"So Send I You" - Meade Margaret Clarkson

"So Send I You" - revisited Written by David Meade Margaret Clarkson revised her own famous words, after contact with missions first-hand...

Margaret Clarkson wrote the more-famous and well-known words to "So Send I You" in 1954. Apparently, it expressed her idea of what missionary work would be like, having had no experience herself. But, by 1963, she had a more Biblical and mature view of the Lord of of Mission work. Her perspective changed considerably. So re-wrote the lyrics to "So Send I You".
Unfortunately, most hymnals only include and/or we only sing the original words. It would be better to sing the later lyrics. See the texts below:

So Send I YouMargaret Clarkson, 1954So send I you -- to labor unrewarded,To serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown,To bear rebuke, to suffer scorn and scoffing --So send I you, to toil for Me alone.

So send I you -- to bind the bruised and broken,O'er wand'ring souls to work, to weep, to wake,To bear the burdens of a world a-weary --So send I you, to suffer for My sake.
So send I you -- to loneliness and longing,With heart a-hung'ring for the loved and known,Forsaking home and kindred, friend and dear one --So send I you, to know My love alone.

So send I you -- to leave your life's ambition,To die to dear desire, self-will resign,To labor long, and love where men revile you --So send I you, to lose your life in Mine.
So send I you -- to hearts made hard by hatred,To eyes made blind because they will not see,To spend, tho it be blood, to spend and spare not --So send I you, to taste of Calvary.
"As the Father hath sent Me, So send I you."

Margaret Clarkson, 1963So send I you -- by grace made strong to triumphO'er hosts of hell, o'er darkness, death and sin,My name to bear and in that name to conquer --So send I you, My victory to win.

So send I you - to take to souls in bondageThe Word of Truth that sets the captive freeTo break the bonds of sin, to loose death's fetters --So send I you, to bring the lost to Me.
So send I you -- My strength to know in weakness,My joy in grief, My perfect peace in pain,To prove My pow'r, My grace, My promised presence --So send I you, eternal fruit to gain.
So send I you -- to bear My cross with patience,And then one day with joy to lay it down,To hear My voice, "Well done, My faithful servant --Come share My throne, My kingdom and My crown!"

"As the Father hath sent Me, so send I you."

A lonely and scared young teacher wrote it as she contemplated her isolation—a loneliness that pervaded her heart and soul. Margaret Clarkson experienced loneliness of every kind—mental, cultural, and spiritual—as she began teaching at a logging camp in northern Ontario, Canada she wrote these words of pain and suffering. However years later she would see the “one-sidedness” of this hymn and compose a newer version—one that reflected her growth and rest in Christ.

So send I you—by grace made strong; To triumph o’er hosts of hell, O’er darkness, death and sin; My name to bear, and in that name to conquer So send I you, my victory to win

Margaret Clarkson, whose rarely-used first name is Edith, was born in 1915 into, as Margaret herself described, “a loveless and unhappy marriage” which broke up when she was twelve. The memories of her childhood were of tension, fear, insecurity, and isolation. Margaret was born in Melville, Saskatchewan where she lived until her parents, Frederick and Ethel, and the family moved to Toronto when she was around age four. Throughout her life, she was plagued by pain; initially from migraines, accompanied by convulsive vomiting, and then arthritis—two ailments that accompanied her continually. In Destined for Glory, she related sadly that her mother told her that her first words were “my head hurts.” At age three Margaret, or Margie as her friends knew her, contracted juvenile arthritis and became bed bound. She recalled the pain as well as the bald spot worn on the back of her head from lying in bed so long.