A poor despised company

The following hymn is number CXXV in Divine Hymns, or Spiritual Songs: for the Use of Religious Assemblies and Private Christians (Joshua Smith, Samuel Sleeper). There it is captioned “A brief description of the Children of God, in a Dialogue.” In some books it is called the “The Pilgrim Company.” The caption in Divine Hymns is helpful, cueing us in to the fact that this is a dialogue, discussing a despised company of travelers. In form, the first stanza is a question answered in the second stanza. Afterward, each stanza has the question in the first half and the answer in the last half. According to Warren Steel and Richard Hulan (The Makers of The Sacred Harp, p. 209), the hymn probably first appears in Hymns and Spiritual Songs by James Maxwell (London: 1759).

The hymn provides a contrast of the view of those “that walk in yonder narrow way.” The world can only see them in a temporal physical manner, while the narrator explains the long view – the eternal and spiritual look. The type of hymn about “a poor despised company” or “poor and afflicted saints” have fallen into general contempt among most wealthy and prosperous Western churches.

1. What poor despisèd company
Of travellers are these,
That walk in yonder narrow way,
Along that rugged maze?

2. Ah, these are of a royal line,
All children of a King;
Heirs of immortal crowns divine,
And lo! for joy they sing.

3. Why do they then appear so mean
And why so much despis’d?
Because of their rich robes unseen
The world is not appriz’d.

4. But some of them seem poor, distress’d,
And lacking daily bread.
Ah they’re of boundless wealth possess’d,
With hidden manna fed.

5. But why keep they that narrow road—
That rugged, thorny maze?
Why, that’s the way their Leader trod;
They love and keep his ways.

6. Why must they shun the pleasant path,
That worldings love so well?
Because that is the road to death,
The open road to hell.

7. What, is there then no other road
To Salem’s happy ground?
Christ is the only way to God,
None other can be found.

In The Sacred Harp tradition, we sing this hymn to the tune Irwinton, by T. W. Carter. (Only the first and second stanzas are printed.) Irwinton was dropped from The Sacred Harp in the 1870 revision. The 1902 Cooper revision of The Sacred Harp added it back in an arrangement by N. Cheshire, called Joyful News. The Denson stream of The Sacred Harp added Irwinton back in 1911 (in the James Book, called Invitation). It was dropped once again, and then returned to the book in 1991 (under the name Irwinton).

Thomas W. Carter was born in Abbeville District, South Carolina, the son of Edward R. Carter, Sr. and brother of Matthew M. Carter. He attended medical school in Augusta, Georgia, and afterward married Lucinda A. Tompkins in 1849. They had one daughter, Hannah, who married James McNeil. After the death of Lucinda, Carter married Mary C. Dozier circa 1875. He died August 19, 1876, and was buried somewhere in Lake City, Florida.

Thomas W. Carter wrote or arranged 13 songs that appeared in The Sacred Harp by B. F. White & E. J. King, published in 1844: Augusta, 35; The Old Ship of Zion, 79; Little Children, 86; Church Triumphant, 91; Oak Bowery, 94; Ecstasy, 106; Night Watchman, 108; Concord, 111; Sandtown, 112; Florence, 121; Irwinton, 124; Exhilaration, 170; Banquet of Mercy, 177.