Scripture Verse

Introduction

Origin of the Hymn

The words and mu­sic of this beau­ti­ful hymn were first pub­lished in a month­ly, en­ti­tled, Guide to Ho­li­ness, a co­py of which was sent to me in Eng­land. I im­me­di­ate­ly adopt­ed it, and had it pub­lished in Sac­red Songs and So­los.

It proved to be one of the most help­ful of the re­viv­al hymns, and was oft­en used as an in­vi­ta­tion hymn in Eng­land and Am­er­ica.…

Shortly af­ter this hymn was writ­ten, while it was be­ing sung by a large con­gre­ga­tion in Wash­ing­ton [DC], a pass­ing merc­hant stopped to list­en. It had been twen­ty years since he had crossed the thresh­old of a church. The con­gre­ga­tion were on their feet and sin­ners were pass­ing to the al­tar for pray­er. Stan­za af­ter stan­za of this hymn was sung, with in­creas­ing in­ter­est. The Ho­ly Spi­rit so pressed the Lord’s claims that the mer­chant yield­ed and joined the pe­ni­tents.

He was con­vert­ed, and this hymn be­came his fa­vo­rite. He sang it in his home, on the street, and in his store. It seemed a spe­cial in­spi­ra­tion to him.

One morn­ing, about two weeks af­ter his con­ver­sion, as he start­ed for his store, his wife, hav­ing ac­com­pa­nied him to the door to say good-bye, heard him joy­ful­ly be­gin to sing, I am com­ing, Lord, to Thee, as he reached the street. She list­ened a lit­tle while, look­ing af­ter him, and then turned to her room.

A few mo­ments later the door-bell rang. She an­swered it in per­son, on­ly to find that men were bear­ing home her hus­band’s dead bo­dy. He had slipped on the icy pave­ment and was in­stant­ly killed. The me­mo­ry of those last words of song that fell up­on her ears, as he tr­iumph­ant­ly sang, I am com­ing, Lord, to Thee, was to her a last­ing com­fort.

Sankey, pp. 161–62