{"id":2991,"date":"2015-07-03T09:47:05","date_gmt":"2015-07-03T13:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/?p=2991"},"modified":"2021-07-08T11:56:47","modified_gmt":"2021-07-08T15:56:47","slug":"must-i-go-and-empty-handed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/2015\/07\/03\/must-i-go-and-empty-handed\/","title":{"rendered":"Must I Go, and Empty-Handed?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve had the following hymn on my heart this week…<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMust I go, and empty-handed,\u201d
\nThus my dear Redeemer meet?
\nNot one day of service give Him,
\nLay no trophy at His feet?<\/p>\n

Refrain:<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u201cMust I go, and empty-handed?\u201d<\/strong>
\nMust I meet my Savior so?<\/strong>
\nNot one soul with which to greet Him,<\/strong>
\nMust I empty-handed go?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not at death I shrink or falter,
\nFor my Savior saves me now;
\nBut to meet Him empty-handed,
\nThought of that now clouds my brow.<\/p>\n

\u201cMust I go, and empty-handed?\u201d
\n<\/strong>Must I meet my Savior so?<\/strong>
\nNot one soul with which to greet Him,<\/strong>
\nMust I empty-handed go?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh, the years in sinning wasted,
\nCould I but recall them now,
\nI would give them to my Savior,
\nTo His will I\u2019d gladly bow.<\/p>\n

\u201cMust I go, and empty-handed?\u201d
\n<\/strong>Must I meet my Savior so?<\/strong>
\nNot one soul with which to greet Him,<\/strong>
\nMust I empty-handed go?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh, ye saints, arouse, be earnest,
\nUp and work while yet \u2019tis day;
\nEre the night of death o\u2019ertake thee,
\nStrive for souls while still you may.<\/p>\n

\u201cMust I go, and empty-handed?\u201d
\n<\/strong>Must I meet my Savior so?<\/strong>
\nNot one soul with which to greet Him,<\/strong>
\nMust I empty-handed go?<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Charles C. Luther)<\/p>\n

The lyrics are not what one would call “happy” or “joyful”…but rather sober and soul-searching. While thinking on the chorus again this morning, the following verse came to my mind –<\/p>\n

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs<\/span>, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Colossians 3:16<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This verse implies that the songs we sing should teach and\/or admonish us in our Christian walk. This hymn, written in 1877, would fall under the category of admonition. Although there are still many good songs being written today, sometimes I fear we are getting away from hymns that make us feel uncomfortable – lyrics that convict us.<\/p>\n

The story behind this hymn is as follows:<\/p>\n

[ Lu\u00adther heard Rev. A. G. Up\u00adham tell the sto\u00adry of a young man who was about to die. He\u2019d on\u00adly been a Christ\u00adian for a month, and was sad be\u00adcause he\u2019d had so lit\u00adtle time to serve the Lord. He said, \u201cI am not afraid to die; Je\u00adsus saves me now. But must I go em\u00adpty hand\u00aded?\u201d This in\u00adci\u00addent prompt\u00aded the writ\u00ading of the song. ]<\/strong><\/p>\n

While reading that account this morning I couldn’t help but think – this young man, though only saved a month, was grieved because he was dying and had had so little time to serve the Lord. Yet, how many of us (myself included) who have been saved for years, will have many wasted hours, days, years for which to give an account?<\/p>\n

“I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” John 9:4<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve had the following hymn on my heart this week… \u201cMust I go, and empty-handed,\u201d Thus my dear Redeemer meet? Not one day of service give Him, Lay no trophy at His feet? Refrain: \u201cMust I go, and empty-handed?\u201d Must I meet my Savior so? Not one soul with which to greet Him, Must I empty-handed go? Not at death I shrink or falter, For my Savior saves me now; But to meet Him empty-handed, Thought of that now clouds my brow. \u201cMust I go, and empty-handed?\u201d Must I meet my Savior so? Not one soul with which to greet Him, Must I empty-handed go? Oh, the years in sinning wasted, Could I but recall them now, I would give them to my Savior, To His will I\u2019d gladly bow. \u201cMust I go, and empty-handed?\u201d Must I meet my Savior so? Not one soul with which to greet Him, Must I empty-handed go? Oh, ye saints, arouse, be earnest, Up and work while yet \u2019tis day; Ere the night of death o\u2019ertake thee, Strive for souls while still you may. \u201cMust I go, and empty-handed?\u201d Must I meet my Savior so? Not one soul with which to greet Him, Must I empty-handed go? (Charles C. Luther) The lyrics are not what one would call “happy” or “joyful”…but rather sober and soul-searching. While thinking on the chorus again this morning, the following verse came to my mind – “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Colossians 3:16 This verse implies that the songs we sing should teach and\/or admonish us in our Christian walk. This hymn, written in 1877, would fall under the category of admonition. Although there are still many good songs being written today, sometimes I fear we are getting away from hymns that make us feel uncomfortable – lyrics that convict us. The story behind this hymn is as follows: [ Lu\u00adther heard Rev. A. G. Up\u00adham tell the sto\u00adry of a young man who was about to die. He\u2019d on\u00adly been a Christ\u00adian for a month, and was sad be\u00adcause he\u2019d had so lit\u00adtle time to serve the Lord. He said, \u201cI am not afraid to die; Je\u00adsus saves me now. But must I go em\u00adpty hand\u00aded?\u201d This in\u00adci\u00addent prompt\u00aded the writ\u00ading of the song. ] While reading that account this morning I couldn’t help but think – this young man, though only saved a month, was grieved because he was dying and had had so little time to serve the Lord. Yet, how many of us (myself included) who have been saved for years, will have many wasted hours, days, years for which to give an account? “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” John 9:4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,21,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-growing","category-serving","category-song"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4o6C2-Mf","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2991"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11138,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2991\/revisions\/11138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}