Scripture Verse

Introduction

Anecdote

[American] Pres­i­dent Gar­field was fond of this hymn, and it was sung at his fun­er­al [af­ter his as­sas­sin­a­tion in 1881].

In ad­dress­ing an au­di­ence of young peo­ple on one oc­ca­sion, Gar­field said, in sub­stance, re­gard­ing his own con­ver­sion:

“Make the most of the pres­ent mo­ment. No oc­ca­sion is un­wor­thy of our best ef­forts. God oft­en us­es hum­ble oc­ca­sions and lit­tle things to shape the course of a man’s life. I might say that the wear­ing of a cer­tain pair of stock­ings led to a com­plete change in my life.

“I had made a trip as a boy on a ca­nal boat and was ex­pect­ing to leave home for an­oth­er trip; but I ac­ci­dent­al­ly in­jured my foot in chop­ping wood. The blue dye in my home-made socks poi­soned the wound and I was kept home.

A re­viv­al broke out mean­while in the neigh­bor­hood, and I was thus kept with­in its in­flu­ence and was con­vert­ed. New de­sires and new pur­pos­es then took pos­ses­sion of me, and I was de­ter­mined to seek an ed­u­ca­tion in order that I might live more use­ful­ly for Christ.

It is said that this hymn has been the means of the con­ver­sion of thou­sands of souls in Aus­tral­ia and Great Bri­tain.

Sankey, pp. 149–50