Precious Lord Take My Hand

Thomas A. Dorsey is the author of “Precious Lord Take My Hand,” but he is not the famous band leader, Tommy Dorsey.

The author was born in Georgia in 1899, the son of a black evangelist. When the Dorsey’s moved to Atlanta, Thomas, then 11, became enamored with the blues and began playing the piano at a vaudeville theater. He later attended the College of Composition and Arranging and played on stage in one of Al Capone’s speakeasies.

Thomas Dorsey found Jesus Christ in 1921 at the National Baptist Convention in Chicago and began writing gospel songs and trying to get them published. Success came slowly, but his reputation and his work finally became widely known.

In 1932 he was called to lead the music at a great revival meeting in St. Louis. He didn’t want to go because his wife, Nettie, was expecting their first child; but he went. The next night, after leading the singing, a messenger handed him a one-line telegram: “Nettie is dead.” When he rushed home he learned that their baby boy also had died.

For several days he closeted himself away in the lonely, dark apartment they had shared. “I began to feel that God had done me an injustice,” he later wrote. “I didn’t want to serve Him anymore or write any more gospel songs.”

The following Saturday, while alone in a friend’s music room, his hands began to move over the piano keys. He felt a great calm – a quiet stillness, he later related. “As my fingers began to manipulate over the keys, words began to fall into place on the melody like drops of water falling from the crevice of a rock:

Precious Lord, take my hand. Lead me on, let me stand,

I am tired, I am weak, I am worn …”

Thomas Andrew Dorsey has authored hundreds of gospel songs, including his equally famous, “Peace in the Valley.” He is remembered as the Father of Gospel Music.

Bob Phillips, Congregational Song Leader

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The U in Jesus

Before U were thought of or times had begun,

God even stuck U in the name of His Son.

And each time U pray, you’ll see it’s true.

You can’t spell JesUs and not include U.

You’re a pretty big part of His wonderful name,

For U, He was born; that’s why He came.

And His great love for U is the reason He died,

It even takes U to spell crucified.

Isn’t it thrilling and splendidly grand,

He rose from the dead, with U in His plan.

The stones split away, the gold trumpet blew,

And His resUrrection was all about U.

When JesUs left earth at His upward ascension,

He felt there was one thing He just had to mention.

“Go into the world and tell them it’s true,

That I love them all-----

Just like I love U.

So many great people are spelled with a U,

Don’t they have a right to know JesUs too?

It all depends now on what U will do,

He’d like them to know,

But it all starts with U!

May U trust God that U are exactly where U are meant to be.

May U find peace within U.?

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