Videos & Stories Behind Hymns

O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go Hymn Story
DR. GEORGE MATHESON was one of the most be loved clergymen in the Church of Scotland. His writings were numerous and of a high order; but the marvel of it all is that he was able to accomplish so much without his sight, for from the age of fifteen he was totally blind. His hymn beginning, "O Love that wilt not let me go," was sung out of his blindness and gives evidence of the courage with which he bore his great affliction. 
His own story of how he came to write the hymn is well worth quoting: "My hymn was composed in the manse of Innellan on the evening of June 6, 1882. I was at the time alone. It was the day of my sister s marriage, and the rest of the family were staying overnight in Glasgow. Something had happened to me, which was known only to myself; and which caused the most severe mental suffering. It was the quickest bit of work I ever did in my life. I had the impression rather of having it dictated to me by some inw…

BISHOP REGINALD HEBER, after years of longing for the spread of the gospel in India, crowned his career with a few years of most useful service as Bishop of Calcutta. He made extensive visitations among the struggling missions nearly a century ago and ordained the first Christian native, Christian David. At last he laid down his life, a victim of fever, as a result of his labors in that benighted land. 
During the years of his life as rector of Hodnet, while longing for a career in India, he wrote many hymns, as well as other forms of literary productions, and won the respect and friendship of Milman, Southey, and other litterateurs. 
One Saturday afternoon, the day before Whit sunday, 1819, he was at Wrexham Vicarage with his father-in-law, Dr. Shipley, Dean of Saint Asaph. Dr. Shipley was planning to preach on the following morning a sermon in aid of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and in the evening Reginald
Heber was to begin a series of lectures…

The History of Stand Up, Stand Up For Jesus Hymn
THE hymn, "Stand up, stand up for Jesus," was written during the great revival of 1858, that came to be known as "The Work of God in Philadelphia." It was based upon the dying words of the Rev. Dudley A.
Tyng, one of the most active ministers in the revival. It is said that, when he preached on March 30, 1858, at the noonday prayer meeting in Jayne s Hall, five thousand men listened to his sermon from the text, "Go now, ye that are men, and serve the Lord," and that before the close of the meeting over a thousand expressed their purpose to become Christians. 
A few days later at "Brookfield," not far from Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, he left his study for a moment and went out to the barn, where a mule was working, harnessed to a machine, shelling corn. When he patted the mule on the head, his sleeve caught in the cogs of the wheel and his arm was frightfully torn. 
After a painful but short ill…

All Hail The Power of Jesus Name! Hymn Story
THE Rev. Edward Perronet was a most devout man, who had the courage of his convictions and was not afraid to suffer for what he thought to be right. He lived in the days of the Wesleys and was intimate with them, and the philanthropic Lady Huntingdon was his patroness for a time. But these friends he felt it necessary to surrender because he conscientiously differed with them on some points of belief. His immortal hymn, "All hail the power of Jesus name," has proved a blessing to Protestants of all beliefs. 
One of the most dramatic instances of its use was found in the experience of the Rev. E. P. Scott in India. His friends had urged him not to venture near a certain barbarous inland tribe, whom he wished to evangelize. But he went forward with high courage, never wavering in his duty, and trusting in God to protect him. When at last he reached their country among the hills, he came upon a company of these savages. Immediately…

When I Survey The Wondrous Cross Hymn Story
MATTHEW ARNOLD declared the greatest Christian hymn in the English language to be "When I survey the wondrous cross." At least it is admittedly the greatest hymn of a great hymn-writer, Isaac Watts, the father of modern English hymnody. He was the son of a deacon in the Independent Church, who had no sympathy with young Watts's custom of making rhymes and verses when a boy. At the age of eighteen Watts was one day ridiculing some of the poor hymns then sung in the churches, when his father said to him, sarcastically, "Make some yourself, then." Accordingly, Watts set himself to writing a hymn, and produced the lines beginning: "Behold the glories of the Lamb." That was the start of his eminent career as a hymn-writer. 
He became a clergyman, but illness compelled him to give up the pastorate, and for thirty-six years he remained at the home of Sir Thomas Abbey at Theobaldo, continuing his hymn-writing, whic…

Story on Jesus Lover of My Soul
IN the Civil War of the sixties many drummer-boys had left school to join the army. One of them, named Tom, was called "the young deacon," as he was a great favorite and was respected by the soldiers for his religious life.

Both his widowed mother and his sister were dead, so he had gone to war. One day he told the chaplain he had had a dream the night before.

In his sleep he was greeted home again by his mother and little sister. "How glad they were !" he said. "My mother pressed me to her heart. I didn't seem to remember they were dead. O, sir, it was just as real as you are real now!"
The following day in frightful battle both armies swept over the same ground four times, and at night between the two armies lay many dead and wounded that neither dared approach. Tom was missing; but when the battle roar was over they recognized his voice singing, softly and beautifully, "Jesus, Lover of my soul." When he ha…

Be Not Dismayed Whate'er Betide, God Will Take Care of You Story
Be not dismayed whate'er betide,  God will take care of you is one of my favorite hymns and I believe that that is true of millions of other Christians as well.

A BLIND man was seen crossing the street at a dangerous place in the Bronx, New York city. A friend nearby overheard him singing softly, "God will take care of you," and asked, "Why are you singing that hymn?" He replied: "Because I must cross this dangerous street, and maybe one of the many wagons might strike me and I might get killed. But the thought came to me that, even if it did occur, my soul would go straight to God. And if he led me across all right, it would be just another evidence of his care of me. So I could not help singing to myself, God will take care of you. Hallelujah!" 
A little Sunday school girl once told her mother she was never afraid to pass through a certain dark hallway leading to their home, "…

Blest Be The Tie That Binds Meaning and Story THE Rev. Dr. John Fawcett, pastor of the Baptist church in Wainsgate, Yorkshire, had accepted a call to a London church and had preached his farewell sermon, when the tender devotion of his parishioners compelled him to sacrifice his larger ambitions for a career in London, and he remained with them until his death. As a result of this experience he wrote the hymn, "Blest be the tie that binds." 
A pale young man was once teacher of a class of unruly girls in D. L. Moody's Sunday school. One day he tottered into Mr. Moody's store, pale and bloodless, and exclaimed: "I have been bleeding at the lungs, and .they have given me up to die. I must go away at once." "But you are not afraid to die?" asked Mr. Moody. "No," he replied, "but I must soon stand before God and give an account of my stewardship, and not one of my Sunday school scholars has been brought to Christ." 
Immediately …

The Whole World Was Lost In The Darkness Of Sin Hymn Story DR. S. EARL TAYLOR, now missionary secretary of the Methodist Episcopal Church, has visited Christian missions around the world, and has had unusual opportunity to hear missionary hymns sung in many different lands. But rarely has he ever been so thrilled by hymn-singing, he declares, as during an eclipse of the sun in the Orient. In India the natives have a superstitious dread of an eclipse of the sun. They fear that the sun is being swallowed by a demon of some sort. 
Once Dr. Taylor was in Calcutta during an eclipse of the sun. For days before that event he saw the city s streets crowded with pilgrims on their way to various sacred places, where they hoped to worship and bathe in the Hoogly River just below the Ganges during the time of the eclipse, expecting thereby to ward off evil. When at last the fateful hour of darkness arrived hundreds of thousands of natives thronged the sacred waters, terrorized by the eclipse an…

History of Almost Persuaded Hymn
In the year A. D. 62 a certain Roman citizen was cast into prison because of a multitude of accusations against him. At his hearing before Festus he appealed to Caesar for justice, and was held for trial at Rome.

Shortly afterward he was asked to state his defense before King Agrippa and Bernice, who were then visiting Festus. That defense, uttered by Paul for he was the accused prisoner is found in the twenty-sixth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, and is one of the greatest addresses to be found in the Holy Scriptures.

At the conclusion King Agrippa said to Paul: "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian" to which Paul replied, "I would to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost and altogether such as I am, except these bonds." 
A clergyman by the name of Brundage was once preaching upon this subject and concluded his sermon with these solemn words: 
"He who is almost persuaded is a…

The Story Behind Sun of My Soul Thou Savior Dear Hymn ONE of the literary landmarks of the early nineteenth century, in sacred poetry at least, was The Christian Year, the work of the Rev. John Keble. A high churchman of the Church of England, he was one of the founders of the Tractarian Movement, which aimed at producing a higher spiritual condition within the church. At one time he was professor of poetry in Oxford University.
From his Christian Year was taken our hymn, "Sun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear," which was part of a long hymn entitled "Evening."
In "Famous Hymns of the World," Allan Sutherland tells this story of Keble's hymn: "In a wild night a gallant ship went to her doom. A few women and children were placed in a boat, without oars or sails, and drifted away at the mercy of the waves. Earlier in the evening, before the darkness had quite settled down, brave men on the shore had seen the peril of the vessel and had put out in the …

Hark The Herald Angels Sing Story
THE only hymn of Charles Wesley that has been admitted to the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of
England is this Christmas hymn. This is true in spite of the fact that, as an ordained clergyman of that denomination, he was the greatest hymn-writer ever produced by the Church of England. But, of course, Charles Wesley and his brother, John Wesley, belong to Methodism as well. Until death came to them they remained clergymen of the Established Church. The great religious movement founded by John Wesley, and inspired by the hymns of Charles Wesley, and known therefore as the Wesleyan Revival, was intended to quicken the spiritual work of their church. But, besides doing this, it developed into organized Methodism as a separate church, and as such has proved to be a tremendous religious force in the world.
This Christmas hymn was first written in 1739 and first published the same year in Hymns and Sacred Poems by John and Charles Wesley, their first…