Christopher Miner set this incredible text by Charles Tindley to music and included it on his 2nd CD All Good Things Come From The Desert.
Wendy Twit championed this song when others (including her husband) wondered if it really could work for corporate worship. This hymn has become a regular in our RUF meetings and never fails to move us.
Charles Tindley was born on the eastern shore of Maryland in 1851. His father was a slave, but his mother was a free woman, so he was regarded as free, but grew up among slaves. He taught himself to read and write, and while working as a janitor at a church was able to take seminary classes by correspondence. He even found a local rabbi to teach him Hebrew. Eventually he was called to pastor the church he had once served as janitor, and under his leadership the church grew from 130 members to 10,000 and they were able to build a wonderful building in Philadelphia.
Tragedy struck when his wife died the day that they moved into the new building. Tindley is known by many as the father of gospel music and Thomas Dorsey (the other man credited as the father of gospel music) said that it was Tindleys music that inspired his own work. His hymns are marked by powerful faith in the midst of struggle, and he does not cover up the reality of evil in this world - something very familiar to him and his parishioners. This is a poignant, sobering, and hopeful hymn.
