April 13, 2005

In the Garden

Charles Austin Miles, 1868-1945

    Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken these things to her. John 20:18.

    Austin Miles wrote of writing this hymn:

I read the story of the greatest morn in history: “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, while it was yet very dark, unto the sepulcher.” Instantly, completely, there unfolded in my mind the scenes of the garden of Jo­seph. Out of the mists of the garden comes a form, halting, hesitating, tearful, seeking, turning from side to side in bewildering amazement. Falteringly, bearing grief in every accent, with tear-dimmed eyes, she whispers, “If thou hast borne him hence.” “He speaks, and the sound of His voice is so sweet the birds hush their singing.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” Just one word from his lips, and forgotten the heartaches, the long dreary hours .all the past blotted out in the presence of the Living Present and the Eternal Future.

    This hymn was sung in the 1984 mo­vie “Places in the Heart,” which won two Academy Awards.

I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.

He speaks, and the sound of His voice,
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.

I’d stay in the garden with Him
Though the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe
His voice to me is calling.

Chorus:
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.