Today I read about a woman named Catherine Hankey. Catherine, or Kate, grew up in London in the early 1800s. Early in life she developed a deep evangelistic concern, and she loved to lead Bible studies. She would invite people to come and hear the stories of Jesus. But at age 30 she experienced a serious illness and was unable to continue teaching and had to take time off to heal from the illness. While she was bedridden for a year, she began to write poems, and one of them became the words to the old hymn, "I Love To Tell The Story."
What intrigued me about Kate's story is the fact that although the circumstances of her life kept her from doing what she loved to do most, and was perhaps given a special calling by God to do, she still found a way to do it. Her body may have been bedridden, but she could not be stopped from telling the story she loved most. She was a 19th-century example of the heart of the apostle Peter, who said that he could not help but tell about what he had experienced with Christ(Acts 4:20). Do you know any 21st-century examples of that same heart?
I love to tell the story of unseen things above, of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love. I love to tell the story because I know 'tis true. It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do.I love to tell the story--more wonderful it seems than all the golden fancies of all our golden dreams. I love to tell the story--it did so much for me, and that is just the reason I tell it now to thee.
I love to tell the story, 'tis pleasant to repeat. What seems each time I tell it, more wonderfully sweet. I love to tell the story, for some have never heard the message of Salvation from God's own holy Word.
I love to tell the story, for those who know it best seem hungering and thirsting to hear it, like the rest. And when, in scenes of glory I sing the new, new song, 'twill be the old, old story that I have loved so long.
Chorus: I love to tell the story! 'Twill be my theme in glory--to tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love.
Here is the download file for clips of Sunday's gathering.
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