Many hymns are written out of dramatic life experiences, while others simply come from a close daily walk with the Lord. This one falls under the second category and was written by Mary Brown; there is scarce biographical information about her. It’s known that she lived toward the end of the nineteenth century in Connecticut, where she was a Sunday School teacher at the Jewett City Baptist Church. She was known locally as a writer and was described as “a woman unusually gifted with literary talent.”
The earliest printing titled this song “Go, Stand and Speak” in “The New Song,” published in 1891 by George F. Rosche. The music for this song was composed by Charles E. Prior, organist and choir director at Mary’s church. There was actually a mystery surrounding this song’s authorship. Some hymnologists suggested that Mary Brown wasn’t a real person but was a pseudonym used by Charles H. Gabriel, a prominent gospel songwriter of that day. Some hymn historians believe that Mary Brown wrote only the first verse and that Prior wrote the other verses when he composed the tune for early printing. His family suggested that he probably made suggestions for the second and third verses. He’d composed music and collaborated with others in publishing several Sunday school songbooks, but he wasn’t known for his literary ability. Local historians said that Prior’s tune was awkward and difficult to sing; it never gained popularity and wasn’t published again after 1892.
Mary Brown’s words might have been lost in obscurity if not for Carrie E. Rounsefell, a singing evangelist throughout New England who accompanied herself on an autoharp. In 1894, the pastor of the local Baptist Church in Lynn, Massachusetts, gave her a copy of the poem and asked her to provide a tune for them. She later recalled, “I took the words, got down before the Lord with my little autoharp, asked him to give me a tune, and this music was the answer.” The new tune was first sung in a revival meeting there and then printed on a leaflet to be used the following Sunday at the Bowdoin Square Baptist Church in Boston. The new song’s earliest appearance in a hymnbook was in “Best Hymns No. 2” in 1895 and has appeared in scores of hymnals since then.
This gospel song encourages believers to do the Lord’s will and follow Him wherever He leads. Ira Sankey said that a class of missionary nurses sang it every Sunday at the Battle Creek, Michigan, Sanitarium. The students, who were from all around the world, agreed that once they settled in their different places of service, they’d sing the hymn every Sunday as they had done as students.
Or over the stormy sea;
It may not be at the battle’s front
My Lord will have need of me;
But if by a still, small voice he calls
To paths that I do not know,
I’ll answer, “Dear Lord, with my hand in thine,
I’ll go where you want me to go.”
“I’ll go where you want me to go, dear Lord,
Over mountain, or plain, or sea;
I’ll say what you want me to say, dear Lord,
I’ll be what you want me to be.”
That Jesus would have me speak;
There may be now in the paths of sin,
Some wand’rer whom I should seek;
O Saviour, if thou wilt be my guide,
Though dark and obscure the way,
My voice shall echo thy message sweet,
“I’ll say what you want me to say.”
In earth’s harvest fields so wide,
Where I may labour through life’s short day
For Jesus, the crucified.
So trusting my all to thy tender care
And knowing thou lovest me,
I’ll do thy will with a heart sincere,
“I’ll be what you want me to be.”
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