You may not remember Susan Bogert Warner and Anna Bartlett Warner, but chances are you remember these few words, lingering still in your heart from childhood . . . “You in your small corner, And I in mine.”

 

Jesus bids us shine,

With a pure, clear light,

Like a little candle,

Burning in the night.

In this world is darkness,

So let us shine–

You in your small corner,

And I in mine.

 

Jesus bids us shine,

First of all for Him;

Well He sees and knows it,

If our light grows dim;

He looks down from heaven,

To see us shine–

You in your small corner,

And I in mine.

 

Jesus bids us shine,

Then, for all around

Many kinds of darkness

In this world are found –

Sin, and want, and sorrow;

So we must shine,

You in your small corner,

And I in mine.

 

Her sister, Anna, may not strike a chord of recognition either, but we are all thankful that one day, at her sister Susan’s request, Anna wrote the now well-known children’s song, “Jesus Loves Me.” A song sung by millions, passed by one generation to another. Words that never die.

Susan and Anna became devout Christians in the late 1830s. Their father, Henry Warner, was a New York City lawyer originally from New England, and her mother was Anna Bartlett, from a wealthy, fashionable family in New York’s Hudson Square.

Although Henry was a successful lawyer, he lost most of his fortune in the 1837 Panic, and in subsequent lawsuits and poor investments. Hard times forced the family to leave their mansion at St. Mark’s Place in New York City and move to an old Revolutionary War-era farmhouse on Constitution Island, near West Point, NY. Seeing little of a financial turnaround, in 1849 Susan and Anna started writing to earn income.

Susan became a popular writer of religious fiction and children’s fiction. Under the name, Elizabeth Wetherell, she wrote some thirty novels, many of which went into multiple editions, the best known being her first, The Wide Wide World (1850). Her younger sister, Anna Bartlett Warner, was also a writer, working jointly with her sister, and at other times on her own under the pseudonym, Amy Lothrop.

Instead of pining over “what might have been,” the sisters took advantage of their relocation from the city. Along with their writing, began holding Bible studies for the nearby West Point cadets.

Through the years, while on military duty, cadets could often be heard singing, “Jesus Loves Me.” The popularity of the song was so great that upon Warner’s death, she was buried at West Point Cemetery. The former family home is now a museum on the grounds of The United States Military Academy, which was opposite the house during their lifetimes.

Utilizing giftedness, honing their skills, these two extraordinary women turned their stressful family downturn into a vital ministry, transforming the lives of many a young Army officer, as well as warming the hearts of millions of children down through the years, whose names they would never know.

Never underestimate the power of a small corner when God is in it.

   

Susan Bogert Warner                Anna Bartlett Warner