Charlotte Elliott Grave

Author: Just As I Am

“Then followed a period of much seclusion and bodily distress, from the continuance of feeble health. Her views, too, became clouded and confused, through an introduction to religious controversy, and the disturbing influence of various teachers, who held inadequate notions of the efficacy of Divine grace.” (Sister of Charlotte, Eleanor Elliott Babington, describing Charlotte’s physical condition)

One of Christendom’s most beloved songs (Amazing Grace included) is the hymn “Just As I Am”. Although made popular in America as an invitation song most often employed at the end of an evangelistic sermon, the song’s purpose was actually designed more as a declaration of assurance than submission. It was intended for the author’s own comfort and encouragement, rather than a clarion call to salvation.

“All her family had gone off to a bazaar, a fund-raising project in aid of a school her brother, Henry (the clergyman) wanted to start for the children of poor clergymen. Charlotte had been left alone at home, unwell, and was a little sad at being, as usual, left out of active good work. For her own encouragement she began to dwell on the great certainties of her salvation – her Lord, His power, His promises.” (Sally Davey, “’Just As I Am …’ The Life of Charlotte Elliott”, 2004)

But, we get ahead of ourselves. It is the context out of which this hymn was born that makes it all the more special and a trophy of God’s grace. Charlotte was born on March 18, 1789, in Clapham, England, now a suburb of London. She was the daughter of Eling Venn Elliott, whose family lineage contained a number of clergy as well as the renowned scientist, Dr. John Venn, a “logician and philosopher who supported his theories with the aid of diagrams made from overlapping circles. The Venn Diagram demonstrates the relationship between different groups.” (www.waymarking.com) In fact, the family line was so famous that if you visit Clapham today, you will find a street named in honor of the Venns.

For her first thirty years, Charlotte was every bit the socialite that marked her generation. She painted portraits, wrote humorous poetry, and lived a vibrant, carefree life. All that changed in 1819, though; stricken with a debilitating disease, Charlotte would live out the remainder of her life as an invalid, confined to a bed and tormented by long bouts of depression. Her sudden change of “fortune” made her bitter, angry, resentful, and cynical. It would take a miraculous work of God’s grace to change the trajectory of her life.

“At this conjuncture it pleased God graciously to provide for her a spiritual teacher fully adapted to her necessities … On the 9th of May, 1822, she was for the first time introduced to Dr. Caesar Malan, of Geneva, in her father’s residence … From that time, for forty years, his constant correspondence was justly esteemed the greatest blessing of her life. The anniversary of that memorable date was always kept as a festal day; and on that day, so long as Dr. Malan lived, commemorative letters passed from the one to the other, as upon the birthday of her soul to true spiritual life and peace.” (Chris Fenner for Hymnology Archive, “Just As I Am, Without One Plea”, 2020)

The recounting of that first meeting varies, but the gist of it was this:

“Charlotte groped in spiritual darkness for a year, despairing and dejected. She finally found relief on May 9, 1822, when an evangelist, seeing that she was held back from Christ by her own self-saving efforts, spoke to her about the state of her soul. He said, ‘Dear Charlotte, cut the cable. Cut it. It is a small loss anyway. You must come to Christ just as you are.’ She did and Christ did not cast her out.” (Ryan Bush, “Cut the Cable: How Charlotte Elliot Came to Write ‘Just as I Am’”)

Wikipedia concurs:

“During her illness, a well-known preacher, Cesar Malan of Switzerland, came to visit her. He asked her if she had peace with God. She was facing many inner struggles because of feeling useless, and she resented the question. She refused to talk about it that day, but a few days later called Dr. Malan and apologized. She said she wanted to clean up her life before becoming a Christian. Malan answered, ‘Come just as you are.’ She gave her life to Christ that day.”

Although broken in body, Charlotte determined to show Christ’s love, wisdom, and power through her affliction. Once, when reflecting on her circumstances, she wrote:

“He knows, and He alone, what it is, day after day, hour after hour, to fight against bodily feelings of almost overpowering weakness, languor and exhaustion, to resolve not to yield to slothfulness, depression and instability, such as the body causes me to long to indulge, but to rise every morning determined to take for my motto, ‘If a man will come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.’”

One evening in 1834, Charlotte was having a particularly hard time accepting her circumstances. Some say it was because of the nature of her disease, others say it was because she was left at home … AGAIN … while the family attended a function in town. Whatever the cause, Satan seemed to be working extra hard in her mind and body that day. During this intense battle with depression, feelings of uselessness and sadness, Charlotte began reflecting on the great certainties of her salvation – her Lord, His power, His promises. Putting pen to paper, she wrote out seven stanzas of a poem that fully expressed her gratitude for the Lord’s mercy in her salvation. It was a fulfilling exercise, assuring her heart and mind that in spite of her physical limitations, “(t)here, then, always, not only for some past moment, but ‘even now’ she was accepted in the Beloved—’Just as I am’” (H. C. G. Moule).

The same year (1834) Charlotte took over as editor of a publication project began by her friend, Harriet Kiernan; it was called The Invalid’s Hymn Book. Charlotte included 23 of her own works in the appendix of this edition, but not the hymn for which she is famous. It wasn’t until the second “revised and expanded” edition appeared in 1841 that the first six stanzas of “Just As I Am” was published. A seventh stanza was included with the publication in the 1849 collection of hymns called Hours of Sorrow.

Charlotte spent two-thirds of her life confined to a bed or her home. She died on September 22, 1871, having never realized the full impact of her poetic writings. She is buried at St Andrew the Old Churchyard in East Sussex, England, in a family tomb. The wind, rain, and snow has eroded much of the script on the side of the enclosure, but the weather of “time” has only enhanced the legacy of one of God’s choice servants.

“Elliott’s hymn was greatly admired by many people within her own lifetime. Shortly after her death, her brother, the Rev. Henry Venn Elliott, famously confided in hymnal editor Edward Henry Bickersteth, ‘In the course of a long ministry, I hope I have been permitted to see some fruit of my labours, but I feel that far more has been done by a single hymn of my sister’s.’” (Chris Fenner for Hymnology Archive, “Just As I Am, Without One Plea”, 2020)