Introduction

Words: Max­well N. Cor­ne­li­us, 1891.

Music: James Mc­Gra­na­han (🔊 pdf nwc).

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

Mr. Cor­ne­li­us was brought up on a farm in my own coun­ty in Penn­syl­van­ia. He left farm­ing when he came of age, and learned the trade of a brick-ma­son. Lat­er he be­came a con­trac­tor in Pitts­burgh. In erect­ing a house in that ci­ty his leg was brok­en. The phy­si­cians de­cid­ed that it would have to be am­pu­tat­ed…He stood the op­era­tion well and came out safe­ly, but was maimed for life.

He now de­cid­ed to go to col­lege and get an edu­ca­tion. Af­ter pass­ing through col­lege with hon­or he con­clud­ed to be­come a min­is­ter of the gos­pel.

His first charge was at Al­too­na, Penn­syl­van­ia, but on ac­count of his wife’s health he soon re­moved to Ca­li­for­nia, lo­cat­ing at Pa­sa­de­na, where he built the lar­gest Pres­by­ter­ian church in that place. Ma­ny who had sub­scribed to help to pay for the build­ing failed in bu­si­ness, and he was left to meet the ob­li­ga­tions as best he could. But in a few years he had the church cleared from all debt.

Shortly af­ter­ward his wife died. He preached the fun­er­al ser­mon him­self. At the con­clu­sion he quot­ed the words of this hymn, which he had com­posed short­ly be­fore. Both the words of the hymn and the ser­mon were print­ed in a Wes­tern news­pa­per, where Ma­jor Whit­tle found them. Im­pressed by their beau­ty, he cut them out and car­ried them in his Bi­ble for three months be­fore he wrote the chor­us…Soon af­ter he hand­ed the words to his friend, James Mc­Gra­na­han, who com­posed the tune to which the hymn is now sung.

Sankey, pp. 244–45