It's incredible to me to see how God uses His people throughout history to bring glory to His name. He uses the weak things to confound the wise; the base things to bring to nothing the wisdom of earthly wise men. God uses physical weakness, hardship, loss, grief, toil, and pain to increase our spiritual treasures and build His Kingdom here on the earth!
This hymn became precious to my family and me several years ago as we awaited the birth of our fourth genetically challenged baby. We knew she couldn't stay with us very long. She passed away at just three days old. After researching this hymn, I was amazed to find out that the man whose story had inspired this hymn had lost eight out of his nine children.
The story of this man is a notable one. His 61 years on earth were marked by grief and loss, persecution and imprisonment. Yet, his dedication to Christ was outstanding, and his fire for God and zeal for preaching the gospel never waned until his last day.
Samuel Rutherford, son of a prosperous farmer, was born in the year 1600. His life began in the small village of Nisbet, Scotland. As we glimpse into his life, we notice the hand of God at work in Samuel’s early years. At only three years old, he was playing with his friends when he fell into the town well. His sister and friends ran to get help. When they returned, they found a very wet Samuel sitting on the grass beside the well. They asked him how he got out, and his reply was, "A bonny white man came and drew me out of the well." His family believed that God sent an angel to rescue him that day.
From what we know about Samuel Rutherford, he had two brothers and one sister. He was sent to school when he was young, and he became a very diligent scholar. He learned Latin and Greek so well that he eventually became a professor. He married Eupham Hamilton around 1624, soon after he began teaching at Edinburgh University. At this time, Samuel was yet unconverted and cared only for pursuing his academic goals.
In 1626, at the age of 26, Samuel came to a clear and saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, "O but Christ hath a saving eye. When He first looked on me I was saved. It cost Him but a look to make hell quit to me." From that moment he was filled with a passion to preach and to speak about his Saviour. This change of life caused such a stir in the university that Rutherford ended up resigning his professorship.
In 1627, Samuel took his wife and two young children to Galloway, Scotland, where he began pastoring the small church of Anwoth. As he commenced his calling there he said, "I have received the commission from the royal and princely Master, my Lord Jesus, to preach Christ to the people." His passion was for the conversion of the people, and it is said that he seemed to be always praying, always preaching, always visiting the sick, always teaching and instructing, always writing or studying. The zeal with which he preached and his concern for the welfare of his congregation had a great effect on them. Not only them, but folks came from the surrounding towns and villages to hear his preaching. A friend once reported, "Many times I thought he would have flown out of the pulpit when he came to speak of Jesus Christ."
Samuel was not estranged from grief and sorrow. In 1631, only four short years after he began his work as a pastor, his wife passed away. His two children also became ill and left this world. In 1636, after nine years of preaching, he was banished to Aberdeen, where he was forbidden to preach the gospel. This was a very difficult time for him as he greatly missed his wife and children as well as his congregation, the Church at Anwoth. This time in his life is indeed one reason he is so well remembered, for he began writing letters back to his church people and friends. Out of the 365 letters he wrote, 220 of them were written during these 22 months of banishment.
The government eventually changed hands, which gave more liberty to the non-conformist Covenanters. Thereupon Rutherford quickly returned to his beloved flock at Anwoth. About a year later, in the fall of 1639, he again reluctantly left Anwoth but this time to fulfill an appointment to become Professor of Divinity at St Mary's College in St. Andrews. This change was difficult for him, as he again greatly missed his congregation. He writes, "My removal from my flock is so heavy to me, that it maketh my life a burden to me, I had never such a longing for death. The Lord help and hold up this sad clay."
After five months in his new position and having been alone for nearly ten years, the 40-year-old Samuel married Jean McMath. Together they had seven children. Sadly, six of them died in infancy and early childhood. Only a daughter named Agnes survived to adulthood.
Rutherford continued to be an influential leader in the non-conformist movement in Scotland for the next 20 years until 1660. With the death of Cromwell, the rule of the commonwealth came to an end, and Charles II was restored to power. Once again, the wrath of the monarchy fell on Samuel. He was summoned to appear before the judge and charged with high treason against the government for preaching the truth. He was put in prison to await execution. However, before the king could put him to death, Samuel became quite sick. He said, "I have a summons already from a superior Judge, and I behoove to answer my first summons and when your day arrives I shall be where few Kings and great folks come."
Late in the afternoon of the last day of his life in answer to the question, "What think ye now of Christ?" answered thusly, "Oh, that all my brethren in the land may know what a Master I have served, and what peace I have this day! I shall sleep in Christ, and when I awake, I shall be satisfied with His likeness. This night shall close the door, and put my anchor within the veil, and I shall go away in a sleep by five of the clock in the morning. Glory! glory to my Creator and my Redeemer forever! I Shall live and adore Him. Oh, for arms to embrace Him! Oh, for a well-tuned harp! Glory! glory dwelleth in Immanuel's land!" These words were heard by his wife, daughter and friends, and he was indeed with his Lord by five in the morning.
Nearly two centuries later, Annie Ross Cousin, a Scottish poet and hymn writer and the wife of a minister, was inspired by the life and writings of Samuel Rutherford. She summarized his life in a biographical hymn,"The Sands of Time are Sinking". This hymn was first published in 1857 in the Christian Treasury. Out of the nineteen original verses, only four are used in our hymn books. (in bold copy)
The sands of time are sinking,
The dawn of heaven breaks,
The summer morn I’ve sighed for,
The fair, sweet morn awakes:
Dark, dark hath been the midnight,
But dayspring is at hand,
And glory—glory dwelleth
In Immanuel’s land.
2. Oh! well it is forever,
Oh! well forevermore
My nest hung in no forest
Of all this death-doomed shore!
Yea, let the vain world vanish,
As from the ship the stand,
While glory—glory dwelleth
In Immanuel’s land.
3. There the Red Rose of Sharon
Unfolds its heart-most bloom.
And fills the air of Heaven
With ravishing perfume;
Oh, to behold its blossom,
While by its fragrance fann’d
Where glory—glory dwelleth
In Immanuel’s land.
4. The King there in His beauty,
Without a veil is seen:
It were a well-spent journey
Though seven deaths lay between:
The Lamb with His fair army,
Doth on Mount Zion stand;
And glory—glory dwelleth
In Immanuel’s land.
5. Oh! Christ He is the fountain,
The deep sweet well of Love!
The streams on earth I’ve tasted,
More deep I’ll drink above;
There, to an ocean fullness,
His mercy doth expand,
And glory—glory dwelleth
In Immanuel’s land.
6. E’en Anwoth was not heaven—
E’en preaching was not Christ;
And in my sea-beat prison
My Lord and I held tryst:
And aye my murkiest storm-cloud
Was by a rainbow spann’d,
Caught from the glory dwelling
In Immanuel’s land.
7. But that He built a heaven
Of His surpassing love,
A little New Jerus’lem,
Like to the one above,—
“Lord, take me o’er the water,”
Had been my loud demand,
“Take me to love’s own country,
Unto Immanuel’s land.”
8. But flowers need night’s cool darkness,
The moonlight and the dew;
So Christ, from one who loved it,
His shining oft withdrew;
And then, for cause of absence,
My troubled soul I scann’d—
But glory, shadeless, shineth
In Immanuel’s land.
9. The little birds of Anwoth,
used to count them blest,—
Now, beside happier alters,
go to built my nest:
O’er these there broods no silence,
No graves around them stand,
For glory, deathless, dwelleth
In Immanuel’s land.
10. Fair Anwoth by the Solway,
To me thou still art dear!
E’en from the verge of Heaven
I drop for thee a tear.
Oh! if one soul from Anwoth
Meet me at God’s right hand,
My Heaven will be two Heavens,
In Immanuel’s land!
11. I’ve wrestled on towards Heaven,
‘Ganst storm, and wind, and tide;—
Now, like a weary traveler,
That leaneth on his guide,
Amid the shades of evening,
While sinks life’s ling’ring sand,
I hail the glory dawning
From Immanuel’s land.
12. Deep waters cross’d life’s pathway,
The hedge of thorns was sharp;
Now these lie all behind me,—
Oh, for a well-tuned harp!
Oh, to join Hallelujah
With yon triumphant band,
Who sing where glory dwelleth
In Immanuel’s land!
13. With mercy and with judgment
My web of time He wove,
And aye the dews of sorrow
Were lustered with His love!
I’ll bless the hand that guided,
I’ll bless the heart that plann’d,
When throned where glory dwelleth
In Immanuel’s land.
14. Soon shall the cup of glory
Wash down earth’s bitterest woes,
Soon shall the desert brier
Break into Eden’s rose:
The curse shall change to blessing–
The name on earth that’s bann’d,
Be graven on the white stone
In Immanuel’s land.
15. Oh! I am my Beloved’s,
And my Beloved’s mine!
He brings a poor vile sinner
Into His “house of wine:”
I stand upon His merit,
I know no other stand,
Not e’en where glory dwelleth
In Immanuel’s land.
16. I shall sleep sound in Jesus,
Fill’d with His likeness rise,
To live and to adore Him,
To see Him with these eyes:
‘Tween me and resurrection
But Paradise doth stand;
Then—then for glory dwelling
In Immanuel’s land!
17. The bride eyes not her garment,
But her dear Bridegroom’s face;
I will not gaze at glory,
But on my King of Grace—
Not at the crown He giveth,
But on His pierced hand:
The Lamb is all the glory
Of Immanuel’s land.
18. I have borne scorn and hatred,
I have borne wrong and shame,
Earth’s proud ones have reproach’d me,
For Christ’s thrice blessed name:
Where God His seal set fairest
They’ve stamp’d their foulest brand;
But judgment shines like noonday
In Immanuel’s land.
19. They’ve summoned me before them,
But there I may not come,—
My Lord says, “Come up hither,”
My Lord says, “Welcome home!
My King now at His white throne,
My presence doth command,
Where glory—glory dwelleth
In Immanuel’s land.
The fine complementary tune for this text was composed in the early 1800s by a French musician, Chretien D`Urhan. It is well fitted to the words of the hymn—its solemn tempo matches the solemnity of the words. The rising melodic line of the last phrase perfectly matches the anticipated joy expressed by the refrain—"And glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel's land."
As we conclude this hymn history, let us continue to marvel at the providence of God in the lives of those who have gone before us. May we follow Christ with all our hearts and be vessels ready for the Master's use! One last quote by Samuel Rutherford to take with us. "They lose nothing who gain Christ."
The information for this article was sourced from 101 Hymn Stories, A Treasury of Hymns, Crichbaptist.org.
