When shall I come unto the healing waters?
Lifting my heart, I cry to Thee my prayer;
Spirit of peace, my comforter and healer,
In whom my springs are found,
Let my soul meet Thee there.
From a hill I know,
Healing waters flow;
O rise, Immanuel’s tide,
And my soul overflow!
Wash from my hands the dust of earthly striving;
Take from my mind the stress of secret fear;
Cleanse Thou the wounds
From all but Thee far hidden,
And when the waters flow let my healing appear.
Light, life and love are in that healing fountain,
All I require to cleanse me and restore;
Flow through my soul, redeem its desert places,
And make a garden there for the Lord I adore.
John, Chapter 5, tells us of a disabled man who waited years to reach the healing waters of the Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem and be made whole. Instead, he was healed by the words of Jesus, who found him there.
The above song speaks of the spiritual, mental and emotional healing we may receive by faith in Jesus, including because of His work on the hill of Calvary. It was written by Albert Orsborn, of whom it was said that “he was outwardly a man of energy, humour and action, but inwardly he had the sensitivity of an artist.” He was born in 1886 as the son of Salvation Army officers who helped pioneer the Army’s work in Norway. Perhaps this gave him some of his keenness and vision for the Army’s international ministry. As an officer, he held various appointments in corps(churches), training and administration, culminating in his election as General of the worldwide Salvation Army.
Orsborn felt he had inherited from his father his gift for writing poetry. His first poem was about the death of his pet canary – one of his few possessions in a home with little in the way of material goods. Even as a boy, he wrote “for the sheer enjoyment of it”, and he eventually became known as “the Army’s Poet General”. During Orsborn’s training days, Commissioner Henry Howard, recognising his poetic excellence, told him to write after every poem, “In the service of Christ”. Certainly we who sing Orsborn’s many songs are indebted to him for his service for the Lord and the way he has empathetically encouraged and challenged us. General Orsborn retired in 1954 and was Promoted to Glory in 1967.
His first poem was about the death of his pet canary Share on X
