Hymn Highlight | The Story of "My Jesus I Love Thee"

For this Hymn Highlight, I asked my son to help me. It was brought to my attention that since our church does not use the hymnals during worship anymore, he was unaware of how to properly read the hymns in their sheet music form. 

I really missed the boat here, and saw it as an opportunity to teach my children. We decided to bring the hymns into our homeschooling, and this Hymn Highlight was an overflow of what we learned while studying the hymn "My Jesus I Love Thee".

You can watch the live and see it through the eyes of a 10 year old as we talk about uncommon words like "folly" and discuss what they mean. 

One bit of information I recently discovered about the hymn "My Jesus I Love Thee" since that Facebook Live that made it even more miraculous was that it was written by a teenager!

William Ralph Featherston of Montreal, Canada, is thought to have written these deep theological truths and lines of thankfulness to Christ at the time of his conversion when he was only 16 years old.

It is believed that he then sent a copy of the poem he had written to an aunt in Los Angeles, and she then sought its publication. 

It wasn’t until several years after Featherston’s death at the age of 27 that a well known American Baptist Pastor, Dr. A.J. Gordon, discovered the anonymous hymn and decided to add a melody to it. He published it in his book of hymns,  altering his poem to a song that would be sung frequently be believers everywhere.

How amazing is it that God in His sovereignty had these lines that William penned as a poem of devotion preserved and recreated into the hymn we know and love today.

May the lyrics of this hymn, featured below, cause us to renew our devotion to God and reflect on what He accomplished for us through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I pray your love for Christ will overflow to the people around you and that your life brings glory to God. 

If you would like to have a reminder of your devotion to Christ, you can display our "My Jesus I Love Thee" hymn board in your home or gift it to a friend as an encouraging piece of decor.

Lyrics:

My Jesus, I love Thee; I know Thou art mine.

For Thee all the follies of sin I resign.

My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou;

If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.

I love Thee because Thou hast first loved me

And purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree.

I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow.

If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.

I’ll love Thee in life; I will love Thee in death

And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath.

And say when the death dew lies cold on my brow,

If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.

In mansions of glory and endless delight,

I’ll ever adore Thee in heaven so bright.

I’ll sing with the glittering crown on my brow,

If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.