If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.
Matthew 16:24
Words: Fanny Crosby, 1890. Published in Rescue Songs, compiled by Henry H. Hadley, 1896. This book says the song was suggested by the personal testimony of Hadley, who was converted July 28, 1886, at the Jerry McAuley Water Street Mission, New York City
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Music: William J. Kirkpatrick (🔊 pdf nwc).
Jerry McAuley, for many years, was one of the most widely known men in New York. It was in his own mission in Water Street that I first met him; but the story of his life, how he had been a thief, a drunkard and a thoroughly desperate man, was familiar to me, and I was deeply interested in him because of the work of grace wrought at his conversion.
As a speaker he used simple language, but his manner was so impressive that all men were drawn toward him. He and his faithful wife toiled and planned and sacrificed to give the old Water Street Mission a start. Not long after my first visit with them, they were instrumental in founding the Cremorne Mission on West Thirty-Second Street.
Crosby, p. 37
I longed to be a child of God,
And do my Savior’s will;
And yet the sin that most I feared,
I knew unconquered still.
Dear Lord,
I said, for as I knelt
I saw Him on the tree—
This heavy burden on my heart,
I’ll gladly bear for Thee.
Refrain
So now for Him who died for me,
I’m willing all to bear
Obedient love will never fail,
To bring the answered prayer.
The cold was lifted from my soul,
My burden rolled away;
The light of joy around me shed,
A calm and heavenly ray.
Dear Lord,
I said, I praise Thy name
For Thy rich grace to me;
My load is gone and now I rest,
In perfect peace with Thee.
Refrain
I heard a gentle voice within
A whisper soft and mild;
Thy sin was canceled by His blood,
Who owns thee for His child.
Dear Lord,
I said, the work is Thine,
And Thine the glory be.
My life, my soul, my every pow’r,
I consecrate to Thee.
Refrain