Ten days
before his death, Pastor Ernest Fremont Tittle informed his Evanston, IL United
Methodist congregation that while Christianity brings pain it is first and
foremost a religion of joy.
Dr. Tittle recalled
the persecution experienced by Christians in that first century. They were poor.
They were cruelly harassed. Yet, they were notably happy. By the time of the
third century, Tittle concluded, a Christian could say “The church is the one
thing in the world that always rejoices.”
This is
something people of the Church of God Movement of Anderson, IN have always
understood. Sixteen year old Barney discovered this unspeakable joy when he
experienced a religious conversion in the 1880’s revivalism in southwest MI,
led by Joseph Fisher, Daniel Warner and others.
As a result,
he obtained his father’s permission and left home to travel in a musical
ensemble with evangelist Dan Warner. Barney began by singing bass in that gospel
group and that led him nation-wide into a life of musical evangelism. As a result, he
served a long and fruitful life as a preacher-pastor, song evangelist, and prolific
song composer. He eventually penned more than two thousand songs, spending his final years in Springfield, OH (His camp meeting cabin can be inspected in Anderson, IN where our friend Dale Stults relocted it).
Characteristic
of Barney’s music was the unspeakable joy and the glory of the Christians who
joined him in walking with Christ. When sung by faithful Church of God believers,
Barney’s music produced a symphony of choral joy.
I never met
Barney, although we grew up probably no more than five miles apart in our
southwestern Michigan community. We were a few years apart, but he preceded me
by perhaps for decades, although our lives overlapped each other. As a boy however,
every time I attended church, his name topped numerous pages in the green
hymnal from which I sang. I knew him only as the “Chief Singer,”1
but his lyrics fortified me as my life extended into the adult decades of life
and ministry.
One of
Barney’s hymns still much beloved is “Joy Unspeakable.” In it Barney assures me
that the Grace of God’s is more than mere soft soap; it is vastly superior to
the cleansing powers of that liquid I squirt into my dishwater as I wash my
dishes. His inspired words remind me that
I have found His grace is all
complete,
He supplieth ev’ry need;
While I sit and learn at Jesus’
feet,
I am free, yes free indeed.
It is joy unspeakable and full of
glory,
Full of glory, fully of glory;
It is joy unspeakable and full of
glory,
O the half has never yet been
told.2
Barney Warren’s songs of joy reinforce those
teachings from the Bible teach me that at the very center of God’s great
universe there is a deep, abiding, and everlasting joy.
Clement of
Alexandria, one of the early church fathers of ancient history may have come as
close to the truth as anyone ever did when he suggested that a beautiful hymn
to God is an immortal man who is being built up in righteousness, and upon whom
the oracles of truth have been engraved.
_______________
1 This title gave voice to a book by Axchie A. Bolitho, To
the Chief Singer, A Brief Story of the Work and Influence of Barney E. Warren.
(Anderson, IN: Gospel Trumpet Company, 1942).
2 B. E. Warren, “There Is Joy in the Lord,” Worship the Lord. (Anderson: Warner
Press, Inc., 1989), p.616.
From Warner's World, this is walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
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