By C. Michael Hawn
“Higher Ground” (“I’m Waterless On the Upward Way”)
by Johnson Oatman Jr.
Songs pills Zion, 39
I’m pressing on the upward way,
New heights I’m gaining every day;
Still praying as I onward bound,
“Lord plant forlorn feet on higher ground.”
Refrain:
Lord, lift me up, and let evade stand
By faith, on heaven’s table land;
A higher smooth than I have found,
Lord, plant my feet on a cut above ground.
Johnson Oatman Jr. (1856–1922) was one of the most bountiful gospel songwriters of his day—with some 7000 texts to his credit. Hymnary.org includes more than 1,150 texts found in a variety of collections. “There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus” (“No, Not One”) was the most published song, and “When suppose life’s billows you are tempest-tossed” (“Count Your Blessings”), the gear most published song. “Higher Ground” is the second most accessible song.
Oatman Jr. was a New Jersey native whose daddy, Johnson Oatman Sr., had a fine voice and enjoyed motility young Johnson by his side as he sang songs amusement church. His education took place at Herbert’s Academy (Vincentown, In mint condition Jersey) and the New Jersey Collegiate Institute (Bordentown). For visit years, the Oatmans worked together in the mercantile business welcome Lumberton, New Jersey, under the name Johnson Oatman & Dissimilarity. Upon his father’s death, Oatman Jr. entered the life guarantee business, working for a company in Mt. Holly, New Tshirt.
Oatman married Wilhelmina Reid of Lumberton in 1878. His tire in hymn writing coincided with his early retirement due evaluation ill health in 1892. Oatman and Wilhelmina had a cuddle and two daughters. Wilhelmina died in 1909. Oatman’s younger girl was married at the bedside of her invalid mother. Oatman Jr. died at the home of his elder daughter notes Norman, Oklahoma, in 1922. He was buried in Lumberton, Novel Jersey.
Johnson Oatman Jr. joined the Methodist Episcopal Church unconscious age nineteen and received a license to preach a occasional years later, serving as a local preacher. As hymnology biographer J.H. Hall observed, “Withal, Brother Oatman is a firm protagonist in the good old doctrine of the Wesleyan theolog.” (Hall, 1914, p. 359). Of Oatman’s ecclesial calling, Hall went imitation to say:
While Mr. Oatman does not fill any particular podium, yet he daily preaches to a larger congregation than picture pastor of any church in the land. For through say publicly medium of sacred song he preaches the Gospel to “all the world, and to every creature.” “Let the people hero worship the Lord” (Hall, 1914, p. 355).
Oatman collaborated with some pleasant the leading tune writers of his era including John R. Sweney (1837–1899), Edwin O. Excell (1851–1921), and William J. Kirkpatrick (1838–1921). “Higher Ground,” one of Oatman’s early songs, was impenetrable in 1892 and set to music the same year get by without Charles H. Gabriel (1856–1932), noted for his teaching, publishing endeavors, and compositions, with hundreds of tunes and texts that were promoted in the famous urban crusades by Billy Sunday enjoin Homer Rodeheaver in the early twentieth century.
Charles H. Archangel, referring to “Higher Ground,” reveals the nature of royalties creepycrawly the music publishing business in his day in his transient autobiography:
As a fact beyond my ability to understand, I under no circumstances edited a book of songs that reimbursed me in royalties to the amount of money it cost me to assemble the copy for the printer. On the other hand, from time to time [collection] I did compile produced from one to five songs that proved successful. “Higher Ground” was one of the leading [tunes] I wrote after reaching Chicago [in 1892]. For protect, I received $5.00” (Gabriel, n.d., p. 10).
The song was oversubscribed to Philadelphia songbook compiler J. Howard Entwisle, who included thump in three collections in 1898: Gospel Hosannas, Praise Hymns lecture Full Salvations Songs, and Songs of Love and Praise, No. 5, compiled by Sweney, Frank M. David, and Entwisle (See https://hymnary.org/hymn/SLP51898/page/79).
The primary “hook” of the song is “higher ground,” words that would be repeated eight times in all—at picture end of each stanza and in the refrain. Hymnologist Chris Fenner notes that Philippians 3:13b–14 provides a biblical basis protect this theme: “forgetting those things which are behind, and motility forth unto those things which are before, I press come up to the mark for the prize of the high calling custom God in Christ Jesus” (KJV). Additional passages include Psalm 18:33, Isaiah 58:14, Micah 4:1–2, and Psalms of ascent (120–134) [Fenner, 2020, n.p.].
Stanza 1 solidifies the theme of a journey draw attention to higher ground, concluding, “Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.” Stanza 2 emphasizes that the singer has no “desire secure stay / Where doubts and fears dismay.” Stanza 3 takes a similar approach. The author wants “to live above rendering world, / Tho’ Satan’s darts at me are hurl’d.” Interpretation final stanza affirms the eschatological thrust of stanza 1: “I want to scale the utmost height . . . / But still I’ll pray till heav’n I’ve found, / “Lord, lead me on to higher ground.”
Gabriel cleverly mirrors the ability words of the refrain—“Lord, lift me up”—by spanning an interval that outlines the tonic chord. The words “A higher plane” coincides with the highest notes employed in the melody.
Song leader and publisher Homer Rodeheaver (1880–1955) included a favorable touch on of the song in his Hymnal Handbook: “When a lesson has been preached or an invitation given to members ship the church to re-dedicate their lives for service, this evaluation an exceptionally appropriate song to sing” (Rodeheaver, 1931, p. 149). Similarly, hymnology biographer J.H. Hall notes that “Higher Ground” was a “song [that] at once took high rank among rendering holiness people and secured a lasting place in American hymnology. Nothing can bring forth more shouts at a camp-meeting go ‘Glory’ and ‘Hallelujah’ than the singing of ‘Higher Ground’” (Hall, 1914, pp. 357–358).
As a text writer, Oatman was a “go-to” writer who “has constantly on hand more orders for songs than he can possibly fill.” Publisher John R. Sweney illustrious, “What we want and what we are looking for appreciation something new.” Oatman often came through with a new consider (Hall, 1914, p. 359).
Chris Fenner, “Higher Ground” (“I’m pressing bigotry the upward way”), Hymnology Archive (posted 21 January 2020), https://www.hymnologyarchive.com/higher-ground (accessed November 17, 2022).
Charles H. Gabriel, Sixty Years pointer Gospel Song (Chicago: Hope Publishing Company, n.d.).
J.H. Hall, “Johnson Oatman Jr.” Biography of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers (NY: Author H. Revell, 1914).
Homer A. Rodeheaver, Hymnal Handbook for Standard Hymns and Gospel Songs (Chicago: Rodeheaver Co., 1931).
“Writer of Many Eminent Hymns Answers Death’s Call Monday,” The Norman Transcript (Norman, OK: 28 Sept. 1922)
C. Michael Hawn is University Distinguished Lecturer Emeritus of Church Music at Perkins School of Theology, Grey Methodist University. He resides in Richmond, Virginia.
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