February 1, 2005

Walk in the Light

Bernard Barton, 1784-1849

      But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:7.

    Barton was Britain’s counterpart to American John Greenleaf Whittier. Like Whittier, he was called the “Quaker Poet.” Barton attended a Quaker school in Ipswich. In 1798, he was apprenticed to a Mr. S. Jesup, a shopkeeper at Halstead, Essex, with whom he stayed until 1806. Barton then moved to Woodbridge, Suffolk, and entered into business with his brother as a coal and corn merchant. He married, but his wife died after only a year. Barton then moved to Liverpool for a short while, but returned to Woodbridge in 1810. A bank clerk by profession, he wrote 10 books of poems, many of which became hymns.
    Hymns by Bernard Barton include:

• Around Bethesda’s Healing Wave
• Fear Not, Zion’s Sons and Daughters
• Hath the Invitation Ended?
• Lamp of Our Feet
• Say Not the Law Divine
• See We Not Beyond the Portal?
• There Is a Life More Dear
• Those Who Live in Love Shall Know
• Walk in the Light
• We Journey Through a Vale of Tears
• Wouldst Thou Share This Benediction?

   Walk in the Light, also known as Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, was first published in Glad Songs, by the British National Sunday School Union. Its lyrics were inspired by the Gospel tract Focused, by Lillian Trotter, which included these words:

So then, turn your eyes upon Him, look full into His face and you will find that the things of earth will acquire a strange new dimness.

    After reading the tract by Lillian Trotter, Helen Lemmel relates, "Suddenly, as if commanded to stop and listen, I stood still, and singing in my soul and spirit was the chorus of the hymn with not one conscious moment of putting word to word to make rhyme, or note to note to make melody. The verses were written the same week, after the usual  manner of composition, but none the less dedicated by the Holy Spirit.

O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s a light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free!

Through death into life everlasting
He passed, and we follow Him there;
Over us sin no more hath dominion—
For more than conquerors we are!

His Word shall not fail you—He promised;
Believe Him, and all will be well:
Then go to a world that is dying,
His perfect salvation to tell!

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.