Farther Along: A Song History

← Back to Browse By Song

"Farther Along" is a gospel song of faith under hardship: its verses dwell on trials, temptation and loss, and its refrain looks ahead to a time when what now seems unfair will be understood.[1] Hymnary.org credits the words to W. B. Stevens (William Buel Stevens), born in 1862 in Scotland County, Missouri, who with his wife joined the Church of God (Holiness), spent a few years as a traveling tent evangelist, and founded congregations in Queen City, Missouri, and Moulton, Iowa.[2] The same biography notes that Stevens outlived all of his children and suggests that such losses may have shaped the song.[2]

Autumn forest path in dappled light, with a lone hiker far down the trail

Sanford Robinson Gifford, Autumn, a Wood Path, 1876. Oil on canvas. The Cleveland Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0).

The authorship is less settled than most hymnals imply. Other claimants named in the sources consulted here include W. P. Jay and W. A. Fletcher, the latter through a family account that places the song's writing in late 1911.[3][4] The earliest printing these sources identify is Select Hymns for Christian Worship and General Gospel Service (1911), edited by B. E. Warren and others for the Gospel Trumpet Company of Anderson, Indiana.[3][1][5] A new arrangement by J. R. Baxter Jr. (1887–1960), partner in the Stamps-Baxter Music and Printing Company, was first published in the firm's 1937 songbook Starlit Crown.[3][6][7] Hymnary.org treats the words as public domain but lists that music under a 1937 Stamps-Baxter copyright renewed in 1965.[1][6]

From there the song spread through denominational hymnals, appearing in Churches of Christ books from 1938 onward and, by Hymnary.org's count, in some 135 hymnals in all.[3][1] It also crossed into country-rock: the Byrds made it the title track of their 1971 album Farther Along, and Wikipedia lists many later versions by country, gospel and folk performers.[8][4] For mountain dulcimer players, it is included in Stephen Seifert's Join the Jam: Gospel Edition, a collection of hymns and gospel songs arranged in DAD tuning.[9]

Find books with Farther Along for sale →

Sources

  1. Hymnary.org: "Farther Along" (text).
  2. Hymnary.org: "W. B. Stevens".
  3. Hymn Studies Blog: "Farther Along".
  4. Wikipedia: "Farther Along (song)".
  5. Hymnary.org: "Select Hymns: for Christian Worship and General Gospel Service".
  6. Hymnary.org: "FARTHER ALONG (Stevens)".
  7. Hymnary.org: "J. R. Baxter".
  8. AllMusic: "Farther Along – The Byrds".
  9. Stephen Seifert: "Join the Jam Gospel Edition".