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Hymn History: Jesus Loves Me Author: Anna Bartlett Warner “You have rendered a real and patriotic service, and on behalf of all our people I desire to express our obligation and our appreciation.” (President Theodore Roosevelt in a letter to Anna Bartlett Warner) The Origin of the Hymn “Jesus Loves Me” Few hymns in the English-speaking world have Read more...
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Hymn History: The Love of God Author: Frederick Martin Lehman Were all the skies parchment, And all the reeds pens, and all the oceans ink, And all who dwell on earth scribes, God’s grandeur could not be told. Rabbi Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai Frederick Martin Lehman was born in Schwerin, Germany – a town east of Hamburg about Read more...
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Hymn History: Go Tell It on the Mountain Publisher: John Wesley Work Jr. The fact that we sing “Go Tell It on the Mountain” every Christmas is really a credit to the tenacity of John Wesley Work Jr., a former professor of Latin, Greek, and History at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. In fact, C. Michael Hawn says bluntly: “’Go, Read more...
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Hymn History: Trust and Obey Author: John Hanna Sammis If you turn into the main entrance of Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, and make your way east on Westminster Road, you’ll pass the grave of Red Skelton and Elizabeth Taylor. Just after the final resting place of these two famous people is “Section L” – the portion Read more...
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Hymn History: Just a Little Talk with Jesus Author: Cleavant Derricks “The same songs that ministered to impoverished blacks enduring discrimination in the Jim Crow South, spoke to the hearts of disadvantaged whites whose lot seemed similarly dismal…” (Greg Freeman) The Origin of the Hymn “Just a Little Talk with Jesus” Few gospel songs capture the heartfelt simplicity Read more...
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Hymn History: I Will Sing the Wondrous Story Author: Francis Harold Rowley “The first element in worship is adoration. The Hebrews expressed this by their posture and not alone my their word. For they prostrated themselves before God. O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” (Francis Harold Rowley) The Read more...
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Hymn History: Sweet, Sweet Spirit Author: Doris Mae Akers “Her music was a special gift, and she gave God all the glory for it. It wasn’t her, it was God that put that gift into her possession.” (Rev. Willa Grant Battle, Founding Pastor of Grace Temple Deliverance Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota) Born in Brookfield, Missouri, on May 21, Read more...
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Hymn History: Grace Greater Than All Our Sin Author: Julia Harriette Johnston I have partly learned some of my lessons, Some others but dimly I see; I was ever, I think, a slow learner: My Teacher is patient with me; So patient and tender and loving, So gentle and kindly His rule, I care not how simple my lessons, Read more...
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From Reach Beyond (HCJB): One Sunday morning at Lake Harbor, Paul Rader gave a missionary challenge, and at the invitation, Clarence, who had been leading the singing, went forward to give his life for missionary service. Rader was greatly moved. “God bless him. We need Clarence Jones here in this work. But if God wants him in missionary work, Read more...
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William Bradford, signer of the Mayflower Compact and Governor of Plymouth Colony for over thirty years. His memoir, Of Plimoth Plantation, preserves the history of the Pilgrim migration. Image Credit: File:of Plimoth Plantation First 1900.jpg – Simple English Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 1900, simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Of_Plimoth_Plantation_First_1900.jpg. Read more...
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William Brewster was pastor to the Pilgrims during and after the Mayflower Voyage. The only University-trained member of the voyage, he was the spiritual leader of the group. The Pilgrim Voyage is the subject of the Brinkman Adventures series: Freedom. Image Credit: Frazel, Midge, and Midge Frazel. “William Brewster Memorial Stone.” World History Encyclopedia, 14 Feb. 2026, www.worldhistory.org/image/13111/william-brewster-memorial-stone. Read more...
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Better known as Patch the Pirate, Ron Hamilton authored thousands of songs and the musical adventure series, The Adventures of Patch the Pirate. Obituary in Christianity Today From his obituary: Ronald Allen Hamilton was born in South Bend, Indiana on November 9, 1950. His parents, Melvin Hamilton and Leota Marie Hamilton, were perfect family planners. Marta Sue was born exactly two Read more...
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Hymn History: How Can It Be? Author: Avis Marguerite Burgeson Christiansen “Avis B. Christiansen is the gifted author of many of our sweetest gospel songs. By means of these, her name is known around the world, for many of these delightful lyrics have been translated into various languages. She is a modest, retiring person… With a very keen apprehension of Read more...
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Wikipedia: He composed many tunes, including those for “He Leadeth Me”; “Just As I Am“; “Sweet Hour of Prayer” (attributed to William W. Walford, 1772–1850);[4] “Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us” and “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less“, all of which can still be found in hynmbooks and songbooks today. The Life and Legacy of William Batchelder Bradbury William Read more...
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From his autobiography: “Aside from the Bible, a few school text-books, and collections of song, I cannot recall a single volume of literature of any kind in our home, until my older brother and sisters grew up. My father was a subscriber to one weekly newspaper, which he would read and lend to some less fortunate neighbor. As the years Read more...
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From the Cemetery: Eliza Edmunds Hewitt (1851-1920), Section I, Lot #89-90 Eliza Hewitt was a songwriter who penned numerous Christian hymns. As a young woman, Hewitt taught at a Philadelphia public school, but after becoming ill with a spinal condition, she was confined to her bed. As her health improved, she began to write lyrics to songs, including “Sunshine in Read more...
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The Life and Legacy of William Howard Doane William Howard Doane (1832–1915) was one of the most influential gospel composers of the nineteenth century, a man whose life joined commercial success with deep and active Christian commitment. Remembered especially for his collaborations with leading hymn writers of his day, Doane helped shape the sound of evangelical worship in America during Read more...
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The Life and Legacy of William Augustine Ogden William Augustine Ogden (1841–1897) stands among the industrious and gifted church musicians of nineteenth-century America whose work strengthened congregational song during a time of revival, expansion, and missionary zeal. Though not as widely remembered as some of his contemporaries, Ogden’s hymns and gospel songs were sung in churches, Sunday schools, and Read more...
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Hymn History: Blessed Be The Name Author: William Henry Clark “All praise to Him who reigns above,In majesty supreme…Who gave His Son for man to die,That He might man redeem.” (William Henry Clark) William Henry Clark (1854–1925) was a faithful minister of the gospel and a hymn writer whose words have endured in Christian worship long after his Read more...
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Although President Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, the tomb bears an art deco style, from the renovations done by the State of Illinois in the early 1930s. This tomb is the third and final resting place of Abraham Lincoln (the original is down the hill, where Lincoln was in the vault for a few months, the second is marked by Read more...