Hymns With A Message: ONE DAY

Sunday, January 20, 2013

ONE DAY

John Wilbur Chapman (1859-1918) was an evangelist who won thousands of souls to Jesus Christ and influenced hundreds of young men to enter the ministry. Chapman took on several pastorates before shifting to the evangelistic circuit. He began preaching with the legendary D. L. Moody in 1893, as well as leading many evangelistic events of his own. Among Chapman's disciples on the evangelistic circuit was Billy Sunday. In late 1895, Chapman was appointed Corresponding Secretary of the Presbyterian General Assembly's Committee on Evangelism, overseeing the activities of 51 evangelists in 470 cities. In 1905, John H. Converse, a wealthy Presbyterian philanthropist, offered to underwrite Chapman's expenses if he would reenter the evangelistic field full time. Converse also set up a trust fund so as to finance Chapman's crusades posthumously. Chapman accepted the offer and in 1907, joined forces with popular gospel singer Charles McCallon Alexander to launch the "Chapman-Alexander Simultaneous Campaign." The duo assembled an impressive team of evangelists and songleaders and took to the streets. During these years Chapman was also heavily involved in the promoting of religious summer conferences. He was at one point the director of the Winona Lake Bible Conference in Indiana and also helped to establish Bible conferences in Montreat, North Carolina, and the Stony Brook Assembly summer conferences on Long Island, By the end of 1910 Chapman's "mass evangelism" technique was losing favor in evangelistic circles, and Chapman and Alexander were back to large meeting revivals by 1912. In May 1918, Chapman was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, a position which inundated him with such a high level of stress that he developed a serious enough case of gall stones and needed emergency surgery on December 23, 1918. He died two days later, on Christmas Day, aged 59. Now we have no information on the writing of this hymn. Possibly it came from a sermon he was working on. He most likely gave the text to his organist, Charles Marsh, who provided the tune. The hymn relates the key events in the life of Christ - His birth, His death, His resurrection and His second coming. And the impacts of these events on us are emphasized - He loved me, He saved me, He justified me and He is coming back for me. What a stirring reminder of what Christ has done for each of us. Thank Him for all of this as you meditate on these words this week.

(1) One day when Heaven was filled with His praises,

One day when sin was as black as could be,

Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin,

Dwelt among men, my example is He!

Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me;

Buried, He carried my sins far away;

Rising, He justified freely forever;

One day He's coming — O glorious day!

(2) One day they led Him up Calvary's mountain,

One day they nailed Him to die on the tree;

Suffering anguish, despised and rejected:

Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is He!