July 27, 2005

Have faith in God –
And His promise true, foresworn;
Have faith in God –
That our world’s not left forlorn;
Have faith in God –
Since the night that Christ was born.
Have faith, dear friend, in God.

Face to Face

Carrie Elizabeth Ellis Breck, 1855-1934

    How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. 1 John 3:1- 3.

    The thoughts so well expressed in "Face to Face" were written by a busy wife and mother who by her own admission could not carry a tune. She had only a sense of rhythm. She said, "I penciled verses under all conditions; over a mending basket, with a baby on my arm, and sometimes even when sweeping or washing dishes, my mind moved in poetic meter." Living with her husband and five daughters in Portland, Oregon, Carrie Breck was a deeply committed Christian and life-long member of the Presbyterian Church.
    Mrs. Breck occasionally sent some of her poems to a composer of gospel hymns, Grant Colfax Tuller, with the hope that he would set them to suitable music. Amazingly, when the verses of "Face to Face" arrived in the mail one day, Mr. Tullar had just completed the music for a song with words that did not fully please him. The lines of Mrs. Breck's text, however, were a perfect fit for the music he had composed.

Face to face with Christ, my Savior,
Face to face—what will it be,
When with rapture I behold Him,
Jesus Christ Who died for me?

Only faintly now I see Him,
With the darkened veil between,
But a blessèd day is coming,
When His glory shall be seen.

What rejoicing in His presence,
When are banished grief and pain;
When the crooked ways are straightened,
And the dark things shall be plain.

Face to face—oh, blissful moment!
Face to face—to see and know;
Face to face with my Redeemer,
Jesus Christ Who loves me so.

Chorus:
Face to face I shall behold Him,
Far beyond the starry sky;
Face to face in all His glory,
I shall see Him by and by!

Have Faith in God by H.M.S. Richards, Used by Permission