Robin Hardy Online
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Charles Wesley wrote these lines in 1738, and the tune "Martyn" was written by Simeon B. Marsh in 1834. A true story about this hymn and tune occurred during the Civil War.
Levi Hefner, a Confederate courier, was sent by his commanding officer, General Robert E. Lee, to take a message one night through an area partially occupied by Union troops.
As he approached a bridge, his horse balked and became very nervous. Hefner dismounted and attempted to calm his horse. He began to sing softly an old familiar hymn, "Jesus, Lover of My Soul." In a few moments the horse became quiet, and Hefner mounted his horse, crossed the bridge without incident, and completed his mission.
A number of years after the war, Hefner attended a reunion of soldiers who had fought on both sides of the conflict. Over a large area they had gathered in small groups and shared experiences they remembered from the war.
One Union soldier from Ohio remembered standing guard one dark night at a bridge. He had been ordered to shoot anyone approaching from the other side.
Throughout the lonely night, only one rider came his way, and he raised his rifle to shoot as soon as he could see the form in the darkness. However, the horse balked and the rider dismounted. In calming the horse, the rider began singing the old familiar hymn.
The Union soldier told the circle of old soldiers that the sound of the hymn so touched him that he lowered his rifle and he quietly turned away. He said, "I could not shoot him."
Levi Hefner jumped up, ran and embraced the Union soldier and said, "That was me!" He realized for the first time that his singing that dark night had saved his life.
Danny Starnes, Levi Hefner's great grandson, lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and shares this true experience out of his family's book of memories.
This article by William J. Reynolds appeared in the Waco Tribune-Herald May 14, 1983.
posted Jan. 2, 2008
