Introduction

Words: Will­iam Mc­Don­ald, 1870. First pub­lished in The Am­er­ican Bap­tist Praise Book, 1871.

Music: Sa­mar­ia Will­iam G. Fisc­her (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Mc­Don­ald (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

The hymn was writ­ten in 1870 in the ci­ty of Brook­lyn, New York, while I was pas­tor in that ci­ty. I had felt the need of a hymn to aid seek­ers of heart pu­ri­ty while at the al­tar.

I had de­sired some­thing, sim­ple in ex­press­ion, true to ex­pe­ri­ence, and end­ing in the full­ness of love. The tune com­posed by Mr. Fisch­er, with the first two lines of the cho­rus, I had seen, and was much pleased with their sim­pl­ic­ity.

And as I was sit­ting in my stu­dy one day, the line of thought came rush­ing in­to my mind, and I be­gan to write, and in a few min­utes the hymn was on pa­per.

It was first sung at a Na­tion­al Camp­meet­ing, be­ing held at Ham­il­ton, [Mas­sa­chu­setts], June 22, 1870. It has been trans­lat­ed in­to ma­ny lang­uag­es, and sung all round the globe.