He gives us more grace when the burdens grow greater

If it is true that the first line ‘says it all’, Annie Johnson Flint’s song also succeeds in sustaining and developing its thought; there is no sense of anticlimax but rather of growing conviction. More than most, the American author from New Jersey had cause to appreciate the divine strength sustaining her through severe disability, since having been orphaned at 6 she suffered from progressive arthritis which gradually reduced her ability to walk, play the piano and then even to hold a pen. The text was printed on a sequence of cards in the New York ‘Casterline Card’ series; its first known subsequent publication was in The Officer of May 1928, when she was 66. It became more widely known by its posthumous appearance in the 1957 book Annie Johnson Flint’s Best Loved Poems. It was there headed ‘He giveth more’, with parts of James 4:6, Isaiah 40:29 and Jude 2. Her original words began ‘He giveth … he sendeth …’, and ended ‘He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again!’. 2.2,4 had ‘… ere the day is half done … / … is only begun’. Triple repetitions go well in last lines; cf 877.

Two tunes have been written which match the distinctive rhythm of these words. CH uses Hubert Mitchell’s (undated) HE GIVETH MORE GRACE, clearly intended for them; here stz 3 is not a separate verse, but used as a chorus after 1 and 2. More recently in 1982, Jane Marshall composed ANNIVERSARY SONG for her own text What gift can we bring, what present, what token. The tune name reflects the occasion of the writing, which was the 25th anniversary of her home church, the Northaven United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas. Those words have yet to appear in a British hymnal, and this may be the first use of the music in the UK.

b Vineland, NJ, USA, 1866, d Clifton Springs, New York, USA 1932. Born to Eldon and Mrs Johnson who both died before Annie was 6. Adopted with her sister by the Flint family, she was writing verse by the age of 9 and learned to play the piano setting several poems to music. Choosing to keep both surnames, she went to school at Trenton, NJ, and became a teacher, but progressive arthritis soon took over and 5 years later she could no longer walk. She moved to be near Clifton Springs Sanitarium, where she could be hostess to several ministers, missionaries, teachers and other Christian workers. So long as she could still sit at her piano and play she concentrated on her music, but soon even that became impossible as her hands were so affected. Even her poetry was restricted when she could no longer write, but she still persevered by tapping the typewriter keys with her knuckles. Her poems were printed on a series of published cards as well as in books and periodicals; some were set to music as hymns, and her remarkably contented Christian faith is reflected by the hymn for which she is best remembered, as here. One of her ‘card verses’ still in use among sufferers is headed ‘Promises’ and carries a similar message to that of the hymn: ‘God has not promised skies always blue/ flower-strewn pathways all our lives through…But God has promised strength for the day,/ rest for the labour, light for the way’, etc. A biography, The Making of the Beautiful, was written by Dr Bingham, and some time in the 1970s (?undated) over 100 of her ‘Best-loved Poems’ were published in Toronto with an appreciative Foreword by Dr J H Hunter. Many of these are reflections on God’s creation, not without flashes of humour, and they include ‘Christ has no hands but our hands/ To do his work today.’ No.896.