Written to comfort two grieving husbands: the story of “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”
In 1887, a music teacher in Alabama opened two letters. Both came from former pupils. Both men had just lost their wives.
As Anthony J. Showalter wrote back to comfort them, he began to write a hymn: “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”.
The letters and the refrain
Showalter was a music teacher and publisher who ran singing schools in the American South. When he received the news from his former students, he searched for words of comfort. He was drawn to a verse in the book of Deuteronomy: “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” The image of God’s arms holding up those who are falling struck him as exactly what grieving people needed.
Showalter wrote the words of the refrain, “Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms”, and composed the music. He then asked his friend Elisha Hoffman, a minister and prolific hymn writer, to write the verses.
Hoffman and the words
Hoffman wrote hundreds of hymns, including “Are You Washed in the Blood?”. For this hymn, he wrote verses about fellowship with God, peace and freedom from fear. “What a fellowship, what a joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arms.” The verses move from joy to peace to courage: “What have I to dread, what have I to fear?”
The hymn has appeared in films and television, and its melody is widely recognised beyond church. Its steady, rocking rhythm makes it easy to remember.
Funerals and Moses
Because of its origins and its message, the hymn is often sung at funerals and memorial services, including in Ghana and Nigeria, where it comforts mourners. The verse Showalter chose comes near the end of Deuteronomy, in the blessing Moses spoke over the tribes of Israel before his death. An old leader, about to leave his people, told them that God would remain their refuge. The setting gave the words extra weight for men facing the loss of someone they loved.
Comfort in writing
The chorus repeats the word “leaning” again and again, with the men’s and women’s parts answering each other in many hymnals. Congregations that have never seen the music can join in after one hearing, which helps explain why the hymn crossed from singing schools into churches of every kind. Showalter could not visit his grieving students. He wrote letters. One of those letters grew into a hymn that has comforted strangers for well over a century, proof that a few careful words to a friend can travel far.
