So send I you

with TORONTO

I. First Version

Canadian hymn writer Margaret Clarkson (1915–2008) gave more than one account of her experience writing and revising her missionary hymn “So send I you.” In 1976, Baptist hymnal editor William Reynolds printed this account:

I grew up in an atmosphere where “laying all on the altar” was preached to the n’th degree, and the full-orbed glory of the great commission was not declared. Consequently my song was all on one vein, and not really true to the gospel, although I was not aware of this. It was written merely as a poem, not a song, and appeared in a religious magazine in 1938 or so. After that I heard nothing of it for sixteen years. Meanwhile I had moved to another church and grown up spiritually. While I like my little poem, I was by then well aware of its deficiencies. Then suddenly it appeared in John W. Peterson’s setting. He had been sent the words … with no name attached. In time I saw it and got in touch with him.[1]

In 1987, in her own collection A Singing Heart, she offered a fuller account of her personal circumstances when she wrote the first version of the hymn:

When I graduated as a teacher in 1935, jobs were so scarce that I had to go to the far north of Ontario to get work. Seven long years were to pass before I could move to a position in my home city of Toronto. During those years I experienced deep loneliness—mentally, culturally, and above all, spiritually, for I found only a few isolated Christians and no Bible-teaching church fellowship in all that time.

I was reading in John’s gospel one cold night in February, 1938, in the mining town of Kirkland Lake where I was teaching, when suddenly the words of John 20:21 leaped from the page—“As the Father has sent me, even so send I you.” As I pondered on their significance, God seemed to speak to me. I had long known that because of a physical disability I could never go to the mission field, but that night God seemed to say to me that this lonely spot was where he had put me—my mission field. I had written verse all my life so it was natural for me to respond in the words of a poem; I wrote the first version of “So send I you” that evening. Little did I think that it would one day be sung all over the world as a missionary hymn![2]

In an interview with hymnologist David W. Music, published in 1994, she gave a similar account, but added some other details:

What I didn’t know at the time was that I had been alone there for three years and wondering if I was ever going to get back to civilization. And I wasn’t doing anything for the Lord—there wasn’t much I could do in that situation—so I was very—I wouldn’t say I was low in my mind, but I was hurting inside. It so happened that I had sent a copy of the poem to a friend who passed it on to a printer, never mentioning it to me. (Well, I was living 1500 miles away from any place anyway!) One fine day some years later, I got a letter that someone had set the poem to music—again without permission. The plot thickens, because John Peterson had found it, and he was using it on the air. Anyway, that’s how it got loose.[3]

The initial printing of the hymn was in the Toronto-based periodical The Evangelical Christian, vol. 35, no. 1 (January 1939 | Fig. 1), where it was headed “As the Father hath sent me,” given in five stanzas of four lines with a coda, “So send I you! / Lord, here am I! / Send me!” In this example, the text was properly credited to Clarkson even though it had been submitted without her knowledge or permission.

In 1954, Clarkson’s text was brought to the attention of musician John W. Peterson (1921–2006) in Chicago. Peterson gave his own account to William Reynolds in 1976:

In the summer of 1954, I was on the staff of Moody Bible Institute radio station WMBI in Chicago. One of the girls in the office handed me a poem one day that had impressed her. She thought I could possibly read it on one of the programs I conducted called “The Shut-In Hour.” The poem was “So send I you.” I did use it and was deeply moved by the verses, so much so that I tucked them away in my briefcase that I would be carrying to Kansas a few weeks later for a summer vacation.

One morning during my vacation in Wichita, Kansas, while improvising at the piano at the home of my mother, with the lines of the poem before me, the melody came. As I sang it through, I was again deeply moved by the power of the lyrics. I called some of my family who were present to come to the piano and hear the new song. Their reaction was the same as mine. Somehow I sensed in my heart that God was going to use this song.[4]

Peterson’s musical setting was first published in Low Voice No. 1 (1954 | Fig. 2), part of the Melody-Aire series produced by the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, later acquired and reprinted by Zondervan’s Singspiration brand. Peterson’s arrangement was for unison voices and accompaniment, using all five of Clarkson’s stanzas unchanged, but Peterson replaced the original coda with a short chorus saying “As the Father hath sent me, so send I you.” This first issue of the song was headed “As sung by Bill Pearce of WMBI.” In this 1954 printing, Clarkson was not credited.

This version of the song was repeated in Singspiration’s Low Voice, Vol. 9 (1957), properly credited to Clarkson, and it appeared in other collections. A four-part hymnic harmonization was issued by Singspiration in Choir Favorites, Vol. 3 (1960). Peterson’s tune was later dubbed TORONTO, in honor of Clarkson’s hometown. Some later publications of this setting include an instruction to only sing the chorus after the last stanza.

Although not mentioned in any account of the hymn, “So send I you” was printed in Singspiration Annual, Vol. 1 (1963 | Fig. 3) with a new tune by Clarkson. Clarkson was a musician and wrote and taught about music in her career as an educator. In this case, Clarkson moved the chorus to the beginning as an introduction. This tune was apparently not widely known and not repeated elsewhere.

II. Second Version

In spite of the success of the hymn and repeated appearances in Singspiration songbooks and some other collections, Clarkson was not satisfied with her original text. She explained in A Singing Heart:

As I grew in knowledge of the Scriptures, I came to realize that this text, written when I was only 22, was really very one-sided: it told only of the difficulties and privations of the missionary call, and none of its triumph and glory. It is true that the badge of Christian discipleship is a cross; it is equally true that the cross is crowned with eternal glory. In 1962, while on vacation at the Severn River, I wrote a second text. This set forth the true teaching of the Word of God on our Lord’s missionary call, showing its sorrows but also showing its triumph and joy. . . .

While the original song is still widely sung, I am happy to see that many of the newer hymnals are dropping that text in favor of the newer one, which undoubtedly is the more biblical hymn. I wish above all to be a biblical writer.[5]

Clarkson’s new words also suggested the need for a new tune. Peterson wrote his second tune at this time, a manuscript copy of which is held in Clarkson’s papers at Wheaton College.

The new text and tune were printed together in Miracle Melodies, Book 5 (1964 | Fig. 5).

III. Legacy and Assessment

Peterson’s second tune has largely been ignored by hymnal compilers in favor his first. In A Singing Heart, Clarkson remarked, “These new words need a more triumphant tune than either of the two earlier ones,” and she listed eight possibilities, her most preferred being WELWYN, by Alfred Scott-Gatty (1847–1918), from Arundel Hymns (1902).

Clarkson’s new text was adopted into other hymnals and songbooks, and for thirty years both versions continued to circulate, the older version appearing, for example, in the Ambassador Hymnal (1994). In one notable example of a hymnal editor choosing the older over the newer, Donald Hustad explained his retention of the old version in Hymns for the Living Church (1974):

She said that in later years she came to know that there is joy in obedience, and regretted the somber tone of the hymn. In fact, she wrote another “optimistic” version. However, God has used and blessed the original setting, and it seems to be preferred.[6]

Clarkson later acknowledged the appeal of the older text and described the relationship between the two versions:

… the emotional appeal of the older one is stronger than that of the newer one, simply because I was older, and I knew it isn’t the emotion that is needed in a hymn, it was really a solid theology. Let’s say that the first version of “So send I you” was unconsciously a hymn, but grew past it. . . . The second version of “So send I you” is not the best thing I have ever written, but at the time it was greatly loved and used.[7]

Baptist pastor Bob Cummings described the difference between the two texts via a spiritual metaphor:

Sometimes one’s point of view makes all the difference in the world. Two little girls were sent by their mother to gather wild blackberries for a pie. Both soon discovered that the tangled, thorny bushes grabbed at their clothes and tore at their skin. One was so upset because of the difficulties that she returned home immediately—with an empty bucket. The second daughter returned later, a bit disheveled and covered with little scratches, but her bucket was filled with sweet, juicy berries. “It’ll be worth it all when I taste the pie,” she said.

The author of this hymn, Margaret Clarkson, knew well that Christian service as a missionary can be like picking blueberries—a long and uncomfortable task. With that perspective she wrote the hymn “So send I you—to labor unrewarded.” It spoke in somber, even dismal tones of serving “unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown.” Its selfless frame of mind captured the imagination of many hearty souls and stirred many Christians to sacrificial service.

Later she wrote, . . . “It is true that the badge of Christian discipleship is a cross; it is equally true that the cross is crowned with eternal glory.” Consequently, she wrote a second version—the one included here—and urged hymnal editors to use it instead of the earlier text.[8]

Clarkson’s second version, at the end, quotes Matthew 25:23, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” which aptly reflects the real spiritual reward of selfless Christian service: acknowledgement and reward from the One who calls his people to a life of humble commitment.

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
12 June 2020

Footnotes:

1. William J. Reynolds, “So send I you,” Companion to Baptist Hymnal (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1976), p. 197.

2. Margaret Clarkson, “So send I you—by grace made strong to triumph,” A Singing Heart (Carol Stream, IL: Hope, 1987), p. 153.

3. David W. Music, “An interview with Margaret Clarkson,” The Hymn, vol. 45, no. 3 (July 1994), p. 9: HathiTrust

4. William J. Reynolds, “So send I you,” Companion to Baptist Hymnal (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1976), p. 197.

5. Margaret Clarkson, “So send I you—by grace made strong to triumph,” A Singing Heart (Carol Stream, IL: Hope, 1987), p. 153.

6. Donald Hustad, “So send I you,” Dictionary-Handbook to Hymns for the Living Church (Carol Stream, IL: Hope, 1978), p. 160.

7. David W. Music, “An interview with Margaret Clarkson,” The Hymn, vol. 45, no. 3 (July 1994), p. 9: HathiTrust

8. Bob Cummings, “So send I you—by grace made strong,” The Worshiping Church: Worship Leaders’ Edition (Carol Stream, IL: Hope, 1990), no. 732.

Links:

“So send I you—to labor unrewarded,” Hymnary.org:
https://hymnary.org/text/so_send_i_you_to_labor_unrewarded

“So send I you—by grace made strong to triumph,” Hymnary.org:
https://hymnary.org/text/so_send_i_you_by_grace_made_strong