EARLY ADVENT
SDAH 439
How far from home? I asked, as on
I bent my steps-the watchman spake:
“the long, dark night is almost gone,
The morning soon will break.
For Worship Leaders
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Hymn Spotlight: How Far From Home?
Written in 1853 by Annie R. Smith, this hymn became a treasured song of hope for early Advent believers. Framed as a pilgrim’s dialogue—with the watchman, the warrior, the signs of nature, and finally God—it echoes Isaiah 21:11–12: “The morning cometh.” Its steady question-and-answer form builds to a confident assurance: heaven is near. Annie, whose brief life was marked by dedication to the Advent cause, poured her poetic gift into hymns that encouraged believers pressing on through trials. This song still calls us to lift our eyes from the weariness of the journey and fix them on the nearness of our eternal home.
📖 Reference: Feel free to share but please cite hymnsforworship.org when reproducing.
Introductions for Sabbath School Song Service (based on specific lesson quarterlies):
This early Advent hymn was written in 1853 by Annie Rebekah Smith; it appeared in the Review and Herald of November 29 of that year. There was one other stanza:
4. How far from home? ah, then, I cried
To God, who marks each plaintive sigh:
A still, small voice, within, replied,
Not far from home am I!
Then weep no more, though round thy way
Afflictions rise, and doubt and fear,
While myriad voices sweetly say,
The pilgrim’s home is near.
This stanza underlines the structure of the hymn, which pictures the pilgrim asking first the watchman, then the warrior, then the signs in heaven and earth, and finally God. It closes with a confident statement of nearness to the eternal home, instead of with a question. The chief Scripture allusion is to Isaiah 21:11, 12: “Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh.”
Annie Smith, only daughter of Samuel and Rebekah Spalding Smith, was born at West Wilton, New Hampshire, on March 16, 1828. She joined the Baptist Church in 1838 and became a follower of William Miller, but after the disappointment of October 1844 she lost interest in the doctrine of the second advent of Christ. She trained to be a teacher, later specializing in painting. In 1851, while she was at Charlestown, Massachusetts, she received a letter from her mother inviting her to attend a meeting to be conducted by Joseph Bates in Somerville, two miles away. She decided to go to please her mother. She dreamed that she did go, arrived late, sat near the door, and heard a sermon on the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14. On the evening of the actual meeting she started in good time but missed the way, and her dream was fulfilled in every detail.
The preacher, Bates, also had a dream. In it he saw a young woman arrive late and sit by the door. This dream, of course, was fulfilled exactly. Bates was a Sabbathkeeper, and in three weeks Annie decided to join the Sabbathkeeping Adventists. Thenceforth she devoted her poetic talent to writing for the paper, the Review and Herald. Her first effort, “Fear Not, Little Flock,” appeared in the issue of September 16, 1851, and led to her being invited in 1852 to join the editorial staff, then at Saratoga Springs, New York. She refused at first because of her poor health and weak eyesight, but after being urged, she accepted the appointment. Her eye affliction was healed through special prayer. She did proofreading and copy editing, and became assistant editor, refusing other more remunerative positions offered to her in the teaching profession.
She contracted tuberculosis and died at Wilton, New Hampshire, on July 26, 1855, at age 27, after less than four years’ service to the church. In this brief period she wrote numerous hymns that made a permanent impression on the early believers in the Advent and brought encouragement to those who laid the foundation of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Her book Home Here, and Home in Heaven, 1855, contains 25 hymns as well as miscellaneous poems. Sixteen other poems were published after her death, in a book issued by her mother. She also wrote SDAH 441, “I Saw One Weary,” and SDAH 447, “Long Upon the Mountains.”
TIS MIDNIGHT HOUR is from an anonymous American song of that title.
📖 Reference: Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988.
Text
1
How far from home? I asked, as on
I bent my steps-the watchman spake:
“the long, dark night is almost gone,
The morning soon will break.
Then weep no more, but speed thy flight,
With Hope’s bright star guiding ray,
Till thou shalt reach the realms of light,
In everlasting days.”
2
I asked the warrior on the field;
This was his soul-inspiring song:
“With courage, bold, the sword I’ll wield,
The battle is not long.
Then weep no more, but well endure
The conflict, till thy work is done;
For this we know, the prize is sure,
When victory is won.”
3
I asked again; earth, sea, and sun
Seemed, with one voice, to make reply:
“Time’s wasting sands are nearly run,
Eternity is nigh.
Then weep no more-with warning tones,
Portentous signs are thickening round,
The whole creation, waiting, groans,
To hear the trumpet sound.”
4
Not far from home! O blessed thought!
The traveler’s lonely heart to cheer;
Which oft a healing balm has brought,
And dried the mourner’s tear.
Then weep no more, since we shall meet
Where weary footsteps never roam-
Our trials past, our joys complete,
Safe in our Father’s home.
Hymn Info
Biblical Reference
(a) Isa 21:11, 12 (b) Phil 3:14 (c) Luke 21:25; Rom 8:22; 1 Thess 4:16 (d) Rev 7:17, 14
Author
Annie R. Smith (1828-1855)
Year Published
1853
Theme
EARLY ADVENT
Hymn Tune
TIS MIDNIGHT HOUR
Metrical Number
8.8.8.6.D.
Annie Smith: Her Life and Love (2-Part Series)
Let none this humble work assail,
Its failings to expose to view,
Which sprung within Misfortune’s vale
And ‘neath the dews of Sorrow grew.
Thus does Annie Rebekah Smith, the early Adventist hymnist, beg indulgent tolerance of the little book of poems she completed on her deathbed in 1855. Her wishes will be honored here in favor of a modest effort to tell the simple story of her short, sad life.
Most of what is known about her comes from a little sketch of her life included in another book of poems published by her mother, Rebekah Smith, in 1871. From this we learn that Annie was born in West Wilton, New Hampshire, on March 16, 1828, the only daughter of Samuel and Rebekah Smith. She was four years older than her better-known brother, Uriah, and four months younger than the best-known of Adventist women, Ellen G. White.
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