His Eye Is on the Sparrow

I. Origins

The poet behind this hymn, Civilla D. Martin (1866–1948), provided this account of the song in 1916:

It was written at the bedside of a bedridden saint in the city of Elmira, N.Y. I was reading and singing to her, and during our conversation I asked her if she did not sometimes get discouraged. She answered, “How can I be discouraged, when my Father watches the sparrows, and I know He loves and cares for me?” Procuring paper and pencil, in a few moments I wrote the now-famous hymn. The next day, I mailed it to Mr. Chas. H. Gabriel, who wrote the music and sent it to Mr. Chas. M. Alexander, in England, where the song was first sung in Albert Hall, during the great Torrey-Alexander revival. From there it has gone all over the world.[1]

Later in life, she offered a similar account:

Early in the spring of 1905, my husband and I were sojourning in Elmira, New York, after a winter’s evangelistic campaign in Canada. While living quietly in Elmira waiting for the Lord’s guidance to other fields of activity, we became acquainted with and contracted a deep friendship for a couple by the name of Mr. and Mrs. Doolittle. They were true saints of God. Mrs. Doolittle had been bedridden for nigh twenty years. Her husband was an incurable cripple who had to propel himself to and from his business in a wheelchair. Despite their afflictions, though, they lived happy, Christian lives, bringing inspiration and comfort to all who knew them.

One day while we were visiting with the Doolittles, my husband commented on their bright hopefulness and asked them for the secret of it. Mrs. Doolittle’s reply was simple: “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me.” The beauty of this simple and yet all-satisfying expression of boundless faith gripped the hearts and fired the imagination of Dr. Martin and me. The hymn “His eye is on the sparrow” was the outcome of that experience, singing itself to us that very afternoon in its complete form.[2]

Civilla would often write songs together with her composer-husband Walter Stillman Martin (1862–1935), including her other most famous song, “God will take care of you.” Some sources say Walter was unsatisfied with his own attempt at writing music for “His Eye Is on the Sparrow,” thus the appeal to composer Charles H. Gabriel (1856–1932). In his Personal Memoirs (1918), Gabriel gave his own account:

One evening . . . while in a despondent, down-hearted mood, I was glancing over some song-words; none seemed to appeal to me. Presently I remembered having received a hymn in the day’s mail which I had not as yet looked at. Taking it from my pocket it seemed like a voice speaking directly to me as I read, and its melody rang out of silence into my heart exactly as it is sung today. I wrote it out, and in a letter to Mr. Alexander the next day, I mailed it to England where, in Albert Hall, “The Sparrow Song” was first sung in public.[3]

Often a song the author believes will be a great success proves to be a total failure; and sometimes—not always—the opposite result obtains. I always had faith in “My Savior’s Love,” “He Is So Precious to Me,” “Higher Ground,” and others, but was not impressed with “The Glory Song.” “The Sparrow Song” and “He Lifted Me” appealed to me before the ink was dry on the MSS, but “Hail Immanuel” I have never cared for.[4]

Charles M. Alexander (1867–1920), who had been music director for the revivals of R.A. Torrey (1856–1928), was also an active songbook editor. Alexander copyrighted “His eye is on the sparrow” and included it Revival Hymns (Chicago: Bible Institute, 1905). In this first printing, both the words and music were credited to Gabriel, but in Alexander’s later songbooks this was corrected to include Civilla Martin.

II. Analysis

The basis for the text about the sparrow comes from Matthew 10:29–31 and its parallel in Luke 12:6–7:

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows (ESV).

A similar sentiment appears in Matthew 6:26, “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (ESV). In the second stanza, the quote “Let not your heart be troubled” comes from John 14:1 and 14:27. Also in the second stanza, the phrase “By the path he leadeth” is possibly a reference to Psalm 23:3. Hymnologist Carl Daw has noted how “When song gives place to sighing,” in stanza 3, is the reverse of Isaiah 35:10.

Pastor Robert Cottrill noted how the assurance of the sparrow follows a particular pattern of thought in the Bible:

There is, in philosophy, what is known as an a fortiori argument. The Latin phrase means “with even stronger reason.” The argument goes like this: If “A” is true, then it stands to reason that “B” is even more certainly true. That syllogism is used a number of times in the Bible, and it comes into play twice in the verses above. Since God keeps His eye on each tiny, insignificant sparrow, it is surely even more certain that He will watch over each of His blood-bought children, human beings of whom the Bible says: “You [Lord] have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honour, and set him over the works of Your hands” (Heb. 2:7). We are assured that “the very hairs of [our] head[s] are all numbered.” And there again is an a fortiori argument. Since God is concerned about the hairs of our head, surely He’s interested in what happens to the rest of us, not only for time, but for all eternity![5]

Although the song was written for the purposes of congregational singing, it has lent itself more fully to solo treatments. Carl Daw considered the style of composition to be consistent with “the musical idiom of a Victorian parlor song.”[6] The melody has a wide range with several large leaps, including leaps of an octave in two places.

III. Performance

As a solo vehicle, the song was first recorded ca. 1925 by Rev. William McKinley Dawkins, accompanied by J.H. Cousins, for Sunshine Gospel Records (No. 1002). This has been preserved on the Document Records album Preachers and Congregations, vol. 3 (DOCD 5547, 1997 | Amazon). One of the first performers to bring the song to greater prominence was Ethel Waters (1896–1977), who sang it for Billy Graham crusades; her rendition was released on the album Decade of Decision (Word 3164, 1961). Waters used the song as the title for her autobiography, His Eye is on the Sparrow (NY: Doubleday, 1951), and she sang it in the film The Member of the Wedding (1952). It has been recorded successfully by numerous others.

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
20 April 2020

Footnotes:

1. Charles H. Gabriel, The Singers and Their Songs (Chicago: Rodeheaver, 1916), pp. 52–53: Archive.org

2. Phil Kerr, “Famous Living Hymn Writers,” The Defender Magazine, vol. 16, no. 7 (Nov. 1941), p. 24.

3. Charles H. Gabriel, Personal Memoirs (1918), p. 41.

4. Charles H. Gabriel, Personal Memoirs (1918), pp. 46–47.

5. Robert Cottrill, “His eye is on the sparrow,” Wordwise Hymns (22 Oct. 2012):
   https://wordwisehymns.com/2012/10/22/his-eye-is-on-the-sparrow/

6. Carl P. Daw Jr., Carl P. Daw Jr., “Why should I feel discouraged?” Glory to God: A Companion (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2016), p. 627.

Related Resources:

Robert M.W. Dixon, et al. Blues & Gospel Records 1890–1943, 4th ed. (Oxford: University Press, 1997).

Robert L. Anderson, “God’s eye is on the sparrow,” The New Century Hymnal Companion (Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 1998), p. 449.

Robert Cottrill, “His eye is on the sparrow,” Wordwise Hymns (22 Oct. 2012): https://wordwisehymns.com/2012/10/22/his-eye-is-on-the-sparrow/

Carl P. Daw Jr., “Why should I feel discouraged?” Glory to God: A Companion (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2016), pp. 626–627.

“His eye is on the sparrow,” Hymnary.org:
https://hymnary.org/text/why_should_i_feel_discouraged