Scripture Verse

Introduction

Origin of the Hymn

In re­sponse to an ad­mir­ing let­ter re­gard­ing this hymn, Gil­der wrote:

I am ve­ry much sur­prised and touched that you should write as you have of the Thanks­giv­ing hymn. In an­swer to your in­quir­ies I would say that it was in­spired by the same event as the Wes­ley­an po­em.

I had be­gun it be­fore reach­ing Mid­dle­town to take part in the ex­er­cis­es there—and would have fin­ished it there had I not been so oc­cu­pied with oth­er mat­ters—and I did not, of course, wish to force it, so to speak.

When, soon af­ter, it was com­plet­ed, it showed it to Pro­fess­or Win­ches­ter, at whose house I had stayed; and as you know, he asked to lay it be­fore your com­mit­tee. I think some oth­er Hym­nal has since used it (one for schools), and it will ap­pear in my book, The Fire Di­vine, now go­ing through the press.

So you see it had a Me­tho­dist or­ig­in, as Wes­ley was in my mind, and it was first print­ed in the new Me­tho­dist Hym­nal.

Nutter, pp. 11–12