She was born in England in 1863 to a Wesleyan Methodist minister and his wife. When she was 12 the family emigrated to the United States first to a ministry in Mississippi, and then a pastorate in Wisconsin. She was a somewhat shy child, but it soon emerged that she was a very gifted singer who would grow to lead worship services in her later teen years.
She went on to study vocals at a private college in Germany, and then travelled widely throughout the United States ministering in worship at churches everywhere. She would marry a very wealthy European man in 1887 and would go on to teach music and vocals at the famed Moody Bible Institute and then at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. Tragedy struck some years later. Illness caused her to become blind. Not long afterwards, her husband, an accustomed world traveller, soon abandoned her … and she struggled thereafter with many heartaches and disappointments.
Yet her musical and singing brilliance, and ministry, continued unabated – she became widely recognised. She composed more than 500 hymns and poems and also authored a very successful book for children, ‘Story of the Bible’, and composed many musical pieces for children, too. She continued her musical and literary pursuits until her death.
In 1918 Helen Lemmel was visited by a missionary friend who gave her a pamphlet. In it there was a line that impacted her profoundly when it was read out to her:
“So then, turn your eyes upon Him, look full into His face and you will find that the things of earth will acquire a strange new dimness.”
“Suddenly, as if commanded to stop and listen, I stood still, ” Helen later recounted, “and singing in my soul and spirit was this chorus, with not one conscious moment of putting word to word to make rhyme, or note to note to make melody.” The verses of a brand new hymn, “Heavenly Vision” were written that same week. The refrain was …
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in his wonderful face,
and the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.”
Helen’s new hymn was published in London in 1918 in a pamphlet. In 1922, at the Keswick Bible Convention in northern England, the hymn was introduced and gained immediate popularity. It has since been included in a host of hymnals and published in dozens of languages.
There is one thing about this refrain that has impacted upon me from boyhood when Helen Lemmel’s story was related to us at a Christian Endeavour gathering, before we sang this “chorus”. At the time of writing, Helen was totally blind. She could not see her physical surroundings and hadn’t done for many, many years. Yet, she writes, “turn your eyes upon Jesus”. She was calling on all of us who would sing this refrain to turn the eyes of our faith onto Jesus – regardless of the circumstances we might see around us with our physical eyes. In doing so, the things of earth dim to their proper place and size, and our perspective becomes like that of His glorious, divine perspective.
This insight has always stayed with me, and I realised back then as Holy Spirit revealed it to me, that the eyes of faith see only Jesus first – nothing else, not even in the periphery! The eyes of faith turned onto Jesus first cause all other images, thoughts and concerns to bow to Him or fade from our minds. Because He is so glorious and all-powerful, and able … and has overcome all! And in Him we also overcome. This is how we navigate the world in faith … We turn our eyes upon Jesus …
2 Corinthians 10:5c: “… and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
This is how. We turn our eyes upon Jesus … and look full in His wonderful face … First.
2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
Helen’s physical eyes were useless. But not her eyes of faith. Those who knew her in her later years recall her joy and enthusiasm. Though living near poverty in a sparse one-bedroom apartment, whenever she was asked how she was faring, she would reply, “I’m doing well in the things that count.” This should be our attitude despite the challenges and disappointments of our season – because of who we are in Jesus.
Helen passed away on November 1, 1961, in Seattle, Washington, 13 days shy of her 98th birthday. She, like Joseph, son of Jacob, died “full of years”.
Selah!
Ps Milton
Sources: Wikipedia; The Shreveport Journal, March 27, 1957; www.christianheritage.info; womenofchristianity.com