His Eye Is on the Sparrow

Infobox Song
Name = His Eye is on the Sparrow


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Published = 1905
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Writer = Civilla D. Martin
Composer = Charles H. Gabriel
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"His Eye Is on the Sparrow" is a Gospel hymn. Although today it is a staple of African-American worship services, the song was originally written in 1905 by two white songwriters, lyricist Civilla D. Martin and composer Charles H. Gabriel. The song is most associated with actress-singer Ethel Waters who used the title for her autobiography.

The song has been performed extensively in Gospel music with notable versions by Shirley Caesar, Crystal Lewis, Marvin Gaye (from "In Loving Memory"), Kirk Franklin & the Family, Lauryn Hill & Tanya Blount (from "Sister Act 2"), Mahalia Jackson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Dottie West, and Barbara Mandrell. Jessica Simpson recorded the song for her 2001 album "Irresistible".

Inspiration

The theme of the song is inspired by the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew in the Bible, as referenced by Mrs. Doolittle in Elmira, NY (see below).

Chapter 6:26
²⁶ "Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?"

Chapter 10:29-31.
²⁹ "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father."
³⁰ "But the very hairs of your head are all numbered."
³¹ "Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows."

Civilla Martin, who wrote the lyrics, said this about her inspiration to write the song based in the scriptures outlined above, Quote|Early in the spring of 1905, my hus­band and I were so­journ­ing in El­mi­ra, New York. We con­tract­ed a deep friend­ship for a cou­ple by the name of Mr. and Mrs. Doo­lit­tle—true saints of God. Mrs. Doo­lit­tle had been bed­rid­den for nigh twen­ty years. Her hus­band was an in­cur­a­ble crip­ple who had to pro­pel him­self to and from his bus­i­ness in a wheel chair. De­spite their af­flict­ions, they lived hap­py Christ­ian lives, bring­ing in­spir­a­tion and com­fort to all who knew them. One day while we were vi­sit­ing with the Doo­lit­tles, my hus­band com­ment­ed on their bright hope­ful­ness and asked them for the se­cret of it. Mrs. Doo­lit­tle’s re­ply was sim­ple: "His eye is on the spar­row, and I know He watch­es me." The beau­ty of this sim­ple ex­press­ion of bound­less faith gripped the hearts and fired the imag­in­a­tion of Dr. Mar­tin and me. The hymn "His Eye Is on the Spar­row" was the out­come of that ex­per­i­ence.|Mrs. Doolittle

External links

* [http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/m/a/r/martin_cd.htm Civilla Durfee Martin]
* [http://www.angelfire.com/ks/landzastanza/chg.html Selected Songs by Charles H. Gabriel] texts and MIDI sequences of 30 songs, including "His Eye Is on the Sparrow"