Scripture Verse

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. Revelation 3:20

Introduction

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Fanny Crosby (1820–1915)

Words: Fan­ny Cros­by, in Roy­al Dia­dem, ed­it­ed by Ro­bert Low­ry & How­ard Doane (New York: Big­low & Main, 1873), num­ber 93.

Music: W. How­ard Doane (🔊 pdf nwc).

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Howard Doane (1832–1915)

The ed­it­or of a re­li­gious pe­ri­od­ic­al in the South sends me the fol­low­ing in­ci­dent, which oc­curred while he was hold­ing meet­ings in a small town:

One night a pro­mi­nent man of the coun­try, not a Chris­tian, was in town. Hav­ing heard of the fine sing­ing, he went to the meet­ing for a few min­utes to list­en to a song or two. He heard on­ly one song and then went away; but that song went with him. It was On­ly a step to Je­sus! Then why not take it now?

The words stayed with him, and were re­peated ov­er and ov­er. They came back to him the next day, and awak­en­ed in­qui­ry re­gard­ing him­self which at last led him in­to re­pent­ance and a hap­py con­ver­sion. Ma­ny peo­ple wept as he re­lat­ed his ex­per­ience be­fore the church.

Sankey, p. 212

Lyrics

Only a step to Je­sus!
Then why not take it now?
Come, and thy sin con­fess­ing,
To Him, thy Sav­ior, bow.

Refrain

Only a step, on­ly a step,
Come, He waits for thee;
Come, and thy sin con­fess­ing,
Thou shalt re­ceive a bless­ing;
Do not re­ject the mer­cy
He free­ly of­fers thee.

Only a step to Je­sus!
Believe, and thou shalt live;
Lovingly now He’s wait­ing,
And rea­dy to for­give.

Refrain

Only a step to Je­sus!
A step from sin to grace;
What has thy heart de­cid­ed
The mo­ments fly apace?

Refrain

Only a step to Je­sus!
O why not come and say,
Gladly to Thee my Sav­ior,
I give my­self away.

Refrain