Soaring Once Again

“Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Rom 5:20). About the year 1900, evangelist Peter Bilhorn received a song, “The Bird with the Broken Wing.” Using the idea that “The bird with the broken pinion Never soars as high again,” it warned that a “life that sin had stricken, Never soared as high again.” About that time he was invited to preach in the Iowa State Prison. When asked to sing at close, he used that song. When he finished, a young man said, “Chaplain, if that’s true, there’s no hope for us.” Bilhorn realized his blunder, and so wrote this verse: “The soul that comes to Jesus Is saved from every sin; By the grace He freely gives you, You shall higher soar again.” Thankfully he was invited back to the prison and rectified his mistake. Nearly 20 years later, he met the man who had asked if the song was true, now a believer, who told Bilhorn he was saved the night the preacher corrected the song. “By God’s grace,” he said, “one can soar higher again.”

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