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So send I you to labor unrewarded,
To serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown,
To bear rebuke, to suffer scorn and scoffing-
So send I you to toil for Me alone.
So send I you to bind the bruised and broken,
O’er wand’ring souls to work, to weep, to wake,
To bear the burdens of a world aweary-
So send I you to suffer for My sake.
So send I you to loneliness and longing,
With heart ahung’ring for the loved and known,
Forsaking home and kindred, friend and dear one-
So send I you to know My love alone.
So send I you to leave your life’s ambition,
To die to dear desire, self-will resign,
To labor long, and love where men revile you-
So send I you to lose your life in Mine.
So send I you to hearts made hard by hatred,
To eyes made blind because they will not see,
To spend, tho’ it be blood, to spend and spare not-
So send I you to taste of Calvary.
History
This hymn, So Send I You, has been called the greatest missionary hymn of the twentieth century. The hymn has been labelled by many evangelical leaders as the finest missionary hymn of the twentieth century. It was first published in 1954 after having been written sixteen years earlier by a Canadian school teacher, Margaret Clarkson.
“Margaret Clarkson, who was born in 1915, was a teacher in a gold-mining camp in northern Ontario, Canada. It was a lonely life for this woman, but she also knew that this is where God wanted her to serve Him. She had a great desire to be a missionary on a foreign field but because of her health was unable to go. One day she was reading again the verse John 20:21, “Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” While meditating on this verse she wrote the words to a hymn that has become a favorite during missionary conferences, “So Send I You.”
“In 1935 teaching jobs were so scarce that I had to take my first job as a teacher in a lumber camp some 1400 miles from home, out in the Rainy River District of northwestern Ontario. From there I moved to the gold mining camp of Kirkland Lake, 450 miles north of Toronto. In all, I spent seven years in the north. I experienced loneliness of every kind; mental, cultural, but particularly spiritual, for in all of those seven yeaars I never found real Christian fellowship – churches were modern and born-again Christians almost non-existent.
I was studying the Word one night and meditating on the loneliness of my situation and came in my reading to John 20, and the words ‘So send I you’. Because of a physical disability I knew that I could never go to the mission field, but God seemed to tell me that night that this was my mission field, and this was where He had sent me. I was then twenty-hree, in my third year of teaching. I had written and published verse all of my life, so it was natural to put my thoughts into verse.”
Sources:
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/c/l/a/clarkson_m.htm
http://songsandhymns.org/people/detail/e.margaret-clarkson
http://www.wheaton.edu/learnres/ARCSC/exhibits/clarkson/
http://schaefer-family.com/hymns/send.htm
http://www.volcano.net/~jackmearl/hymns/shymns/so_send_i_you.html
godwordistruth said:
Sorry for the reply but I am not the originator of the song so the copyright is not with me.
Dr. Charles C. Mullings said:
I would like permission to use either of the two lyrics of the Song: SO SEND I YOU IN A BOOK OF HE SAME TITLE, How do I obtain this permission?
Adenike said:
What a hymn coming to my mind a morning after I had chatted with a friend about loneliness disturbing the flow of my ministry. I first heard this song as a solo sang by a Sister on campus about 36 years ago. Since then I had not been able to get the lyrics, never came across the Sister who left the campus before me. I presumed maybe she composed it. I am so grateful I got it online.
Bob Ewell said:
It’s a great song. I grew up with it. But, upon reading this account, I’ve realized that most of us have missed one of its main messages. That is, we are all sent to wherever we are. This song is about the struggles she experienced at WORK, in a difficult job, not on the “mission field.”
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gloverdeb said:
We sang this song in church today and I couldn’t help the tears coming down my face because the words were real. My life has been lined up with hurt, sadness, losing our home, all in the path of service. So I understood clearly. I had to check.
Well, I understand now, that it is the call and the path of those who have chosen to preach the gospel.
I needed the history of this song and here I am. Thanks for sharing this. God bless you.
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bandile nkawule said:
You can’t help but have a missionary zeal when singing this hymm. I know a few missionaries who are encouraged and comforted by this song.
Sharon Buss said:
I received my calling to the mission field as a child when our church children’s choir sang it. I requested it from then on every time the pastor gave the opportunity.
Created ~ Create.it said:
The first time I heard of this hymn was at church today when it was mentioned by the pastor. I made a note, came home and googled it. Your site was in the selection, I clicked on it and what an awesome choice I made . I love your site but I really like this hymn too.
Elizabeth Grainger said:
I had never heard of this but after reading the beautiful words found it on itunes and bought it. I keep listening over and over again. Amazing.