Your love is better than life.
Psalm 63:3
Words: Fanny Crosby, in Gospel Hymns and Sacred Songs, by Philip P. Bliss & Ira D. Sankey (New York: Biglow & Main, 1875), number 48.
Music: W. Howard Doane (🔊 pdf nwc).
Tune preceded words in this instance. It was in 1875 that Mr. Doane sent the tune to Fanny Crosby, and requested her to write a hymn entitled “Every day and hour.”
Her response in the form of this hymn gave the blind hymn-writer great comfort and filled her heart with joy. She felt sure that God would bless the hymn to many hearts.
Her hope has been most fully verified, for millions have been refreshed and strengthened as they have sung it. At the suggestion of Mr. D. W. McWilliams, who was superintendent of Dr. Cuyler’s Sunday-school for twenty-five years, it was put into “Gospel Hymns.”
Sankey, pp. 238–39
Savior, more than life to me,
I am clinging, clinging, close to Thee;
Let Thy precious blood applied,
Keep me ever, ever near Thy side.
Refrain
Every day, every hour,
Let me feel Thy cleansing power;
May Thy tender love to me
Bind me closer, closer, Lord to Thee.
Through this changing world below,
Lead me gently, gently as I go;
Trusting Thee, I cannot stray,
I can never, never lose my way.
Refrain
Let me love Thee more and more,
Till this fleeting, fleeting life is o’er;
Till my soul is lost in love,
In a brighter, brighter world above.
Refrain