Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 09:2 (Spring 1995)
Article: Jesus Calls Us
Author: Julia Ann Flora

Volume 9:2 (Spring 1995) p. 5

Jesus Calls Us

Julia Ann Flora

Julia Ann Flora is a student of hymnology who has done research at Ashland Seminary specializing in women hymn writers. She is author of Suffering and Song (Fairway Press, October 199 5) which presents biographies of popular hymn writers. With her husband, she also co-authored the book Faith and Fortitude.

This is the centenary year marking the death on October 12 of Cecil Frances Alexander, one of the greatest women hymn writers. Her funeral in Londonderry attracted a great crowd from all of Great Britain to pay tribute to this noble woman.

Cecil Frances Humphreys was born and raised in Ireland. As a little girl of only nine years she liked to write poems which were published in a small periodical circulating within her close-knit family.

Her writing talent was noticeable at an early age, but her father — a noted landowner and major in the Royal Marines — was stern and critical of her work, so she hid her poems under the rug. But one time he discovered them and, to her surprise, thought them quite good. As time passed he continued to encourage her.

In her early twenties, she was an active member of the Anglican Church, devoting her time to the religious education of children. She believed that teaching children the substance of Christian creeds and special Christian days was best accomplished through poetry. Thus she wrote many hymns for her Sunday school students, reading the verses to them.

In 1846, when she was twenty-one, she published her first book, Verses for Holy Seasons, which contained a hymn for every Sunday and other special days. The hymn

Volume 9:2 (Spring 1995) p. 6

“Jesus Calls Us” was designated for St. Andrew’s Day (November 30). Two years later another book called Hymns For Little Children appeared. This small seventy-two page book sold a quarter of a million copies in twenty years. By 1896 it reached its sixty-ninth edition.

In 1850 she married the Reverend William Alexander, and for the first few years of their marriage they lived on a farm. Often her husband would come home in late afternoon and question her: “Have you sold the cow? Have you shown the gardener how to prune the roses? Have you finished writing that poem?” Once he read her a pamphlet written by an English minister which told of a great change in the heart and life of a man when he heard one of her hymns sung. Looking directly at her husband, the usually humble poet said, “Thank God! I do like to hear that.”

In nineteenth-century Ireland there were large numbers of poor farm workers. For several years follow...