Kenneth R. Hardman

I’m so excited for this song to touch you; it is a tender glimpse of my family history. I hope I’ve captured some of the feeling, the emotion as William Clayton in Nauvoo, Illinois writes to William Hardman, a close acquaintance back in England, March 30, 1842. “Dear William, my heart rejoices while I write to inform you that on Sunday evening last, the steamer Ariel landed at Nauvoo loaded with Saints from England. About five o’clock the boat was seen coming up the river, the whole deck crowded with Saints…

As we went along, we were delighted and astonished to see the number of Saints on their way to meet the boat. When we arrived, the scene was affecting; I could not refrain from weeping. I looked round, and I suppose there was not less than from two to three thousand Saints on the shore, all anxiously interested in the scene. Many were there who wanted to give the strangers (yet brothers) a hearty welcome; others panting betwixt doubt and hope, lest their friends should not be there, others waiting to ascertain if any former acquaintance was in the company–myself amongst the number; and many, whose hearts throbbed with joy, and their eyes wept tears, expecting to see their mothers, their fathers, their children, and other relatives &c., &c… I could but faintly hear those on the boat singing a hymn…

At this period my heart almost melted, the boat moving majestically, every head stretched out, and all eyes gazing with intensity. A few moments more and the boat was landed, and the joyful acclamations and responding welcomes would have made a heart of stone acknowledge, that whether there was any religion or not, there was a great quantity of love–the purest essence of religion. I soon recognized… several… whom I know. They soon discovered me and we quickly felt each other’s hand, and had a time of rejoicing together…”

When Earth Meets Heaven – Music and Lyrics by Kenneth R. Hardman, 2024

References:

• William Clayton, Letter to William Hardman, March 30, 1842. Also published in Millennial Star Aug. 1, 1842 per BYU Studies Quarterly, Vol. 12, Issue 1, Article 11, “A Letter to England, 1842”)
• See the full “Reference” at the end of the sheet music