In the Sweet By and By

Sep 19

Two men in a drugstore came up with a catchy hymn one day. I wonder if they knew what an impact it would have!

Introduction

Welcome back to Friday Classic Hymns!

Today's hymn has a very interesting story, and I wonder if you know it – "In the Sweet By and By". I was playing this in church just to get used to it a day or so ago, and Peter, our rector's minister, came and said, "Oh, there's an Afrikaans version of the song. It's a silly one. It's like a spoof of it." And he said for him he couldn't get it out of his head! But for me, I feel like it's familiar, although I don't really remember ever singing it.

What are your memories of "In the Sweet By and By"? Do you have a particular place you remember singing this? Did you grow up at a church that sang this song? Has it meant something to you and your Christian journey? If you know this one or if it is special to you, please share your memories and your thoughts in the comments below.

And hey, if you enjoy the old hymns, I'm trying to kind of bring them back to life by doing this Friday Classic Hymns series. Go and check out the 100 or so I've already done.

The Story Behind "In the Sweet By and By"

Two people are responsible for the song, and the first is a man named Sanford Fillmore Bennett, born in 1836 in New York. He moved to Illinois as a child and was educated at the University of Michigan, became a teacher, and ended up actually becoming an associate editor of a local newspaper. He also served as a second lieutenant in the 40th Wisconsin Volunteers during the Civil War.

In those years, he ended up actually owning a drugstore - or pharmacy, as we would call it. He studied medicine and opened this shop later in his life. Being a committed Christian and a man who liked to write from those days of being a reporter, he ended up writing quite a number of hymns – over 100, they say – although "In the Sweet By and By" is the one that people still remember.

The composer's name was Joseph Webster, who was a friend of Fillmore's – a talented musician from a young age. He studied under some very well-known musicians in the 1840s, but in 1848 he had a severe bout of bronchitis that actually ended up making him lose his voice, and so he couldn't sing any more, and he focused his efforts on composing.

Now Webster, being a musician, tended to get quite depressed, and a lot of musicians struggled with that. And so one day he walked into his friend's drugstore, the pharmacy there, to just chat to him as he was not feeling so good. Bennett, it is said, had learnt to recognise his friend's sadness, even if he was trying to hide it, and so seeing that his friend wasn't doing so well on that day, Bennett turned to him and said, "What's the matter?" And Webster said, "It'll be all right by and by."

Bennett said, like a flash of sunlight, that phrase just sparked inspiration, and he began writing that song in his mind. In fact, while they were there in the shop, the two of them excitedly began to work on the song. As Bennett started to form the words, Webster had his violin, and the two of them put the hymn together in really quick time, and there in the shop began to sing the song, and apparently a couple of customers joined in. It's such an easy song that they joined in and had a great little worship session there in the shop, which just goes to show you can only worship God in church. You can worship him anywhere as long as your heart is connected to him.

So this became a gospel standard, and because of its catchy and simple beat and very easy melody, it became a jazz standard. A lot of New Orleans jazz bands would play this one because it lends itself to that, but others really didn't like the song and actually used it to disparage the people from that area. Mark Twain, the great writer, would often use this as an insult in his writings. He would use it disparagingly towards the Yankees and have them sing it and get it all wrong, and sing false just to make fun of them.

Webster died in 1875, not long after the hymn came out, and at the place where he's buried it says "In the sweet by and by we shall meet". Isn't that special?

This became a gospel standard, and perhaps it's still sung today. Let me ask you, do you still sing this in your church? We don't sing it here, and I don't know that we will, because it's probably not the type of music we sing these days, but I really like this song, and it's just made me think a lot about things as I've worked through the lyrics.

Let me take you through what the lyrics say.

What Do the Lyrics of "In the Sweet By and By" Mean?

In one place I found five verses and I tried to figure out if these were original, but it seems that only three were written and maybe two were added later by somebody else in publishing this hymn. But it’s the three verses that are the original ones written by those two men.

The first one goes like this: There's a land that is fairer than day. And so straight away we're thinking of something very beautiful, a place that is so beautiful and it's even brighter and more beautiful than day, than sunlight I suppose you might say. It's a reference, I guess, to Revelation 21, which is explaining the New Jerusalem and new heavens, new earth, and how beautiful it's going to be.

There's a land that is fairer than day, and by faith we can see it afar. So people who have faith in Christ can see that somewhere in our future we will be in that beautiful place. It's by faith: we believe it, we hope for it, and we can't wait to be there.

For the Father waits over the way to prepare us a dwelling place there. John 14 – Jesus spoke about going to prepare a place for us. In his Father's house there are many rooms, and Jesus said, "I'm going to prepare a place for you there." Here's this picture that the Father is waiting there - it's not as if he's expecting us to die, but while we are living our lives and acting out the calling that he's placed on our lives, he's prepared a place for us there in glory. And one day we will dwell there, in that “dwelling place”. We will be done with our time on earth, and we will dwell with him in a new place.

Verse two says, We shall sing on that beautiful shore the melodious songs of the blessed. I love how in Revelation there's such singing! In fact, I preached on this just recently at my church – we did a series called The Life Songs. I spoke about various songs we found in the Bible, and I did the last one, which was called "A Song to the Lamb", and we looked at how in Revelation the saints are singing the Song of the Lamb.

And so yes, we will sing on that beautiful shore, the shore of the great river, I suppose, that comes from the throne of God. There's a hymn about that as well, which I've done a Friday classic about, and as we're on that shore will be singing with all the saints. Isn't that a wonderful thought?

He continues, and our spirits shall sorrow no more. Not a sigh for the blessing of rest. And so there'll be no more sorrow when we're in that place. Revelation talks quite plainly about that – no more tears, no more sorrow, and not a sigh for the blessing of rest. We won't be tired, but we will be blessed because we are resting with him. In Revelation 14, I believe it is, are the words that I say at the funerals I conduct – in our liturgy it says, "Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on, for they shall rest from their labours." And so we will rest when we die in the Lord, and that'll be a beautiful place to be.

Verse three says this: To our bountiful Father above we will offer our tribute of praise. When we're in heaven, we will praise him! That will be our tribute. He's bountiful. He has everything he needs, but our offering will be our praise as we worship him and the Lamb that was slain.

For the glorious gift of his love, and the blessings that hallow our days. I love that – the glorious gift of his love. We have his love already, if we believe. Actually we are loved by him even before we believe – he pursues us. But he will only forgive us when we believe. It is only faith in Jesus and the blood that he shed that brings us into relationship with him. So whilst he may love us while we don't believe and pursues us, we need to believe so that we can be benefactors of his blessings.

But for the glorious gift of his love and the blessings that hallow our days, when we are there with him in the presence of his majesty, we will know his love in a real way, in a much more real way than we even do now. And his blessings will hallow or make holy our days. "Hallowed be thy name", right? Your name is holy, your name is glorified. And so our days will be glorious there when we are with him, and we will be so blessed in that place.

What a cool set of verses! Just looking ahead to the great joy that we look forward to in heaven.

And then the chorus is In the sweet by and by we shall meet on that beautiful shore. "By and by" means coming soon, or it won't be long. And so, in that place, at some point, not too long from now – after all, life is short, have you noticed that? – by and by, soon enough we will be with him, and we'll meet on that beautiful shore and be together with him and with the other saints. We'll meet each other there. and our tears will be gone.

Oh, man, what a wonderful picture! And I wonder if you live with this great expectation of that place? It doesn't take away the passion that you live with now, but it certainly is a place to look forward to.

Now, Charlie Kirk was killed last week. Some of you perhaps were fans. Some of you perhaps didn't like him. I respected him a lot, and as I prepared this over these last few days, I was thinking about him because I believe that he was a good man, that he had faith in Christ and that his sins were atoned for, that he is in heaven, and we shall meet on that beautiful shore! As I sang that this week, I thought, I look forward to meeting him there and to worshipping our Saviour together with him there.

There are many, of course, who we have lost. We've all lost precious people in our lives. But for us who are in Christ, what joy to meet on that beautiful shore one day and sing his praise together.

So what do you think of the lyrics? Are you touched by any particular line? Is this something that is really meaningful to you here in these words? Why don't you share that in the comments below?

And I want to thank you for supporting my work. If you want to check out my Patreon where I put extra recordings, extra devotions, and all the stuff you hear here on Friday classics is there for you to have offline, I'd appreciate you having a look at that.

Take care, my friends, and come, let's sing it together as we celebrate this glorious future that will be ours one day.