Your Mission

DESCRIPTION: "If you cannot on the ocean Sail among the swiftest fleet... You can stand among the sailors... You can lend a hand to help them, As they launch their boats away." Other examples of how, even if one cannot do great things, one can help those who do
AUTHOR: Words: Ellen H. M. Gates (1835-1920) (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (see notes)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad work
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dime-Song-Book #18, p. 26, "Your Mission" (1 text)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 117, "Fields of Labor" (1 text) (p. 98 in the 1919 edition)
Heart-Songs, pp. 274-275, "Your Mission" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14086
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Will Guide Thee" (theme)
NOTES [281 words]: There seems to be some confusion about the authorship of this song. Heart-Songs lists words by Jessie R. Gates, music by S. M. Grannis. But it is attributed to Ellen H. M. Gates by both hymnary.org and by John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), volume II, p. 1869. I've followed the attribution to Ellen H. M. Gates on the grounds that Julian and hymnary.org are more reliable and both have biographies of Ellen Gates. Hymnary.org claims that Gates wrote several other well-known songs (and a lot that aren't well known), but I didn't know any of them! The most widely printed, by far, is "I will sing you a song of that beautiful land."
(Jessie R. Gates did compose one hymn cited by Julian, p. 1639, "There Is a Peace That Cometh After Sorrow," so the confusion is understandable.)
Hymnary.org lists this to many tunes -- about 10% of found cases use "Beecher" (also known as "Zundel," after its composer) while 45% use "Hark, the Voice of Jesus Crying," which is by Grannis (1827-1907), explaining the attribution in Heart-Songs. The other 45% use a variety of tunes.
According to hymnary.org, Gates would later say of this, "The lines were written upon my slate one snowy afternoon in the winter of 1860. I knew, as I know now, that the poem was only a simple little thing, but somehow 1 had a presentiment that it had wings, and would fly into sorrowful hearts, uplifting and strengthening them."
Abraham Lincoln is said to have praised the song highly upon hearing it -- but the account in Julian is dated February 29, 1865, which is not a day that actually existed, so take that with caution! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Shoe117

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