Charles Austin Miles was a New Jersey pharmacist, born in 1868, who, at the age of 24 decided to abandon his career and devote his life to gospel music and hymns.  For the next 37 years he was an editor and manager at the Hall-Mack Company, a publisher of such music.  After retiring, he continued living in New Jersey and Pennsylvania until his death in 1946.  During his life, he wrote and published hundreds of hymns, the most famous being “In the Garden,” which he wrote in 1912.  Miles summed up his life with these words:  “It is as a writ­er of gos­pel songs I am proud to be known, for in that way I may be of the most use to my Mas­ter, whom I serve will­ing­ly al­though not as ef­fi­cient­ly as is my de­sire.”

Shortly after it was written, “In the Garden” became a regular theme song of revival meetings held across the country by evangelist, prohibitionist and former major league baseball player, Billy Sunday.  In the early 20th Century it would be hard to get more exposure than that.  During the course of his career, Sunday is estimated to have preached, in person, to more than 100 million people.  Since the mid-20th Century, it has been recorded by almost everyone – from Elvis Presley to Jim Reeves to Roy Rogers to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to Dolly Parton to Perry Como.

The popularity of “In the Garden” is easy to understand.  It is a good song.

Miles composed this hymn in the “Garden State”‘ but not in an actual garden.  He was in a cold, dreary, leaky basement in New Jersey that didn’t even have a window.

Miles once explained that he was an amateur photographer and was in the basement waiting for some film to develop.  He picked up a Bible and turned to one of His favorite chapters – Chapter 20 of John’s Gospel – which tells the story of Mary Magdalene meeting Jesus outside the tomb after the Resurrection and mistaking Him for the gardener.  When she finally did recognize Him, she knelt and cried, “Rabboni.”

He said he then held the Bible and stared at the wall in front of him, when suddenly he seemed to be looking into the entrance of a garden where he saw Mary Magdalene walking along a path beneath olive branches, then saw the apostles Peter and John run to an empty tomb and then saw Mary kneeling before Jesus.  Miles seemed to lose consciousness for a short time, but when he awoke the words to “In the Garden” were in his mind; and he wrote the music that evening.

That is a good story, and I do not doubt its veracity.  However, with all due respect, I am pretty sure the song is not really about Jesus and Mary Magdalene.  It is about you and your relationship to the divine.

I believe that Miles’ experience that led to his composition is an example of the power that is possible in the ancient practice known as lexio divina (albeit inadvertent or spontaneous on Miles’ part), which seems to have been begun by the Desert Fathers, was written of by Origen and St. Augustine, formalized by St. John of the Cross, practiced by Protestant reformers such as John Calvin and revitalized in the modern Church following Vatican II.

Lexio divina does not consider sacred scripture as mere text to be studied, but as the “Living Word” to be experienced.  Its traditional steps are read, meditate, pray and contemplate.  I would like to go into more detail – and I may later – but this post is becoming quite wordy.  Let me simply say that like most meditative or mystical practices, lexio divina recognizes that the rational mind is limited by its attachment to the physical world.  In order to transcend the physical and understand the reality beyond the physical, the rational must be set aside so that God or the Universe or whatever is the stuff of existence may be experienced.

Miles seems clearly to have gone beyond his physical mind with the experience he described.  The resulting song invites the listener to go within (whether in a basement or an actual garden) to that beautiful place where he or she may experience communion and communication with the divine.

Almost every traditional country singer who has had a recording contract has released a gospel album which includes “In the Garden.”  Willie Nelson once wrote that Ray Price had the best voice in country music, so I have picked Ray Price’s version of “In the Garden” for the Song of the Week.

In the Garden
By Charles Austin Miles

I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses,
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of His voice,
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me,
Within my heart is ringing.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

I’d stay in the garden with Him,
Tho’ the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go, thro’ the voice of woe,
His voice to me is calling

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

(Public Domain)

Note (for trivia fans):  These lyrics are inscribed on a marble bench next to the grave of former Louisiana Governor Earl Long in Winnfield, Louisiana.  It was supposedly Long’s favorite song.