Just been reading the story in Mark 5 v25-34. I tried to put myself in the lady’s shoes. What she must have felt…. being healed instantly…and then to be told “Go in peace. ”
The Reverend W. O. Cushing wrote a hymn with the beautiful thought in Malachi 3:17a (“And they will be Mine, says Jehovah of hosts, a personal treasure, in the day that I prepare; ”) singing in his soul, composed this hymn which has gone around the world.
When He cometh, when He cometh
To make up His jewels,
All the jewels, precious jewels,
His loved and His own.
Like the stars of the morning,
His bright brow adorning
They shall shine in their beauty
Bright gems for His crown. (stanza1)
The composer of the hymn for the music “Jewel Hymn” was George F. Root, then living in Reading Massachusetts.
A minister returning from Europe on an English steamer visited the steerage, (the part of the ship providing the cheapest accommodations for emigrants) and after some friendly talk proposed a singing service—if something could be started that “everybody” knew—for there were hundreds of emigrants from nearly every part of Europe. “It will have to be an American tune, ” “said the steerage-master; “try ‘His jewels. ’”
The minister immediately began to play the melody and the words, —
When He cometh, when He cometh,
—and many of the poor passengers joined in the singing with him. Many probably recognized the music, and some had heard the sweet hymn played back home. Other voices followed, male and female, catching the tune, and sometimes the words—they were so easily and so many times repeated—and the volume of the song increased until the singing minister stood in the midst of an international concert, the most novel that he ever led.
He tried other songs in similar visits during the rest of the voyage with some success, but the “Jewel Hymn” was the favorite; and by the time they reached the port, the whole crowd of immigrants had learned it by heart.
The steamer landed in Quebec, and when the trains, filled with the new arrivals, rolled away, the song was heard from nearly baggage-car.
The composer of the tune with all the patriotic and sacred masterpieces standing to his credit —never received a richer triumph than he shared with his writing-partner that day, when “Precious Jewels” came back to them from over the sea. More than this, there was great joy for them both that their hymn had done something sacred for these European immigrants with an American Christian psalm.
George Frederick Root, Doctor of Music, was born in Sheffield, Massachusetts, 1820, eldest of a family of eight children, and spent his youth on a farm. His genius for music drew him to Boston where he became a pupil of Lowell Mason, and soon his career advanced until he began to teach music and lead the choir in Park Street Church. Afterwards he went to New York as director of music in Dr. Deem’s Church of the Strangers. In 1852, after a year’s absence and study in Europe, he returned to New York, and founded the Normal Musical Institute. In 1860, he moved to Chicago where he spent the remainder of his life writing and publishing music. He died August 6, 1895, in Maine.