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Song: We'll Understand It Better By and By
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
On September 14, 2002, sixty-nine years after the death of Charles A. Tindley, often called a founding father of American gospel music, a marble stone was placed in a community cemetery in the surburban town of Collingdale, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The six foot monument was placed at Tindley’s grave by a group of pastors led by the Rev. Dr. William B. McClain, Senior Pastor of Tindley Temple United Methodist Church, a major church in the city of “brotherly love.” Charles Tindley was born near Berlin, Maryland in July of 1851, the son of a slave, Albert Tindley, and a free woman, Hester Miller Tindley. She passed away when little Charles was only four years of age, and a year later he was separated from his father. When he became old enough, although his status “free born” was recognized, he was hired out to work with slaves. Little did the people of Berlin realize that a theological and musical giant was springing up in their midst.
God had placed within Tindley’s breast a desire to excel, and by age seventeen he had taught himself to read and write. At this young age he married Daisy Henry, who bore him eight children, several of which would later show some musical ability. The young Tindley family moved to Philadelphia where he obtained a job as a hod carrier, conveying mortar and other supplies to brick layers. He later became a custodian of the John Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church, a church which was to play a major role in his later life.
He attended night school for a time and because he felt called of God to preach, he enrolled in a correspondence course from Boston School of Theology. Along with his other courses he studied New Testament Greek. He found a Jewish Rabbi in Philadelphia who would also tutor him in the study of the Hebrew language. In 1902, after finishing his educational ventures, and pastoring several churches in Philadelphia, he became pastor of the church where he had served as janitor twenty-five years earlier.
The church experienced rapid growth and by 1906, had a congregation of 5,000 members. Tindley was a tall, six foot, two inch, imposing preacher of the Gospel, whose sermons were indications of his study and attention to a quality ministry. He was an eloquent speaker who was heard enthusiastically by people of all races. In the early 1920s the church, which by that time had 10,000 members, built a new sanctuary which seated 3,200 worshipers. Over his protest the congregation named the new church the Tindley Temple United Methodist Church. He also became a leader in the denominational activities. His wife, Daisy, passed away in 1924, the very day the congregation entered the new sanctuary for the first time. Three years later he married Jenny Cotton who survived him.
Music played a major role in Charles Tindley’s life. It is said that during his preaching he would often break into singing, allowing the congregation to join him on the chorus of the song. He composed gospel songs in his mind, and not having the ability to put them on paper, would dictate them to a transcriber. It is reported that he often would hold several songs in his mind before having them put on paper.
C. Austin Miles, who composed In the Garden, published eight of Tindley’s songs in his New Songs of the Gospel, in 1901. During the following twenty-five years Tindley published 34 additional songs. A later book, Soul Echoes: A Collection of Songs for Religious Meetings, contained many of his musical offerings. He and his sons formed the Paradise Publishing Company, which first published New Songs of Paradise! Vol. 1. Volume 6 of the series contained all of Tindley’s works.
We’ll Understand It Better By and By is one of several C. A. Tindley’s songs that found its way into the hymnals and then into the repertoire of a host of Southern Gospel Music touring groups. It is still being sung to this day. A host of musicians owe a debt to Charles Tindley, not the least of which, by his own admission, was Thomas A. Dorsey, author of Precious Lord, Take My Hand. Many have called Tindley and Dorsey the “fathers” of gospel music. Other Tindley songs that have stood the test of time are Nothing Between (My Soul and the Savior), Stand By Me, and Leave it There. One Tindley song, I’ll Overcome Some Day, written in 1901, gave rise to the popular civil-rights song, We Shall Overcome, although more in reflection and concept than in actual words or tune.
Dr. McClain, who is also Professor of Preaching and Worship at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC, has helped disseminate the music of C. A. Tindley. In 1980, he created Songs of Zion, a book published by Abingdon Press, which included approximately sixteen songs by Tindley, and sold more than 1,200.000 copies.
Tindley died in 1933, at the age of 82. Thousands in Philadelphia felt the loss and went into mourning. It is reported that approximately 5,000 people crowded into the church, which seated only 3,200, to hear the memorial tributes to this spiritual giant. Some had openly recognized him as a “Lincoln in Ebony.”
When thumbing through a myriad of hymnals you will find, among other songs of Charles A. Tindley:
We are often tossed and driv’n on the restless sea of time,
Sombre skies and howling tempest oft succeed a bright sunshine,
In the land of perfect day, when the mists have rolled away,
We will understand it better by and by.
Chorus
By and by when the morning comes,
When the saints of God are gathered home,
We’ll tell the story how we’ve overcome,
For we’ll understand it better by and by.
Trials dark on every hand, and we cannot understand,
All the ways that God would lead us to that blessed promise land,
But He’ll guide us with His eye and we’ll follow till we die,
For we’ll understand it better by and by.
Tindley Temple United Methodist Church is on the “tour of historic sites” in Philadelphia, allowing visitors each year to see the famed edifice. Tindley’s study is still in tact with memorabilia and displays of his writings, books, programs and correspondence.
Reflection:
Tindley seemed to write for suffering people. In most of his songs there is a great anticipation of Heaven, when the trials of God’s people will finally be over. He could have been writing for millions of people in our kind of a day
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Written: 11/01/2006 
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Behind the Songs
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