, Prayer Meetings, and Special Occasions (Jackson, Tennessee, 1904). It is a good example of Hamilton’s sensitivity to the world around him as well as to his own ‘world full of sorrow’. In this hymn, which includes an allusion to the African American Spiritual ‘There is a Balm in Gilead’*, he calls believers to ‘look to Jesus’ to bear their burdens, to comfort and keep them amid ‘a host of earthly agents, who would fill our hearts with strife’. Although the hymn ends by appealing to our heavenly hope, Hamilton is very honest about the personal sorrows...