HYMN STORIES
Hymnody: “‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus”
Louisa Stead was born in Dover, England around 1850. From a young age, she felt compelled to mission work. She desperately wanted to serve as a missionary in China, but ill health prevented her from doing so. At age 21, she moved to the United States, where she met...
Hymnody: “Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken”
Henry Francis Lyte was born into severe poverty in Scotland on 1 June 1793. While still very young, he became an orphan. Despite, these challenges, he successfully navigated his schooling, eventually graduating from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. Entering...
Hymnody: “More Love to Thee”
Elizabeth Prentiss was a nineteenth-century American author, perhaps best known for the most famed of her novels, Stepping Heavenward. A pastor’s daughter and, later, a pastor’s wife, she struggled for most of her adult life with debilitating health. Reflecting on...
Hymnody: “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”
Joseph Scriven was born in September 1819 to wealthy Irish parents. He received the best education money could afford. More importantly, he received a Christian upbringing and grew into a godly young man, well-respected in his community. As a young man, he fell in...
Hymnody: “Blest Be the Tie that Binds”
John Fawcett was born on 6 January 1740. Orphaned at age 12, he gained an appreciation for Scripture, and for Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, from a young age, but it was under the ministry of George Whitfield in 1755 that he came to faith. He joined a Methodist...
Hymnody: “When the Roll is Called Up Yonder”
James Milton Black (1856–1938) was an American hymnist, youth leader and Sunday school teacher. It is said that Black had a great passion for reaching children with the gospel. One day, while on his way to a meeting, Black cut through an alleyway in order to save...