Nothing Between

My heart is singing with the birds this morning as I reflect on God's tender mercies and sweet blessings!  What a blessed privilege it is to walk with Him -- to be able to pray about everything and trust Him for the future -- He knoweth all the way!!  And as I walk this road of life, I want to be careful to watch and pray, and allow "Nothing Between" my soul and the Saviour!  I trust the story of this beautiful song by Charles Tindley will be a blessing and encouragement to you today!

     Charles Tindley was born into slavery in 1851.  His father was poor, and unable to send him to school or to keep Charles with him at his little home.  Charles wrote, "It therefore became my lot to be hired out.  The people with whom I lived were not all good.  Some of them were very cruel.  I used to find bits of newspaper on the roadside in order to study the ABC's from them.  During the day I would gather pine knots, and when the people were asleep at night I would light these pine knots, and with fire coals, mark all the words I could make out.  I continued in this way, and without any teacher, until I could read the Bible."
     One day Charles slipped into Church and sat in the back.  When the preacher asked any child who could read the Bible to come forward, Charles went to the front.  He later recalled the odd looks people gave him, and overheard someone refer to him as "the boy with the bare feet".  From that moment, Charles resolved to gain an education.
     After emancipation, he moved to Philadelphia, and it was there, in a Methodist church, that he gave his life to Christ.  His entrance into "full-time" ministry began humbly---as the church janitor!
     "My first plan was to buy every book I could.  Then I entered by correspondence all the schools to which my limited means would afford.  Thus while I was unable to go through the schools, I was able to let the schools go through me."
      In 1885, he applied for ordination.  One of the other candidates asked him, "How do you expect to pass your examination?  The other candidates and I have diplomas.  What do you hold?"
      "Nothing but a broom", was Tindley's reply.  But the boy with the broom went on to become a world-famous pastor, preacher, and hymnist.
      One evening as he studied, it is recorded that a piece of paper, caught by the wind, flew across Charles' lamp, causing a shadow to fall over his writing.  Pausing, Charles considered the power of a sin to darken his soul, and out of that came his great hymn:  "Nothing Between."

     Nothing between my soul and the Saviour,
Naught of this world's delusive dread;
      I have renounced all sinful pleasure,
Jesus is mine!  There's nothing between.

      Nothing between, like worldly pleasure:
Habits of life, though harmless they seem,
      Must not my heart from Him ever sever,
He is my all!  There's nothing between.

      Nothing between, like pride or station:
Self or friends shall not intervene;
      Though it may cost me much tribulation,
I am resolved!  There's nothing between.

      Nothing between, even many hard trials,
Though the whole world against me convene,
      Watching with prayer and much self-denial,
Triumph at last, with nothing between.

      Nothing between my soul and the Saviour,
So that His blessed face may be seen;
      Nothing preventing the least of His favor:
Keep the way clear!  Let nothing between."