Sweet By And By

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

Audio version at http://tinyurl.com/33tu94

I’m very allergic to poison ivy. If I’m just in the vicinity of it I’ll start to break out. And when that happens you’d better believe that I retrieve the proper medications to nip that problem in the bud. Most of us are familiar with the process of obtaining a prescription for an illness. For most problems we have we can also find a cure. Of course, some people will stubbornly hang on to their ailments and will refuse the cure. But then most sensible people I know wouldn’t delay that cure for long.

Sometimes the problems we face are not physical, but rather they are emotional, psychological or even spiritual. But the same process usually applies when looking for a cure. Diagnose the problem, prescribe a cure or treatment and then apply that treatment as directed.

In the dreary days of winter many people fight depression. The same can be said of those rainy days or days when a person is confined alone at home. Many situations can bring about depression, gloom, sadness or even hopelessness.

One person who seemed to be perpetually gloomy was Joseph Webster. He’s the kind of person that was always in need of a prescription for the blues. Fortunately, his friend, Sanford Bennett, had just the cure he needed.

Bennett owned a drug store in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. Webster was a frequent visitor to the store and at times they collaborated on a few songs. Bennett wrote the words and Webster wrote the music.

On one particularly melancholy day, Webster was really down on everything. As he poured out his personal troubles, pains and heartaches, Bennett said, “It’s no matter. It will be all right by and by.” The words struck a chord and Bennett quickly wrote down the words that would become the song, “Sweet By And By.” Then as if a prescription for the blues, he handed over these words to his friend and asked him to write the music for that song.

And so he did. That turned out to be good medicine for Webster who completed the musical score to the song in about 30 minutes.

Listen to the first verse and chorus of this song.

There’s a land that is fairer than day,

And by faith we can see it afar,

For the Father waits over the way,

To prepare us a dwelling place there.

In the sweet, by and by,

We shall meet on that beautiful shore,

In the sweet, by and by,

We shall meet on that beautiful shore.

There are many things that cause us pain and difficulty in this life. These bring on depression, gloom and darkness. But beyond this life we can rest with the promise that a better life awaits us. In that sweet by and by we shall have none of these problems and we shall sing with gladness and praise for all of eternity.

Jesus tells of preparing such a place for us in John 14:1-3.

Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

On Our Daily Walk today, may we take time to thank God for His Son and for His great patience with us. May we learn to accept that we will not know all answers in this life, but in the sweet by and be we shall be comforted and enlightened.

Our thought for the day: “Jesus came to earth from heaven that we might go to heaven from earth.”

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.