Scripture Verse

We live by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7

Introduction

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Ray Palmer (1808–1887)

Words: Ray Pal­mer, 1830.

Music: Ol­iv­et (Ma­son) Lo­well Ma­son, 1830 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

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Lowell Mason (1792–1872)

Origin of the Hymn

Palmer wrote these lyr­ics up­on re­ceiv­ing a vi­sion of Christ short­ly af­ter his gra­du­ation from Yale Uni­ver­si­ty, while work­ing as a tu­tor at a New York school. How­ev­er, he kept them to him­self un­til meeting Lo­well Ma­son on a street in Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts.

When Ma­son asked him to write some­thing for a new hym­nal, Palmer dug out his old notes and pro­duced these lyr­ics, writ­ten two years ear­li­er. Af­ter tak­ing the lyr­ics home and read­ing them, Ma­son com­posed this tune.

Several days lat­er he saw Pal­mer again and said, You may live ma­ny years and do ma­ny good things, but I think you will be best known to pos­te­ri­ty as the au­thor of My Faith Looks Up to Thee.

Mrs. Lay­yah Ba­ra­kat, a na­tive of Syr­ia, was edu­cat­ed in Bei­rut and then taught for a time in Egypt. Dri­ven out in 1882 by the in­sur­rec­tion of Ar­abi Pa­sha, she, with her hus­band and child, came to Am­er­ica by way of Mal­ta and Mar­seilles.

Her his­to­ry is a strange il­lus­tra­tion of God’s pro­vi­den­tial care, as they were with­out any di­rec­tion or friends in Phi­la­del­phia when they land­ed.

But the Lord took them into His own keep­ing, and brought them to those who had known of her in Syr­ia. While in this coun­try she fre­quent­ly ad­dressed large au­di­enc­es, to whom her deep ear­nest­ness and brok­en but pi­quant Eng­lish proved unu­su­al­ly at­trac­tive.

Among oth­er in­ci­dents she re­lat­ed that she had been per­mit­ted to see the con­ver­sion of her whole fa­mi­ly, who were Mar­on­ites of Mount Le­ba­non. Her mo­ther, six­ty-two years of age, had been taught ‘My Faith Looks Up to Thee’ in Ara­bic.

They would sit on the house roof and re­peat it to­ge­ther; and when the news came back to Syr­ia that the daugh­ter was safe in Am­er­ica, the mo­ther could send her no bet­ter proof of her faith and love than in the beau­ti­ful words of this hymn, as­sur­ing her that her faith still looked up to Christ.

Sutherland, pp. 77–79
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Layyah Barakat

Lyrics

My faith looks up to Thee,
Thou Lamb of Cal­va­ry, Sav­ior di­vine!
Now hear me while I pray, take all my guilt away,
O let me from this day be whol­ly Thine!

May Thy rich grace im­part
Strength to my faint­ing heart, my zeal in­spire!
As Thou hast died for me, O may my love to Thee,
Pure warm, and change­less be, a liv­ing fire!

While life’s dark maze I tread,
And griefs around me spread, be Thou my guide;
Bid dark­ness turn to day, wipe sor­row’s tears away,
Nor let me ev­er stray from Thee aside.

When ends life’s tran­si­ent dream,
When death’s cold sull­en stream shall o’er me roll;
Blest Sav­ior, then in love, fear and dis­trust re­move;
O bear me safe above, a ran­somed soul!