Thursday, September 17, 2009

Lost and Found, Part 12 of 78

TEXT: "So He spoke this parable to them, saying, 'What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, "Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!" I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance' " (Luke 15:3-7).

Hymn program on “The Ninety and Nine”

Haddon Robinson narrating

I attended a Christian college. Every year in the spring we had a Bible conference. That’s where I met “Ninety and Nine” Brown. I’m sure that “Ninety and Nine” wasn’t his real first name, but that is what the students called him.

Mr. Brown was an evangelistic singer. He was an elderly gentleman from the old school of gospel singers. As far as I can remember the only song we ever heard him sing was “The Ninety and Nine.” In fact, he didn’t exactly sing it, he spoke it to music. It resembled opera, a story put to music. If “Ninety and Nine” Brown had other songs in his repertoire, he never sang them to us. One year he forgot the lyrics—right in the middle—and he had to excuse himself. Someone told me that he decided after that he would never sing in public again. The students didn’t hold his lapse of memory against him. He held it against himself.

That was the last time I heard “The Ninety and Nine” sung. It is based on the story in Luke 15 where Jesus asked, “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”

The song was set to music by Ira Sankey in 1874. Mr. Sankey was the music leader for the noted evangelist, Dwight L. Moody. Mr. Sankey found the words to the hymn in a little piece of poetry printed in the corner of a newspaper in Scotland. He determined that when he had time he would set the words to music.

A day or two later Mr. Moody was preaching at a noon meeting in Edinburgh. He preached on “The Good Shepherd.” When he was finished, he turned to Sankey and asked him to sing a solo to conclude the service. At that moment Sankey felt prompted to sing the poem he had found in the paper even though he had written no music for it. He lifted his heart in prayer, and his voice in song.

This is how Ira Sankey described that experience. “Laying my hands upon the organ, I struck the key of A flat, and began to sing. Note by note the tune was given, which has not been changed from that day to this.”

Wherever Mr. Sankey sang that hymn in Britain or the United States, it moved people deeply. It wooed men and women to the Savior. It comforted those who were dying. Mr. Brown had heard it as a small boy, and he sang it for the rest of his life.

We have different music today. That’s as it should be. Every generation of Christians and every culture finds new ways to express its faith and sing its praise. Yet, we can profit from listening to hymns God has used to tell people in ways that touch the core of our lives the old, old story of Jesus.

Ninety and Nine Brown isn’t here now. The Shepherd has taken him home. But listen once more to that old gospel song “The Ninety and Nine.”