Description
A Deedest – Not A Creedest
“When sore trials came upon you, did you think to pray?
When your soul was filled with sorrow, Balm of Gilead did you borrow, at the gates of day.
O how praying rests the weary. Prayer will change the night today. So when life gets dark and dreary, don’t forget to pray.”
It is thought by some that no one can write creatively without inserting themselves into their text. This hymn was written by Mary Ann Kidder in 1875. Could these powerful words from the hymn Did You Think To Pray, have come from a life of personal experience.
Mary Ann Pepper was born March 16, 1820, in Boston Massachusetts, the daughter of a master mariner.
It is said when Mary Ann was 16 years-old she suddenly went blind. It was thought she would never recover but a year later her sight returned. It was considered a miracle.
In 1844, she married Ellis Usher Kidder and together they had three children. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Ellis enlisted in the Union army. Six days after the Battle of Antietam, Ellis passed away, leaving Mary Ann “filled with sorrow” and three small children to support. She took to writing in earnest as a mean of supporting herself. It would not be the end of her “sore trials.” On August 3, 1865, her youngest son, Walter drowned. Life would again become “dark and dreary” for Mary Ann as her beloved daughter, May, passed away April 11, 1883.
When Mary Ann wrote of pleading for grace “That you might forgive another, who had crossed you on your way,” was that again wisdom gained from a life well-lived? Perhaps. Mary Ann’s daughter-in-law, Augusta said of her, “[she] was not hedged about by doctrinal or a dogmatic belief. She was a deedest, not a creedest, believing fully in the humanitarian idea of tolerance.” There is evidence to support the idea that she was something of a non-conformist to the prevailing churches of the day.
When she wrote of pleading for “Loving favor as a shield today,” surely, she was the master of the art. Augusta wrote of her, “Nothing ever marred her serenity, and everybody found in her a sympathetic listener…. Her will was of iron, but she never allowed her ideas to interfere with another’s; she respected every one’s opinion.”
If a hymn ever bespoke the character its author, Did You Think To Pray is surely one of those. Mary Ann Pepper Kidder passed away November 24, 1905 in Chelsea Massachusetts.
Sources: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/music/library/hymns/did-you-think-to-pray?lang=eng
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.