You’ll have to forgive me for writing this post. After 16 years of writing around 45 to 50 posts per year, I am writing a post that probably is just for me. (I just looked and discovered that my first post was published in October 2007 – Happy birthday blog post!) This post is by me, for me. If you enjoy the post, well, that’s just a bonus.
Let me tell you about the new me! On a recent llllooonnnggg road trip with some 3,500 miles to drive, for the first time ever, I began to listen to audiobooks. With all my years of traveling, you’d think I’d have started years ago. So what did I listen to on this eternally long trip? The Hardy Boys The Secret of the Old Mill and The House of the Cliff. These were the kind of books that I read back when I was in elementary school. A couple of weeks after the trip, I listened to Brother Andrew’s God’s Smuggler book. Oh, my goodness. To me, this book is better today than when I read it back in my early teenage years in the 70s. (That’s the 1970s, not 1870s.) Though audiobooks have been around forever, I finally am an “audiobooker”! (Is that really a word?) Audiobooks, I LOVE YOU!!!
So, here’s what’s going on now in my “audiobook world”. Last week, I began listening to the almost 14-hour-long reading of Cecil M. Robeck’s The Azusa Street Mission and Revival. While I’ve only listened to the first 6 hours of the book so far, I’ve learned far more than I’ve ever known about the 1906-1909 Azusa Street Revival, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that helped birth a global Pentecostal revival. For example, I learned this afternoon about the music of the revival. I betcha’ (oops, that didn’t sound too spiritual) didn’t know that, according to Robeck, one of the favorite songs of this revival, a song sung in almost every service was The Comforter Has Come. This hymn telling of the sending of the Holy Spirit constantly fanned the flames of the revival. (This is where the “just for me” kicks in) This is what excites me about learning of this song’s role in the revival. The Comforter Has Come was one of my all-time favorite hymns when I was a child and teenager.
Since this post is written by me, for me, I want to, get to, have to share the lyrics of this Holy Spirit song. Better yet, I’ll also share the clip of Vestal Goodman (one of my favorite Southern Gospel singers) singing the song. (104) The Comforter Has Come – YouTube. In the next post, I’ll get back to writing for you.
The Comforter Has Come
1. O, spread the tidings ’round, wherever man is found,
Wherever human hearts and human woes abound;
Let every Christian tongue proclaim the joyful sound:
The Comforter has come!
2. Lo, the great king of kings, with healing in His wings,
To every captive soul a full deliv’rance brings;
And through the vacant cells the song of triumph rings;
The Comforter has come!
3. O boundless love divine! how shall this tongue of mine
To wond’ring mortals tell the matchless grace divine;
That I, a child of hell, should in His image shine!
The Comforter has come!
4. Sing, till the echoes fly above the vaulted sky,
Till all the saints above and all below reply,
In strains of endless love, the song that’ll ne’er die:
The Comforter has come!
Refrain:
The Comforter has come, the Comforter has come!
The Holy Ghost from heav’n, the Father’s promise giv’n;
Oh, spread the tidings ’round, wherever man is found—
The Comforter has come!
Can you believe I do not remember hearing this song ever. I loved your
Blog. Hope this finds you and Vicki doing well.
Beth, are you kidding me? Of all of the readership in both my monthly newsletter and my weekly blog post, you of all people would be one that I would think would know more of the classic Pentecostal hymns and choruses. And, you’d be on the piano playing the songs. I’m attributing this lack of memory to the need of an extra dose of caffeine.