Christ the Lord is Risen Today
Christ the Lord Is Risen Today Author: Charles Wesley, 1707-1788 Music: From Lyra Davidica, 1708 The first Wesleyan Chapel in London, England, was a deserted iron foundry. It became known as the Foundry Meeting House. This hymn was written by Charles Wesley for the first service in the chapel in 1739, just one year after Charles’s dramatic Aldersgate Conversion experience. The hymn was first published in the Foundry’s Collection-which contained “hymns set to music as they are commonly sung at the Foundry.” The book had...
read moreBlessed Assurance
Blessed Assurance Author: Fanny J. Crosby, 1820-1915 Composer: Phoebe P. Knapp, 1839-1908 Gospel music as an important form of Christian hymnody had its beginning in the latter half of the nineteenth century and is associated with such well-known names as Moody, Sankey, Bliss and Frances Jane Crosby. Crosby, perhaps more than any other writer, however, truly captured the spirit of the American gospel song movement. As one author has written, Gospel hymnody has the distinction of being America’s most typical contribution to Christian...
read moreBlest Be the Tie that Binds
Blest Be the Tie That Binds Author: John Fawcett, 1740-1817 Composer: Hans G. Naegeli, 1773-1836 John Fawcett was born of poor parents in Lidget Green, Yorkshire, England, in 1740. He was converted to Christ at the age of sixteen through the ministry of George Whitefield. At the age of twenty-six he was ordained as a Baptist minister. He accepted a call to pastor a small and impoverished congregation at Wainsgate in Northern England. After spending several years at Wainsgate where his salary was meager and his family growing, he...
read moreIt is Well With My Soul
It is Well With My Soul Author: Horatio G. Spafford, 1828-1888 Music: Philip P. Bliss, 1838-1876 This beloved hymn was written by a Presbyterian layman from Chicago named Horatio G. Spafford who was born in North Troy, New York, on October 20, 1828. As a young man Spafford had established a successful legal practice in Chicago. Along with his financial success, he always maintained a keen interest in Christian activities. He enjoyed a close and active relationship with D. L. Moody and other evangelical leaders of that era. He was...
read moreIn the Garden
In the Garden Author: C. Austin Miles, 1868-1946 Composer: C. Austin Miles, 1868-1946 It was in 1912 that music publisher Dr. Adam Geibel asked C. Austin Miles to write a hymn text that would be “sympathetic in tone, breathing tenderness in every line; one that would bring hope to the hopeless, rest for the weary, and downy pillows to dying beds.” In George W. Sanville’s book, Forty Gospel Hymn Stories, Miles has left the following account of the writing of this hymn: One day in March, 1912, I was seated in the dark room, where I kept...
read moreGreat is Thy Faithfulness
Great Is Thy Faithfulness Author: Thomas O. Chisholm, 1866-1960 Composer: William M. Runyan, 1870-1957 Of the many gospel hymns written in recent times on the theme of God’s goodness and faithfulness, this hymn stands out like a beacon light. While many hymns are born out of a particular dramatic experience, this hymn was simply the result of the author’s “morning by morning realization of God’s personal faithfulness.” Thomas Obadiah Chisholm was born in a humble log cabin in Franklin, Kentucky, on July 29, 1866. Without the...
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