He walks with me, and He talks with me

   I visited my friend James in the hospital Sunday, where he reminded me of a wonderful hymn from our youth. He had the first verse written down from memory, but I told him I believed there were more verses, and that I would research it. The lyrics follow:

In The Garden, 1912
C. Austin Miles

I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.
Refrain
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of His voice,
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.
Refrain
I’d stay in the garden with Him
Though the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe
His voice to me is calling.
Refrain

   Miles was an American, trained in college for a career in pharmacy. He abandoned that career to a call as a song writer at age 24. He served as manager and editor at Hall-Mack Publishing for 37 years. I found the following Internet passage about Miles' song, "In the Garden:"

   "I read…the sto­ry of the great­est morn in his­to­ry: “The first day of the week com­eth Ma­ry Mag­da­lene ear­ly, while it was yet ve­ry dark, unto the se­pul­cher.” In­stant­ly, com­plet­ely, there un­fold­ed in my mind the scenes of the gar­den of Jo­seph….Out of the mists of the gar­den comes a form, halt­ing, he­si­tat­ing, tear­ful, seek­ing, turn­ing from side to side in be­wil­der­ing amaze­ment. Fal­ter­ing­ly, bear­ing grief in ev­e­ry ac­cent, with tear-dimmed eyes, she whis­pers, “If thou hast borne him hence”… “He speaks, and the sound of His voice is so sweet the birds hush their sing­ing.” Je­sus said to her, “Mary!” Just one word from his lips, and for­got­ten the heart­aches, the long drea­ry hours….all the past blot­ted out in the pre­sence of the Liv­ing Pre­sent and the Eter­nal Fu­ture."

    Even though I heard the truth clearly as a boy, I did not fully grasp the reality that my Lord "walks with me, and talks with me." This is not a relationship the Father offered only "back then in Bible times!" He was, is and will always be the same: the Creator in love with His children. He is the perfect Father, and His desire is that we would fully embrace His gift of constant, eternal relationship.