Higher Ground

I’m pressing on the upward way

This text by Johnson Oatman Jr. (1856–1922) and tune by Charles H. Gabriel (1856–1932) were written in 1892, when Oatman first started to write gospel songs and Gabriel had just moved to Chicago from California. Gabriel briefly recalled the experience later in life in his autobiography Sixty Years of Gospel Song, p. 10:

In September 1892, I reached Chicago, possessed of a wife, a six-month-old son, a coat that buttoned up to the throat, a plug hat, a cane, and sixteen dollars in cash. At that time a book of songs for the Epworth League was being prepared by its secretary, Dr. J.F. Berry, who engaged me to assist him. Fortunately for the chattels above mentioned, my source of income was not delayed. . . .

As a fact beyond my ability to understand, I never edited a book of songs that reimbursed me in royalties to the amount of money it cost me to gather the copy for the printer. On the other hand, every one I did compile produced one to five songs that proved successful. “Higher Ground” was one of the first I wrote after reaching Chicago. For it I received $5.00.

The rights to the song were sold to J. Howard Entwisle, who later published it in three collections he co-edited in 1898: Praise Hymns and Full Salvation Songs, Gospel Hosannas, and Songs of Love and Praise No. 5 (Fig. 1), all of which were produced in conjunction with music editor John R. Sweney and Philadelphia publisher John J. Hood.

At the time this song was written, Oatman was in retirement from a career in insurance in Mount Holly, New Jersey, and he was an ordained preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Gabriel was living in Chicago, making a living as a gospel song composer, compiler, and editor. How the two met is unclear, but like other gospel writers of their day, they likely crossed paths in the revival circuit at campmeetings, or perhaps more likely, Oatman had reached out to notable gospel composers of his day seeking help in providing tunes for his poems.

Gospel biographer J.H. Hall said of this hymn, “This song at once took high rank among the holiness people, and secured a lasting place in American hymnology. Nothing can bring forth more shouts at a camp-meeting of ‘Glory’ and ‘Hallelujah’ than the singing of ‘Higher Ground.’”[1] Fellow gospel composer and publisher Homer A. Rodeheaver (1880–1955) said, “When a sermon has been preached or an invitation given to members of the church to rededicate their lives for service, this is an exceptionally appropriate song to sing.”[2]

The opening lines of Oatman’s text draw especially from Philippians 3:13–14, “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (ESV). Other relevant passages include Psalm 18:33 (“He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights”), Isaiah 58:14 (“Then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth”), Micah 4:1–2 (“The mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills, and peoples shall flow to it”), and Psalms of ascent (120–134).

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
21 January 2020

Footnotes:

1. J.H. Hall, “Johnson Oatman Jr.” Biography of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers (NY: Fleming H. Revell, 1914), pp. 357–358.

2. Homer A. Rodeheaver, “I’m pressing on the upward way,” Hymnal Handbook for Standard Hymns and Gospel Songs (1931), p. 149.

Related Resources:

Homer A. Rodeheaver, “I’m pressing on the upward way,” Hymnal Handbook for Standard Hymns and Gospel Songs (Chicago: Rodeheaver, 1931), p. 149.

Charles H. Gabriel, Sixty Years of Gospel Song (Chicago: Hope, n.d.).

William J. Reynolds, “I’m pressing on the upward way,” Hymns of Our Faith (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1964), pp. 92–93.

Alice Loewen, “I’m pressing on the upward way,” Exploring the Mennonite Hymnal (Newton, KS: Faith and Life Press, 1983), pp. 304–305.

Paul A. Richardson, “I’m pressing on the upward way,” Handbook to the Baptist Hymnal (Nashville: Convention Press, 1992), p. 160.

Robert L. Anderson, “I’m pressing on the upward way,” The New Century Hymnal Companion (Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 1998), p. 432.