~It Pays To Serve Jesus

       One day while Frank C. Huston was musing at the keyboard of the piano, a melody suddenly came to him which he decided was worth saving.  So he quickly wrote it down on a piece of music paper, and promptly forgot all about it.

       A few days later he paid a visit to an eighty-two year old friend. During their conversation, the old friend suddenly said to Huston, “Brother Huston, you have written so many good songs, won’t you write one for me on the subject we have just been discussing, and call it ‘It Pays to Serve Jesus’?”

       Huston agreed, because of his close friendship with the older man. But he didn’t make a special effort to comply with the request until some time later, during an evangelistic series being held in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

       While a guest in the Hartzog home in that city, Huston recalled the friend’s plea, so he went to the piano in the living room of his host.

       Suddenly, he recalled the manuscript in his pocket, and, out of sheer curiosity, he took it out, placed it on the music rack of the piano and played through it. 

       Intrigued with what he had composed and then completely forgotten, he played it a second time and then a third, while the words of a stanza and chorus fell into place almost spontaneously.  Before he knew it, he was singing a brand new hymn.

—Adapted from Ernest K. Emurian

++++++++++

It Pays to Serve Jesus[1]

1           The service of Jesus true pleasure affords,

In Him there is joy without an alloy;

’Tis heaven to trust Him and rest on His words;

It pays to serve Jesus each day.

Chorus  It pays to serve Jesus, it pays ev’ry day,

It pays ev’ry step of the way;

Though the pathway to glory may sometimes be drear,

You’ll be happy each step of the way.

2           It pays to serve Jesus whate’er may betide,

It pays to be true whate’er you may do;

’Tis riches of mercy in Him to abide;

It pays to serve Jesus each day.

3           Though sometimes the shadows may hang o’er the way,

And sorrows may come to beckon us home,

Our precious Redeemer each toil will repay;

It pays to serve Jesus each day.