Henry Barraclough was born at Windhill in Yorkshire, England, on Dec. 14, 1891. He began his music studies at age five by training on the organ and piano. After first making his living as a claims adjuster for the Car and General Insurance Co. in Bradford, he was then secretary to Sir George Scott Robertson, a member of Parliament from 1911 to 1913. However, in 1914 he joined the evangelistic team of Presbyterian evangelist J. Wilbur Chapman and his song director, Charles M. Alexander, who were on a preaching mission to England. When the team returned to the United States, Barraclough came with them. In 1915 Chapman preached a sermon on Ps. 45.8 ("All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad."), at the Presbyterian conference grounds in Montreat, NC. He applied the symbolism of the perfumed garments to Christ. As he was riding with Alexander to take some friends home to their Blue Ridge YMCA Hostel a few miles away that night, the 24-year old Barraclough thought about the message and the phrases of the refrain began to take shape in his mind. While they were stopped at a little village store, he penned his thoughts on the only paper that was available to him at the time – the back of a visitor's card which he had in his pocket. Upon returning to his room at the conference hotel, he worked out the first three stanzas, using the outline of Chapman's message. The next morning the the hymn was sung at a session of the conference. Later, Chapman suggested that a fourth stanza be added about the second coming of Christ. The song reminds us of the sacrifice that Christ made for us. The second stanza tells us that Christ experienced sorrow on the cross for us. Stanza 3 tells us that Christ is our healer. Meditate on the words of this hymn and thank the Lord that He would willingly leave the ivory palaces of heaven to come to a world of woe just for us.
My Lord has garments so wondrous fine,
And myrrh their texture fills;
Its fragrance reached to this heart of mine
With joy my being thrills.
Out of the ivory palaces,
Only His great eternal love
His life had also its sorrows sore,
And when I think of the cross He bore,
My eyes with teardrops start.
Out of the ivory palaces,
Only His great eternal love
His garments too were in cassia dipped,
Each time my feet in some sin have slipped,
He took me from its clutch.
Out of the ivory palaces,
Only His great eternal love
In garments glorious He will come,
And I shall enter my heav'nly home,
Out of the ivory palaces,
Only His great eternal love
Listen to it being sung here. LISTEN
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