Scripture Verse

Introduction

Origin of the Hymn

From a home with one bro­ther and one sis­ter, Charles Wa­ter­man’s urge was to see the coun­try. This took him to hitch­hik­ing on the rail­road to Ca­li­for­nia. He was in­flu­enced by the world­ly crowd and gave him­self to be­come an al­co­hol­ic.

Even as such, he worked his way up to be­come an en­gin­eer on the steam lo­co­mo­tive. He mar­ried An­na, who had a Chris­tian back­ground and did what she could to keep the tes­ti­mo­ny be­fore him.

Anna was dis­cour­aged at the path her husband fol­lowed be­cause it was caus­ing him to miss work on some of his hang­ov­ers. So she asked a la­dy in her town in Ca­li­for­nia to meet with her and help her pray for Charles to be saved.

His wild life went on for three or more years, and one night he be­came fright­ened while un­der the in­flu­ence, and when he fi­nal­ly ar­rived at home, he told An­na he want­ed to be saved.

She im­me­di­ate­ly called her friend who came ov­er to their home and they led him to the Lord. He begged the Lord for for­giv­eness and to clean up his life, which the Lord did.

The hap­pi­ness that fol­lowed caused An­na to write this song. A book with ov­er 30 oth­er songs was col­lected and pub­lished.

They vis­it­ed in Lo­di, Fount­ain Coun­ty, In­di­ana, and at the Bap­tist Church, lat­er named Wa­ter­man Bap­tist Church.