The Cyber Hymnal ‎#6821

6821. Tell Mother I'll Be There

1. When I was but a little child how well I recollect
How I would grieve my mother with my folly and neglect;
And now that she has gone to Heav’n I miss her tender care:
O Savior, tell my mother, I’ll be there!

Refrain
Tell mother I’ll be there, in answer to her prayer;
This message, blessèd Savior, to her bear!
Tell mother I’ll be there, Heav’n’s joys with her to share;
Yes, tell my darling mother I’ll be there.

2. Though I was often wayward, she was always kind and good;
So patient, gentle, loving when I acted rough and rude;
My childhood griefs and trials she would gladly with me share:
O Savior, tell my mother, I’ll be there! [Refrain]

3. When I became a prodigal, and left the old rooftree,
She almost broke her loving heart in mourning after me;
And day and night she prayed to God to keep me in His care:
O Savior, tell my mother, I’ll be there! [Refrain]

4. One day a message came to me, it bade me quickly come
If I would see my mother ere the Savior took her home;
I promised her, before she died, for Heaven to prepare:
O Savior, tell my mother, I’ll be there! [Refrain]

Text Information

• First Line: When I was but a little child how well I recollect
• Title: Tell Mother I'll Be There
• Author: Charles Millard Fillmore
• Refrain First Line: Tell mother I'll be there, in answer to her prayer
• Language: English
• Copyright: Public Domain
• Notes: Fill­more wrote this song up­on read­ing of the death of the mo­ther of Amer­i­can pre­si­dent Will­iam Mc­Kin­ley. Mc­Kin­ley had a spe­cial re­la­tion­ship with his mo­ther, who was ve­ry proud of him; in his youth, she boast­ed he would be­come a Me­thod­ist bi­shop (lit­tle did she know he would go some­what far­ther). When “Mo­ther Mc­Kin­ley” fell ill in the win­ter of 1897, she lived some dis­tance from the cap­i­tal, so the pre­si­dent had a spe­cial tel­e­graph line in­stalled be­tween Wash­ing­ton and her home town. When word fi­nal­ly came of her im­pend­ing death, he quick­ly wired back, "Tell mo­ther I’ll be there!"

Tune Information

• Name: [When I was but a little child how well I recollect]
• Composer: Charles Millard Fill­more
• Arranger: Ro­bert Hark­ness
• Key: A♭ Major
• Copyright: Public Domain
• Notes: Mr. Charles Al­ex­an­der re­lat­ed that a friend of his cut the po­em out of a ma­ga­zine and sent it to him. He kept it and made a prac­tice of al­ways car­ry­ing it with him to his evan­gel­is­tic ser­vic­es. One night in New­ton, Kan­sas, Mr. Al­ex­and­er was to sing a so­lo. "I saw in the au­di­ence," he said, “a great crowd of rail­way men, and with some doubt I fin­al­ly de­cid­ed to try this touch­ing song, and was sur­prised at the ex­tra­or­din­a­ry result. “Many of the men stood up to join the forc­es of Christ. When the meet­ing was over, one big bur­ly en­gin­eer came up to me and said, ‘Mr. Al­ex­an­der, I prom­ised my mo­ther on her death­bed that I would be­come a Chris­tian, but in­stead of that I have been going to the de­vil fast­er than ev­er. Preach­ing never touched me, but that song did.’ "I used that song ev­ery night, and have been us­ing it ever since. I have seen as many as a hun­dred or a hun­dred and fi­fty men at a sin­gle meet­ing rise and con­fess Christ dur­ing the sing­ing of that hymn be­fore the ser­mon be­gan. It reach­es all class­es, be­cause ev­ery­one has a mo­ther." Blanchard, pp. 90-1