In the Sweet By and By (Daily Devotional)

There's a land that is fairer than day and by faith we can see it afar, for the Father waits over the way, to prepare us a dwelling place there, in the sweet by and by, we shall be on that beautiful shore, in the sweet by and by, we shall be on that beautiful shore.

Yes, this is the reality that we have and welcome to Living Supernaturally for another edition. We've been looking at some of these old favorites and some of these old hymns and looking at the history behind it, the context in which it was written. This one has an interesting story also, ‘in the sweet by and by’. It is a collaboration between two friends, Sanford Fillmore Bennett, and Joseph P. Webster. In the mid-1800s, Bennett would write the words, while Webster being a musician, he would set the words to music, and they wrote many such songs. Bennett mentions in his autobiography that Webster who was a talented musician was prone to bouts of depression, every now and then. Whenever he noticed these changes in his friend, he tried to help, he tried to pull him up and he found that giving Webster a song to work on, really helped boost his spirit, he would cheer up working on the song. So, one such instance, Webster came to Bennet's place, and he was there without saying a word and Bennett knew that something was wrong. So, he turned to him and asked Webster, what is the matter now? Webster replied, it is no matter, it'll be all right by and by and that phrase struck Bennett and he mentioned, yes, the sweet by and by, why would not that make a good hymn? To which Webster responded, yes, maybe it would. So, Bennett immediately started writing the words of the hymn as fast as he could and in about 30 minutes he was done, and he gave the hymn to Webster to set it to music. Webster started playing his violin and started setting the words to music and they could see the change in Webster, even as he put the song together,

We shall sing on the beautiful shore, the melodious songs of the blessed and our spirits shall sorrow no more, not a sigh for the blessing of rest, to our bountiful Father above, we will offer our tribute of praise, for the glorious gift of His love and the blessings that hallow our ways, in the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore, in the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore.

Today, if you're feeling down, why don't you lift your gaze heavenward, towards the Lord Jesus because He is real and since He is real, heaven is real. What we see around is temporal, but the Lord, His word, what He said is eternal. The Lord will give you a joyful melody in your heart. Let's pray, Father, we thank you for this day, thank you for this time. Thank you for these songs, we thank you for these lives, Lord whom you touched and because of which they wrote these wonderful words and melodies which inspire us and encourages even today, we thank you God. We thank you for the reality of heaven. We thank you for the reality of your presence. As we go through this day, we pray that we'll be reminded of that over and over again, even as our faith soars, as we lift our gazes heavenward towards you, in your name we pray, Amen.

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