Tinney Chapel Today

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GIVE THE WORLD A SMILE

‘For you shall go out in joy...’--Isaiah 55:12(a)

‘A joyful heart makes a cheerful face.’--Proverbs 15:13(a)

‘Rejoice always.’ -- I Thessalonians 5:16

‘Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in your power to do it.’ --Proverbs 3:27

It isn’t often that a single SONG incorporates as much spiritual WISDOM as we find in these four SCRIPTURAL admonitions from the Old and New Testaments. But, consider the Stamps Quartet standard, ‘GIVE THE WORLD A SMILE,’ which celebrates its 87th BIRTHDAY this fall!

It has been the THEME song of EVERY Stamps Quartet formed since the late 1920s, including a modern INCARNATION led by J. D. Sumner--whose MEGA-BASS voice is widely heralded for its deep, dulcet tones. Lots of OTHER groups have adopted it as a THEME song as well.

It was almost certainly the FIRST gospel song to sell a MILLION copies in the era of the fragile 78 rpm RECORD. It was WILDLY POPULAR, thanks to record and RADIO exposure, rivaling ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ on PLAYLISTS for a time, according to Mrs. Frank Stamps. Her HUSBAND was bass singer and LEADER of the group which first RECORDED the song.

Throughout the 1940s and early 1950s, my brother TOMMY BOYD and I came in from FARM work on The Old Tinney Place, in search of rest, musical nourishment and BISCUITS made from American Beauty FLOUR--sponsor of the NOONTIME Stamps Quartet RADIO program of the day. It’s safe to say that we enjoyed the SONG and the BISCUITS five days a week until we we were old enough to leave HOME in the early 1950s.

The song suggests an intimate knowledge of the Bible’s several passages which deal with ATTITUDE: That it’s actually in our BEST interest to be CHEERFUL because it’s HEALTHY. That it’s also our DUTY to pass along our JOY in the form of an ENCOURAGING word and a bright, sunny SMILE.

The song’s WORDS were WRITTEN in 1924 by the late OTIS DEATON, a Hopkins County native, who spent much of his later life in WINNSBORO. ‘Give The World A Smile’ NEVER went out of style, and was also RECORDED by Ernie Ford, Chet Atkins, and Floyd Cramer. If you’ve FORGOTTEN--or never heard--the song, LISTEN to its MESSAGE on Bill & Gloria Gaither’s popular ‘Reunion’ CD:

‘Let your life so be, that all the world may see,
The joy of serving Jesus with a smile.’

With thanks to Rev. Brian Bosworth for inviting me, to Bonnie Gilmour for bulletin preparation, Jim Skaggs for lay leadership, Stanley Foster for sound engineering and to Charlie Epperson for still photography. Joe Dan returns to his home church, Tinney Chapel UMC, next week.