The Changed Cross Blessings Deferred Theme Song 2023 cover 2025

The 2023 version included a music video, so I covered and remastered it on the Uke.
The original is from 1870 and kind of resembles Oh My Heart in tempo.

The Changed Cross, Estelle Fries, 1870s.
Revision, 2023

It was a time of sadness oh my heart;
though I knew to love the better part
And while I thought twas given to me;
My tests of faith and love to be
It seems as if I ne’er can be sure;
That faith to end I should endure

Thus longer trusts to all His might;
To walk by faith and not by sight.
I thought the cross I could not bear,
For its weight was heavy there,
If I could lay my burden down;
I should not fear to lose the crown.

Evening shadows seemed quiet to tell;
And weary though my spirit felt.
For then there came a heavenly light;
As if to come my raptured sight,
Angelic music filled the air,
As flighted deities tussled there.

Then One who bade them bow the knee,
The Lord came and stood with smile at me,
Come gently to me as I trembling lay;
And “Follow me!” he said, “I am the Way.”
Before me crosses of every shape appeared,
Some more magnificent than mine I feared,

And then saw I one a beauty to behold,
With jewels encircling it in gold.
Thought I, this will be one to wear,
This one would be fine to bear.
And so the little cross did I take,
But this cross did tremble and shake.

The sparkling jewels fair were they to see;
But far too heavy was their weight for me
“This may not be,” I cried and looked again;
For comfort then to ease my pain,
But one by one I passed them all by,
Till on a lovely one I caught my eye.

Fair roses around its sculptured form entwined;
And grace and beauty seemed in it combined
And as I gazed upon its beauty more,
I wondered why so many passed it o’er.
But oh! That form so beautiful to see;
Soon made its hidden sorrows known to me

Thorn lay beneath the flowers and colors fair;
Sorrowing I said, “This cross I may not bear.”
And so it was with all of these around;
Not one to suit my need should there be found
Weeping, I laid each heavy burden down;
And my Guide gently said, “No cross, no crown.”

At length to Him I raised my saddened heart;
He knew its sorrows, bade its doubts depart
“Be not afraid,” He said, “But trust in me.;
My perfect love shall be shown to thee.”
And then with lightened eyes and willing feet;
Again I turned my earthly cross to meet

With forward footsteps turning not aside;
For fear some hidden evil might betide
There, in the prepared anointed way;
Listening to hear and ready to obey
A cross I quickly found of plainest form;
With only words of love inscribed thereon

With thankfulness I raised it from the rest;
And joyfully acknowledged it the best
The only one of all the many there;
That I could feel was good for me to bear
While I thus my chosen one confessed;
I saw a heavenly brightness on it rest

And as I bent, my burden to sustain;
I recognized my own old cross again
But oh! How different did it seemed to be;
Now I had learned its preciousness to see
So what His love seems good of me to send;
I’ll trust it best because he knows the end.

Estelle Fries was 16 when she wrote this, and was dying of the auge, in Michigan in 1870. She was the sibling of Clarence Fries, who later married Lucinda, and lived in Greenville, Michigan. They had 9 children. One of the middle ones was Estelle, named for her aunt.

Estelle Fries II and her siblings were musically talented and one would go into the silent pictures, during scores for films, while Estelle would go on to the Chitaqua Musical Circuit through Chicago, Illinois.

Estelle married Eugene Browne in the 1920s and became Estelle Browne, and later, Estelle Knapp in the 1960s.

She is my Grandmother. She lived to be 99 years old.

Blessings Deferred was her magnum opus.

The little hymn poem however circulated following a 1930 anonymous church playbill release in Grand Rapids through distant relations that ironically became the second Michigan family descended from a Browne, thus a Knapp.

Estelle's claim to fame though was opening for Kate Smith at the circuit in Chicago in the 1920s. Violin. She could play any instrument.

The song has been identified since as indeed Estelle Fries, with Estelle Knapp coming as the author, although technically it was her late aunt.

Somewhere out there is a rare piano version. Vocals by Adam Browne.