His Love Can Never Fail

I. Origins

When this gospel hymn was first published in Songs for Young People (1897), the lyrics were credited to E.S. Hall, and the music to E.O. Excell (1851–1921). Excell was a well-known gospel hymn writer and publisher at the time, but the name E.S. Hall, apart from this one song, is unknown. In attempting to identify E.S. Hall, there are two possibilities: either Hall was a one-time hymn writer who was fortunate to have a text set to music and published by Excell, or Hall could be a pseudonym for someone else. Evidence weighs in favor of the latter possibility, especially for E.S. Hall as a pseudonym for Charles H. Gabriel (1856–1932). The rationale for this connection is as follows:

1. In the biography of Charles Gabriel written by Mel Wilhoit in 1982, Wilhoit noted, “Because of the vast amount of material Gabriel produced, he resorted to the use of over twenty different pseudonyms, especially for his texts.”[1]

2. In an announcement in The Epworth Herald, 12 June 1897, the writer described Excell and Gabriel singing this song together:

The young people will be delighted to know that Prof. E.O. Excell, editor of Songs for Young People, will be present at the Toronto Epworth League convention and will lead the chorus at the Massey Hall meetings. Besides this, Professor Excell will sing some special solos at all the other places of meeting of the great Toronto gathering. Prof. C.H. Gabriel, also of Chicago, will probably accompany him, and in that event such duet singing will be heard as only Chicago, which furnishes the best in the world, can furnish. It is worth a trip to Toronto to hear them sing “His Love Can Never Fail,” printed on the anniversary program this year.[2]

3. In Gabriel’s autobiography, Sixty Years of Gospel Song (ca. 1932), he described being present at Excell’s deathbed and named some of the songs they premiered together:

For more than thirty years I was intimately associated with the late E.O. Excell, and a bond of friendship was forged between us that even death has not been able to break, for the roadway toward the setting sun is just a little rougher and less interesting to me because of his absence. I knew him as he was, and as few others knew him. Mr. Excell possessed a remarkable voice of quality, range and power, and as a conductor of sacred music he had no superior. Together we sang the gospel throughout all parts of our country, and in Canada.

He was heard for the last time in the Chapel of Wesley Hospital, Chicago, Sunday afternoon, January 16th, 1921. Sitting in a wheelchair he sang “It is Jesus” with wonderful effect. At that time we sang together for the last time the song we had made popular: “Beautiful Isle of Somewhere.” No longer to him is that a “Somewhere”; he has discovered its shore and lives in its sunlight.

Many of the gospel songs that have become popular we started on their mission by singing them as duets. “Scatter Sunshine,” “His Love Can Never Fail,” “A Sinner Made Whole,” “Let the Sunshine In,” “The Way of the Cross Leads Home,” and others.[3]

This hymn was therefore born out of the lifelong musical partnership of Excell and Gabriel, and was popularized in part by their singing it as a duet. In its first printing in Songs for Young People (1897 | Fig. 1), a collection edited by Excell, it was given in three stanzas with a refrain.

Incidentally, this collection also contained the first printing of another successful gospel song, “Count Your Blessings.”

II. Analysis

The first stanza expresses the sentiments of Proverbs 3:4–5 (“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths,” NKJV), or 2 Corinthians 5:6–7 (“So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight,” ESV), or other passages about faithfulness and following. The promise of God’s nearness, as in stanza 2, comes from passages such as Matthew 28:20 (“I am with you always, to the end of the age”) or John 15:1–15 (“Abide in me, and I in you…”). The third stanza speaks of not having fear in darkness, as in Psalm 23:4 (“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil”). Like elsewhere in the Psalms, the writer recognized his frailty (Psalm 6:7), but trusted in a God who will not fail (1 Kings 8:56, Isaiah 14:24, John 16:33).

III. New Tunes

1. Christopher Miner

The original hymn was reprinted many times in the early part of the twentieth century but then lost its place among hymnals as the century progressed. Nonetheless, the hymn is still sung in its original form, and in more recent years it has been recast with new tunes. One important new setting was prepared by Christopher Miner for his album All Good Things Come from the Desert (2004). In reflecting on how this tune came to fruition, Miner noted:

I had heard rumblings that I never write “upbeat” music and I remember telling someone something like, “I guess I could, if I tried, but I’ve never really needed or wanted to try to do that.” Then I looked through a hymnal with the idea of writing something upbeat (or “faster” than usual), and that’s the song that came of it. . . . I’m drawn to a lot of the songs from my grandfather’s hymn books (he led music at a Baptist church in Henderson, TN, for years) that specifically don’t have overt, explicit, or direct language about grace and/or gospel. Many of those songs express a more personalized viewpoint and often reflect a specific experience of fear, awe, loss, dread, etc., that I am drawn to and I hope is embodied even further in my music.[4]

After recording the song for his 2004 album, Miner submitted it to Kevin Twit for consideration for an Indelible Grace album. Twit remembered the experience of receiving Miner’s new album:

I do remember distinctly that when he sent me that CD with his version, he put a sticky note on it saying, “Twit, ‘His Love’ is my attempt to write a fast tune”—and then I actually slowed it down a bit when we recorded it for Indelible Grace! . . . Much of his work as an artist explores his southern religious upbringing, and he got his MFA from Yale. So like in his tune for “Almost Persuaded,” which is a hell-fire text, Chris deconstructs the words with a haunting tune.[5]

Miner’s tune was included on the Indelible Grace album Beams of Heaven (2005), performed by singer/songwriter Derek Webb, and scores of the song were distributed through the Indelible Grace website. Later in his career, Miner felt his original recording of “His Love Can Never Fail” had not aged well:

I’m not one to hate on old recordings that I may not be crazy about years (decades?) later, but I cannot listen to the recording I made of that song without cringing because it sounds really forced and too fast, very unnatural, uncomfortable even, the recording/tempo itself. I should have just followed my instincts and recorded it slower, the way I wrote it, instead of trying to force an upbeat version of it.[6]

2. Matt Damico

The disconnect of affect expressed by Miner for his tune is partly what led to another attempt at resetting the text, this time by Matt Damico for Kenwood Music, a ministry of Kenwood Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. Damico explained how his version was born:

A friend introduced me to the hymn a few years back. She had sent me a recording of a previous retuning of the hymn and asked if I would take a stab at it. She loved the lyrics, but wished for a more fitting melody. That was my aim, whether it was achieved or not is up to the listener! I do love the way the lyrics express the perspective of a pilgrim keenly aware of his own feebleness but joyfully reliant on the strength of his Savior. So I wanted to convey the earnest and honest nature of the lyrics by putting together a simple, folksy arrangement. And I wanted to give the song a bit of a “plodding” feel, given the emphasis on walking with the Lord. My hope is that people hear the lyrics and are grateful for the faithfulness of Christ in the failings of his people.[7]

Damico’s version was recorded on the album Hope of Every Promise (2017), featuring vocalist Rachel Ware, with guitar and backing vocals by Damico. A chord chart was distributed through the church’s website.

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
4 August 2020

Footnotes:

1. Mel Wilhoit, “Charles Hutchinson Gabriel,” A Guide to the Principal Authors and Composers of Gospel Song of the Nineteenth Century, dissertation (Louisville: Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1982), p. 134; citing The Gospel Choir, vol. 4, no. 7 (October 1918).

2. Edwin A. Schell, “The Secretary’s Corner,” The Epworth Herald, vol. 8, no. 2 (12 June 1897), p. 27: Google Books

3. Charles H. Gabriel, Sixty Years of Gospel Song (Chicago: Hope, ca. 1932), p. 22.

4. Email correspondence from Christopher Miner, 29 July 2020.

5. Email correspondence from Kevin Twit, 29 July 2020.

6. Email correspondence from Christopher Miner, 29 July 2020.

7. Email correspondence from Matt Damico, 3 August 2020.

Related Resources:

“His Love Can Never Fail,” Kenwood Music:
https://kenwoodmusic.bandcamp.com/track/his-love-can-never-fail-ft-rachel-ware

“His Love Can Never Fail,” Indelible Grace Hymn Book:
http://hymnbook.igracemusic.com/hymns/his-love-can-never-fail

“His Love Can Never Fail,” Hymnary.org:
https://hymnary.org/text/i_do_not_ask_to_see_the_way_my_feet