Love Lifted Me

January 16, 2016 (Saturday)
“Back in the Day” when I used to lead singing in revival meetings as a very young man, I always loved to lead the congregation in singing, “Love Lifted Me,” because it’s so easy to sing. Its rigid tempo (6/8 time) helps the folks to stay together and sing with gusto.
Besides that, it has a wonderful message of God’s love for us in Christ. It emphasizes the grace of God in rescuing us from a life of sin and giving us a brand new start. It sounds a warning to “souls in danger” to “look above,” realizing that “Jesus completely saves.”
“James Rowe and Howard E. Smith wrote this song in Saug­a­tuck, Con­nec­ti­cut. Ac­cord­ing to Rowe’s daugh­ter: ‘How­ard E. Smith was a lit­tle man whose hands were so knot­ted with arth­ri­tis that you would won­der how he could use them at all, much less play the pi­a­no…I can see them now, my fa­ther strid­ing up and down hum­ming a bar or two and How­ard E. play­ing it and jot­ting it down'” (from cyberhymnal.com).