Hymn of the Month: “All That Thrills My Soul Is Jesus”

        Back in the 1970s, I bought a long-playing record of the Scottish Festivals of Male Voice Praise, conducted by James McRoberts. This was my favourite song on the entire album, and the rumble of deep voices was a joy to hear. This was the album, and this one of the songs we got ready to and dressed our little children to every Sunday morning. Then, in the transition to CDs, I gave up all my records. Just in the last year, the album has become available, as an online download. How great to hear it again!

          Who can cheer the heart like Jesus,

          By His presence all divine?

          True and tender, pure and precious, 

          O how blest to call Him mine!

          All that thrills my souls is Jesus;

          He is more than life to me;

          And the fairest of ten thousand,

          In my blessed Lord I see.

          Love of Christ so freely given,

          Grace of God beyond degree,

          Mercy higher than the heaven,

          Deeper than the deepest sea.

          What a wonderful redemption!

          Never can a mortal know

          How my sin, tho’ red like crimson,

          Can be whiter than the snow.

          Ev’ry need His hand supplying, 

          Ev’ry good in Him I see;

          On His strength divine relying,

          He is all in all to me.

          By the crystal flowing river

          With the ransomed I will sing,

          And forever and forever

          Praise and glorify the King.

       Thoro Harris was a prolific writer of hymns in the early twentieth century, with over 500 to his credit, often including the tune as well. He was born in Washington, DC, on March 31, 1874, attended college in Battle Creek, Michigan, moved to Boston, then Chicago, then settled in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, in 1932. 

        In a different context, I was once asked to name a song that I would like included in my church’s hymn choices and the single one that I gave was, “He’s coming soon…with joy we welcome his returning”, which is Choice Hymns of the Faith #513. How intriguing to find that Thoro Harris was the writer of that hymn too.

        And reaching back into my childhood Sunday school days in Thunder Bay, I remember another song—Thoro Harris again (but marked as anonymous in CHF):

The Way to Heaven (CHF #474)

          You may keep on working till your life’s last hour;

          But you’ll never get to heaven that way.

        One final song from Thoro Harris, one of only a few that hint at his African-American heritage:

Pilot, Lan’ de Boat

          De win’ blow soft from de heav’nly sho’ ,

               Pilot, lan’ de boat.

          Ou’ backs soon carry de loads no mo’

               Pilot, lan’ de boat.

        Harris served as editor of a good number of hymn books over the years, first in Boston in 1902, then Light and Life Songs (Chicago, 1904), then several others up into the 1940s. He also served as organist for several churches and operated a boarding house in Eureka Springs. He passed away there on March 27, 1955, at the age of 80.