to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey."
My mother's mother called him Uncle John. She adored him.
In November 1891, when she was 12, he wrote her a letter. The letter has been lost but the postmarked envelope survives, with my grandmother's name and address in faded blue type, "Miss Minnetta Sammis, Terre Haute, IND."
In the lower left corner, further directions are added: "Away down South Seventh St. She is the sister of Fannie. I do not know the name or color of her cat, it has six legs two hind ones and forelegs."
The sender is "J. H. Sammis, Grand Haven, Mich."
John Henry Sammis was not only my grandmother's beloved Uncle John. He was the author of "Trust and Obey" and over 100 lesser-known hymns.
"Trust and Obey" was inspired in 1886 when the composer of the music, Daniel B. Towner (1850-1919), was the music leader during one of Dwight L. Moody’s famous revivals. Towner provided the following account :
“Mr. Moody was conducting a series of meetings in Brockton, Massachusetts, and I had the pleasure of singing for him there. One night a young man rose in a testimony meeting and said, ‘I am not quite sure—but I am going to trust, and I am going to obey.’ I jotted that sentence down, and sent it with a little story to the Rev. J. H. Sammis, a Presbyterian minister. He wrote the hymn, and the tune was born.”
My Great-Great Uncle John Sammis was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and was a successful businessman in Logansport, Ind. Through his work with the YMCA he was called to the ministry, attended McCormick and Lane Seminaries, and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1880. After serving congregations in Iowa, Indiana and Minnesota, he joined the faculty of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (now Biola University in La Mirada, California), where he taught Bible and wrote for Biola's magazine, The King's Business.
For years I thought I was the first Christian in my family. After surrendering my life to Christ, I met my first husband at Multnomah Bible College and we both attended Biola for awhile. I was excited to discover a family member had preceded me both in faith and at Biola and that John Sammis was such a committed, enthusiastic, well-grounded Bible teacher there. A eulogy in The King's Business says he was "a walking encyclopedia of the text of the Scriptures. . . loyal to the faith he professed."
I like to believe he prayed for future generations of our family to come to faith in Jesus Christ and that in doing so he indirectly prayed for my grandmother, my mother and me.
On the back of this photo is written in pencil, "The two Johns, 1914." The younger John is apparently a grandson, visiting John and his wife Mary with his big brother Robert. On April 27 that same year, John Sammis wrote to his sister-in-law Ada on Bible Institute of Los Angeles stationery: "John is still with us. My! but he is a jewel. How he could be any nicer and stay a baby in the flesh we do not see. . ." but admits, "My hair is quite snowy since John and Robert came." J.H. Sammis went Home on my mother's 4th birthday, June 12, 1919. Minnetta followed him in 1960 and my mother Barbara in 1990. I am sure all three of them now "in fellowship sweet sit at (Jesus') feet,” enjoying the fruit of having trusted and obeyed.
