I sang this hymn when I was quite young in the church here. I thought it was from the churches in the 70’s. It was actually written by a nobody brother that stayed in one church for 60 years and then met in a home church. It always stirred my heart and gave me peace. It reminds me of Watchman Nee who says there is nothing higher than loving the Lord. Here is a short biography of the American author.
Born: March 22, 1836, Cape May, New Jersey.
Died: January 7, 1921, Cape May, New Jersey.
Buried: Cold Spring Presbyterian Church, Cape May County, New Jersey.
After serving in the American civil war at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Stites became a riverboat pilot on the Delaware River. He belonged to the First Methodist Church in Cape May, New Jersey, for 60 years, and often attended the annual Methodist Assembly at Ocean Grove, New Jersey. For a while he was a home missionary in the Dakota Territory. Hymnist Eliza Edmunds Stites Hewitt was his cousin.
Through all the hardships and failures. Loving Jesus is the way. We can overcome by Loving Jesus everyday and Loving in Him. Halaujah for such a precious one.
When you have gone through things that have left you empty whether good or bad, you learn what it means to simply love the Lord. Only He satisfies. True satisfaction that is not determined by positive or negative circumstances. It simply is true satisfaction from deep with. That is a Person.
Sometime life can get so complicated. The more complicated the more difficult life becomes. I enjoyed this song because it shows me that loving our dear Lord Jesus is not complicated and not difficult. We can simply love the Lord “thru a stormy way”. Even when we can’t see a way thru, we can simply call on our Lord and tell Him we love Him. We can sing this song until we sense His presence. Then we can remain with Him in the middle of everything.