1875–1949

Introduction

Born: Ap­ril 14, 1875, Eas­ton, Ma­ry­land.

Died: De­cem­ber 24, 1949, Lewes, De­la­ware.

Buried: Spring Hill Ce­me­te­ry, Eas­ton, Ma­ry­land.

portrait

Biography

Poole’s an­ces­tors for sev­er­al ge­ne­ra­tions were Ma­ry­land Quak­ers, but his par­ents af­ter mar­riage joined the Me­tho­dist de­nom­in­ation. Of their three child­ren, two be­came Me­tho­dist min­is­ters, and the third a Me­tho­dist class lead­er.

Poole at­tend­ed Wash­ing­ton Col­lege in Ches­ter­town, Ma­ry­land. He was or­dained a Me­tho­dist mi­nis­ter in 1900, and pas­tored in the Wil­ming­ton Con­fer­ence for 35 years. He served at the Mc­Cabe Me­mo­ri­al, Ri­chard­son Park, and oth­er church­es.

In 1913, he was Su­per­in­ten­dent of the Anti-Sa­loon League of De­la­ware.

Concerning his hymn writ­ing, Poole said:

My first ap­pear­ance in print out­side of lo­cal pa­pers was in 1907. Since my twelfth year I had been writ­ing vers­es in old com­po­si­tion books which I care­ful­ly con­cealed. Ma­ny of these vers­es were hymns. It was in 1907 that I ven­tured to send a ma­nu­script to a pro­mi­nent pub­lish­er and asked if it was worth keep­ing. They im­me­di­ate­ly re­ferred me to Charles H. Gab­ri­el, and he asked for more. Among the first lot was Just When I Need Him Most, which im­me­di­ate­ly be­came po­pu­lar.

Since then I have writ­ten about five hund­red hymns and three hund­red oth­er verse ma­nu­scripts, be­sides ma­ny spe­cial ar­ti­cles, in spare mo­ments of a bu­sy life. They are writ­ten on trains, in meet­ings, and any­where the mood seiz­es me…

I have been work­ing un­der high pres­sure most of the time since I was fif­teen years old. While hymn writ­ing does not pay me as com­pared with oth­er work I will stop a high priced ar­ti­cle any time to write a hymn which will help oth­ers on the way. If I can­not sing to make oth­ers list­en, I will write such that they will read.

My real work is that of a mi­nis­ter and pas­tor. The writ­ing is done as re­cre­ation and di­ver­sion from re­spon­si­bi­li­ties which might oth­er­wise de­press me. The same idea which sends me to my pul­pit, sends me to my pen or type­writ­er—To Help Some­bo­dy.

Sources

Lyrics

  1. All Around the World To­day
  2. All Around the World, Wrong Is Back­ward Hurled
  3. All I Am Be­longs to Je­sus
  4. All That I Need
  5. All the Way I’ll Go for Je­sus
  6. All to Thee I Bring
  7. Are You Free to Work for Je­sus?
  8. Are Your Sig­nals Right?
  9. As On­ward I Tra­vel
  10. At Je­sus’ Feet I Heard the Word
  11. At the End of the Way is Je­sus
  12. At the Roll Call
  13. Back of Ev­ery Drop of Rain
  14. Because He Saw Me Far Away
  15. Best News That I Have, The
  16. Better Days Are Com­ing
  17. Beyond the Clouds That Drift Above
  18. Blessèd Cross
  19. Call of the Christ, The
  20. Calling for Work­ers
  21. Child Je­sus, The
  22. Christ Shall Be King
  23. Church by the Side of the Road, The
  24. Come Home
  25. Come in­to My Heart, Lord Je­sus
  26. Count Me
  27. Day with Him, A
  28. Dear Child of God’s Love
  29. Deep Down in My Heart
  30. Did You Pray Till the An­swer Came?
  31. Do It for Je­sus To­day
  32. Do Not Ask Me to Go With­out Je­sus
  33. Do the Sha­dows Ga­ther?
  34. Don’t
  35. Door of Mer­cy, The
  36. Everlasting Love, The
  37. Every Day the Sav­ior Sends Me Bless­ings New
  38. Face To­ward the Cross
  39. Farther I Walk with Je­sus, The
  40. Follow Je­sus
  41. Following in the Foot­prints of My Lord
  42. Following Je­sus, My Shep­herd Kind
  43. For Mo­ther’s Sake
  44. For the Christ of My Heart
  45. From Shore to Shore
  46. Gardens of God, The
  47. Glad Way Home, A
  48. Glorious Day Is Com­ing, A
  49. Go Tell An­oth­er Soul
  50. Go Tell the Sweet Sto­ry
  51. Go to Je­sus
  52. God Is Love
  53. God’s Love Is True
  54. God’s Love Will Grow Strong­er
  55. God’s Path­ways of Bless­ing
  56. God’s Way
  57. Good Morn­ing to Hea­ven
  58. Gospel Was Writ­ten by Mat­thew of Old, A
  59. Greatest Name, The
  60. Hand That Holds Me Stea­dy, The
  61. Have You Prayed It Through?
  62. He Bright­ens the Sha­dows
  63. He Car­eth for Me
  64. He Chang­es the World with His Love
  65. He Did So Much for Me
  66. He Pro­mised to Keep Me
  67. He Shall Reign
  68. He Took My Sins Away
  69. He Will Show Me
  70. Hear the Call of Je­sus
  71. Heart of My Heart
  72. Heart of My Je­sus
  73. Heaven’s Ra­dio
  74. He’ll Re­ward Us Up There
  75. Help the Word Along
  76. Homeward Way, The
  77. How Far Shall I Go for the Sheep Astray?
  78. I Am His To­day
  79. I Be­long for Je­sus
  80. I Can Trust
  81. I Do Not Know, I Can­not See
  82. I Find Each Day New Vic­to­ry
  83. I Find No Fault in Him
  84. I Find the Sav­ior’s Pre­cious
  85. I Have a Sav­ior Who Light­ens My Way
  86. I Have An­swered the Call
  87. I Have Been to Je­sus
  88. I Have Bless­ings New
  89. I Know It
  90. I Know Who Plans My On­ward Way
  91. I Shall See the King
  92. I Will Look for You Up Yon­der
  93. I Would Not Live With­out Je­sus
  94. If in Life’s Tem­pest by Faith I Can See
  95. If on the Rag­ing Sea
  96. If Tempt­ed to Fal­ter
  97. If We Will
  98. If You Will Trust Him More
  99. I’ll Walk in the Way with Je­sus
  100. In Sun­shine or Sha­dow
  101. In That Great Word Who­so­ev­er
  102. In the Days of My Youth
  103. In the Gar­den with Je­sus
  104. In the Good Old Way
  105. It Is Here
  106. I’ve Sweet Com­mun­ion with My Lord
  107. Jesus and I Have Been Friends
  108. Jesus for the World
  109. Jesus Is Wor­thy
  110. Jesus Lives
  111. Jesus Re­mem­bered You
  112. Joy for Me
  113. Just a Lit­tle Sun­shine
  114. Just Ahead
  115. Just Be­yond the Sun­set
  116. Just When I Need Him Most
  117. Just Where He Needs Me
  118. Keep Hold­ing On
  119. Keep Me White
  120. Keep the Cross Al­ways in Sight
  121. Kept by the Pow­er of God’s Love
  122. Kept for Thy Use
  123. Lead Me, Dear Sav­ior
  124. Lead On, Bright Star
  125. Like a Bea­con Bright
  126. Long Years I Was Strugg­ling
  127. Love-Ser­vice
  128. Make Je­sus Yours To­day
  129. Make Me What You Want Me to Be
  130. Make My Will Thine
  131. Master’s Way, The
  132. Mine For­ev­er
  133. More Like Him
  134. My Faith
  135. My Fa­ther’s Way
  136. My Hea­ven­ly Fa­ther Knows
  137. My Light Is Je­sus
  138. My Lord Has Need of Me To­day
  139. My Sav­ior Is So Good to Me
  140. Nearer to Je­sus
  141. Never Afar from His Child­ren’s Call
  142. Nothing Held Back from Thee, Je­sus
  143. O Heart That Was Brok­en for Me
  144. O Say, Can You Hear It?
  145. O the Glo­ry Un­told
  146. O Think of the Work That Is Wait­ing
  147. Often I Have Wan­dered in the Dark
  148. On the Road to Hea­ven
  149. Once I Fought to Con­quer Sin
  150. Once I Was Speed­ing On­ward
  151. One Day for Thee
  152. One I Can Trust
  153. One Vi­sion of Je­sus
  154. Only a Lit­tle Way
  155. Out of the Grave My Sav­ior Came
  156. Praise, Praise, Praise
  157. Room Enough There
  158. Seeing Me Far from the Path­way Astray
  159. Send the Mes­sage, Ring It Clear
  160. Send the Pow­er Again
  161. Shelter Me
  162. Shining for You and for Me
  163. Since I Came Home
  164. Singing for Je­sus
  165. Some Day When Comes Life’s Set­ting Sun
  166. Some Glad Sweet Day
  167. Someone Must Tell the Glad Sto­ry
  168. Someone Will Be Glad if We Con­quer Sin
  169. Something New Each Day
  170. Sometime Life’s Way Will Be End­ed
  171. Somewhere They Need You
  172. Sunrise
  173. Sunshine Land, The
  174. Thank You
  175. There Are Man­sions Await­ing
  176. There Is Work Ev­ery­where
  177. There’s On­ly One Way in­to Hea­ven
  178. Thinking of Me
  179. This Day Shall Be God’s Day
  180. Though Rag­ing the Tem­pest
  181. Through Ag­es of Years
  182. Thy Will, Not Mine
  183. Till the Work Is Done
  184. To the Front
  185. To Vic­to­ry for Je­sus
  186. Up Cal­va­ry There Climbed One Day
  187. Use the Search­light
  188. Victory Is Here
  189. Volunteers for Je­sus
  190. Watch and Pray
  191. We Are Liv­ing in a World
  192. What a Smile Will Do
  193. What Is Your Life?
  194. When I Need a Help­ing Hand
  195. When I See Je­sus My King
  196. When I Think of the Christ
  197. When Je­sus Reigns With­in
  198. When Je­sus Walks with Me
  199. When Life’s Quest­ions Are All An­swered
  200. When Long Is the Jour­ney and Hea­vy My Load
  201. When Rag­es the Bat­tle of Right
  202. When Shall I Come to the End of My Way?
  203. When the Days Are Bright
  204. When the Sha­dows Shall Flee
  205. When the Whole World Lives
  206. When Thy Life Is Filled with Grief and Care
  207. When We Love Je­sus, All Ser­vice Is Sweet
  208. When You Are Tempt­ed
  209. When Your Bur­dens Are Too Hea­vy
  210. Where Leads the Cross
  211. Where My King Leads On
  212. Where My Sav­ior Leads Me
  213. Where the Fight Is Hard­est
  214. Where Thou Lead­est Me
  215. Why Should I Lin­ger?
  216. With Je­sus We Shall Win
  217. Wonderful Love, from Hea­ven Above, A
  218. Won’t Some­bo­dy Tell Them?
  219. Words of Cheer
  220. Work for All
  221. Yes, We’ll Meet You Over There
  222. You Ask Me How I Know
  223. You May Know Where to Find Me
  224. Your Cross and Mine

Music

  1. Jesus Is God!

Help Needed

If you know where to get a bet­ter pho­to of Poole,