In The Garden
For some, Charles Austin Miles's hymn which starts "I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses" is overly sentimental and smushy. But others have found such joy and peace singing this song. How about you? Let's look at its history, and the meaning of its lyrics, here today.
Welcome to another Friday Classic Hymn. Every Friday I explore one of these beloved hymns, and I hope you'll tune in and enjoy them with me. Please subscribe to the channel and be part of what I'm doing here.
Today's hymn is an absolutely beautiful song, very much a favourite of many. Do you know the song? Do you have any memories of it, singing it at a particular church or at a particular school maybe? This is a real beautiful song, and I hope you'll share your memories below as we get into the history of the song.
The Story Behind "I Come to the Garden Alone"
The writer of this lovely song was Charles Austin Miles. He was born in 1868 and became a pharmacist, but his real love was writing poetry and songs to the glory of God.
He said this: "It is as a writer of gospel songs I'm proud to be known, for in that way I may be of the most use to my Master whom I serve willingly, although not as efficiently as is my desire."
He wrote a number of songs and published them, and this was probably his most famous one. Listen to his own words about this hymn, which I'll quote from a book called 101 Hymn Stories by Kenneth Osbeck:
One day in March 1912, I was seated in the dark room where I kept my photographic equipment and organ. I drew my Bible towards me. It opened at my favourite chapter, John 20—whether by chance or inspiration, let each reader decide.
That meeting of Jesus and Mary had lost none of its power to charm. As I read it that day, I seemed to be part of the scene. I became a silent witness to that dramatic moment in Mary's life when she knelt before her Lord and cried, "Rabboni!"
My hands were resting on the Bible whilst I stared at the light blue wall. As the light faded, I seemed to be standing at the entrance of a garden, looking down a gently winding path shaded by olive branches. A woman in white, with head bowed, hand clasping her throat as if to choke back her sobs, walked slowly into the shadows. It was Mary.
As she came to the tomb, upon which she placed her hand, she bent over to look in and hurried away.
John, in flowing robe, appeared, looking at the tomb. Then came Peter, who entered the tomb, followed slowly by John. As they departed, Mary reappeared, leaning her hand upon her arm at the tomb. She wept. Turning herself, she saw Jesus standing—and so did I. I knew it was He.
She knelt before Him with arms outstretched and, looking into His face, cried, "Rabboni!"
I awakened in full light, gripping the Bible with muscles tense and nerves vibrating. Under the inspiration of the vision, I wrote as quickly as the words could be formed the poem exactly as it has since appeared. That same evening I wrote the music.
This hymn became very popular ever since it was published—deeply popular. It's been recorded by many famous artists. Elvis Presley, for example, recorded a famous version, and the great evangelists of the 1900s used this hymn a lot. Billy Sunday and Billy Graham were the two main ones who used this in their outreaches, because it's such a beautiful, personal song of faith in Christ.
Strangely enough, this is a song that some people don't like. It seems as if some people listening to the song have considered it to be egocentric, overly emotional, even erotic, somebody once complained. Others love it because of the glorious story it tells of faith and the beauty of meeting Jesus in a quiet place.
Where do you land, I wonder? Do you not really like the song because it's kind of too smooshy and overly sentimental? Or do you love it? Does it draw you nearer to Him every time you listen to it?
Let's have a look at these words, and maybe we can decide for ourselves once we see what he was talking about when he wrote it.
What Do the Lyrics of "I Come to the Garden Alone" Mean?
Verse 1
I come to the garden alone, whilst the dew is still on the roses.
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses.
As you heard in his own words, Miles wrote the song about John 20, the Easter morning. He was writing from the perspective of Mary, who very early in the morning, whilst the dew was still out, came to the garden where Jesus had been buried—to that tomb—looking for His body but couldn't find it.
Do you remember the story in John 20? She is very distraught because she can't find the body. Then she hears a voice, and she turns around and thinks it's the gardener in this beautiful little garden. She says to him, "Oh, what have you done? Where have you taken His body? I don't know where it is."
Then He speaks again and says, "Mary."
Her eyes are opened. She realises this isn't the gardener, but that it's Jesus, and everything changes for her in that moment when she hears Him call her name.
These words—the voice I hear, falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses—are talking about how Mary heard Jesus' own voice speaking her name.
It's a beautiful moment. But you know what? It can be true for us as well. We come to meet Jesus in the quiet place, maybe in the garden or maybe just in our homes in the quiet, and we hear His voice. He knows you by name. He knows me by name. If we come seeking Him, He will say our name, reach out for us, and remind us just how much He loves us.
All we have to do is open our ears in the stillness and listen for His voice.
Chorus
And He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own.
And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.
That first line is the subject of a famous joke where a little kid says he thinks that God's name is Andy because of that hymn: "Andy walks with me and He talks with me." But don't let that distract you from the beauty of this amazing chorus.
You know, the Bible story as we read it in John 20 unfolds so quickly, but I truly believe that Mary and Jesus must have had a conversation. They must have sat and spoken to each other for a little while. She must have spoken with Him and heard Him talk, and it was what He said that must have changed everything.
Can you imagine the joy as she realised He's not dead—He's alive? We saw Him die, but He's come back to life. I can imagine her starting to remember, "Oh yes, that's what He said was going to happen." The great joy that must have filled her heart! What a wonderful picture of God's companionship.
He doesn't just leave us alone, but He walks with us and He talks with us. He accompanies us through the day, and if we'll just fix our eyes on Him, we'll remember that He's close.
You know what? There's such joy in spending time alone with God. Do you do this every morning? Come to the garden or the quiet place—wherever it is for you—and just soak in His presence. As you tarry there, as you linger with Him, do you allow yourself that time to be filled with the joy of the Lord?
Oh, there's nothing like it. It's a joy like none has ever known. It's a joy like nothing else can give. If you will just spend that time with Him—oh, what a wonder, what a privilege to be filled with the joy that He gives in that place.
Verse 2
He speaks, and the sound of His voice is so sweet the birds hush their singing.
This is a lovely line. Jesus' voice ringing out that day in the garden must have been so sweet and so beautiful that all of creation stopped and listened to the sound of His voice.
How sweet and wonderful Jesus' voice must have been. I wonder what it sounded like. I wonder what the timbre of His voice must have been like—the tone and the pitch that He spoke with.
Remember, God spoke creation into being. He just said, "Let there be light," and there was light. There is power in God's word, in His speaking. When Jesus spoke that morning, I can imagine that all the birds listened instead of singing themselves because they wanted to hear the voice of God who had been risen from the dead.
And the melody that He gave to me, within my heart is ringing.
I love this. I think every Christian songwriter knows that the melodies come from God. You can write it yourself, but somehow it's God who has inspired it.
But every Christian—songwriter or not—knows what it's like to have a song in your heart. When you know Him, your heart sings. When you're close to Him, your heart rings out with praise. Oh, what a privilege to know Him and to be able to sing to Him like this!
Verse 3
I'd stay in the garden with Him, though the night around me be falling.
If you've ever truly met God in a quiet, secret place, I think you know what the writer is saying here. He's saying, "I don't want to leave this beautiful place with God. I'd stay here forever if I could. Whatever is going on out there, I don't even want to know, because the sweetness of this moment is unparalleled."
But I think this is important: God doesn't want us just to withdraw from the world and sit with Him all day long. God wants us to go.
Listen to that last verse that says, But He bids me go, through the voice of woe, His voice to me is calling.
As Christians, we're always called to leave the quiet of the garden and to go and do the real work of God out in the world.
It's a dark world, and people need the light of Jesus. They need the love of Jesus. They need the healing touch of Jesus. You and I, who meet with Him in the quiet place, have got something of that in our hearts and, hopefully, in our eyes. If we will just leave the quiet place and go into the world to share it, the world will change.
I mean, what good would it do if all the Christians just withdrew into their little quiet gardens with God and spent all their time singing to Him? The world would fall apart, and that's not God's dream. God's dream is for people in this world to come to know Him and to be healed and to be set free.
You and I, who meet with Jesus in the garden, need to listen to His voice bidding us to go and to meet Him out there. He promises to meet us out there—to meet us also in the dark world—so that we can do the work He's called us to do.
Go into your broken world once you've been strengthened by Him in the garden, and go be a Christian where it is most needed.
Of course, His promise is there, as the song said in the chorus: And He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own.
That's not just for the garden. Of course, we experience Him in a special way in the quiet place like this, but when we go out from the garden, He keeps walking with us and He keeps talking with us and telling us that we are His. It's only that that helps us through when things get a bit rough out there.
Conclusion
What a beautiful hymn! Do you like it? Does it draw you nearer to Jesus? Do you think it's too sentimental? I'd love to hear what you think in the comments below.
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References
Osbeck, Kenneth W. 101 Hymn Stories
