The Glory Song


Here is the closing illustration from last Sunday’s sermon on the subject, “Will We Know our Loved Ones in Heaven.” You can read the entire message at our church website.

Several months ago, I conducted a worship service at a retirement home here in Nashville. Afterward an elderly woman pulled me aside. She told me that she and her husband had been married over sixty years. During their final years together, they used my book, Then Sings My Soul, for their morning devotions. This is a devotional book of hymn stories, and every morning this couple read the story about the hymn and then sang the song. On morning they came to the old song that was so popular around the world a hundred years ago. Written by Charles Gabriel, it was commonly called “The Glory Song.” The words say:

When all my labors and trials are o’er
And I am safe on that beautiful shore,
Just to be near the sweet Lord I adore
Will thro’ the ages be glory for me.

O that will be glory for me
Glory for me, glory for me.
When by His grace I shall look on His face,
That will be glory, be glory for me.

The elderly husband read that song and the story about it, and he said to his wife, “That will be glory for me. I’m ready to go right now.”

“But what about me?” she asked.

“Oh,” he said, “you have a lot of people to look after you. When I get to heaven, that will be glory for me.”

And that very day, he died and went home to heaven. The memory of that final serious conversation was so sweet and comforting to the woman that she wanted to tell me about it.

Well, verse 3 of “The Glory Song” says:

Friends will be there I have loved long ago,
Joy like a river around me will flow;
Yet just a smile from my Savior I know,
Will through the ages be glory for me
.

PS – I’m in New York for a couple of days, attending a seminar with Morris Proctor on Logos Bible Software 4. I can’t wait t upgrade to this system. I’ll keep you posted about it. You can check out the website here.