Introduction

Words: Jo­na­than B. At­chin­son, in The Gos­pel Choir, by Ira D. San­key (New York: Big­low & Main, 1885).

Music: Ed­win O. Ex­cell (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of At­chin­son (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

In Great Bri­tain this fa­vo­rite hymn brought bless­ing to a re­tired co­lo­nel of the Eng­lish ar­my, at one of Mr. Moody’s meet­ings on the banks of the Thames. The co­lo­nel had be­come anx­ious about his spir­it­ual con­di­tion, and de­cid­ed to go to Lon­don to at­tend our meet­ings there.

At the con­clu­sion of one of the ev­en­ing ser­vic­es, as he was about to leave the great build­ing, his at­ten­tion was ar­rest­ed by a sweet voice sing­ing, Let the Sav­iour in. On tak­ing the train at Pad­ding­ton sta­tion for Bourne­mouth, the song re­mained in his heart, and the wheels of the train seemed to re­peat in his ears the re­frain, Let him in! let the Sav­iour in!

He went again to Lon­don and sought out the sing­er whose voice had so im­pressed him. She was a la­dy of high rank, and in the course of a few months be­came the wife of the gal­lant co­lo­nel. A year lat­er they moved to Flo­ri­da, where I had the plea­sure of vis­it­ing them in their home. On my in­vi­ta­tion, they ac­com­pan­ied me to a near-by town where I was hold­ing meet­ings. At the con­clusion of my lec­ture the la­dy sang this hymn again, and so sweet­ly that it moved the au­di­ence to tears.

Sankey, p. 189