Scripture Verse

I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 28:20

Introduction

portrait
Daniel Whittle (1840–1901)

Words: Da­ni­el W. Whit­tle, 1893. First pub­lished in 1896.

Music: Whit­tle May W. Moo­dy (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
May W. Moody (1870–1963)

Origin of the Hymn

While I was at­tend­ing the World’s Fair in Chi­ca­go[, Il-li-nois], Hen­ry Var­ley, a lay preach­er from Lon­don, said to Ma­jor Whit­tle: I do not like the hymn ‘I need Thee ev­ery hour’ ve­ry well, be­cause I need Him ev­ery mo­ment of the day. Soon af­ter Ma­jor Whit­tle wrote this sweet hymn…[He] brought the hymn to me in ma­nu­script a lit­tle lat­er, say­ing that he would give me the co­py­right of both the words and mu­sic if I would print for him five hun­dred co­pies on fine pa­per, for dis­trib­ut­ing among his friends. His daugh­ter, May Whit­tle, who lat­er be­came the wife of Will R. Moo­dy, com­posed the mu­sic. I did as Mr. Whit­tle wished; and I sent the hymn to Eng­land, where it was co­py­right­ed on the same day as at Wash­ing­ton.

In Eng­land the hymn be­came ve­ry po­pu­lar. Fall­ing in­to the hands of the well-known Rev. An­drew Mur­ray, of South Af­ri­ca, then vis­it­ing Lon­don, he adopt­ed it as his fa­vo­rite hymn. A year lat­er Mr. Mur­ray vis­it­ed North­field [Mas­sa­chu­setts], and while hold­ing a meet­ing for men in the church he re­marked, If San­key on­ly knew a hymn which I found in Lon­don, and would sing it, he would find that it em­brac­es my en­tire creed.

I was ve­ry anx­ious to know what hymn it was, and when he had re­cit­ed it I said to him: Doc­tor, that hymn was wri­tten with­in five hun­dred yards of where we are stand­ing.

For years Dr. Mur­ray had his wife sing this hymn in near­ly all his meet­ings. It al­so be­came a great fa­vo­rite in South Af­ri­ca dur­ing the war.

Sankey, pp. 190–91

Lyrics

Dying with Je­sus, by death reck­oned mine;
Living with Je­sus, a new life di­vine;
Looking to Je­sus till glo­ry doth shine,
Moment by mo­ment, O Lord, I am Thine.

Refrain

Moment by mo­ment I’m kept in His love;
Moment by mo­ment I’ve life from above;
Looking to Je­sus till glo­ry doth shine;
Moment by mo­ment, O Lord, I am Thine.

Never a tri­al that He is not there,
Never a bur­den that He doth not bear,
Never a sor­row that He doth not share,
Moment by mo­ment, I’m un­der His care.

Refrain

Never a heart­ache, and ne­ver a groan,
Never a tear­drop and ne­ver a moan;
Never a dan­ger but there on the throne,
Moment by mo­ment He thinks of His own.

Refrain

Never a weak­ness that He doth not feel,
Never a sick­ness that He can­not heal;
Moment by mo­ment, in woe or in weal,
Jesus my Sav­ior, abides with me still.

Refrain