Marsha and I have just finished a week’s vacation. As is pretty common (for us, anyway) we didn’t really go away. We had people in the hospital who were in a hard way, and it is really hard to go away when we have people in the hospital, and we had a couple of things going on here that, if we had taken off for Ohio as was planned, we would have been hard pressed to have gotten back in time. Still, we got away for two days to Michigan, which was fun. We had never been to Kalamazoo, but we are going to go back. I really appreciate Kitty taking care of leading the music, Jeff taking the role of lay leader and Tanner preaching his first ever sermon. I received good reviews all across the board. Meanwhile, only Baby Bo is still in the hospital, Marsha’s Second Saturday Craft went very well, we had our last KAIROS training and Marsha and I had a really great time in church at Walton Christian Church in Walton, Indiana.

This past Saturday, Brian Chamberlain gave me a great honor. He asked me to speak at the last KAIROS training session before we go into the prison for our weekend October 26-29. Forty men going into a prison to bring the Word of God and the blessed Good News of salvation to men who have tried everything else and now need some reality. We will let you know how that goes after the weekend, but for now I wanted to share something else.

Sharing with our KAIROS brothers, I spoke of the attitude we need going in. If we are Spiritually prepared, the Lord will give us a great victory. At the close of the talk we had a brief commissioning ceremony and then I asked the men to sing just the first verse of, what is to me, the greatest of the victory songs. “Victory in Jesus.”

To me, this hymn is an old, old friend. When I surrendered my life to the ministry, it was the song that closed the service. When I was ordained, the song highlighted the service. Back in September 2001, when our country was attacked,  in the small Ohio city I was pastoring in, when all the churches in our community were drawn to our church and, as a community of faith, we prayed and we sang and the various pastors spoke, we ended that service with “Victory in Jesus.” I had just come to believe that Christians everywhere knew and loved the hymn, just like I do.

Not so. After Communion one Sunday I asked everyone to sing this great victory song because the original Lord’s supper was the prelude to the greatest victory ever. To my surprise, not very many in our congregation knew the song. Turns out, it isn’t even in our hymnbook. The words to a hymn are everything to me and I just couldn’t understand how this great hymn and its amazing words could be passed by.

So, at the close of the KAIROS meeting I asked the men to sing “Victory in Jesus.” I suppose I just assumed that our church was an anomaly. To my surprise, only a handful of men knew the song. The meeting was in a church, so I asked them to take the hymnals and turn to the page. Going through the hymnal, I was again surprised. It wasn’t in that church hymnal, either. My thought was, “Why do we even have hymnals if “Victory in Jesus” is not included?” So, I led it and those that knew it sang it and the service ended.

But, this is a mighty song and it has a great background.

Eugene Monroe Bartlett was born on Christmas Eve in 1885 near Waynes­ville, Mis­sou­ri.  Not long after, the family moved to Sebastian County, Arkansas. Eugene grew and at a young age, accepted Christ as Savior. As a young man he at­tend­ed the Hall-Moody In­sti­tute in Mar­tin, Ten­nes­see for his religious training and William Jewell College in Li­ber­ty, Mis­sou­ri for a business education. At the tender age of thirty seven, with his life moving along well and making a great deal of money, Eugene met and married Joan Tatum and, in relatively short order, they were parents to two sons, Eugene Bartlett, Jr. and Charles Bartlett.
          All along his life’s journey, he had written wonderful and popular hymns. A young man who loved the Lord, Eugene gave of himself selflessly to the Lord’s service in the church of which he was a member. His marriage to Joan, however, spurred him a new life. In 1918, at the age of 38 Eugene quit his extremely successful secular business and created Hartford Music Company in Hartford, Arkansas. This was a company dedicated to Gospel music. Eugene, himself, wrote over 800 hymns, but through his music company he began to reach out to young men and women who wanted to learn music, who wanted to learn how to write music and who maybe had a song they wanted to share. Hartford became the jumping off point for many of the song writers we know today. He took a huge gamble as far as his livelihood was concerned. He started the company with his own money. He hired instructors to teach voice, piano, piano tuning, rudiments, harmony and stringed instruments.  He also was editor of the music magazine, Her­ald of Song. Many thought he was foolish, but that music company still exists and still puts out great music.

But then, in 1939 at the age of 54, as war raged in Europe and it became more and more apparent the US would be dragged into the conflict, this great mass of energy and joy had a stroke. His wife felt that it was because of his worry that his sons would be called away to fight in the war, but Eugene would just shake his head. Completely bedridden, barely able to talk, Eugene struggled just to stay alive. Lying alone in his bedroom, dependent on others even for his most basic needs, Eugene turned to that one thing he had always been able to turn to when he had been faced with obstacles and trials. He read from his old, battered Bible. As he got worse and worse, he one day asked for pencil and paper. There, propped up in his bed, the man made old before his time, began to write the words and music to the song that would usher him into eternity.

Victory in Jesus

I heard an old, old story, how a Savior came from glory,
How He gave His life on Calvary to save a wretch like me;
I heard about His groaning, of His precious blood's atoning,
Then I repented of my sins and won the victory.
Chorus
O victory in Jesus, my Savior, forever.
He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew Him, and all my love is due Him,
He plunged me to victory, beneath the cleansing flood.

I heard about His healing, of His cleansing pow'r revealing.
How He made the lame to walk again and caused the blind to see;
And then I cried, "Dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit,"
And somehow Jesus came and bro't to me the victory.
Chorus

I heard about a mansion, He has built for me in glory.
And I heard about the streets of gold, beyond the crystal sea;
About the angels singing, and the old redemption story,
And some sweet day I'll sing up there the song of victory!  

Chorus

I think that the thing that moves me the most in this song is in the second verse. He has heard about the healings, how the Lord made the lame to walk again and all. But when he prayed, he asked for his broken spirit to be healed, not his broken body.

Less than two years after his stroke, Eugene Bartlett died on January 25, 1941. He never got to see his sons follow him into lives of full time music ministry. He never got to grow old with Joan. He never got to see his finest work in print. But he got to see his Savior. He had his victory in Jesus.

Blessings.